Aru Shah and the City of Gold - Roshani Chokshi Page 0,106

feet.

“I can see that,” said Aiden. A moment later, he backed away, that familiar coldness closing up his expression. He averted his eyes and mumbled “I gotta go…” as he moved past her.

That’s it, thought Aru. She’d had enough.

“What’s your problem lately?” she blurted.

Aiden froze. He turned around to face her, hands shoved in his pockets. “I don’t have a problem.”

“Yeah, you do. With me,” said Aru. “Do you hate me or something?”

“What?” said Aiden. “Of course not.”

“Well, you’ve been acting like it! Whenever I enter a room, you leave it. If I say something, you act like you didn’t hear it. I thought maybe it’s because you were grossed out that I…”

Say it, said one part of her.

Don’t say it, said another part.

“That you what, Shah?” asked Aiden.

“That I like you,” said Aru in a rush. “And I know you don’t like me. And I didn’t ask you to! And I didn’t make it awkward! Or, at least, I tried not to make it more awkward than I usually do, which is really freaking hard, and I was okay with just being friends, but now we’re barely even friends and it’s awful and—”

“Slow down a second, Shah,” said Aiden, taking a step closer.

Aiden had grown even taller over the past few months, which was annoying, because Aru had to look up to glare at him, so it probably didn’t have the same effect. She was mad, and her stomach was all twisted up, and since she’d already started blabbering, she might as well keep going. “And,” she said, taking a deep breath, “you didn’t even wish me happy birthday! Which is so rude—”

Something happened.

Aru had one of those weird out-of-body moments, as if her brain was processing things at a lag. Suddenly, Aiden’s face was a lot closer than it had been seconds ago. And then…whatever space lay between them was cinched closed.

Aiden Acharya kissed her.

An actual, real life, this-is-truly-happening-what-was-the-last-thing-I-ate kiss.

Aru’s eyes flew wide open. Her mind kept trying to snatch at sensations: Aiden’s warm mouth, and how he smelled like clean laundry and cooking spices. A bizarre terror spiked through her thoughts: What was she supposed to do with her hands? Was it rude that they were just hanging by her side? Should she pat him on the back?

Do NOT pat him on the back, warned a voice in her head.

A second—or maybe an eternity—later, Aiden pulled back. His dusk-colored eyes looked wide and…stunned? But not in a bad way.

“Happy birthday, Aru,” he said.

Sometimes people talk about fireworks when it comes to kisses. As if the whole world is supposed to explode in joy. That wasn’t how she felt. She felt like one gigantic, dorky grin. Like someone had poured sunlight down her veins, because she was warm all over.

But maybe you couldn’t choose when the fireworks happened.

Because just then, right down the hall, something exploded. Aiden and Aru sprang apart as dust and plaster rained down from the ceiling. In the Hall of the Gods, the statues violently trembled, shaking atop their pedestals. On Aru’s wrist, Vajra glowed a warning shade of silver and gold.

“What was that?” asked Aiden.

He tapped his wrists together, and his golden scimitars—one that was on permanent loan from the Nairrata—slashed out. A deep rumbling sound rolled through the museum. If Aru had felt like there was sunshine in her veins earlier, frost had quickly replaced it.

Brynne’s mind message blared through her skull: Aru, you need to get over here NOW.

Aru ran into the museum lobby, Aiden close behind her. The moment they turned the corner, her heart juddered to a stop. Minutes ago, her birthday party had been in full swing. Now it was a nightmare.

The colorful lights that had been strung across the ceiling were drooping dangerously low. The cake had fallen to the floor. Greg the elephant statue had burst apart, and his stone trunk lay in the middle of the dust-strewn floor. Most of the lobby had been swallowed up by a huge, murky sphere. Shadows wriggled across its surface like snakes. On the other side of it, Aru could see her sisters and friends…frozen. Aiden gasped.

It was just like the moment when she’d unleashed the Sleeper—when she’d lit the lamp and her life had changed forever. Brynne’s and Mini’s eyes were wide and unfocused, staring into nothing. Rudy was in mid-scream. Hira was crouched behind Brynne, her eyes squeezed shut….

“Happy birthday, Arundhati.”

The Sleeper stepped out of the sphere, draped in darkness. He made a vague gesture to the