“Need a hand?” asked Aiden.
Belatedly, Aru realized she was still sitting on the ground. She ignored him and hauled herself up on her own.
The Pandavas were standing in an empty chamber that reminded Aru of a fancy hotel lobby. The walls were slabs of shiny obsidian with rivulets of lava sliding down from the top and disappearing into the strangest floor she had ever seen. From one angle the floor looked like pieces of polished ruby and topaz interlocked in a dazzling array. But when she tilted her head, she could see images wavering in the jeweled tiles. In one, she saw a family’s temple room, and even part of their kitchen. In another, she saw a woman in a white sari sobbing by the banks of a river. In a third, the same bride and groom from mere moments ago walked in slow circles with warm smiles on their faces.
“What is this place?” asked Brynne.
Aru looked up from the floor. Sweat broke out across her forehead, and her fancy lehenga felt too heavy. A ceiling of steam and smoke soared hundreds of feet above them, tapering like the funnel of a teakettle. It made her think of—
“Oh my gods, we’re in a volcano…” said Mini. “An actual volcano…”
The goat, which had been ambling around them and occasionally snuffling the floor, bleated loudly. It stamped the floor with its hoof, and the ground began to tremble. All at once, a tall figure rose out of the jeweled tiles. Aru recognized the god of fire immediately. Agni’s skin was burnished red, and his hair looked like shorn flames. He wore a scarlet kurta edged in fire, and around his neck was a bright chain. On it, a pendant the size of a robin’s egg shone so fiercely that Aru had trouble looking at it directly.
Agni shook his head, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “It was just getting to the good part!” He inspected the floor, squinting at the tiles before groaning and craning his neck. “Argh! That guy just got kicked out by security! I wish I could’ve seen his face.”
His goat trotted over, and Agni absentmindedly patted its head before looking at the Pandavas. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of, basically, everything?” he demanded, gesturing downward.
“You were…in the floor?” asked Mini.
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” said Agni, closing his eyes. When he spoke, Aru felt as if his words sparked with heat. “I am…everywhere. I am the sacred flame. I am in homes and temples. I attend weddings and funerals. I purify all. I energize all.”
Agni opened his eyes and stared at them. “So, who are you and what do you want?”
Brynne and Mini looked at Aru expectantly.
Your coin, your move, Brynne said telepathically.
“We thought it was a good time for a family reunion!” said Aru, smiling so hard she thought her face would break. “Remember me? Daughter of Indra? And Mini, daughter of the Dharma Raja…”
Mini waved.
“And Brynne, daughter of Vayu.”
Brynne nodded.
“And then there’s…Aiden.”
“Another demigod?” asked Agni.
“No? More like a reincarnated former collective…wife?”
“Hi,” said Aiden flatly.
“Oh, it’s you!” said Agni to Aru, clapping his hands. “Almost didn’t recognize you with the new hair….”
Aru touched her hair. Minus the length, it was exactly the same.
“And height.”
She had grown….Two inches.
“Were you always wingless?” asked Agni.
“Sadly,” said Aru.
“Hmm,” said Agni. “There’s something different about you lot—I can’t quite put my finger on it. How long has it been? A millennium?”
“Uh, two years?” said Mini.
“Ish?” added Aru.
Agni blinked a couple of times, then started laughing. “Ah, time. The best cosmic joke in the universe.”
“Yeah, so…Speaking of time,” said Aru. “We have, um, nine—”
“Eight,” muttered Aiden, glancing at his watch.
Aru’s heart sank. Traveling to the god of fire’s realm had robbed them of time. “Eight days left to get to the nectar of immortality before the Sleeper finds it and basically declares war on existence. And right now, he and our sister—well, technically my half sister, but we don’t have to go into that today—are advancing through the labyrinth that’s hiding the nectar, and we can’t fight him without our celestial weapons.”
“Ooh,” said Agni. “Sounds dire! Do you think there will be a flame nearby so I can watch?”
Aru frowned. That was not the response she’d expected. “Maybe?”
“Awesome!”
“No, not awesome!” said Aru. “Look, a while ago you told us you have an arsenal of weapons that we’d need, and when the time came, we should call you. So…we have!”
Agni sucked in his breath. It was the kind of sound you make when you’re about to tell someone bad news. Panic surged through Aru, but she pushed it down.
“So…what do you want us to do?” she asked, looking around the molten room. “Do you have an obstacle course? Are we going to do some training-montage stuff? You know, ‘wax on, wax off’—you say cryptic, inspiring things and we sit around and despair until the cryptic things make sense and then—boom!—our weapons come back and everything is awesome?”
Agni looked confused. “‘Wax on, wax off’?”
Aiden snorted back a laugh.
Through their Pandava mind link, Mini sighed. This is not the right time to quote The Karate Kid.
“Ignore that part,” said Aru to Agni. “Point is, can you help us?”
Agni touched his glowing necklace and shook his head. “Now I know what’s different,” he said, before waving a hand in their direction. “Your weapons—they’re gone.”
Beside Aru, Brynne winced. Her fingers fluttered to her neck, where Gogo, her wind mace, had often rested in the form of a choker.
“Your weapons were proof of godly favor. Without that, you cannot wield my weapons, either,” said Agni carefully.
Aru nearly swayed on the spot. Her plan had failed, and now they had no way to fight the Sleeper. She squeezed her eyes shut, her thoughts yanking her back to that awful moment when Kara had betrayed them.
I’m doing this because I love you guys.
Aru still didn’t understand how it could’ve happened. How could Kara say she loved them and then leave them open to attack? And why, instead of trying to protect Aru, was the Sleeper choosing destruction?
If the Pandavas were on the “right side,” why hadn’t their weapons been restored? What was the point of any of this?
Brynne’s voice pulled Aru out of her thoughts. “How do we win back godly favor?” she asked Agni.
“By way of a test, I imagine,” said Agni, stroking his chin.
Brynne’s face lit up. “We’re ready! Let’s do it. What’s it gonna be? Obstacle challenge? Ten-course meal? I can do it all.”
“It is, perhaps, more difficult than that,” said Lord Agni. “I’ll show you.”
From Agni’s back four additional arms sprouted and rose gracefully into the air. He reached forward and touched each of their foreheads with a different index finger. Aru was glad he didn’t go for their noses. The day was bad enough without adding a cosmic boop! to it.