“We tried talking to the Maruts, but they said this is a matter for Kubera. Hanuman and Urvashi went to Lanka to talk to him, and we think he’s holding them captive there. We thought maybe Boo could help, but he’s disappeared, too!” said Mini, tears gathering in her eyes. “And now people think he’s a traitor again!”
Brynne’s face softened as she moved to rub Mini’s back. “We’ve defended Boo before, and we’ll do it again. Right, Shah?”
Aru’s mouth went dry as all eyes turned to her.
She had to tell them the truth.
“Booisa traitor,” said Aru, steadying her voice. “I saw it in the Tree of Wishes.”
All three of them stared at her.
“That’s ridiculous, Aru!” said Brynne. “How could you say that?”
Aru flinched at her sharp tone but didn’t back down. “I know what I saw. Aranyani showed it to me, along with the reason my…I mean, the Sleeper never made a wish. He’d had to sacrifice a lot of memories to get to the tree, but in the end he didn’t want to give up his memories of my mom and me just to change his fate. So he turned around to come home, but by then the Council had convinced Mom to imprison him.”
“The Council?” repeated Mini.
“They were just doing their duty,” said Brynne, crossing her arms. “The Sleeper was always destined to fight a war that could destroy the Otherworld.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t been locked up!” said Aru.
Brynne shook her head. “Listen, I get it. It’s sad, but he’s a monster, Aru—”
Vajra, who had turned back into a bracelet on Aru’s wrist, flashed angrily. “If you were forced to give up parts of your soul, you’d become a monster, too!”
Brynne’s mouth clamped shut.
“Aru,” said Mini gently, “we’re just trying to understand what you’re saying…. This is the first time we’re hearing about this.”
Aru set her jaw. Her ears were hot. She couldn’t help feeling that she was being cornered right now.
“What about Boo?” asked Aiden. His expression looked carefully blank. “What happened with him?”
“Aranyani made me see all this stuff before I could get to the Tree of Wishes. She showed me that Boo made a deal with the Sleeper behind our backs,” said Aru. “Boo used to be a sorcerer king before all this, and then he got cursed and turned into a pigeon. The only thing that can break his curse is something about how ‘a wish will free you from this earth’ or whatever. And…And I guess Boo thought he couldn’t protect us if he wasn’t in his most powerful form. So, in exchange for being able to make his own wish when the Sleeper found the Tree of Wishes, he revealed the twins’ location to the Sleeper’s army. That’s how they were able to kidnap them.” Aru’s face burned in anger. “Boo didn’t think we’d succeed on the mission. Even after all his training and lectures and…”
Aru fell quiet. She didn’t want to think about Boo perched on her head, shouting military drill instructions, lecturing the Pandavas about taking their vitamins, and always,always, reminding them that they would be great.
Because, as it turned out, he hadn’t believed it himself.
Brynne was the first to find her voice. “But if you saw all this, then that means you got to make a wish, right?”
Aru nodded. “But”—she was so frustrated she felt like crying—“I can’t remember what I wished for.”
Brynne frowned. “If you can’t remember that, then how do you know you saw all that other stuff?”
Aru went still. “It sounds like you don’t believe me.”
Brynne’s gaze hardened. “I think you need to calm down, Shah.”
“Calmdown?” said Aru, shooting out of her chair. “Boodidbetray us! And Hanuman and Urvashi messed up everything by convincing my mom to trap the Sleeper. Maybe they’re trapped in Lanka, or maybe they just gave up on us, like Boo did!”
“You don’t know that!” said Brynne.
And then too many things happened at once. Sparks flew off Vajra just as a gust of wind blew Aru back into her seat. Aiden dove forward, throwing out his hands like a referee. A huge burst of violet light shot across the room as Mini slammed Dee Dee into the ground.
“ENOUGH!” yelled Mini. “Aru, Brynne didn’t say she doesn’t believe you. And, Brynne, just because you don’t like what you hear doesn’t mean you have to sneer about it. Aru has clearly gone through a lot. All of us have!”
Aru stared at her sisters, feeling smaller and smaller by the second. Mini was gazing at her with pity. Brynne looked dubious. Why didn’t anyone believe her?Because they know you’re a liar, Aru Shah, whispered a voice in her head.
