by T. G. Ayer
"New self?" asked Joss, her forehead scrunched.
Leela nodded, her dark eyes a little sad for what Ria had to do to ensure a better life for herself. "They'll get a few things fixed for her. Shape of her eyes maybe. Nose too. Just enough that she'll still be comfortable with what she sees in the mirror, but enough, too, so her family won't recognize her the moment they set eyes on her."
"But if it's only her nose and eyes, surely the people close to her won't be fooled." Maya couldn't fathom being unable to identify her parents even if they had a nose-job or other work done. Surely cosmetic surgery couldn't make someone look that different.
Leela's eyes narrowed at the possibility. "There is a chance, but she can still manipulate her eye and hair color. All that combined will make her a totally different person."
Leela's jaw tightened, affected by Ria's situation. She'd never spoken to Maya about her past, not even a hint of the horrors of her life before she'd met Maya's dad. And then, when Ria's own horror had been revealed she'd finally told them all the truth.
Maya nodded, sticking a cheeky grin on her face and hoping to banish the sadness on her mom's face. "Yeah. She could even get away with blond hair." Maya could imagine the color working well on Ria, but she wasn't entirely sure her timid friend would attempt such a drastic change. Ria had always been a bit of a prude when it came to makeup and clothes.
Joss snorted and shook her head. "Totally. That chick's whiter than I am."
They all burst out laughing and Leela pushed off the door jamb before saying. "You two shower and come down. Dad's getting takeout."
"Ooh. What are we having?" asked Maya, her stomach suddenly pinching with hunger.
Talk about the power of suggestion.
"Thai Fire noodles." Leela winked. She knew it was one of Maya's favorite meals.
Joss gave a strangled laugh. "Bet Maya can give them noodles a run for their money."
A pillow sailed through the air, hitting Joss square in the face. She didn't even see it coming.
Leela disappeared, quietly leaving the two girls to argue about violence, and the importance of being nice to the people closest to you.
Chapter 3
Maya turned on the shower and slipped her fingers into the strong stream to test the temperature. She'd always loved her showers hot, even in the middle of summer.
Showers, a thing unheard of in the middle of the Indian jungle, as she'd found out not too long ago.
Thank goodness for waterfalls.
Maya smiled, remembering the rush of icy cold water slamming into the top of her head when she'd stood beneath the falling rivulet. She could still taste the cool fresh water on her tongue, and smell the wet sand on the banks of the pond.
Now, beneath her fingers, the water seemed lukewarm, just not hot enough to satisfy Maya. As she stepped beneath the spray she adjusted the heat and waited tapping her finger against the tiles of the shower wall.
But even though the water grew hotter, with steam billowing around her, Maya remained dissatisfied. Not hot enough. Not even close.
She adjusted the heat again, and raised her eyebrows as she stared at the faucet wondering why the temperature hadn't changed. The water crashed onto her body, lukewarm and unsatisfying. Must be something wrong with the hot water heater.
After vigorously scrubbing down, Maya leaned her head against the shower tiles and stared at nothing, frustrated and annoyed. Lord Shiva's mission was still bugging her. When Lord Shiva had zoomed in at the last moment to take the Bow to safety, he'd left Maya behind. To fend for herself.
Was she being presumptuous to expect him to have save her?
But did she really have the right to feel betrayed? He was a god; the creator, the preserver, the destroyer. He would certainly know what's best in the greater scheme of things.
Wouldn't he?
Maya sighed. Who was she anyway to question Lord Shiva's actions?
Why should she expect help from a god she hadn't even believed in five minutes ago?
With a groan, Maya shrugged the negativity away, finding she'd fisted her fingers again, her palms now filled with burgeoning heat. She forced her hands to unclench, forced herself to inhale and then let the breath out slowly.
Control, Maya. Keep it together.
Maya blinked, the unusual silence within the shower cubicle penetrating her deep concentration. Her gaze snapped up at the shower head and her eyes widened. The water no longer flowed. Had she turned the shower of without realizing it?
