LEELA
Rajesh pressed his back against the door, the strip of moonslight cutting against his tense jaw.
“I need to talk to her,” Rajesh said.
“Because I’m sick of these fucking Flames doing whatever they want,” Rajesh said, storming over to her side of the bed.
Rajesh stared at her beside her bed. “Tell the Viperess I want to talk to her.”
Viperess…?
The Viperess hissed, slithering from the depths of her mind. Yes?
Rajesh wants to talk
Took him long enough.
Leela’s spine warmed like a drop of honey in the sunlight. Don’t take control!
The mortal wants to talk.
You can project through me.
The Viperess chuckled, low and mischievous. Sit out for this one, Leela.
Leela had no time to push back. Warmth shattered her body, and she was suddenly looking at Rajesh through slitted eyes. She punched the invisible glass wall, trying to get back to her body.
Stop this! Let me back in!
“You called?” the Viperess said through Leela’s tongue.
Rajesh lunged at Leela, a blade to her throat.
Leela gasped. The hands that had touched her days before in such a way that it made her toes curl were now holding a blade at her throat. Rajesh seethed at her, his lips trembling.
No!
“Tell me,” Rajesh ordered. “Tell me what you want!”
“Is it not obvious?”
“But is it true? Or is this another lie you’re weaving?”
Leela pushed against her skull, trying to grab onto the Viperess. But all she could do was smash at the glass, urging the Viperess to play nice.
“The Scorpion hasn’t told you?” the Viperess said, words dripped in seduction.
Rajesh hissed. “He refuses to. And I want to know why you refuse to act. Why do you both refuse to kill the other? What are you waiting for?”
The Viperess smiled, forcing Leela’s lips to turn up in a taunting manner. “He refuses to also attack…? Has he said that?”
“He doesn’t say much. But he has refused that.”
“Has he said why he hasn’t?”
Rajesh’s hand tightened on the hilt, and the blade dug deeper into Leela’s neck. “Don’t make me kill her. I will if I can’t get some fucking answers.”
Leela told herself Rajesh was acting this way out of fear. Because he wanted to scare the shit out of the Viperess and make her confess. Rajesh was never going to hurt her. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t because he cared for her… Or had he changed his mind?
She had to trust Rajesh knew what he was doing. If this was Rajesh and not the Scorpion. Although, how could she? He had let fear dictate his emotions and actions before. He broke up with her, crushing her heart, leaving her to pick up the pieces.
Leela hissed. She was kidding herself for ever thinking they could go back to the way they were. Rajesh was tied to the Scorpion, and he wanted the Viperess dead. The rage in his eyes told Leela all she needed to know—they weren’t going to like the outcome.
So maybe Leela should get out of this first. To stop the carnage before another lustisha was born.
The Viperess eventually hissed, tongue flicking against her teeth. “You are aware of why I was cast from the Awakening? Yes?”
“You cheated on the Scorpion,” Rajesh said.
The Viperess pushed herself into the blade, and Leela cried out as pain laced her neck. A surge of overwhelming anger leaped through her.
“I did not cheat on him,” the Viperess snarled.
“I was made to look like I had, when my fiancé, the Viper, found out about my lover, the Scorpion. And what happened? Men. The Viper refused to acknowledge that he was not wanted and cast me out, telling the Scorpion of my betrayal. Because I wanted to run away with the man I loved, I suffered the consequences, and the Scorpion did not listen to reason. He believed the lies of my fiancé and turned his back on me.”
Rajesh loosened his hold on the blade. “Why didn’t the Scorpion just ask?”
“I still ask myself that question. He refused to believe me or even listen. I was cast out before I could stand trial. They pushed me into the Netherworld, and I was never able to give my statement. I was trapped with the monsters. So I plotted my vengeance. I got back at the Flames above and broke the realms, cast a curse onto the Scorpion for his treachery, and the rest is history.”
Rajesh flew back, stumbling and dropping the katar with a clatter. He gripped his head, shutting his eyes.
Leela held steady, watching as Rajesh fell to the ground, teeth grinding as he cried in pain.
“Rajesh…?” Leela asked, surprised to hear it projected through her own lips. She felt the glass wall shimmer, and she stepped forward in her mind.
But as soon as the Viperess felt Leela’s release, she slammed the glass wall back into place, and Leela ran into it, landing back on her ass. Let me in!
Hold steady, mortal. This is the answer we want.
Leela smashed against the glass until her fingers were bloody. She bashed and bashed against it, trying to get out and help Rajesh as he writhed in pain. A piercing scream tore from his throat.
Let me go to him! Please!
No, mortal. It is the Scorpion’s doing.
