Page 9 of Lost and Stolen Gods
The wordmagicfilled my mind.
She’d truly been magic…It was the only explanation. Why hadn’t she made me believe? Shown me? What did allof this mean?
“Hey? Are you okay?” the third woman with the kind voice asked.
Dark curls clung to her forehead, and freckles dusted her brown skin. I’d wanted freckles so badly when I was younger.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
Focus, woman. “I’m Leela, and I’m fine. I just…I need a minute.” I couldn’t allow grief to take hold right now. I needed to keep my shit together and figure out a way off this boat. “How long have I been unconscious?”
“About half an hour,” the redhead said.
“And you guys? How long have you been on this boat?”
“Look, if you’re planning to try and escape, forget it,” the gruff-voiced woman said. “We tried. The only exit is the one up those stairs.” She pointed at the staircase. “It’s locked. The door is too sturdy to break. No other way out. We’re stuck until the bastard who nabbed us opens the door.”
“Then what?” the woman with the dark curls demanded. “There is nowhere to run. You know what Dadi told us.”
“Doesn’t make it true,” the gruff woman retorted.
“Really? We’re here, aren’t we? So it must be true.”
Dadi was a term reserved for a paternal grandmother in most Indian families, just like Nani meant maternal grandmother, which told me that these two were of a similar cultural background to mine.
“Priti, maybe we should explain what we know to Leela,” the redhead said to the curly-haired woman.
Priti sighed. “Yes. Good idea.” She turned to me. “Right now, I believe that we’re below deck on a spectral ship that can pass through the veil between worlds.” The words came out in a rush, after which she simply stared at me, waiting for my reaction.
If I hadn’t seen and experienced some crazy shit in the past hour, then I’d probably be freaking out about now. “Go on.”
“Okay, so my family are super religious, and according to my dadi, we were blessed by a god and have divine blood in our veins. I thought it was cool when I was a kid, even told my friends, who looked at me like I was a freak, and then…well then, I thought it was bullshit until my mother showed me her mark, identical to mine. She told me that everyone in our family who has a strong element of divine blood has this mark.”
She rucked up her top and lifted the edge of her bra to show me a mark. A figure eight on its side. “My mother’s was on her ass,” Priti said with a shrug.
“Mine is on my inner thigh,” Red said. “Although I was never told anything about divine blood. I mean, my family isn’t even religious. I just thought it was a cool birthmark.”
Inner thigh? Like the one that was now on mine. The pain after Nani made me eat herbs had been in the exact same spot…Had she put it there or…no, she’d said she was doing a reveal spell. She’drevealedmy mark after having hidden it somehow.
“We all have it,” Priti said. “The chosen bloodlines. It means we belong to the gods, to be claimed whenever they wish.”
And Nani had known about it. She’d been trying to hide me from them. From…gods?The amulet, the herbs were all protection to hide you so you could lead a normal life…
“Where’s yours?” Red asked me.
I licked my suddenly dry lips and slowly pulled up my skirt, bunching it up until the mark glared up at me. A mark I’d never had before, but it was real. Pressed beneath my skin. A forever brand.
“You look like it’s the first time you’re seeing it,” Priti said.
I smoothed down my skirt. “What does it all mean? Why do these gods want us?”
“Fuck knows,” Gruff Voice said.
“That grumpy ass in the corner is Dharma,” Priti said with an eye roll, but there was genuine warmth in her voice. “She’s my older sister, and this is Remi.” She pointed at Red. “We met a little while before they picked you up.”
I didn’t want introductions. I wanted out. “We need to get off this boat.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Priti said. “Dadi saidthat?—”
