Aiden pulled a small glass bubble-like charm from his jeans pocket and blew it into the air. Instantly,it expanded into a giant translucent sphere that surrounded them.
“Silence charm,” explained Aiden. “Now she can’t hear us.”
Aru poked at the bubble. “Where’d you get this?”
“Night Bazaar. This yaksha merchant gave it to me after I took some headshots for him. He said he wants to be a Tollywood star.”
“Huh. Cool. So … why the bubble? I mean, I’m totally here for moral support and all that,but … what are we supposed to do from inside a bubble?”
Aiden was quiet for a long moment, and then he said, “You know the best thing about taking photos?”
Aru shook her head.
“I can show people what I see,” said Aiden in a low voice. “I can show them howIsee them. I wish I could show my mom. Maybe then she’d see that I think she’s … perfect.”
Aru plucked at her beard. Across the hall, Mrs.Acharya went to the long mirror. Her hair was in a low ponytail, which made her eyes look too big for her face. She smoothed her cheeksinan upward motion, the way Aru’s mom did whenever she had a hard day.
“So then why don’t you do that?” asked Aru.
Aiden’s eyes widened. His gaze went to his mom, looking at herself in the mirror. Outside, a car door slammed shut. Aiden pulled the arrow fromhis pocket. And then, as if it were just a simple dart, he threw it at his mom, where it hit her on the side of her leg. Aru held her breath, thinking Mrs. Acharya might scream or something, but she didn’t. She just shook herself, glancing once more in the mirror. This time, she didn’t look away as fast, and she didn’t frown. She reached out and touched her reflection. Then she looked beyond it,to the photos Aiden had taken over the years. Pride bloomed across her face. And then, slowly, she smiled.
It might not have seemed like a big deal to anyone else, but it made Aru feel insanely happy. Kamadeva had said there was no magical cure for grief. The arrow only opened a pathway for love, but that didn’t mean it had to be romantic. Sometimes the best kind of love was just loving yourself.
“Aiden!” called his mom, a lighter note to her voice. “Where are you? Come on, Ace-Cakes.”
Ace-Cakes?mouthed Aru.
“Don’t even think about repeating that,” said Aiden, scowling.
When his mom went to answer the front door to meet his dad, Aiden gestured for Aru to follow him. She crept after him to the back door, and they snuck out. Aiden walked her across the street and stopped on the sidewalk.
Less than ten minutes had passed since Aru left her party, but it felt a lot longer than that.
“I gotta go,” said Aru, tugging her beard.
“Happy birthday, Shah,” said Aiden. “And um, thanks. A lot. I mean it.”
“You can join in whenever? If you want?”
Aiden brightened for a moment, but then shook his head. “I should stay with my mom. But thanks again. I didn’t know what to do back there.”
“Decisions are hard,” said Aru, thinking of every battle they’d gone through in the past few weeks. “But the biggest one is deciding what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Aiden frowned. “Did you just make that up?”
“Nah. Stole it from Gandalf.”
