But the battle changed then. It was as if the moment Mini decided to protect someone other than herself, a switch was flipped inside the doppelgängers’ heads. Until that second, they had only attacked their own counterparts. Brynne and Other Brynne had stood locked in their own hurricane. Aiden and Other Aiden were still meeting blade with blade.
Now they exchanged looks with their comrades, and chaos reigned.
Other Brynne transformed into a panther and lunged toward Mini’s throat. Violet light shimmered around Mini, who went invisible on the spot. Other Brynne skidded to a halt before—BAM!—Mini’s force field bounced her backward.
Brynne whooped out, “YEAH! GET ME, MINI!”
But her grin quickly fell when Other Mini winked out of sight.
“Uh-oh,” Brynne said.
Brynne threw up her cyclones. Blue and purple sparks clashed together, enveloping the fighting Brynnes and Minis. Aru grabbed Kara’s hand and swung her around until they were back-to-back.
“I got your back, if you got mine,” she said.
Kara beamed.
Not ten feet away, Aiden shoved Other Aiden backward, then sprinted toward them. “Okay, what now?” he asked.
Other Aiden and Other Aru prowled closer. Kara threw her trident, knocking Other Aiden’s scimitar to the floor. Aru expected that he and Other Aru would lunge or strike again, but instead, the two doppelgängers stood still. Aru, Kara, and Aiden moved closer together, their weapons out and shining.
Slowly, Other Aiden reached for his fallen scimitar and then started to laugh. “Oh, Aiden. You know the worst thing about being you?”
Aiden adjusted his grip on his scimitars. “The fact that I’m not a morning person?”
Other Aiden smiled, straightened up, then looked between Aru and Kara.
“No, it’s the fact that you’re haunted,” said Other Aiden. “You know you’re going to end up like Mom or Dad. You’ll either be sad and left behind, or realize you made the wrong choice and set your life on fire. Let me take the guessing out of it and put you out of your misery.”
Beside Aru, Aiden’s face paled.
“WAIT!” she called out.
But Aiden sprang forward, charging at his doppelgänger with vicious speed. Other Aiden brought up his scimitars, and they were once more lost in a fight. Aru didn’t even have a second to wonder what Other Aiden was talking about before Other Aru started stalking toward her and Kara.
“One of us has to pin her in place, and then the other can grab the eye,” said Aru.
“I hope I don’t confuse—” started Kara, but Aru didn’t hear the rest of her sentence, because Other Aru threw her spear. Kara and Aru sprang apart. Now Other Aru stood neatly between them, rotating slowly on the spot with her lightning bolt held over her head.
“Catch her!” screamed Aru.
Kara hurled her trident, knocking Other Aru to the ground and neatly restraining her by the neck. Aru darted forward and kicked away her lightning bolt.
Other Aru thrashed angrily, trying to pull up the trident.
“You’re not one of us!” she screamed at Kara. “You never will be!”
“Ignore her!” yelled Aru.
Kara’s face was a mask of concentration as she grabbed her trident’s handle and held it firmly in place. “Go, Aru.Now…”
Aru stumbled forward, narrowly missing the Aidens, who were still slashing their scimitars at each other. Not ten feet away, the blue lotus hovered in its pillar of light. The eye, floating over it, slowly rotated to face her. She stretched out her hand, blinking back tears as wind from Brynne and Mini’s battle threw dust into her eyes.
Her fingers had almost reached the edge of the eye when Kara screamed, “WATCH OUT!”
Aru spun around to see the Other Aru charging toward her. How had she gotten free? Aru extended Vajra like a sword and their lightning bolts clashed. Electricity sparked and flew around them. Then Other Aru let loose her bolt…but not at Aru—atVajra. The weapon went spinning out of her hands.
“Vajra!” cried Aru.
