The Nine Fingered Saint

Omar has always known two things: that he is the chosen heir of Pir Sahib — the Nine-Fingered Saint — and that the shrine is sacred. Then he discovers the truth.

Behind the incense and the prayers, behind the pilgrims who travel from distant cities to touch the blessed hand, lies a criminal empire built on broken children. The Rat-boys — beggars deformed in infancy and deployed across Pakistan's cities — are the shrine's true product.

When Omar secretly finds his birth family, he thinks he can choose. When he falls in love with Zarina — another soul trapped in the shrine's orbit — he is certain of it. But the council of the shrine has rules older than love. Escape has a price. And some inheritances cannot be refused.

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