“I’m sure she meant to and just never got around to it. It’s okay.”
Aru looked at Mini: the flattened mouth and pressed-together eyebrows. Minipitiedher. The realization felt like a mosquito bite. Tiny and needling.
Just enough to irritate.
But it also made Aru wonder. If Mini’s mom had told Mini everything, then did that mean their moms knew each other? Did theytalk? If they did, how come Aru didn’t know?
Perched on a myrtle tree, Boo began to preen himself. “Right. So, here’s how to get there: You—”
“We’re not driving?” asked Mini.
Aru frowned. She didn’t know much about magic, but she didn’t think the Otherworld should be within driving distance.
Boo shook his head. “Too dangerous. The Sleeper is looking for you.”
Goose bumps prickled across Aru’s arms. “Why?” she asked. “I thought he just wants to go wake up the Lord of Destruction. What does he want with us?”
“He’ll want your weapons,” said Boo. “The Lord of Destruction is surrounded by a celestial sphere that can only be shattered by an immortal device like those weapons.”
Aru was getting a headache. “Wait, so, we need weapons to protect our weapons from becoming…weapons.”
“But we don’t have any weapons!” said Mini. “Or at least I don’t.” She turned pale. “Am I supposed to have a weapon? Do you have one? Is it too late for me to get one, too? Is there a specific one, like only having number two pencils for standardized tests, or—”
“SILENCE!” shouted Boo. “It is fine that you are unarmed. As forwhereyou shall be retrieving these powerful weapons, I shall leave those instructions to the Council of Guardians. They will be waiting for us in the Otherworld.”
He flew down in front of them. Then he pecked at the ground while walking in a small circle. “The key to getting to the Otherworld is reaching. You must grab hold of something invisible. Imagine it’s a string of hope. All you have to do is find it and tug. Simple.”
“A string of hope?”said Aru. “That’s impossible….”
“If it wasn’t, then everyone would go!” retorted Boo.
Mini pushed her glasses a little higher up her nose, and then reached in front of her. Gingerly, like the air might bite her. Nothing happened.
“It helps to look sideways,” said Boo. “That’s usually where you find most entrances to the Otherworld. You have to look and not look. You have to believe and not believe. It’s an in-between thing.”
Aru tried. She glanced sideways, feeling utterly ridiculous. But then, incredibly, she saw something that looked like a thread of light hanging down in the middle of the empty street. The world was still. All the beautiful houses were at once close and also a millennium away. Aru thought that if she were to reach out, her fingers would meet a thin sheet of glass.
“Once you’ve got ahold of the in-between, close your eyes.”
Mini obeyed, and Aru followed her example. She reached out, not expecting anything, butwantingdesperately.
Her fingers found nothing at first, and then…she felt it. Like a current of warmth.
It reminded her of summer. Those all-too-rare days when her mother took her to the lake. Sometimes there would be cold spots in the water. And sometimes there were swirling eddies of warmth, a bit of sun-drenched water ribboning around her.
Or sometimes it was just because someone had peed next to her. That was the worst.
This felt like that (the warmth, not the pee).
She grabbed the current, and something firm nosed into her hand—
A doorknob.
Not quite a doorknob. More like a bit of magic trying its best approximation of a doorknob. It was cold and metallic feeling, but it squirmed and tried to wrest itself from her hand. An indignant squeak followed when Aru gripped the knob a little tighter. All of her thoughts poured into a single command:Let me in.
The doorknob made aharrumphsound.
She pulled.
