Page 30 of The Divine Lies We Weave

His slightly puffy cheeks and soft chestnut eyes warmed Leela. She didn’t often find strangers comforting, but there was calmness when it came to him. Leela was generally a good judge of character. Like her mother had always said, ‘You will always know who someone is in the first ten seconds, their first ten words, and first ten glances.’

“You seem too young to be a second mate.”

“I am twenty-moons, Miss Leela.”

Good guess, mortal.

Leela waved a hand. “Please, just Leela is fine.”

Tanmay nodded with a polite smile. “Did you live with these people?”

Leela chewed the inside of her cheek, a spit of guilt cutting through her. She didn’t know these people, yet she felt like she should now that they shared the same wounds. She glanced over the wounded children who whimpered in their parents’ arms, reminding her of her own history. Her gaze landed on a young girl blankly staring at the deck, lost in the aftermath of the attack. The guilt dug its claws in deeper when she thought about how she had been that girl once, the one taken to ‘safety’ on a sandship when they came to collect the injured and dispose of the dead. She was meant to get to safety, but Leela was taken to the Crimson Palace.

“No,” Leela finally replied, realizing she had lost her train of thought. “I don’t know any of these people, yet I know what this heartache will do to them.”

Tanmay ruffled his long dark locks. “Yes. Life can be cruel. Only the lucky survive. The strong persevere.”

Her mouth drew into a straight line. “Are you saying the weak deserved it?”

Tanmay gasped and shook his head vigorously. “Oh, no, no! I didn’t mean that. I just… I meant…”

She waved it off, too tired to give the younger man a hard time. “Be glad the Ravens are dead.”

Tanmay fell absolutely silent.

Guilt clawed at her again, but Leela was also too tired to really focus on how she’d made him feel. She had other things to concern herself with. Like the fact that she was heading into a completely new place with Rajesh.

The Viperess coiled in the edges of her mind, golden eyes flashing. Going to ask where we’re headed?

No.

Why not?

I don’t quite care.

I care, mortal. Do I need to take control again to get the answers I seek?

Leela gripped her hands. The feeling of the Viperess controlling her body had completely blindsided her. It wasn’t a feeling she’d easily forget or want to ever happen again.

Are you going to ever leave me alone?

The Viperess hissed, flashing yellow across Leela’s eyes and sucking her into her vision. Did you not listen, mortal?

Stop calling me that.

Mortal?

Yes. It makes me feel small.

To me, you are small. A mortal.

You’re smaller still. You’re a voice inside my head.

Am I just?

What does that mean? Why did you pick me, of all mortals, to harness?

A Flame is more than just a soul, mortal. I am using your body as a vessel, a carriage of sorts, between the three worlds to walk the earth. I used to be as grand as the Awakening. Too grand to walk the plains of the Netherworld.