Star Daughter(28)

“Don’t worry; Auntie specified that I had to get inside Svargalok and back to Edison in one piece, unhindered, safe, and at a consistent speed I determined, and that I’d always be the one in control from start to finish.” Minal grinned. “Old bird wasn’t too happy about that, but Auntie wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Of course I didn’t. And what did you find out, dikri?” Radhikafoi prompted. “Those sisters must have had something useful for you, no?”

Sheetal produced the moonlight lotus from her messenger bag, shocking her auntie into silence, and started toward the nearby church parking lot. She still couldn’t believe Radhikafoi had kept the letter from her. “Too much to get into right now.”

Soon Minal and she stood in the shadows, ready to depart. Radhikafoi had pressed vermilion and a grain of raw rice to each of their foreheads in blessing, presented them both with Tupperware packages of carefully wrapped homemade food, and now waited by the lamppost to see them off.

Above, the moon had taken up lodging in the lunar mansion of his newest astral lover, where he shone down with extra ardor, a silvery lamp lighting the way for Sheetal. The world was hers, just as it had been when she was small and dancing with her mother.

With nothing to keep it at bay, the astral song tugged unrelentingly at her. Silver in your bones, it whispered. Silver in your blood. Come to us.

Sheetal rolled her shoulders, stretching out the kinks. It felt so good to stop fighting, to finally accept the invitation. Now she could just be.

She sensed the nakshatras in the sky above, their song a knell in her ears. Her blood rushed through her in reply, hot and hungry, setting her spinning.

Even knowing Minal and Radhikafoi were watching, she couldn’t stop. She was like smoke, like flame, like dreams that whirled eternally through the deep jet-black expanse of space. The world around her had been cast in silver and shadow and gone so still. Not a single car drove past.

Come, urged the stars. Come home.

Sheetal danced, her hands reaching up to the heavens. If only Dev could see her like this.

In that moment of distraction, her body went awkward, flesh instead of light, the thrall broken.

He’d betrayed her. Why did she keep thinking about him?

Everything had happened so fast, she realized, she hadn’t really been able to think. Not two days ago, she’d been hiding, playing at being ordinary, and now, after breaking up with her boyfriend and almost killing her dad, she was on her way to the starry court via an intoxicating, mind-muddling Market.

It was too much.

She had no clue what was waiting for her in Svargalok, no sense of what her starry family might be like, and the whole day had left her drained. What if while she was getting a drop of her mother’s blood, Dad . . . died?

Sheetal cradled the lotus against her chest. Tell me what to do.

The flower radiated soothing silver-white light, reminding her to breathe. Dad needed her. This choice, this plan, would have to be the right one.

Under the balm of the blossom, she relaxed, the slow pulse of her blood turning to a soft drumming that became words. First a mantra to Ganesh Bhagavan for the removal of obstacles, then an invocation to Durga Mata for courage. She wanted to be strong like a tigress and brave like a hawk, ready to swoop down and take out her enemies. She wanted to face her mother and save her father.

The stars’ song stoked the fires at Sheetal’s core, making her hands tingle and her hair blaze beneath its prison of black dye. Up, her blood cried, as the dye dissolved like sugar in water. Up.

She shoved her earthly concerns from her mind: Dev, Dad, Radhikafoi, school, the kids at the mandir. All that existed was the sky.

The lotus expanded, becoming a halo around her before dispersing in a cascade of glittering sparks, a miniature meteor shower that sank beneath her skin to merge with the flame inside.

With a single breath, she began to soar.

This feeling—This, yes, this—she knew it. She’d always known it.

Sheetal glanced down and saw the concrete swiftly receding beneath her feet and Radhikafoi calling out to them to be careful. Her fire, her own fire, was bearing her aloft, erasing every problem that had ever bothered her on the ground. Ecstasy spread through her, a murmured spell that sang in her like the silver notes of the stars themselves.

Meanwhile, Minal had uncorked her bottle of cloud perfume and dabbed it on her wrists. She hung suspended in the air, as graceful as if she had bought the pair of dragonfly wings she’d mentioned. Leaping forward, she landed on the nearest cloud, then the next, and the next, as though they were no more than rungs on a ladder.

“This is awesome!” She held out her arms to either side. “We’re flying, can you believe it? And your hair, it’s silver again!”

So many things swirled inside Sheetal as she ascended into the sky, dreams and wonder and delight. She was going to the heavenly realm, where her mother lived. Where their family lived.

The flame at her center a celestial compass, she rose higher and higher into the night. Kohl-dark and limitless, a sheath of black velvet studded with sparkling diamonds, it was familiar in a way she felt in her bones, in her skin. Her flame flickered, then flared in recognition.

Before her, the infinite dark beckoned. She answered.

Next to her, step by step, Minal climbed the cloud staircase.

Together they would find the starry court—and Charumati.