Page 16 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

“Well, it’s not around the corner,” said Aru slowly. “It’s about an hour away.”

Brynne stared at her. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” said Aru.

Augustus Day School had once taken the kids on a field trip to the Dahlonega Gold Mines. On the bus ride there, Aru had dreamed about finding a rare nugget of gold and triumphantly declaring,I’m rich!Would that make her an heiress, she had wondered? Aru had assumed that the gold mine would be paved in precious metal that shimmered like a tiny sun. But when they’d arrived, it was a lot more, well, nature-y. A giant dark tunnel where they got to pan for gold—Aru found nothing—and poke at the cave walls, which was somewhat more entertaining.

“It’s near the mountains in northern Georgia,” Aru told her friends.

Aiden tapped out something on his phone, frowning. “There’s a bus heading that way in half an hour.”

“What?” squeaked Mini. “I’ve got to pack! Brynne, you’re on food duty—”

“Obviously,” said Brynne.

“I’ll figure out the logistics,” said Aiden.

“I’ll sulk and take up space,” volunteered Aru.

“Or…you could clean up?” suggested Mini.

Aru scanned the museum lobby and grimaced. It was dusty, and a little bit scorched, too. If her mom were home, she’d be furious. Aru would much rather have her mom home yelling at her than not having her home at all.

“I really wish we had a robot,” Aru said with a sigh.

“Did you know the wordrobotcomes from the Czech wordrobota, which meansforced labor?” said Kara. “A sci-fi author came up with it in the 1920s.” She looked around at everyone brightly, as if expecting a response.

Mini gave her a pitying look. “I share all kinds of interesting facts like that with them, and they never seem impressed. Don’t take it personally.”

“That’s pretty cool,” said Aiden kindly.

Kara seemed shocked that he’d spoken to her directly. Aru was beginning to notice that whenever Kara was startled, her golden ring glowed a little bit brighter, which made Kara’s complexion even prettier. Her luxurious dark hair fell to her shoulders, and her skin looked like it belonged in an advertisement. From the way Aiden looked at Kara, Aru knew she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

Aru gave Vajra a mental nudge.Can you make me glow-y, too?

Vajra prickled with electricity, and Aru felt her hair shoot up around her head like porcupine quills.

“Whoa, Shah!” said Aiden, lurching backward. “You could poke someone’s eye out.”

Okay, knock it off, thought Aru.

Vajra sulkily returned to being a sleepy lightning-bolt bracelet.

By the time Aru had finished cleaning up the lobby, the group was nearly ready to go. The only person missing was Kara, who had gone up to Aru’s room to borrow a change of clothes.

“I’ll go get her,” said Aru quickly.

Aru felt a little guilty as she climbed the stairs. She had missed her friends, but these days it sometimes felt like too much to be around other people. Ever since that last battle with the Sleeper, her world had tilted. She didn’t understand how he could be both a monster and a victim, how Boo could be both family and foe, or how her own sisters could love and protect her but not fully believe her. She was starting to feel like a jigsaw-puzzle piece that had snuck into the wrong box. Even Kara seemed to fit in more naturally with Aru’s friends. One of them might even like Kara way more than he liked Aru.

Tell me what to do. Tell me what’s right, she begged silently.

But she didn’t even know who she was asking.

Herself? The gods? Or maybe something even vaster…something that would calm this new restlessness that had sprung up in her soul and wouldn’t leave her alone.

First, get to Lanka, she told herself as she walked into her room.Then worry about the rest.

Aru had expected to find Kara rifling in the dresser for a T-shirt and shorts. But the room was empty. She frowned, then turned around when she caught a flash of light across the hall. In her mom’s bedroom.