Page 15 of Lost and Stolen Gods
Umbra fixed her cold brown eyes on me. “There’s always one who thinks they can challenge the status quo.”
I held her gaze. “It would help if we knew what the status quo was. It would help if we’d been given a choice instead of being dragged here based on some divine seed bullshit.” I blurted out the words, ears hot with anger even as my inner voice urged me to shut up, that this was not the way to get the answers I wanted and needed, but my temper, once roused, wasn’t easily extinguished. “None of us want to be here, and if you think you’re going to get us to fall in line without some seriously compelling incentives, then you’ve got another think coming.”
Umbra slow-blinked, her face like stone, and thehot rage fueling me fizzled out, taking the foundations of my indignation with it.
“Put her in solitude,” Umbra ordered a guard. “The promise of companionship might provide her incentive enough to keep her mouth shut in future.”
Wait, what?
The guards moved fast to grab me, and a black hood was placed over my head.
“Let her go!” Dharma cried.
“Don’t,” Priti said, whether to Dharma or to the guards I wasn’t sure, because panic had me by the throat. I couldn’t breathe past the fist of terror around my heart. I thrashed and flailed, desperate to be free.
A sharp blow introduced me to stars, and then the world went dark.
Chapter 6
I’M NEVER PEEING IN THE WOODS AGAIN
Iwasn’t sure how long we’d been traveling. My solitary confinement consisted of a large wooden crate on wheels. There were gaps in the wood, enough for me to catch glimpses of the cobbled road and the flash of foliage bordering it.
Should have kept your mouth shut, Leela. I’d been doing so well, too, but the rage, when it hit, seemed to come from nowhere. No, that was a lie. It was always there in some capacity, simmering away, waiting for the moment to rise. But I’d learned to control it. To put it in a box and conceal it behind a smile, because the last time I’d let it out fully?—
No. Not going intothatmemory.
The cart holding my prison rattled as it hit a divot in the road.
My ass was numb, and I desperately needed tostand and walk around to get my circulation going,andI needed to pee. God, I needed to pee.
The cart hit another rut, and my bladder reminded me just how badly.
Fuck it. They couldn’t treat me like this. Like an animal. I hammered a fist on wood. “Hey! Hey, I need to pee. Hey!”
The cart came to a rumbling halt, and then sunlight pierced my prison as the top of the crate was hauled open by one of the guards.
He winced at the sight of me crouched and cramped. “Here, let me help you.”
I took his hand and the offered assistance. “I think my legs have gone to sleep.”
He studied my legs in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“Pins and needles.”
He continued to stare at me blankly, and it hit me, if this was another world, then they probably didn’t have his turn of phrase here.
“The blood circulation is compromised.”
His frown cleared, and comprehension colored his features. “The yaksha have excellent circulation,” he said with pride.
“Um…Good to know.”
He kept hold of my hand as I climbed out of the crate, and I got my first proper look at our entourage of carriages—large opulent affairs made of gleaming rosewood, thekind I’d only ever seen in historical movies. I bet they had padded seats. Fuck me and my mouth. I could have been traveling in comfort if not for my stupid temper.
Dharma hopped out of a carriage ahead of me, followed by Priti and Remi and a guy with messy blond hair and a black eye.
Had he fought Lomis?