Glancing at the faucet, Maya's eyebrows hit her hairline. The faucet was turned all the way to the hottest setting but the shower head was now dry.
Hot. And dry.
Maya froze as heat enveloped her, emanating so strongly from the breath she exhaled. She blinked, her eyeballs tight and dry as she stared around her, at the bathroom filled with steam. Maya sucked in her breath, lifting her hand to her mouth to test the heat she generated.
Her breath simmered at boiling point. Her body, too, radiated so hot the air around her shimmered like heat rising from the blacktop on a scorching hot day. Her power was turning the water into steam within seconds of it leaving the shower head.
As she dried off, she snorted.
Another power manifesting, and this one wasn't even all that cool if all it did was evaporate much-needed water, and spoiled her enjoyment of her shower.
With the towel tightly wrapped around her, Maya exited the bathroom, passing Joss on the way.
"Wow, you really steamed this place up," grumbled Joss, waving her hand in front of her face.
"Yeah," said Maya dryly. "You have no idea." She hoped Joss hadn't picked up on the edge of nerves in her voice.
She closed the bathroom door to leave Joss in peace, and heard the shower running while Joss began to hum the notes of a pop song.
A shrill shriek ripped through the closed door, the pain in the scream sending Maya slamming the door open and racing back to the shower cubicle.
Her heart thudded painfully against her ribs as she stumbled to a halt before Joss who stood beside the open shower door, holding a shaking reddened palm to her face and inspecting it, her face pink and wet as pain and tears mingled on her cheeks.
"What happened?" asked Maya, even as she suspected it had been all her fault. A glance at the faucet confirmed it was still on this hottest setting. Maya had left it that way and Joss hadn't checked it.
And she'd been burned.
Thank goodness she'd tested the water with her hand, the way Maya always did. Maya suppressed a shudder at the thought of what would have happened had she stood under the super-hot spray instead.
She closed in, taking Joss's hand into her palm as carefully as she could. The burn looked angry and painful. Joss never shed a tear about anything. Joss moaned and sucked in a sob. Her hand shivered as Maya bent to inspect it, the jerking movements worsening when Maya gasped softly.
"Is it bad?" sobbed Joss softly. She was breathing hard and Maya wasn't sure if she needed to worry about shock. Why hadn't she done a proper first aid course yet?
She glanced up at Joss, unsure what to say. All she knew was, if she could feel the heat emanating from the burn, the injury must be a very bad one. There were degrees that described the severity of a burn, but Maya was unable to recall which one was the worst, or which one best described Joss's ugly red palm.
For now, Maya figured honesty was the way to go. She nodded. "I think it is bad. We need to get you to the hospital."
"Good thing I hadn't gotten naked yet," Joss looked Maya up and down, giving a short laugh that ended in a pained sob. Even her funny wasn't helping to ease her pain.
Still clad in her bath-towel, Maya gave her injured friend a narrow glare and was about to say something rude when a memory flickered in her mind.
While climbing the side of the palace of Swargaloka, Nik had told her that they both, having the power to control fire, also possess the power to heal. She'd promptly forgotten his words, partly because it ha
d seemed so far-fetched. But now, even far-fetched was a chance she couldn't ignore.
She met Joss's eyes and gave her a firm nod before reaching for her hand. Joss pulled it away, her expression filled with pain as she curled the injured hand toward her body.
"Give it back. I want to try something," Maya said firmly.
Joss glowered, her eyes narrowing on Maya. "You want to experiment on me while I'm in agony?" The skin on Joss's face had bloomed a deep pink as she struggled with the pain, and even her eyes had darkened to sapphire with the effort.
"No," said Maya shaking her head, wanting to reassure Joss that she wasn't about to do anything that would hurt her. Then she paused. "Well, yes. I guess." She kept her features relaxed, disliking that she could either fail, or cause her friend more pain.
"Yes, you guess?" repeated Joss, her eyebrows and her tone rising dangerously, the color of her cheeks slowly matching the angry red of the burn.
