Page 102 of Aru Shah and the End of Time

He’dwantedto be her home dad.

Aru’s throat tightened, and tears pressed at her eyes. Then she forced herself to sit up straight. It didn’t matter what he used to be like. The truth was that the Sleeper from the Night Bazaar was no longer the man from her mother’s vision. Now he was cruel and cold. He was evil. He’d hurt Boo and threatened to kill their familiesandthem if they didn’t bring him all three keys. He wasn’t her dad.

Aru tossed the ball form of Vajra in the air and caught it with one hand. “Let’s do this.”

But even as she said the words, a thread of misgiving wrapped around her rib cage and squeezed tight.

They stood up and began silently walking between the ponds, ducking the low-hanging incense burners. Aru knew, deep in her bones, that this was where the Kingdom of Death ended: on the brink of new life. The atmosphere felt like that of a crowd holding its breath with anticipation. The light on the pearly walls was ever-shifting, ever-changing; the colors never settled on one shade, always glimmering with new potential. Like life starting anew.

Aru took a deep breath. They had made it through the kingdom.

Now the question was: Could they get out?

Can You Give Me Better Hair on the Way Out?

It’s challenging to shoulder all the stuff you get from the Kingdom of Death.

Dee Dee (Mini’s Death Danda) kept popping out of its compact form and turning into a gigantic stick. Twice it almost put out Aru’s eye. She was beginning to think the weapons had a sense of humor. At random times Aru’s weapon, Vajra, liked to shift into lightning-bolt form and zip across the sky before turning into a ball and bouncing in front of her. Aru imagined it saying,Throw me at a demon! Do it, do it, do it! I wanna play. Squirrel!

“I’m not really even sure of all the stuff this thing can do,” said Mini, shaking the danda.

Aru raised her eyebrow. That danda stick belonged to the god of death and justice. It had probably beat up its fair share of demons and also punished a bunch of souls. And now Mini was shaking it like a remote control that had stopped working.

“Maybe it’s like a video game, and you get to access more powers and levels once you complete something?” Mini guessed.

“Well, we got one demon, shopped at a magic Costco, and made it through the Kingdom of Death….What else does our video game magic want?”

“Maybe to defeat the real demon?”

“Oh, yeah, true.”

Mini awkwardly cradled Dee Dee. “Aru, do you think these weapons are a sign that they like us?”

Aru didn’t have to ask whotheywere. She meant their godly fathers.

“The danda is his most precious possession,” reasoned Mini. “He wouldn’t just give it to someone he didn’t care about, right?”

“I’m sure he cares,” said Aru. “Just, you know, in his own way? In the stories, the Dharma Raja took the form of a dog and kept Yudhistira company at the end of his life. Yudhistira refused to enter heaven without him. I think it was some kind of test? If your soul dad is willing to become a dog just to keep you company, that means they like you at least a little bit.”

Mini grinned. “I like the way you think, Shah.”

Aru dramatically flipped her hair over her shoulder, which was a bad idea, because it was still damp from whale spit and ended up smacking her in the eye.Smooth.

“Do you think it’s the same for Lord Indra?” asked Mini.

Aru eyed Vajra, who was happily bouncing beside her in a way that reminded Aru of someone excitedly nodding. If her mom could care from a distance, why not her dad?

“I hope so,” said Aru after a moment’s pause. “My mom told me it was Indra who taught Arjuna how to use all the celestial weapons. He even tried to sabotage Arjuna’s nemesis.”

That reminded Aru of the mom at school who’d gotten banned from the library after tearing out certain pages in books just so her kid’s rival classmate couldn’t do his research. (The librarian had screamed,Book murder!And now all the parents were scared of her.) Indra probably would have approved of that kind of sabotage.

“And he gave you his famous lightning bolt,” added Mini. “He must care.”

The thought made Aru smile.

Once they were away from the Chamber of Pools, they turned the corner toward the violent sounds of machinery. A large archway was emblazoned with the sign:

REMAKE, REBUILD, RELIVE!