Page 86 of The Divine Lies We Weave

Hema shrugged. “I think it’s cute.”

“Ah, yes, beautiful, now that she harnesses the Viperess that can very well kill him,” Vedant mocked.

“You don’t like to shut up, do you?” Leela snapped.

Hema sucked in a breath, and Tanmay choked on his food.

Vedant’s lip curled. “I have a voice. I think I’ll use it.”

Leela scoffed and shook her head. She could not believe how much arrogance one man could have. Then again, she had gotten to know Vedant over the last few days and that was all that dripped off him—arrogance. And today, this asshat was about to get himself punched. “Use it to talk to a wall.”

Vedant braced his elbows against the wood with a sneer. “Don’t you care? That you harness the thing that can kill him?”

“Of course I do!”

“And you won’t kill him? Just because, oh, you have the Viperess? Because you loved him once upon a time?”

I can show him how I bite, if you like? The Viperess said, unfurling in ripples of darkness in her mind.

Leela jolted. Where have you been?

Healing. I got hurt too, you know, and your body is in bad shape.

You? An all-eternal-being?

Yes. This all-eternal-being heals because her mortal counterpart got hurt.

Leela frowned, an idea forming. But she had to deal with the asshat first.

“Can you even control her?” Vedant continued. “Make her come out. Join the party!”

“Not a good idea to poke the Viperess, Ve,” Navya said, bored as she twirled her cup.

Vedant’s lips tightened. “Try me.”

Leela shook her head. She couldn’t understand this fool. She wasn’t here to be pushed around, but she knew she couldn’t do what he wanted, and that made her blood boil. Why couldn’t she harness the Viperess and push her out like everyone else?

She knew why. Because it scared the shit out of her to have the Viperess come out of her and then not have any control, like she did now. At least the Viperess was in her head. At least Leela was still in control of her movements.

“You can’t, can you?” Vedant urged.

Leela clenched her cup. “No.”

“Knew it.”

“But I can still fight without her.” The words came out of Leela before she had the chance to stop them. But Vedant’s arrogance made her want to punch something. Everything made her want to punch something.

The Viperess.

Scorpion.

Rajesh.

Vedant smiled like he’d won, and she knew she couldn’t back down now.

“May I remind you that you’re injured?” Hema whispered.

But I am healed. Let me take him on.