It was the first time she’d spoken up. She stood slightly in front of Sheela, as if ready to shield her at any moment.
“Yes,” said Boo, a touch more gently. “All of you.”
For the first time, Aru saw fear flash over Nikita’s face.
“It’ll be fine,” said Mini. “Trust us.”
Nikita’s expression hardened into a scowl. “No chance of that.”
Boo flew into the chakora forest, urging the Pandavas to follow. Aru trudged behind the others. Crisis manager? That sounded…awful. And Hanuman and Urvashi had flat-out left? Shame roiled through Aru’s belly, and she kicked at the moonlit ground. Usually, walking through the chakora forest relaxed her. It was the home of the magical birds who fed on moonlight. But now even the moonbeams seemed harsh, casting a silvery glow that seemed to illuminate Aru’s every thought about all the ways they’d failed.
Boo led them through a tunnel that carved through a hill and opened up into a chamber that looked like a fancy hotel lobby with marble floors and warm lighting. Except instead of an elevator bank there was an intricate golden gate, the top of which seemed to disappear into a ceiling of low-hanging clouds. Its metal railings were bent into what resembled a grinning mouth.
“Password?” it prompted.
The gate’s voice reminded Aru of her school’s guidance counselor. A weird note of sweetness that never changed. Seriously. That lady could be politely delighted about the apocalypse.
“Why does it need a password when we were asked to show up here?” demanded Brynne. “Shouldn’t it just know who we are?”
“You can never be too careful,” said Boo.
Mini checked her pockets. “Are we supposed to have a password? I don’t have one! Did I miss a handout? Or a homework assignment—?”
Aru gripped her sister’s shoulders. “Breathe, Mini.”
Boo circled overhead. “Now, what was it again…? Something about the heavens’ current fascination…Oh yes!”
“That’s not the password,” said the gate smugly.
“I know that—”
“That’s not it, either,” sang the gate.
“I will melt you into a thumbtack!” threatened the pigeon.
“Still not iiiiit,” crowed the gate.
“Boo, just say it!” cried Aru.
“ATHLEISURE!”
The gate parted, and bright sunlight spilled out.
Bro, Do You Even Lift?
Aru held her breath as that familiar weightless sensation of the portals swept through her. Bright light washed over her face, and when it finally cleared, Aru stumbled forward, still determined to keep her eyes shut. They were going to Amaravati, the capital of the heavens! It was going to be drenched in terrible divine light, and what if Aru found herself standing in a beautiful arena surrounded by huge, angry gods and—?
“Gross!” said Nikita.
Wait, what?
Aru opened her eyes.
Her first glimpse of heaven wasn’t the awe-inspiring, fall-to-your-knees-puny-mortal landscape at all…but the inside of an office. She blinked, staring around her. It looked like an administrative building. No windows, just thick walls made of graying storm clouds, and fifty or so desks scattered about. Down one of the halls, Aru could hear raucous shouting.
“This can’t be Amaravati!” said Aru.
Aiden coughed, pointing up at the sign splayed on a wall right above them.
MARUTS OFFICES
PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND
STORM POLICE OF AMARAVATI
“Police?” squeaked Mini. “They brought us straight to the police station? Do we need a lawyer? Are we going to be allowed a phone call? Should I call my mom?”
Aru patted her pocket reassuringly. Vajra had dived inside to hide and was currently a trembling ball of lightning. Beside her, Brynne had started to pace, and Aiden kept twisting the lens off Shadowfax.
“Now, children,” said Boo, even as he fluttered anxiously above their heads. “I know that meeting with the crisis manager might be stressful, but— Hey! Come back here!”
Sheela and Nikita had started backing toward the portal, their hands tightly entwined. Sheela’s normally serene—if not a little out-of-it—disposition had been replaced with fear. And Nikita seemed no better. Her flower crown looked ten times sharper, with an added layer of wicked black thorns, and her eyes kept darting around the room.
“Whoa, what’s wrong?” asked Aru.
“Protective services?” said Nikita. “We don’t need them! We don’t want to go back—”
“Go back where?” asked Mini.
“We’re Pandavas now,” said Nikita sharply. “You can’t just send us back!”
“No one’s sending you anywhere,” said Aiden gently. “Why don’t you explain what you’re talking about…?”
Just then, on one of the desks, a voice crackled from a little monitor that was shaped like a storm cloud.
Scrrritch. “Uh, hey, this is Seven paging Forty-Two. Yeah, we got a report about two missing kids from the Otherworld Foster Care System? You hear anything about that?”
Two missing kids? Aru looked over at the twins. Sheela hid her face against Nikita’s shoulder, and Nikita’s flower crown was now a weapon of war.
“We’re looking for a pair of twins, dark-skinned, speak English and Guyanese Creole, surname self-reported as ‘Jagan,’ but possibly inaccurate—”
Nikita snapped her fingers, and a thick snakelike vine shot toward the desk, toppling the monitor to the floor. The audio cut in and out, but Aru still caught most of it:
“Parents…unable to be contacted…Our records show…deported to Guyana three years ago—” Scrrritch! “Covering east and west perimeters now…”
Boo alighted on Aru’s head. Aru, Brynne, Mini, and Aiden stared at the twins, not sure what to say. No wonder the girls were on edge and didn’t want to answer questions about their parents.
“You can’t report us!” yelled Nikita. “We’re Pandavas, too, and we have a right—”
“No one is going to report you,” said Brynne.
Nikita looked up at her, shocked. “You’re not?”
“You’re with us now,” said Mini.
Boo hopped angrily around Aru’s scalp. “What a preposterous notion that you would be taken from my care! You’re mine now. Do you understand?”
“Welcome to the brood,” said Aru, grumpily smoothing down her hair.
“We’re not hens!” cried Nikita.
“You must have been manifesting powers since the beginning,” said Boo to the twins. “And no one thought to inform anyone?”
“We tried, and so did our foster parents…. They were really nice, but they had a lot of kids to look after,” said Sheela, lifting her head from Nikita’s shoulder. “Anyway, the OFCS thought they were lying, and so when I saw you guys in my vision, we…we ran away. We thought once we joined the Pandavas, things would be different.” Her face fell. “We thought maybe we’d be able to talk to our real parents again.”
A loud crash echoed from a hallway to the left.