Aru didn’t remember getting out of the car, but the next thing she knew, the door had slammed shut behind her. The driver revved the engine and sped off down the street. Mist still hung in the air and the sunlight had gotten all tangled up in it. When that happens, the world can play tricks on your eyes. Aru now knew that for a fact, because as the car disappeared down the road, she could’ve sworn it wasn’t a car at all.
It was a chariot.
Aru stared at the iron gates of Lullwater Park once again.
The rain had cleared. The world smelled clean and fresh. When Aru looked up, she saw a thread of lightning snake across the sky and then hover there, as if waiting for a signal. She felt a growing static around her, a soft crackling of energy building in her very bones. Aiden’s words floated back to her.
You’ll find a way out of this, I know it.
She grinned. There was no way she was going to let him down.
Cheep?
“I know,” said Aru, gazing down at Baby Boo in Aiden’s backpack. “I can’t walk into a battlefield with two backpacks. One, I’d look like a deranged tortoise—”
BB squawked, and Aru imagined her old pigeon mentor pecking at her and shouting: NOT THE POINT!
“And two, I’m going to need my hands free.”
Baby Boo hooted, pleased with her words. Aru shrugged off her bag and laid it next to a lamppost, then slung BB’s cradle across her back. Even through the pack, the warmth of his feathers reached her. It felt a bit like a hug.
Aru almost walked away, then she paused.
Nothing inside her backpack was useful, but some of those things had been given to her as gifts. She couldn’t leave them like that. Aru opened her backpack and rummaged through the graveyard of candy wrappers until she found what she was looking for—Menaka’s earring, Urmila’s anklet, Jambavan’s claw, and Aleesa’s bangle. Last, her fingers closed around the small, star-shaped blue tile from the Palace of Illusions.
Years ago, the palace had given a piece to both her and Mini. It can give you the part of me that matters most: protection. When Aru squeezed it in her palm, she felt a little stronger.
Aru smiled a little as she stuffed the small treasures deep into her pockets. Then she flexed her hands.
Thunder clattered in the sky, and once more, rain began to pelt the sidewalks. She’d meant what she said in the U.B.E.R. She didn’t know what she would do, but she was going to give it her best.
Right now, the Sleeper and his army had the nectar of immortality. Getting it back was the first step.
“Ready?” she asked Baby Boo.
From behind her came an enthusiastic Cheep!
With that, Aru closed her eyes and walked straight through the boundary. The enchantments on it pulled at her. And yet she felt veiled in crackling static and the smell of ozone that always followed a thunderstorm. If she wanted to, Aru knew that she could reach into her pocket and find a small Ping-Pong ball awaiting….
But she wasn’t ready yet.
She could feel her power like a string pulling tauter and more powerful with her restraint. And so Aru held off for the right moment…the right action.
Aru imagined a hundred things waiting for her in the labyrinth. Maybe Brynne and Sheela, Nikita and Mini were already locked in battle. Maybe Rudy was creating chaos with his sound stones. Maybe, just maybe, the goddess Nidra had released Aiden and his feet had just hit the ground, his scimitars waiting for her bolt of electricity to light them up….
She envisioned the sky split down the middle while the Otherworld’s army and the Sleeper’s troops charged one another in the most epic showdown the multiverse had ever seen. And there would be outcries of joy when she showed up, alight with all her demigod power.
What she did not imagine when she stepped into the labyrinth was…
“Ugh, it’s just Aru.”
Okay, one—rude. Two—the audacity?
Aru blinked. She, Brynne, and Mini were standing in darkness, their faces barely visible in the light cast by the Sun Jewel lantern. As her eyes adjusted, Aru caught a faint shimmer far above them, like the skin of a great membrane blocking the labyrinth from sight. Far away came the grunts and shuffling of soldiers.
“What—”
Brynne lifted a finger to her mouth, shushing her. Mini waved a hello with one hand. In the other hand, her Death Danda was raised like a scepter, casting a violet shield over them that was almost invisible except for the slight oily iridescence it left in the air.
Nikita and Sheela said everyone has gathered at the access point, said Brynne through the mind link. All they’re waiting for is for us to break the barrier.
Hi, Aru! came Sheela’s voice.
Aru jumped a little. Usually you had to be somewhat close to another Pandava sister for them to hear you, but Sheela had spoken directly into her head.
I found a new power. I like it. See you soon!
Hi? And, I guess, bye? said Aru, but one half of the Pandava twins had already disappeared.
We knew you’d get here soon, said Mini, smiling.
Yup, added Brynne. We figured it’d only be a matter of time before you realized how to get your powers back. And then you’d charge through the gates, lightning bolt blazing and all that….By the way, where is Vajra?
Waiting for my signal, said Aru, glancing up at the pitch darkness above them. She couldn’t see it, but she knew her lightning bolt was there. But how did you know I’d get it back? I was so…mad! And…and…
At your lowest point? suggested Brynne.
Despairing? added Mini.
Aru swallowed hard. Yeah.
We figured, said Mini. That’s how I felt before Dee Dee came back.
Same thing with Gogo, said Brynne.
I guess sometimes it takes being powerless to understand what it means to be powerful, said Mini thoughtfully.
Huh, said Aru. I like that. Now what?
Brynne held out her hand. Now we find our way to the center and we blast this thing apart. We’re going to move fast. You ready?
Aru grinned and clasped her sister’s hand and reached for Mini with the other. Ready.
Brynne hooked the Sun Jewel lantern to the end of her wind mace. She raised it slowly, and the wind picked up, swirling around them, ruffling her hair and lifting her feet inches off the ground. Brynne breathed out a word before slicing her weapon through the air….
Fwoomp!
Aru felt like she was flying. The Sun Jewel lantern burned away the shadows as Brynne maneuvered them through twists and turns of volcanic rock. They cut through caves full of deep pools and narrow channels of rock that towered hundreds of feet above them. The wind stung her eyes, so Aru had to squint until, finally, they came to a stop before a great boulder. The gust died down as Aru’s feet hit the ground. Mini kept up her shield and put a finger to her lips. Here, a circle of fire pits held back the darkness.
They were not alone.
Aru took a cautious step forward, peering around the side of the great boulder. The Sleeper was pacing just a few yards away. She couldn’t see his face, only his broad back and the sherwani he wore, the hem of which curled into smoke and shadows. Beyond him was the sprawling mass of his army. Even from a distance she detected their restlessness. Frustration rolled off them in waves.
“I do not understand why we cannot take the nectar for ourselves as you promised! The troops are not pleased,” hissed a pale naga—a lieutenant, maybe?—rising up on his orange-and-green-banded tail. “This is not what you promised us, Suyodhana.”