“Sunny?” asked Aru.
“That’s what I named my trident!” said Kara breathlessly.
Aru’s head was spinning. That trident looked like something that should be wielded by agod. So how did Kara get it?
The portal door was finally within reach. Aru lunged and pushed it. It felt cold against her skin. Her lungs pinched with hope.Home, she thought. She was going home!
Just then, something hot squeezed Aru’s ankles. She looked down to see an inky coil wrapping itself around her. Before she could kick it off, the tendril yanked. Aru fell, her chin thudding on the mirrored floor. She watched herself being dragged back down the hallway toward the library.
Aru thrashed, reaching for Vajra to cut the inky rope, but she was being pulled too quickly, and every time her weapon sparked, the ink from the book monster ignited, making the passageway grow thick with smoke and smoldering flames.
This is how I’m gonna go?thought Aru miserably as she fought its hold.A burned Aru casserole?
Aru wrenched herself around, trying to catch sight of Kara, but the smoke in the air and the sparks glinting off the mirrors obscured her vision. Doubt struck Aru hard. Had Kara left her behind? What if this had all just been a ruse to let Kara escape?
Something whistled through the air.
Aru looked up just in time to see the trident slice through the inky tendril.
“C’mon, Aru!” yelled Kara.
Aru scrambled to her feet. She flattened her palm and Vajra transformed into a hoverboard. Aru jumped on, and Vajra zoomed down the corridor, casting a shower of electrical sparks as it went. All around her, Aru could hear the ink spitting and fizzing as it caught fire. The heat of the flames scorched her back. Up ahead, Kara whistled, and her trident flew back into her hand, shape-shifting into a ring the moment she caught it.
The portal door was within reach again.
Aru hopped off Vajra, who immediately transformed into a Ping-Pong ball and ducked into her pocket. She pushed the door with one hand, flinging it open. With her other hand, she caught Kara’s wrist. Behind them the flames reared higher. Smoke burned her nostrils, but Aru squeezed her eyes shut and focused on the place she most wanted to be.
Home.
Aru pictured the front of the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, where she and her mom had spent the last fourteen years. She saw the Japanese maple tree, as red as a sunset, and the peeling paint on the front door. She could smell the copper statues, the wooden crates, and her mother’s neroli perfume.
Beyond the door was nothing but darkness, and Aru’s stomach flipped as they fell through the void….
“AHHH!” screamed Kara.
Aru’s eyes flew open just as the lawn outside her front door reared up to meet them. Frantically, she fumbled for Vajra, transforming it back into a hoverboard in time for them to end up stumbling across the grass instead of landing with asplat.
Kara righted herself gracefully. She looked around, her eyes wide and shining. But after one step forward, a strange expression fell across her face….
“Kara?” called Aru, going to her.
Kara’s eyes fluttered shut and she fainted onto the grass.
Just then the front door slammed open and a stream of air burst out, hitting Aru square in the chest. She went flying backward.
“Ow!” she yelled as her head hit the ground.
A voice called out: “TAKE THAT, VAGABOND!”
“Brynne! How many times have we been through this? Look first,thenattack!”
“Holy…Oh my god…it’sAru.”
The sound of approaching footsteps echoed through Aru’s skull. Blearily, she opened her eyes to see Mini.
“You’re okay!” Mini said, bursting into tears. “We weresoworried!”
“Shah!” said Brynne.
