The girl with eyes like a fish and a heart snapped in two
will be met in battle by a girl named Aru.
But take care what you do with a heart so broken,
for uglier truths will soon be spoken.
You, daughter of Indra, have a tongue like a whip,
but be wary of those to whom you serve lip,
for there is a tale beyond that soon you shall see …
But all that depends on your surviving the sea.
Who the heck was the girl with eyes like a fish?
Heart snapped in twocould mean Uloopi, whose heart jewel had been stolen and hidden by Takshaka all theseyears. Or maybe it was Surpanakha?
And that last part …surviving the sea. That gave Aru chills.
“Is an ocean the same thing as a sea?” she asked Aiden.
He didn’t say anything.
“Wait, was that a really dumb question?” asked Aru.
“Huh, what?”
Aru took Vajra out of her pocket and held it up to Aiden’s face. Even though the ball’s glow was weak compared to Mini’s Night Flame, she could seehim clearly. And he was clearly upset. His mouth was pulled down, and he was gripping his camera so tight that his knuckles had turned white.
Allthoughts of the ocean disappeared. “You okay?” she asked.
He glanced away from her quickly, but not before she’d scanned the rest of his face. He still had soot marks on his cheeks and nose from when he’d run into the fires of Agni, but otherwise hedidn’t appear … badly off. Then again, he was the son of a famously beautiful apsara. And it showed. Aru felt her face turning red and quickly looked elsewhere.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “Kinda wish I’d had Agni’s eternal memory stick before now. I could’ve used it at home.”
“Oh, for like … taking pictures of stuff around the house?”
“Yeah, and, um, my parents. We used to have a lot of familyphotos, but Mom put them away. I don’t know where.”
Aru remembered how stricken Aiden had looked when Agni mentioned his mom. Because she married a mortal man, she’d given up all connection to the Otherworld.
Hope it was worth it for her.
Aru understood how awful that felt. Like it was somehowhisfault that his own mom wouldn’t get to be part of the world she grew up in … And Aru hadn’t forgottenthe nightmares that plagued Aiden because of his parents’ divorce. His mom wondering if having him was what caused the breakup …
“Aiden?”
He looked up from his camera. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay? Like, really okay? It’s fine if you’re not….”
Aiden took a deep breath. Then he said quietly, “It’s my mom…. What if she regrets her life? She gave up everything for my dad. And then he leaves her to marrya girlfriend he metwhilehe was still with my mom. And—”
His voice broke, and it took him a moment to speak again. “What’d she get out of it?”
Aruput her hand his shoulder. “You.”
