Page 77 of The Divine Lies We Weave

Her cheeks burned. “Can’t you just control it?”

“My words or…? You know I can’t pass up an opportunity to taunt you, damiji. You squirm easily.”

“Your emotions.”

Rajesh snorted. “You don’t think I try? To control emotions in my profession? It’s quite hard to do, really, damiji. Have you ever tried?”

Leela turned away. She thought of the last week and the sort of monsters her emotions would have made. She had no control over it.

“I understand,” Leela said. “Emotions, bad. Monsters, bad. You… bad.”

He smirked. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

A strange glint nestled in his eye, and Leela mentally prepared for what he was about to say. She didn’t like where this conversation was heading, especially with how close he was, with the whiskey hanging off his tongue.

He leaned closer, lips brushing her ear. “How about we give that theory a try…?”

Leela flushed. “What happened to hating each other? I thought we made it clear⁠—”

“Yeah, and the I realized that it’s kind of hard to do when my emotions need to be leveled,” Rajesh said. “It’s best I keep hatred from my system. One way to stop that is with this—” He shook the bottle in his hand.

She was about to respond when the ship rocked, and her vision swayed. She was smacked against the railing, her hip ricocheting against wood.

Rajesh jolted, crashing into her. He steadied her as the ship groaned and bucked.

“Shit,” Rajesh said. Snapping around, he unsheathed his godsblade.

Leela steadied herself against the railing and gasped. When her vision cleared, she noticed darkened skulls and fingers breaching the surface, and a horde of skeletons, some with weapons gleaming in the sun, thundered toward the ship. Others charged with jaws wide, screams splitting the air. Skeletons hauled themselves over the sands, one by one, until there were hundreds scattered across both sides of the ship.

“Shit,” she said.

Rajesh straightened and cursed. “Get everyone up here! We’ve hit the Haunted Sands!”

Haunted Sands…?

Leela’s heart raced, beating against her ribcage. The Gilded Thorns grabbed weapons. Others ran below deck. The whirring of cannons sounded, and moments later, they fired balls into the mass of bones. Despite them being skeletons, they were stealthy, movements agile as if they were covered in muscle.

Animals emerged. Bats, Tigers, Foxes, and Hawks. Each formed a Flame and attacked the skeletons.

Someone grabbed Leela’s arm and turned her around. Rajesh shook his head at her, giving her a stern look.

“Get below the deck,” Rajesh ordered. “We can deal with this.”

“I can fight,” Leela argued. “Not well, but I can!”

Rajesh tilted his head. “I don’t have time to protect you and worry about my crew.”

She ripped her arm out of his grip. “I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for so long anyway.”

A vein popped in Rajesh’s neck, and she knew it took everything inside him to agree.

“Fine,” he said. “But use a jawblade.”

Leela nodded and bolted off to the weapons rack on the other side of the deck. Hollow skulls leered back at Leela from across the sands. Skeletons climbed aboard the ship. She knew before the Flames split the realms apart that the mortals had their own monsters in their world. The skeletons were representations of all the souls lost to the sands near the Kithium border.

Leela grabbed the jawblade and swung just as a skeleton heaved itself onto the deck. The jawblade was heavier than what she was used to, the hilt made of gold with a curved polished blade. Grunting, she kicked the rest of the skeleton to the ground. When she glanced overboard, there were many gripping the sides of the ship, using the dangling ropes to haul themselves up or climbing over the others.