Page 51 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

“I’ve got a better idea,” said Aiden. “Brynne?”

Aru didn’t know what he meant by that, but clearly Brynne did. She and Aiden shared a vicious smile, and then Brynne swept out her wind mace in a wide arc. Gales blew forward, shaking the grass and the trees, and Aiden jumped into the air and startedrunningon the wind. He clanked his wrists together and his two scimitars flew out. The sun angled behind him, winking on their blades. Ravana’s main face scowled, and he raised his fist….

But if Ravana was fast, Aiden was faster.

His glowing scimitars formed a shining X, and then he swiped them at the place where Ravana’s armor met one of his necks.

SCHWIP!

One moment, all ten of Ravana’s heads faced Kara, Aiden, and the Pandavas.

The next, the leftmost head shimmered, turned to gold, and tumbled to the ground.

The remaining nine heads roared in fury. Ravana flexed his hands in anger, opening the fist around Mini. She dropped to the ground. Brynne wrapped a cyclone around Aiden, carrying him back to the grass, where he dropped gracefully, triumph shining on his face as the sun glowed behind him.

Ogle later, fight now, came Brynne’s mind message.

I WAS NOT OGLING!Aru tried to say, but then Ravana let out a roar. He swiveled around and made another grab for Mini. She thrust out her shield, and Ravana’s fist slammed into it, sending cracks spiderwebbing down the shield. A cold shadow fell over Aru. She looked up to see a giant boulder levitating overhead, thanks to Brynne’s wind mace. Beads of sweat rolled down Brynne’s face as she wound up and launched it straight at Ravana….

BOOM!

“Two heads down, eight to go!” she yelled.

“This isn’t bowling!” shouted Aru as she looked around.

Ravana and his ten heads—well, eight now—were the only thing keeping them out of Kubera’s palace.

“What do we do now?” asked Kara.

Ravana looked up from the ground and started crawling toward Aiden, which gave Mini just enough time to cast an invisibility charm on herself and run back to Kara, Brynne, and Aru.

“We’ve got to draw him away from the palace,” said Aru. She snapped her fingers and Vajra transformed into a sparkling rope.

“Agreed,” said Brynne.

“I can distract him with something shiny?” said Kara, holding up her trident.

Brynne smiled at the other girl approvingly. Aiden nodded at Aru, who gave him one end of her lightning rope. At once, they ran to the opposite sides of the courtyard as Mini’s invisibility shield fell over them, concealing the lightning rope from view. It stretched taut in front of the demon king.

“HEY, YOU!” yelled Brynne at Ravana. “What’s got eight heads and is still a loser?”

Ravana growled.

“If you look up the etymological history ofcowardin theOxford English Dictionary, you’d find a mirror!” added Kara.

Aru winced. They were going to have to work on Kara’s trash talk….

Ravana lumbered forward, and Aru crouched, her grip on Vajra tightening. The shadow of the demon king fell over them, and the ground trembled. Aru squeezed her eyes shut, all her strength focused on keeping the rope tense. Suddenly, Aru was nearly dragged forward. She signaled to Aiden to let go just as electricity zipped down the rope, delivering a paralyzing shock to Ravana.

“Now, Shah!” yelled Brynne, as Mini threw off the invisibility shield.

Aru gave Vajra a tug, and the rope coiled up like a rearing snake. By the time it was all back in her hand, the lightning had turned into a sharp, glinting javelin. Ravana fell over like a statue, the eyes in his eight heads rolling back as he thudded to the ground so loudly that the nearby trees trembled and roots jutted out of the dirt. Ravana started to move again, clawing the ground as he tried to push himself up to standing. At that exact moment Aru let loose her javelin….

SWISH!

The weapon instantly skewered three heads, and they turned to gold as they rolled across the ground. Vajra returned to Aru as Ravana stumbled to his feet. His movements were shaky, his steps off-balance.

“Five to go!” yelled Aiden.