“I’m sorry for what happened to you,” said Sheela, rising to a stand. “I’m sorry, Kara.”
Sheela held out her hand, but Kara did not take it. Instead, her eyes roved over the battlefield, finally landing on the Sleeper. Krithika Shah stood in front of him and they were speaking. Kara was not interested in what they were saying. Alarms blared through her senses. All she knew was that the Sleeper had destroyed enough lives, damaged enough people.
Kara’s eyes snapped to the figure behind Krithika. It was Aru, caught in a net suspended in midair, one arm flung out. Vajra’s electricity spangled over Aru’s body as if trying to blanket her. To protect her. Or perhaps, thought Kara with a sudden lurch in her stomach, to prevent damage to her dead body.
Suddenly, the Sleeper’s shoulders sagged. His hand lifted, Krithika closed her eyes, and…
Kara aimed her trident and let it loose.
She did not miss.
Aru Shah went numb.
There was too much to feel, and so her mind rewired itself to feel nothing at all—not the electricity wrapping around her body as Vajra shielded her from harm, not even the tears that she knew must be sliding down her face. All she could do was scream. She screamed as she saw the prongs of light slice through the Sleeper’s charcoal jacket. She screamed when his eyes bulged and he sank to his knees. Eventually she ran out of screams and the Sleeper ran out of life.
The last thing he did was reach for something at his neck. It was the necklace that held his memories, the same one she had thrown around him when they’d fought before the Tree of Wishes. His hand fell and the necklace of memories skittered across the ground, landing near Aru. She didn’t reach for it. She was too busy looking at her father’s face, trying to catch his eye. But it didn’t make a difference.
Not once did Suyodhana remove his gaze from Krithika Shah.
* * *
Run.
The word shattered through Aru’s skull, forcing her to hop out of the net. Dimly, she registered that Kara was stumbling, dazed, toward the Sleeper. Her trident, Sunny, glowed bloody as a sunset. Krithika was bent over the Sleeper’s chest, her hands shaking above the place where his heart had once beat.
“Mom?” asked Aru bleakly.
Her mother didn’t turn.
Kara’s gaze met Aru’s. “I thought he…He was about to—” she said before stopping.
Aru understood, but she had no grief left to give. The only thing she wanted was for all this to be over. She’d thought that the Sleeper’s death would bring the war to a standstill….
And yet it continued.
Something flew overhead. A creature that was all teeth and wings. Aru flinched, reaching for her lightning bolt, only for the creature to go splat! against a sudden, shimmering violet shield. Mini appeared. She was levitating, her eyes sheening purple as she looked at the scene.
“I’m so sorry, Aru.”
Now’s our chance! shouted Brynne’s voice in her head. Aru! Please!
No one seemed to care that the Sleeper’s body lay on the ground, protected only by the violet sphere Mini had cast moments before. None of his soldiers mourned him. Instead, they turned against one another, eager to claim the nectar of immortality for themselves.
“The nectar!” shouted one of the nagas in the Sleeper’s army. “Take it! It can be ours! For the nagas!”
“For the rakshasas!” shouted a bull-headed creature who barreled into the knot of serpents.
Time slowed for Aru. She watched as the great armies churned. They had been displaced by the Sleeper’s swirling tower of shadows, but now that it had vanished, the nectar of immortality shone. It was alone. Exposed. Ripe for the taking.
From hundreds of feet away came the thundering din of tails rolling over rocks, claws scarring the earth, wings bumping against one another. The Otherworld army chased close on their heels. High in the air, winged kinnari drew their bows and let their arrows fly.
Aru watched as Rudy weaved in and out between the soldiers. He still had a bow and arrow in his hand, but he didn’t seem to be using them properly. He bashed an enemy naga over the head with them, yelling, “Bowed and arrowed! WIN!”
Flying above him, Baby Boo shrieked in agreement before releasing a jet of fire, neatly incinerating a javelin lancing through the air.
What do we do, Aru? asked Brynne.
Call in the reinforcements, said Aru. Summon the Nairrata army. We’ll catch them on both sides, kinda like a donut ring.
Aru wasn’t sure where those words had come from. Somehow a part of her brain was still focused on war strategy, robotically following the steps they’d planned long ago. Beside her, the Sun Jewel lantern had fallen to the dirt, its brightness dimming now that its purpose had been served. Aru didn’t want to touch it.
Cut a clear path for me, she said.
On it, said Brynne.
I’ve got your back, added Mini.
I’ll work the earth, said Nikita. Her voice seemed to come from far away.
Sheela, Aru noticed, was silent. She stood between Krithika, still kneeling by Suyodhana’s body, and Kara…who hadn’t moved since she’d let loose her trident. At that moment, Aru zoned out. Her legs moved of their own accord, stalking past her grieving mother, stricken sister, and dead father. Something glinted in her hand. Aru looked down to see the Sleeper’s necklace of memories clasped tightly in her palm.
She didn’t remember picking it up. Now she shoved it in her pocket.
As she envisioned the battle ahead, so it came to be.
Gold rained down from the sky as the Nairrata army fell from the clouds. Their armor sounded like thunder as the soldiers slammed into a perfect circle around the nectar of immortality. All one hundred of the golden troops dropped into a crouch. A demon rushed at one, and…
THUD.
Another golden soldier flicked the demon’s armored chest plate and the creature flew backward. As one, the Nairrata army closed ranks, transforming into a barrier with a single opening to the nectar of immortality a hundred feet away.
Brynne and Mini dashed forward. But while the Nairrata army was blocking anyone else from entering, the Pandavas still had to face demon troops who had previously wormed their way to the inner sanctum.
One of them materialized in front of Aru, a sword in his hand. “You ssshould be thanking usss,” said the rakshasa. He had a forked tongue, red skin, and a shiny scalp the color of a picked scab. “You could be on our ssside. You could be our new leader, ssseeing assss the old one isss nothing more than meat growing cold. Sssuch a waste, don’t you agree? In fact—”
Anger rippled through Aru. Before Mini could turn around and cast a shield, Aru slashed upward with her lightning bolt and the smell of seared flesh filled the air. The rakshasa vanished, his sword clattering on the ground. Smoke rolled off of Aru as she stalked through the corridor to the amrita on the other side.
They hadn’t respected him, she thought. The Sleeper had died for them and their cause, and they didn’t even care. It made her furious. What had it all been for?
Aru wondered whether that thought made her a traitor to the Otherworld, but it was too late to take it back. Fury guided her movements. Rage lifted her hand. The lightning bolt sparked, slashing across a knot of asuras to her left. Aru didn’t stay to watch them fall. She registered it only as a loss of noise.