Realm of the Goddess by Sabina Khan Read Free Book Online Page B

a hundred percent sure they were not crazy.
    “Kali has been reborn a few times over the last five thousand years,” Nina replied. “Evil doesn’t really take a vacation.” Her feeble attempt at levity did not amuse me.
    “Each time Kali was reborn as a human avatar, the subject experienced violent nightmares and started exhibiting signs of severe mental stress,” Dev said. “Not every girl was strong enough.”
    “What happened to those girls?” There was a slight quiver in my voice, which I hoped no one noticed. When I’d started having the nightmares I had almost suffered a nervous breakdown. My parents had taken me to a therapist and my grandmother had taken me to see a sadhu , a holy man in some remote village, but in the end my parents had to uproot their lives and move thousands of miles away to start over. All because of me. But the nightmares had stopped until after my seventeenth birthday. And now these people were insinuating that I might be some sort of reincarnation of Kali. They hadn’t actually said it yet, but I could see it in their faces. Especially Nina, who was looking at me with a sort of fanatic light in her eyes. Shiv was answering my question, so I turned to him.
    “You have to realize that the reincarnations happened centuries ago. Those girls didn’t have access to any information or anybody to help them, really. It was more difficult for the Rakshakari to locate them. Some of them succumbed to mental despair. Some were burned as witches. Some didn’t make it, even though the Rakshakari got to them. Not all of them had the psychological strength to withstand such a manifestation.”
    “Okay, so let’s say, hypothetically, if someone had these nightmares, but they stopped after a while and then started again abruptly, what would that mean?” I knew I was being naïve thinking that they wouldn’t see right through me, but I wasn’t ready to admit or accept anything yet.
    “Well, Callie, it would mean that the time has come for the Goddess to manifest in you completely,” Dev replied. “It also means that the threat is closer than we thought.”
    “And my parents?” I asked, a pang of guilt shooting through my chest at the realization that this was not a myth, and there was no denying that they had been taken. Something deep inside me knew, had always known, maybe, that I was different. But never in my wildest fantasies had I ever imagined this. My grandmother’s face flashed before me suddenly in my desperation. She would have known what to do.
    “Your parents will be alright, Callie.” Dev came over and put an arm around my shoulders. “They would never dare to hurt them. They have only kidnapped them to draw you out.”
    I fell back onto the armchair, deflated. Everything was out of control. Every instinct in me was telling me that this was real, that there was no denying it anymore. But I had no idea what I was going to do, what I was supposed to do. How was I going to save my parents?
    “So what do I do next?” I asked.
    Shiv sat down beside me and took my hand. He looked into my eyes and for a moment he was silent. “Look Callie,” he finally said. “You are not alone in this.” He looked up at his parents, who were nodding.
    “Yes, Callie, we are all with you,” said Nina, sitting down on the other side of me. “This is what we have been waiting for...what we were born to do. We are sworn to protect the Goddess and we will defend you with our lives.” She was freaking me out with her fervor, that crazy glint in her eyes again. But I did feel slightly less panicked.
    “Can we go back to my house?” I looked at them pleadingly. “I need to see if there’s anything...a clue...something that can help us find my parents.”
    “Yes, I think you and Shiv should go. Callie, you should also pack some of your stuff while you’re there. You’ll be staying with us from now on,” said Dev. “Nina and I will go to the Council and catch up the rest of the