Aru groaned. Why was everyone soobsessedwith asking her this question? Why couldn’t they just shut their mouths and…
“Watch,” said Aru.
She raised her hand. The illusion of darkness overhead parted cleanly, revealing an open sky. Thunder rattled the world. Lightning splintered the violet clouds and rain pelted the ground.
Now, she said silently.
There was a screeching roar, like metal against metal. Around them, the jagged battle terrain was briefly illuminated and then swathed in the darkness that follows when a light flares in front of your eyes. But this was better than light. This waslightning, and Aru Shah had just pulled it out of the sky.
“Hi, Vajra,” she said. “I missed you.”
Her lightning bolt had gone from tame to semi-feral. Whips of electricity slapped the ground, rattling the rocks. Ribbons of light wound up Aru’s arm with a gentle squeeze and tickle, as if Vajra purred with happiness.
Within seconds, the Sleeper’s army manifested in the labyrinth. Their numbers were legion. Aru could hear them panting and growling even as they were momentarily blinded by her power.
Kara gasped. Sunny, her trident, looked like a candle next to the flare of Aru’s lightning bolt. The two sisters were locked in their positions, weapons poised, the air so tense that a mere breath would snap it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aru watched the pale naga lieutenant slither forward. “Orders, sir?” Followed quickly by: “Is she allowed to do that?”
Welp, that did it, thought Aru.
“First of all,” said Aru loudly, “shecan hear you. And secondly…Yes, she is.”
Through her mind link, she could hear Mini and Brynne cheering. Aru let her hands fill with energy. Vajra—who had climbed to a towering fifteen feet in height—cast sparks over the battlefield.
“I’m giving you one last chance,” said Aru.
But when she spoke, she wasn’t talking to the Sleeper. Her eyes were fixed on Kara. Her sister—even if that wasn’t what she wanted to be—looked torn. The light of her trident flickered. It seemed smaller and weakened.
Kara looked between Aru and the Sleeper before casting her eyes downward.
“You may have power, but you have no army,” said the Sleeper through gritted teeth.
“Yet,” said Aru.
“What?”
“We have no armyyet,” said Aru.
On the left, said Nikita through the mind link.
“But you’ll meet them real soon,” said Aru. “In fact, they’re hereright now.”
Aru turned her head. And then she frowned.
Helloooo?she said through the mind link.I just said something super dramatic. Back me up!
I said on theleft!said Nikita.
Iamlooking left!
No, you’re looking to theright!
“I meant onyourleft, Aru!” said Nikita loudly, in a voice that was no longer in Aru’s head.
Right then and there, Mini’s violet shield pulled back like an eye slowly opening. The vortex of Brynne’s wind power had kept them silent, but now the massive Otherworld army roared to life. Aru’s heart soared, and for the next few seconds before the world broke apart, she stared at all the people Sheela and Nikita had gathered. All the people who believed inthem.
In one corner, the vanaras from the Kishkinda Kingdom waited, their monkey tails switching like whips as they bared their teeth and stamped the ground. Beside them, Queen Tara stood as tall as a skyscraper and ten times as impressive in her battle regalia. She wore an ancient bronze helmet and gold-plated body armor covered in spikes. One hand was extended over the hundreds of gathered vanaras; the other held a conch shell war horn just inches from her lips.
