On Sundays, Aiden’s mom threw dinner parties, and the house was full of joyful noise and delicious smells. On those nights, the Potatoes fought over what movie to watch. It was Aru’s favorite day of the week.
Their friend Hira, the shape-shifting rakshasi, liked the X-Men and amused herself by turning into Mystique. Nikita liked reruns ofProject Runway, while Sheela kept pushing for thrillers, which was somewhat frightening. Aiden usually tried to convince them to watch a documentary. Mini liked rom-coms, and Brynne either wanted a cooking show or an action movie, while Aru tended to pick out weirder films. Kara went along with pretty much everything. Last week was Aru’s turn, so she’d made them watchSnakes on a Plane. By the end of it, Rudy was furious.
“This is the most disrespectful and inaccurate thing I’ve ever seen,” he’d hissed. “We wouldnevergo on a commercial flight!”
“Yeah, that’s definitely the biggest inaccuracy of the whole film,” said Aiden.
Aru laughed. She might’ve felt sad over these past few months, but she’d never felt lonely. She had her sisters and friends. In the Otherworld, the Potatoes had never been more popular. Of course, some people—mainly Opal, who had made their lives a nightmare last year—had complained that the Pandavas had let the Sleeper get away yetagain. But for the most part, people thought that the reincarnated warrior sisters had proven their heroism, and would be able to keep them safe.
In fact, all the attention on them got so overwhelming that Hanuman had to move their training sessions to a secret location accessible only through a portal that opened at his touch. On the other side was a spherical arena, bigger than two Olympic-size pools placed together. Sometimes, Hanuman transformed the whole place to look like a dense jungle, full of camouflaged pits and vines that could break without warning. Other times, he filled the whole thing with murky water full of vortices and sharp objects, and forced them to fight their way across it.
“You’re more powerful now, Pandavas,” Hanuman had said during one of their training sessions early on. “But that doesn’t make the Sleeper any weaker. Wherever he is, he’s gathering strength for his ultimate objective: finding the nectar of immortality.”
It was just as her mom and Kara had said from the beginning, thought Aru.
“The devas learned of the Sleeper’s mission when their army captured and interrogated one of his troops,” Hanuman went on. “The soldier confirmed that, as the battle of Lanka raged, the Sleeper took advantage of the Otherworld’s distractedness and moved even closer to his goal.”
“We are scouring the seas, doing everything we can to find the amrita before he does, but you must remain on call,” said Urvashi. “And we’re increasing security around all your homes. No one should be able to get in.”
“What if my mom tries to come home?” asked Aru, panicked.
Urvashi’s sternness softened. “The museum will recognize her and let her through. Do not worry, Aru. Your mother is too clever by far to land herself in serious trouble.”
At first, Aru had worried that the Sleeper would try to come after them again, but Kara calmed her.
“If he comes near us, I’ll know,” she said, tapping the gold circle on the back of her neck. Aru remembered the burst of light before the Sleeper had materialized in Lanka. “We’ll be ready.”
Ever since that assurance, Aru had noticed that Kara had a habit of rubbing the golden patch on her skin. Whenever they went on walks through the neighborhood or visited the Night Bazaar for shopping, Kara would reach up and touch the circle, as if waiting for something to happen.
One day, when Kara did it again during a run to the grocery store for one of Brynne’s food experiments, Aru couldn’t help asking, “Does that thing itch?”
“What? Oh…no,” said Kara. Her cheeks turned red. “It, well, you know how it lights up when the Sleeper is nearby?”
“You think the Sleeper is here?” asked Aru, alarmed. She eyed the row of carrots and celery suspiciously.
“No!” said Kara hurriedly. “Not him! The ward isn’t just for Dad…. He made it so it would work for my mom, too. I used to wonder if she’d come find me someday, but she’s never tried. Or maybe she can’t, who knows. But around here there’s so many people, and I guess I just hoped that maybe one of them would be her.”
Aru fell quiet for a moment. “What would you do if you saw her?”
Kara shrugged. “I don’t know…I guess I’d just want to know why she left. Or if she ever thinks about me. It doesn’t really matter anymore, though.”
“Really?” asked Aru.
“Really,” said Kara, smiling. “I used to dream about being part of a big family. I wanted to fight over clothes with siblings and argue about who got to watch what…and now I do. So it’s pretty great.”
Barring the stuff out of her control, Aru had found more pockets of happiness than she’d expected to with her mom gone.
Minus the fact that Aru Shah was officially a high schooler.
Thanks to Hira, who posed as her mom, and Urvashi, who used delicate enchantments to sidestep school bureaucracy, Aru and Kara started ninth grade in September. Aru hadn’t been sure how they were going to be able to afford the fancy new school’s tuition, but then, sometime in July, a surprise came in the mail. When Aru opened the box, she found it filled to the brim with rare gems, a golden letter lying on top.
The other day I reminded Biju of how strange you and your mortal sisters are, and being the hilarious person that I am, this caused him to laugh uncontrollably. Or maybe he was choking. I have decided I’d rather not know. Anyway, it only seemed fair to give you what he coughed up, consideringyouwere the ones who had made him laugh.If you call this “generosity,” I will turn everyone you love into a golden statue.
Farewell!
“Thanks, mongoose,” said Aru with a grin.
Ninth grade was predictably awful, and it didn’t help that everyone still thought she had missed part of the last school year because she’d gotten mono from kissing someone. To make everyone stop guessing who it was, Aru eventually wound up telling people she had a boyfriend in Canada named…Bert.
