Page 53 of Lost and Stolen Gods
The spikes shot up behind her and in front, then dipped, slicing the air where she’d been a moment ago. More appeared farther along the platform, but she kept running at them. My heart shot into my throat. What was she doing? She was going to slam right into them. Oh fuck. But they dropped a split second before she reached them, allowing her to run across unscathed.
“Yes!” Priti pumped the air.
Next was the chasm and the frame that ran above it, thick with vines.
Dharma flew across half of it, then fell, hitting the sawdust below with a yell. “It fucking bit me.”
It was only then that I noticed some of the vines moving. Not vines. Snakes. “I thought this was a dummy course.”
“It is,” Guru Mihir said. “Mostly. The snakes here are not venomous.”
Meaning that the ones on the proper course were? Great.
Chaya tended to Dharma, checking the bite and helping her to her feet.
“Well,” Guru Mihir said. “What are you all waiting for? Sunset?”
Joe and Priti climbed onto the other two platforms and began the course.
I dithered behind Eve and Sylvie, the twins Poppyand Regina whispering strategy behind me. The drohi ran along the ground, parallel to their demigod, shouting encouragement and offering advice.
Joe got trapped in the blunt wooden spikes, and his drohi helped to extract him. Priti made it across the log but got knocked off at the spikes. Joe fell into the fake chasm.
My stomach tightened the closer I got to it being my turn. I wasn’t good with this stuff. I’d avoided physical education at school where possible. All I had going for me was my stamina, built up by lonely hours on the treadmill at the gym.
But I was a demigod now. I mean…I was strong so…I could do this, right?
You’d think my inner voice would be able to come up with a better pep talk. Urgh. I was almost up when my scalp tightened in that way that warned me that I was being watched. I searched the area and spotted the rakshasa group sitting on the wall that bisected the two arenas.
Ravi lifted his chin slightly in greeting, but the sensation of being watched didn’t ebb. Maybe the ankh were?—
I spotted Araz on the platform behind me. He stood with his arms crossed, an impassive look on his face, but he was here.
He'd come.
Tension warred with relief in my belly as I steppedup to take my turn on the course. Araz didn’t join me, choosing to remain on the platform, but baby steps.
I bounced on my feet, shook out my limbs, and ran across the rotating log.
I was doing it. Ha, I was?—
My foot slipped, and I fell, flailing all the way to the ground, where I landed with a crunch that sent fire up my arm and into my shoulder.
“Leela!” Dharma came running over.
But I couldn’t focus because the pain in my arm was like blades slicing into me then turning into lava.
“Oh fuck. Oh fuck, your arm.” Dharma’s hands fluttered around me, not touching me.
The arm in question hung oddly at my side, and it fucking hurt like a bitch.
A shadow fell over us.
I looked up at Araz through a sheen of tears.
“Move,” he said to Dharma.
She shuffled out of the way to allow him to crouch close to me.
