“What do we do?” shrieked Mini.
One of Aiden’s scimitars dropped to the ground, and yet again Aru heard that searing hiss. The leaves and twigs under Aiden’s sword began to smoke.
“The heat!” said Aru, pointing at the blade. “We need more of it!”
Aiden followed the direction of her gaze and then looked up at her. “Uh-oh.”
“What uh-oh?” said Aru. “You’ve got scimitars—Whoa, what are you doing?”
Aiden dropped to his knees and took off his backpack, laying it gently on the ground.
“Ammamma, what are you doing?” demanded Brynne. “We don’t have time for this!”
Aiden ignored her. He unzipped his bag. Detritus whirled overhead, blotting out the night sky. Aru and Brynne inched closer together, the wall now less than a foot away from them.
“Okay, just”—Aiden’s eyes flashed between Aru, Mini, and Brynne—“don’t be mad.”
Aiden reached into his backpack and brought out a pair of gloves. As he slid them on, realization struck Aru.
“Are you serious?” she demanded.
Aiden made soft cooing sounds as he lifted something bright and glowing from the depths of his pack.
“Oh no,” said Mini.
“WHAT?!” said Brynne.
A significantly larger—and apparently fresh from a nap—Baby Boo appeared in Aiden’s hands. The firebird was now the size of a laptop. He blinked at them and chirped happily. Smoke spiraled off his ruby-red plumage. His flaming blue crest flickered happily. He looked up at Aiden, ruffling his feathers.
Mini just spluttered. “The…the hygiene! The air circulation! What about his food?” And then, at a loss for how to convey all her fury at once, she finally blurted out, “Baby Boo has a very strict sleep schedule!”
“The backpack is enchanted and extremely comfortable, and of course I know about BB’s sleep schedule!” snapped Aiden. “Why do you think I kept checking my backpack?”
“Focus, Ammamma!” said Brynne. “Battle first, baby later!”
“Right,” said Aiden, awkwardly bouncing BB.
The wall swirled closer. Aru was almost scared to breathe, convinced that if she sucked in any of the debris she’d fall asleep on the spot.
“Wifey…” said Mini warningly.
“On it,” said Aiden.
His scimitars lay glowing on the ground. “BB always gets some indigestion after a nap, so this is our best chance.”
Baby Boo made small sounds of distress, evidently annoyed at being jostled up and down. His little blue flame towered higher. Steam rose from his beak. The bird swiveled around, squawking angrily at Aiden.
“I know, I know,” said Aiden, his eyes fixed on the forest floor. “Just get it out of your system.”
BB screeched. The little scarlet feathers on his throat puffed out. He lifted his wings. In the distance, Rudy looked completely swallowed up by leaves and pine needles. Loose Teeth had stopped kicking at the wall. Instead, her blue-inferno eyes regarded the firebird curiously. She stepped forward, looking as if she might snuffle BB, when Aiden shouted, “Duck!”
Baby Boo hiccupped. A tiny spark shot out of his mouth and fell onto the ground.
Aru, crouched beside Brynne, glared up at Aiden. “Is that it?”
Baby Boo’s wings rose again, his small beak opened, and—FWOOMP!
“Was that a sneeze?” asked Brynne.
It wasn’t a kind of sneeze Aru had ever witnessed. Flames shot out of Baby Boo’s beak. When the fire hit the dirt, a metallic screech ripped through the Halls of Nidra. Aru and Brynne huddled closer to the ground while Brynne cast a wind wall shielding Rudy in his bed of pine needles. Mini ducked behind Loose Teeth. The night mare swiveled her great head and closed her burning blue eyes. Through the gaps in her fingers, Aru watched as the stream of fire turned the forest floor molten. The wall of debris melted into glass and exploded, showering them with shards. Heat washed over Aru, and she sucked in a lungful of hot air.
Cheep!
Baby Boo hiccupped loudly. A chiming sound had replaced the gnat-like buzzing of the swirling leaves and sticks. When Aru removed her hands from her face, she saw that the forest floor looked like it was littered all over with diamonds. She stood up carefully. As the ring of smoke around them began to clear, Aru spotted a glow in the distance. A shadow quivered in front of it, only to be swallowed up once more by the smoke.
“Shhh, there, there,” said Mini, soothing Loose Teeth, who was anxiously swishing her tail.
Rudy groaned and stirred. Light skittered across his tail, and within seconds he had morphed back into a fully human shape. He shook himself, then swung his legs off the bed and yawned, blinking at the scene around him. “I’m either way more powerful than I thought…or I missed something,” he said.
“The latter,” said Brynne, patting Baby Boo’s head. The bird seemed very pleased with himself. The long feathers of his tail fanned out, scattering sparks along Brynne’s sleeves. She screeched, batting out the fire while Aiden held back a laugh.
Rudy squinted. “Wait. So I didn’t save everyone?”
“You were great, Rudy,” said Mini.
At this, Rudy beamed. The tops of his cheeks turned red and his eyes widened. “Um, why is BB here?”
“That’s what I said,” said Mini.
“I made a promise to Boo that I would always take him with us,” said Aiden stiffly. “Besides…he needs us.”
“Why don’t I ever get to hold him? He likes me best anyway!” said Rudy, outraged. “Give him to me!”
“No!” said Aiden.
While the boys argued, Brynne took out her wind mace and aimed it at the smoke still curling around them.
“Poga mayam aipo!” said Brynne.
A faint blue light snaked out from Gogo and dragged back the smoke as if it were a curtain. Many of the dark trees around them had snapped in two and now lay in smoldering chunks. Beyond the forest was the shadowy meadow of the dreaming world. Above was an endless twilight sky, and less than a hundred feet away stood a golden door….
The final door.
Beside it, poking out from another dense thicket of shadows and trees, was the outstretched hand of Kumbhakarna. Aru stared at it. Had the fingers always been curled like that?
“Well, at least Urmila wasn’t totally lying,” said Brynne. “This was definitely a shortcut. And the portal isn’t moving anymore, so that’s good.”
“Path’s clear, too,” said Aiden.
Baby Boo cheeped in agreement. Aru couldn’t say why she felt a sudden prickling at the back of her neck, as if she were being watched. Loose Teeth snorted, and Mini frowned at the night mare.
Something wasn’t right.
“Well, then let’s go!” said Rudy. He strolled toward the edge of the woods. “Honestly, I don’t know why we can’t play some music while we walk. It’s so boring otherwise—Ow!”
Rudy frowned. He tried to move forward, only to find himself blocked. He lifted his hand in the air and his fingers splayed out as if he’d hit a pane of glass.
“What the—”
Aru looked up to see a pair of eyes blinking open in the twilight sky. Nidra’s eyes. Large and slightly lifted at their corners, thickly lashed with shadows for eyeliner and irises the color of midnight. Two thin clouds suggested eyebrows angled downward, giving Aru the impression that the goddess was frowning at them sympathetically.