Let me out! Let me help him, please. Please!
The Viperess stood and slunk over to where Rajesh continued to writhe and twist, his spine moving in unfathomable ways. His sweat was dripping, his fingers bending backward like arched branches.
Leela couldn’t help it. She fell to her knees, eyes widening as all she could do was watch from behind the wall of glass.
Whatever had a hold over Rajesh finally stopped. He sank to the ground, breathing rapidly.
The Viperess knelt beside him, her hand hovering over his chest.
When Rajesh’s eyes finally met hers, they were a bright, glowing gold.
Leela gasped.
“Scorpion,” the Viperess whispered.
“Viperess.”
Rajesh’s voice was deeper with a dark and dangerous undertone.
Leela studied Rajesh as he laid there.
“Is what you said true?” the Scorpion said.
The Viperess tilted her head. “Yes.”
“You did not sleep with that Flame?”
“No.”
“It was all… a lie?” the Scorpion stammered.
The Viperess bowed her head and planted a hand on Rajesh’s—no, the Scorpion’s—chest.
“Yes,” the Viperess said. “I never slept with another Flame. He lied to you. I never wanted him. Yet, you believed his word over mine. What else could I feel but anger, Scorpion? For you not to trust me. For you to not even listen. For my rights to be taken away from me and thrown into the Netherworld without a word of reason? You cast me aside without hearing me, the one person you were meant to love. That was utter betrayal.”
“You broke the realms,” the Scorpion continued. “You put a curse on me.”
“A curse for you to feel your emotions, over and over again, and let the monsters spill from within. You refused to listen to me, refused to let me even speak, and so yes, I cursed you. Out of anger and spite. You brought this on yourself.”
The Scorpion shook his head and sat up, grabbing the Viperess’s hands.
Leela felt her body tense as the Viperess met his eyes.
The Scorpion held out a hand and trailed a finger over her cheek, leaving a trail of heat in its wake. “I… I don’t believe it. It never happened?”
“No,” the Viperess said, so simply it pierced Leela’s chest. “I never bedded another man. Why would I want to when I had you? When I put everything on the line to be your lover? I was meant to marry someone else, Scorpion. We were in this together.”
The Scorpion’s eyes widened, the golden glow quaking. “It was all a lie…?”
“A lie woven by another infamous Flame,” the Viperess added.
The Scorpion snapped his eyes to hers. “Why didn’t you just say it?”
“I had no chance. I was cast out before you would hear me!”
The Scorpion shook his head. “No. No, I would have listened. I would have!”
“You didn’t,” the Viperess hissed. “You refused. The Flames all believed the Viper, and I was pushed aside. All your tales, lies, and gossip twisted my words into words with no power.”
The Scorpion stared at nothing, eyes widening and tears springing forward. “Oh… All this… All this anger… All this… Oh… Oh….”
The Viperess grabbed Rajesh by his chin and forced him to look at her. “I have always loved you. No one else.”
“And I, you, my little Viperess,” the Scorpion said.
Something shattered within Leela then, so big it pushed her back. Her heart twisted and churned, all the feelings of vengeance draining away as the Viperess stared into the Scorpion’s faithful eyes.
Anger fell into a puddle at her feet, falling with such force that the Viperess’ emotions went numb.
“Can you forgive me….?” the Scorpion asked.
The Viperess paused. Tattered images of the Viperess and the Scorpion together in the Awakening—of them fighting and arguing, of them being intimate, of them breaking apart—revolved around Leela.
The Viperess pulled the Scorpion in, smashing their lips together and holding onto him tight.
The glass wall in front of Leela shimmered and shattered. Leela bolted toward the light. She was sucked back into her body, and her limbs pulled back like a puppet able to control its own strings again.
Leela didn’t break the kiss. She held Rajesh tighter by his chin as the Viperess slid back into her rightful place.
Rajesh pulled back, panting. His eyes were once again their full, dark depths, and Leela sighed in relief.
“You came back to me,” Leela murmured.
“I always will,” Rajesh said. He tucked his finger under her chin and drew her in, too quickly that she could barely take a breath before his lips were on hers.
Leela didn’t pull away. She tore at his clothes, and he did the same, discarding them wherever they landed.
He trailed kisses from her lips down along her chest to suck on a nipple, which was pulsing with desire, while rubbing the other in small circles.
Leela didn’t need warming up. She was already slick, her body writhing with the confidence that she had overcome the Viperess, and all she wanted was the adrenaline to fuel her through the passionate moment with Rajesh.
“Damiji,” he breathed.
“Don’t speak,” Leela said. “Fuck me until she’s out of my system.”