"Stop being such a wuss," said Maya. Reaching over, she gripped Joss's wrist before pulling her hand back. She gently placed Joss's hand onto her own palm and inhaled slow and deep, hoping Joss wouldn't pick up on her scrambled nerves. At least her hands weren't shaking and giving her away.
Yet.
She cleared her throat and spoke, iron coated in soft silk. "I'm going to try something, but it's not guaranteed."
"What is guaranteed is that my palm is totally effed up. Once I get to the hospital they'll confirm it. I've seen burns like this before. It's not pretty and the scars aren't fabulous either." Joss watched Maya as she stuck her hand out in front of her, a lamb offered into the flames. "Do your worst. I don't think you could damage it more even if you tried."
Relief, in the form of cool sweat, slid down Maya's back, and she said nothing. She just bent over her friend's ruined palm and threw a mental net around her fluctuating concentration.
She drew on that energy from the deepest part of her soul, and a sense of overwhelming peace enveloped her. Somewhere, too, like the distant cry of a wounded animal, was the primal fear that whatever she tried wouldn't work.
But Maya couldn't afford to listen to fear right now, couldn't afford to surrender control to what would inevitably cause failure.
She took a deep breath, then slowly allowed her eyelids to flutter closed as she exhaled. Reaching out, she hovered her palm over Joss's red skin, guided solely by the steady stream of heat emanating from within the soft flesh of her friend's palm.
Maya stiffened her muscles, urged the heat to enter her own flesh, fervently wishing Joss free from the pain.
Nothing happened.
And Maya suspected she knew why. Fervent prayer wasn't going to be of any help in this situation. Maya needed action, not wishes.
She glanced up at Joss and a spike of relief skittered through her veins. Thankfully, Joss's attention was focused on her burnt palm and not on the doubt in Maya's eyes.
She gathered her wits again and forced her mind to clear of all her doubts. She could do this. She'd done much bigger, more powerful things with her fire. Drawing heat from a person's body isn't something that should pose a problem. And Maya didn't have the time to wonder what the source of her current misgivings were. She needed to succeed.
For Joss.
Again she focused, drawing a veil of peace and tranquility around her mind, filling her consciousness with the fluidity of nothingness. Once she gained the purity of utter calm, Maya focused on the fire within her Atma, her soul. There, she ignored the whispers of doubt that swam around her and teased the surface of her mind, and filled her thoughts with her fire.
Then she pushed the flame down. So far within herself that soon the deepest yearning for the heat began to surge through her, as if she'd become so accustomed to Kali's fire that it had become an intrinsic part of her.
Maya shuddered, the need for the fire making her stomach twist as if even her body hungered for it like it did food. She swallowed and breathed through the need, knowing her craving for fire was what she'd wanted, what she'd aimed to create in order to succeed.
Now, she focused that need on Joss's hand, feeling her mind drawn to her friend's blistered palm, like a bee to the exquisite simmering heat that broiled beneath the surface of her skin.
And Maya exhaled slowly, until her lungs emptied of every atom of oxygen. Then she drew the fire from Joss's palm into her lungs, inhaling the very energy of the burn. A small part of her wondered how she was able to do this, to wing it, trying whatever methods she could to get things done. But she wasn't about to question her ability now. Not when it might actually work.
With her hand still hovering over Joss's palm, Maya could still feel the heat from the injury, and she could also sense the decreasing warmth as she drew the fire of the burn deep inside her.
Slowly, Maya's core began to fill with the fire of the burn, while Joss's skin went from blistering ruby to a pale baby pink, from superheated to body temp.
Joss let out a whispered gasp. "Maya?" The awe-filled question hung in the air between them, a bright and fiery blaze of tempered relief, blatant shock and burgeoning happiness. Maya had managed to shock her friend.
Again.
Maya didn't respond. With her neck bent, she didn't stop until she'd stripped all the simmering energy of the burn from Joss's hand. Only when she shivered, lightheaded, only when her head tipped forward, did Maya yank her mind from the hold on Joss's injury.
