“Just?” asked Mini.
“Powerful?” tried Brynne.
Aiden crossed his arms. “I wasgoing to say diabolical.”
“Meh,” said Aru. “Close enough.”
“You were of no help to me,” said Durvasa, putting down his curse pen. “And so now I will be of no help to you. Though it seems that you are in need of plenty of not-help. You claim to have the song of the thief—”
“I do!” Brynne blurted out, pointing at the necklace, but Durvasa held up his hand.
“Not now,” he said.
“And I know thethief’s name! The naginis told me in exchange for my energy. That’s why I was so tired!” Mini said rapidly.
Aru eyed the remains of the power-nap chocolate bar. Must have been pretty potent.
“It’s—” started Mini.
“Not here,” Durvasa said tightly.
It seemed to Aru as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Durvasa—the all-powerful sage who had caused the gods to lose their immortality—wasscaredof someone overhearing. Who? A spy working for the Sleeper? Aru cursed herself—yet again—for letting her dad get away.
“What are we waiting for?” Brynne demanded.
“Be patient,” Aiden told her through a clenched-teeth smile. “I’m sure the wise sage knows what he’s doing.”
Durvasa led them past the display case of cursed-people statues and down a hallway lined with what looked like offices.Durvasa opened one of the doors and gestured them inside.
Usually, whenever Aru entered an office, it looked a certainway.Always the same faded carpet the color of dead dreams. A brown desk with a framed picture of a family on it. A poster of a sunset with a slogan likeLive. Laugh. Love.And, of course, a plant that she could never be sure was real or fake (Aru could never resist tearing aleaf to find out; she always felt a bit guilty or strangely victorious).
This was not that kind of office.
It was a chamber in space, which was disorienting at first. There were no ugly carpets or posters. Instead, there was a fathomless black atmosphere, studded with stars, above, below, and all around them, sculpting the illusion of a room. But they didn’t fall through it—their feet walkedon an invisible floor. A strange luminescence surrounded them. The room felt at once impossibly huge and cozy.
“Welcome to the astral plane,” said Durvasa, his voice echoing.
Aru, who had only been on a plane once, was convinced that this was not a plane, but she chose not to point that out to Durvasa.
“You mean, where people go when they die?” asked Brynne, her eyes wide.
“No, that’s theKingdom of Death,” said Mini. “We went there last time.”
Aru could tell that Durvasa was struggling to control his temper. After a deep, cleansing breath, he continued. “At the DMV,” he said, “the astral plane is a sanctuary. What you discover here is considered sacred. It will not be revealed to anyone else.” Then he stepped back.
Mini gestured for Brynne to give her the soul song. Gingerly,Brynne took the red orb off her neck and placed it on the floor.Beforeshe stood, she dragged her finger across the stars speckling the floor, like they were sugar crystals on a plate.
“The name, child,” said Durvasa.
In the astral plane, the song orb had taken on a strange pulsing glow, reminding Aru that this was actually a part of someone’ssoul. Someone had wanted the god of love’s arrowso dearly that they’d been willing to part with their very essence. When Aru leaned close, she thought she heard the orb make a sound … like a soft sigh.
Mini knelt on the floor and in a clear, loud voice said, “The name of the thief is Surpanakha.”
