“No, not the wrestler-actor-man!”
“Oh.”
“That rock was once the famously beautiful apsara Rambha. Someone sent her to disturb the meditations of arishi, to preventhimfrom becoming too powerful. Obviously she was not successful, for she was cursed to assume the form of a rock for ten thousand years.”
Tenthousandyears as a rock?Just because you followed orders?
Aru scowled. “That’s not fair.”
Durvasa shrugged. “Fairness is but an idea conceived by someone who has the power to make such pronouncements. As for curses themselves, well, they are finicky, spiteful things.”
“But she was just doing her job,” said Aiden.
“As am I,” said Durvasa. “According to the legal ordinances of the Otherworld, I am forbidden from assistingor blessing anyone who is suspected of committing a crime. And you two”—he nodded at Brynne, then Aru—“have been accused of thievery. And I might believe it, too. Don’t think I don’t knowhowyou got to be first in line.” He raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not like we had a choice!” protested Aru. “That girl told us we had to wait three centuries, and according to her office calendar, we barely havethreedaysleft before the Heartless stay that way forever.”
“I hate Otherworld time,” grumbled Brynne.
“If you are innocent, let someone else concern themselves with the matter,” said Durvasa. “Unless there is some other reason you care?”
When a few seconds passed without anyone speaking, Durvasa did an about-face.
“Wait!” Brynne called out. “Please! Okay, fine…. If we don’t manage to returnKamadeva’s bow and arrow to Uloopi, she will ban us from the Otherworld. We won’t be part of … part of anything anymore.”
Aru felt like her heart was being squeezed. Like Brynne, shedidn’twant to be cast out of the one place where she felt like she mattered. At the same time, she couldn’t stop wondering if she didn’t really deserve a place in the Otherworld, because her dad was the Sleeper.
You were never meant to be a hero.
Aru banished the thought.
“And we won’t be able to fix something that went terribly wrong,” added Aiden, rubbing his thumb along the top of his camera, which had reemerged from the magical watch.
Aru wondered what he meant by that. Was he talking about Mini’s abduction? She didn’t think so. But clearly Aiden wasn’t on this quest merely to earn one of Kamadeva’sarrows. She thought at first that Aiden had wanted a love arrow for some girl in middle school … but now she was beginning to suspect she’d gotten it all wrong.
“People are going missing,” said Aru, thinking not only of the men who were becoming Heartless, but Mini, too. “And also … because it’s the right thing to do.”For Boo … and even Uloopi, she told herself. Uloopi deserved to get her heartjewel back after spending so much of her immortal life wasting away because of Takshaka’s deception.
Durvasa stood before them, impassive as ever. “I cannot help you,” he said haughtily.
Brynne wiped her eyes and sniffed loudly before glowering. Aru knew how she felt. There was nothing worse than being honest with someone and then having them throw it back in your face. It was like salt in awound.
“Come on, guys,” said Brynne, turning to leave.
Aru clenched her jaw. “Haven’t you ever wanted a differentending?Or thought about what would happen if you didn’t follow the rules? All the things that could change?”
Durvasa hesitated for just a second. His shoulders fell a fraction of an inch.
“I still cannot help you,” he said stonily.
Aru turned to leave, but Durvasa kept talking.“I cannot tell you, for instance, that your friend lies fast asleep at the Bridge of Dawn and Dusk.”
The three of them froze.
“I certainly cannot inform you that you will have to do battle with your very nightmares.” Durvasa examined his fingernails. “There is absolutely no way I will tell you that all you must do to reach her is walk through there, or that the mere fact I’m speaking to youhas granted you adequate protection in the celestial realms,” he went on, pointing across the room to a wooden door markedTHE BRIDGE OF DAWN AND DUSK. “Or that you must be back before sunrise or my protection will vanish.”
Aru smiled. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Durvasa said, scowling. He waved his hand, and a plushy armchair sprouted up in the middle of the room. “I will be watching exactlyonePlanet Earthdocumentary on Netflix. After that, I willnotbe here.”