She slid down the side of the glass shower door, and sank to the cool tile of the bathroom floor. A strange weakness in her knees had taken hold of her limbs.
Joss's free arm curled around her shoulders. "Hey, are you okay?"
The words echoed in the distance, disembodied and ethereal. Taking a shuddering breath, Maya blinked away the encroaching darkness.
"Yeah. I'm good." She reached for Joss's hand and was pleasantly surprised. "Wow. It's healed."
"Er . . . Yeah. That's what I was just saying." Joss snorted. "You did it. Whatever mojo you have, you managed to save my hand."
Maya nodded absently as she stared at Joss's palm. The skin was still blistered and wrinkled, though all the redness had disappeared.
"But your hand is still injured," she said, feeling the hollow of failure.
"What were you expecting to do? Magic?" Joss shook her head. "Maya. Whatever this power is, it's certainly not magic. You were able to take the heat away, but the damage had already been done. It wouldn't have gone away just because you took the heat. And I wouldn't have expected it either."
Maya turned her gaze back to Joss's, where the expression on her face was tender and understanding. And grateful. But, despite Joss's attempt at comforting her, Maya couldn't help feeling the ache of disappointment, a frigid fist in her gut.
Joss lifted her palm to Maya's face, her skin streaked with dried tears. "So, I'm good. And you can leave."
Maya raised her eyebrows at the curt demand then snorted when Joss said, "You need to put some clothes on."
With a glance down at her towel-wrapped body, Maya laughed and got to her feet. She made a show of dusting her hands, then left Joss to it and headed into her room, her stomach growling loudly.
And for a little while, the mundane made her forget the truly amazing.
Chapter 4
Dressed in a pair of bright blue pajamas patterned with little yellow-beaked ducks, Maya headed down to the kitchen, glad for once that jet-lag put paid to any sort of ceremony regarding mealtime. As she passed the family's temple room, an odd sound caught her attention and she stopped in her tracks.
She listened for a moment, then turned on her heel and headed to the little prayer room that her dad had built when they'd first bought the house; a commonplace room found in many a devout Hindu's home. A place to perform daily prayers as well as larger ones where the lighting of a havan, or blessed fire, is required to perform cleansing rituals.
The door to the room always stood open and Maya paused on the threshold, a gasp perishing within her throat.
The Goddess Kali had dropped in for a visit.
Not for the first time, Maya recalled the many artists renditions of this goddess, depicting her in an almost demonic form, unruly black hair, protruding blood-stained tongue, large staring eyes, a scary image even before you take into account the necklace of bloody demon-heads or the girdle fashioned of blood-drenched demon limbs.
All symbolic of the destruction of evil in thought, word and deed, of course. But some artists took that symbolism a little too far. Maya suppressed a shudder, supremely glad that the goddess in reality was a damn sight more pleasant to behold.
Now, the Mother goddess smiled as she met Maya's gaze, her kohl-lined eyes dark and mysterious. "Namaste, Maya."
For a moment, Maya hesitated, unsure of how she was meant to greet the goddess. At the last second, she placed her palms together and bent in a short bow, the universal Namaste. When she straightened, she was relieved to see the tilt of a satisfied smile on Kali's lips. The wordless greeting had been deemed acceptable.
Maya took a deep breath. "You know what I did?" she asked softly, suspecting there was one very specific reason she'd received a personal visit from Kali.
Kali nodded slowly, the gemstone in her nose-ring glistening in the light from the lamp Leela had lit earlier. The single amber flame rose from the cotton wick, drawing fuel from a small well of oil, a source of light that went back thousands of years, and one revered on a daily basis by followers of the Hindu faith.
"I know all that happens when it concerns you. And more especially when it is related to my power." Kali's smile gave Maya a little relief as she didn't detect either annoyance or anger in the goddess's expression.
"Did I do something wrong?" Maya asked tentatively.
