Mini’s eyes dimmed. “Rudy?”
Aru thought she would’ve been excited, but Mini looked as if she’d forgotten her hand sanitizer.
“Well, he is a naga prince. I think King Vasuki might be one of his great-grandfathers…” said Aiden. “Plus, Rudy said he’d be standing by to help us whenever we need it.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Brynne, clapping. “We’ve got a third of the jewel, eight days to go, and a clear directive. Let’s do this.”
Um, aren’t we forgetting something? said Mini through their mind link.
“Oops,” said Brynne.
The Pandavas knelt and pressed their foreheads to the ground before Agni, then put their hands together in prayer and pranama.
“Go with my blessings, Pandavas,” said the god of fire. “But before you do, let me offer one last piece of wisdom. There is more than one kind of darkness, and none is darker than doubt, for the light required to illuminate it belongs not to a jewel or a flame, but your very soul.”
Aru felt his words lasering in on the fears she had buried deep in her mind. Ever since Kara had destroyed their weapons, Aru’s biggest worry had been what would happen if they didn’t get them back. All the people they loved would be doomed…All the progress they had made would have been for nothing.
Lurking beneath that was a quieter dread of what would happen if they did win their weapons back. Then they would have no choice but to fight. Not against faceless, twisted enemies, but people they knew—people they’d cared for, in a way. Aru still felt haunted by Kara’s heartbroken expression when she’d destroyed the Pandavas’ weapons. And, no matter how much she wished she didn’t see it, Aru remembered how the Sleeper had looked at her and her mom—not with hate, but with love.
I promised that, if I had to, I would break the world in half to make our family whole and happy, he’d said. I intend to keep that promise.
“And what will you do when you have your weapons?” asked Agni.
Aru opened her mouth, but Brynne answered first.
“What we’re supposed to do,” she said firmly. “We’ll make sure the Sleeper doesn’t get hold of the nectar of immortality.”
“And then?”
Brynne’s face contorted into a mask of fury. She punched her fist into her palm, her smile almost vicious. “And then we’ll crush him and his army once and for all.”
Aru flinched. She was glad she was standing behind Brynne and Mini so that her sisters couldn’t see her face. What would they think of all the chaos inside her? She knew Brynne was right, but whenever she tried to picture herself standing on the battlefield, she felt paralyzed.
Could I do it? wondered Aru. She had two paths before her—destroy or be destroyed—and she couldn’t stomach the thought of taking either one.
All the weapons in the world cannot help you if you do not know what you’ll do with them, said Agni. What will you do, Aru Shah?
Aru looked up sharply. The god of fire’s lips had not moved at all. He had spoken directly into her thoughts.
“Come on, Shah!” said Brynne from behind her now.
Aru looked over her shoulder. Aiden was holding out the flame-shaped ruby, Brynne and Mini on either side of him. Aru realized that she was standing alone and the god of fire was nowhere to be seen. Even the goat was gone.
Take it one step at a time, Shah, she told herself.
There was no point in panicking about what she would do in a fight until she was sure she could get to the fight. And right now, their only chance of catching up lay in the Sun Jewel.
Aru joined her sisters. For a moment, Mini’s eyes met hers over the glow of the flame, and concern flashed over her features. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but it was too late.
“Take us to Prince Rudra’s house in Naga-Loka,” said Aiden. “But not inside! Definitely outside…please.”
Heat burst around them. Aru squeezed her eyes shut as flames danced overhead and a powerful gust of wind shoved her through space. It hardly lasted a few seconds, but to Aru, it was like those agonizing minutes when you get into a hot car and have to wait for the air-conditioning to save you. When she could finally open her eyes, Aru saw the palatial underwater gardens of Rudy’s estate. Above, a shimmering bubble arced through the water, letting them both breathe and swim at the same time.
“This way,” said Aiden, gesturing to the huge front door covered in twisting coral and bright anemone.
Aru glanced at Mini. She looked crestfallen. Brynne didn’t seem to notice—she was running over potential military strategies with Aiden, who was barely listening.
“What’s up?” asked Aru, slowing down so that she and Mini were walking a little behind the others.
“Hmm?” said Mini, looking up at her. “Oh. It’s…Well, it’s not nothing.” She gave a little laugh. “Have you ever thought about who we’d be if we didn’t have our powers?”
“Slightly less awesome?” tried Aru, but it came out hollow.
“Some people don’t need powers to be great,” said Mini, as if to herself. “But I don’t think I’m one of them. Without Dee Dee, I’m just…me.”
“But you are great, Mini,” insisted Aru.
Mini stopped walking and faced Aru, staring her dead in the eye. “Would you put up with me and my anxious spewing about fatal statistics and deadly bacteria if I wasn’t also the daughter of the god of death? Would we even be friends if the Pandava-thing inside us hadn’t woken up?”
Aru was stunned. She couldn’t picture existence without Mini, but then her thoughts turned to how different her life would’ve been if she’d never discovered who she really was. She might still be walking past the Hall of the Gods every afternoon, never knowing what—or who—was waiting inside the lamp.
“See?” said Mini, taking a step back. “I knew it.”
“No, I was thinking about something else,” said Aru hurriedly. “Listen, if we weren’t immediately friends, then that would’ve been a big mistake. Huge.”
Mini almost smiled.
“I would’ve been struck by your awesomeness eventually,” Aru went on.
Mini didn’t seem convinced. Her brow furrowed. “Sorry. It wasn’t fair of me to ask you that. I know we’re all struggling with this….Maybe I need some space for a bit.” Without looking at Aru, Mini picked up her pace.
Now they were outside the doors of Rudy’s palace.
“Do we…knock?” asked Brynne. “Does this thing even have a doorknob?”
Abruptly, the coral-covered doors swung open. The light from inside the palace silhouetted a person who practically jumped at them.
“WHAT’S UP, POTATOES?” said Rudy. His gaze went straight to Mini, and Aru suspected that he purposely made his voice lower as he said, “’Sup, Mini.”
“Hi,” said Mini shyly.
“Rudy…what are you wearing?” asked Aiden.
Instead of his usual explosively colorful outfit, Rudy was wearing head-to-toe black and had slicked his hair to fall in a curtain in front of one of his eyes.
“Like it?” he asked.
“No,” said Aiden, followed by, “Is that a fake earring?”