Page 66 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

But she couldn’t.

Across from Brynne, the eerie cauldron bubbled with silver liquid.Not just any liquid, thought Brynne, her stomach turning as she stared at the glowing slits in her friends’ chests, their souls slowly flowing into the cauldron. Brynne craned her neck around.

Something skeletal flew at her, screeching.

Don’t avert your eyes, child! This is what it looks like to be without a soul. Our souls can easily turn rancid when bitterness and ugly words are left to fester in our hearts, making us act in ways both foolish and tragic.

Brynne whipped her head around as the speaker disappeared. “Who are you?”

A friend.

“Yeah, I can see that!” said Brynne, trying to shake her chained hands. The long silver spoon clattered on the metal table.

You are in need of friends.

“Ihavefriends! They’re just…” Brynne couldn’t bring herself to say it. Hurt? Dying?

Or, rather, your friends are in need of you.

“Then let me help them!” screamed Brynne.

I am not stopping you.

“Are we seeing completely different things, lady?” asked Brynne. “I can’t move! I can’t even—”

Brynne sucked in a breath as a sharp pressure needled at her ribs. It felt like someone had slipped their fingers between them and was now slowly prying them apart.

Brynne looked down at her chest. A slit of silver met her eyes. Bits of her soul began to bead up in the slice, sliding down to the metal table like raindrops on a car window.

“No,” she whispered. “NO!I have to save them! You can’t do this to me!”

Can’t I? I have given you more than enough.

Brynne growled. She wished she could take this stupid silver spoon and clobber it over the head of whoever was talking to her. Even as she imagined it, she could feel her thoughts growing cloudy. The stream of her soul was flowing out fast. Could she use the spoon? Maybe scoop up the liquid and pour it back inside her? Maybe then her strength would return and she could save the others.

But the spoon was too long to use on herself.

It was so long, it touched the other side of the table, where Aru…

Brynne paused.

She couldn’t help herself. But the others? She could reach them.

Ah, now you see, don’t you?said the voice.But will you actually do it?

“Of course I will! I can do anything!” growled Brynne.

She dropped the spoon to the stream of Aru’s soul. The moment the ladle touched it, all the silvery liquid flowed into the utensil’s hollow.

Ha!thought Brynne.

She raised her arm to dribble the liquid into Aru, then screamed in pain.

The movement had ripped something out of her.

A memory of Anila, Brynne’s mom—although she hated being called that—rose in Brynne’s mind. Anila was supposed to come over to Gunky and Funky’s house for Brynne’s birthday dinner. Brynne had been planning it for days. She’d brined the chicken for roasting, prepped the greens, cooked down the sauces, and even assembled her own multitiered birthday cake. As a surprise, Gunky had taken Brynne to the print shop so she could make the kind of fancy menus she saw in her favorite restaurants. The morning of her birthday hadn’t started off so great, because Brynne’s team had lost a soccer game, and all becauseshe’dmissed the winning shot. But it was only one game, Brynne told herself. She could make up for it next time. Maybe Anila could come to that game?

That thought kept Brynne excited for her birthday dinner…. But when the time rolled around, Anila hadn’t arrived. Brynne waited an hour, and they called her three times, but no one picked up and the food started getting cold.