You did it, Mini!said Brynne, patting her leg and flashing a grin as she crossed the remaining five feet to the slowly opening doorway.
I don’t know how, said Mini shyly.
For the first time since Aiden was taken, Aru looked up at her. She smiled, and even though her gaze looked hollow, Mini knew she was proud of her.I know how, said Aru through the mind link.It’s because you’re the Daughter of Death.
Yup, echoed Brynne.
A moment later, Aru and Brynne were guiding Rudy toward the door. The labyrinth was waiting on the other side. Around them, the Halls of Nidra had shrunk to the size of a dim living room, all of its trees and dreamers swallowed up by the darkness.
Almost there, said Brynne excitedly through the mind link. She held the Sun Jewel lantern up to the portal. Mini was about to smile when she felt it—a soft gust of air against her neck like someone’s breath. She stilled, looking around. The last time they’d heard Kumbhakarna he’d been far away….Had he noticed the glow? Had he made his way back to them?
Did you feel that?asked Mini through the mind link.
Feel what?said Brynne.
Mini turned in the saddle, her hands still on Loose Teeth’s reins. In the darkness, a wet roving eye blinked open. It was the size of a couch. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that it was less than ten feet away. The portal light bounced off Kumbhakarna’s dull gray teeth, their ends jagged as if he’d broken them when crunching down on his still-screaming food.
He smiled. “FOUND YOU.”
“Bee!” yelled Mini.
Brynne flung out her wind mace, but Kumbhakarna merely laughed in the dark. Mini tensed. A powerful jet of air blasted all around them as Gogo scoured the Halls of Nidra. Beneath them, fissures formed in the ground. The dreaming world began to crumble. Loose Teeth screamed as a gap snapped open inches from his front hooves.
“Just get through the door!” yelled Brynne.
Aru grunted as she hauled it open. “Go, Rudy!”
Rudy looked alarmed. He cast about, as if he might find some way to solve this.
“What about Mini?” he asked, looking up at her. “I’m not leaving without her!”
A flicker of warmth touched Mini’s heart. Earlier she had thought that the naga prince would only care about her when she had power, but as it had turned out, that wasn’t the case at all. And so it was with much gratitude and affection that Mini said through the mind link,Please push him through, Aru.
Don’t have to ask me twice, said Aru.
“I am aprince!” railed Rudy in the dark. “You can’t—HEY!”
Aru grinned, took Aiden’s backpack from Rudy, and shoved his chest. He toppled backward into the light, hollering, “I AM, LIKE, REALLY DISPLEASED!”
Another time, Mini might have laughed, but her attention felt scattered right now. The light of the portal door flickered, and once more Mini was taken aback by her own reflection. The cut of her hair, the depth in her eyes, the set of her chin.
She wasn’t scared.
“Mini, ride through!” shouted Brynne. “Just go!”
Mini knew she should move, but she didn’t. She kept thinking about Aru’s words from earlier.You are the Daughter of Death.
“I am the Dharma Raja’s daughter,” she said to herself. “Even without Dee Dee.”
It was such a quiet shift in her mind, but it was as if a secret part of her were blinking open and adjusting to new light.
Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez was the Daughter of Death.
Mini saw death everywhere she went, felt its presence in everything from a fight against a demon to a moldy candy bar. Death was a subtle shade over her life. Because of death, Mini savored each breath she took, knowing there were only so many she’d be given for one life. Because of death, Mini felt things more deeply, knowing that at any moment, all feeling could end.
All this time she had thought that Dee Dee had cured her of fear…that her celestial weapon had somehow overcome all her panic and made her powerful. But Mini wasn’t powerfulin spiteof her fear. She was powerfulbecauseof it.
Fear made her anxious, yes, and panicky, yes, and sometimes oversensitive, yes, but it also made her feel deeply, see clearly, think carefully.
