So what does that make you?whispered a doubt deep inside her heart.
Kara ignored the voice and stepped into the dark.
Aru Shah’s life was, to put it simply, an absolute mess.
Her previous pigeon mentor, Boo, was currently a flammable chick of some kind. Her crush, Aiden, had kissed her and yet was now acting like she was invisible. Her friend Kara had turned out to not only be her real-life half sister but also the daughter of the sun god. And, as if that weren’t enough for the past twenty-four hours, Kara had betrayed them, joined forces with the Sleeper to locate the nectar of immortality, and incinerated the Pandavas’ celestial weapons.
On Aru’s birthday.
But even though Kara and the Sleeper had vanished, at least Aru now knew where she could find them.
It was almost evening in Atlanta, and the February wind made her ears burn as she stared up at the stone gate marking the entrance to Lullwater Park. According to Krithika Shah,thiswas the current hiding spot of the labyrinth holding the nectar of immortality, but just for the next ten days. The only way to navigate the labyrinth was by the light of the sun, and now that the Sleeper had Kara’s demigod solar powers on his side, the Pandavas’ chances of reaching the nectar of immortality first were looking, well, low.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they could simply get through the magical barrier surrounding the park. For the second time since they’d arrived, Aru held out her hand. She could feel a pulse of energy near the gate. It was like a curtain drawn tight. She couldn’t push past it.
“I told you, Aru,” said Krithika softly, laying her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “You won’t be admitted without your godly weapons. It’s to be expected that the devas would come up with a way to keep humans out.”
“But we’re not humans!” said Brynne. “We’re demigods!”
At that moment, a young white family walked past. The mom grinned at the Pandavas and thrust her fist into the air. “That’s the spirit of the future! We’realldemigods!” And then she laughed and kept walking.
“You okay, Brynne?” asked Mini. “Your forehead vein is sticking out a lot….”
“No, I’m not okay!” said Brynne. “We havenothing. We can’t fight without our weapons!”
“Technically, we could…” said Mini, weakly holding up her fists. “It’d be a short fight, though. Because we’d die almost immediately—”
“Only someone with a godly weapon can control the Nairrata army,” said Brynne. “We don’t have them anymore! And we can’t get into the labyrinth, either!” Her voice broke, and she looked away from them right before she mumbled, “We can’t protect anyone.”
“That’s not true, Bee,” said Aru. “We still havethis.”
Aru shoved her right hand into her pocket. Her fingers instinctively searched for her lightning bolt, Vajra, which normally would either be coiled into a glowing ball of static electricity or wrapped around her wrist as a sparking bracelet. Aru felt a sharp ache. Without Vajra, the world was a little less bright.
Aru withdrew her hand. She had meant to pull out theIO(F)Ucoin from Agni, the god of fire. But she must have reached into the wrong pocket, because instead she drew out half an expired and possibly fossilized Twix bar. While her left hand fished around in her other pocket for the enchanted coin, Aru shrugged and took a bite.
“Aru! NO!” shouted Mini, smacking Aru’s back so hard that Aru spat out the candy bar.
“That was perfectly good chocolate!” said Aru.
“What is wrong with you?” demanded Mini. “Youcannoteat that! Expired candy can carry microbes! Some even have strains of salmonella! And if you eat it, you coulddie.”
“We’re already going to die!” said Brynne, crossing her arms. “Especially if Aru thinks a moldy candy bar is a way to avoid doom!”
“What I meant to take out was this,” said Aru, holding up the glowing coin.
Brynne still didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, but it doesn’t seem to work, does it?”
Aru sighed. Nothing was going her way. She couldn’t even eat some chocolate without the risk of death.
When they’d previously tried to contact Agni with the coin, Mini, Brynne, and Aru had taken turns holding it tight and making a wish. They’d even called out Agni’s name and held it to the sky, but nothing seemed to make a difference.
“So how exactly are we going to find the god of fire, Shah?” demanded Brynne. “If we set foot in the Otherworld and start asking questions, the devas are going to figure out we don’t have our weapons anymore. Everyone will panic. What if they know already? What if Rudy goes back to the Naga realm and doesn’t keep his mouth shut?”
“I think Rudy and Aiden are still at home fighting over who gets to hold BB,” piped up Mini.
BB was what they had decided to name Baby Boo, who had hatched at the museum this morning and had already left multiple singe marks on the floor. Mini hadn’t wanted to take him outside, worried that he would catch a cold—even though Aru had pointed out that he was literally a firebird—so they’d left him behind with the boys.
Brynne groaned. “There’s no way to hide what’s happened to us. Hanuman and Urvashi are bound to check in any minute now.”
