Crypt of Eclipses, but you can’t do that without a member. I just so happen to be a member. So, you know, you’re welcome and all. Just let me know when we’re leaving.”
Rudy walked off, leaving the three girls to glance at each other with shared What just happened? looks. Aiden shrugged helplessly. Rudy proceeded to cruise around the museum and poke at the statues.
“Do these things come alive and eat thieves?” he asked.
“Uh, no?” said Aru.
“Huh,” said Rudy, shaking his head. “The mortal world is so weird.”
“Why do you even want to join in on this quest, Prince?” demanded Aru. “You’re not going to be waited on by us.”
Brynne flicked her wrist and her wind mace zoomed into her palm. “And don’t even dream about asking,” she said threateningly.
Rudy didn’t seem perturbed. “I’ve got my reasons, Shah. You owe me a favor. I’m calling it in.” He winked at her.
Aru rolled her eyes, but even as she did, she felt a little thrill. No boy had ever winked at her before. Well, except for that one time she thought David Kyrre was incessantly winking at her on a school trip to the zoo, but it turned out he’d just had an eyelash in his eye. Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, Aru caught Mini’s expression. Her eyebrows were scrunched up—not in envy, but in sadness, which was way worse. Aru’s tiny thrill vanished.
Brynne cast a withering glare at Rudy and said to Aiden, “Your cousin, your responsibility.”
They waited for their ride, which Brynne had arranged, outside the museum. Rudy kept asking Aiden to snap dramatic shots of him in various poses against the lightening sky, and Aiden kept refusing. Brynne busily assembled whatever she’d raided from the fridge, while Mini practiced her transformation skills, her small frame practically drowning in her huge gray sweatshirt as she changed Dee Dee into random objects: a backlit skull and a jar of teeth, a pair of violet wings, and a black lacquered apple. Daughter of Death indeed.
“You know, you’re probably the only person here who isn’t wishing they were still in bed,” said Aru.
Mini sighed. “I can’t help it. I get anxious before I travel. What’s the point in sleeping?” She looked over at the boys, now sitting about twenty feet away, and groaned. “Aru, how weird was I with Rudy?”
“Not that—”
“Be honest.”
“Okay, awful.”
Mini whimpered.
“But no worse or better than usual when you meet someone you think is cute.”
Mini slumped to the ground.
Oops, thought Aru. Even Vajra in bracelet form scolded her with a sharp electrical shock. Ouch! Message received!
“First impressions aren’t everything,” said Aru. “Think of how many weird things I end up saying.”
Mini sniffed. “That’s true.”
“Do you even like him?”
Mini’s cheeks flamed red. “He probably thinks I’m a freak.”
“Daughter. Of. The. God. Of. Death,” enunciated Aru slowly. “Say it with me! You’re inherently cooler than ninety-nine point nine percent of the population—”
A loud honking sound interrupted Aru. It seemed to be coming from above. A huge flying car came into view. It looked like a super-fancy taxi, but with massive white wings that beat gracefully as it descended to the street. The words VIMANA EXPRESS flashed across its side.
“Get in, heroes!” shouted Brynne. “We’re going questing!”
A Wild Goose Chase
Aru and Mini clambered into the vimana, which was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. The backseat was a generous seven-seater, with each chair fashioned like a small velvet throne, so the effect was more like sitting in a fancy lobby than in a car. Large windows flanked the thrones. A pair of speakers hung from the corners of the vimana, and tiny shelves jutted out from the partition between the backseats and the front ones, along with glass goblets in cup holders and little jars of hoof-socks, horn polish, fang floss, talon trimmers…and an iPhone charger. Aiden, Rudy, and Brynne already had their seats. Rudy’s obnoxious jacket stood in stark contrast to Aiden’s usual somber getup of a dark long-sleeved shirt and darker pants.
The cousins were engaged in an argument.
“The whole point is to be subtle,” said Aiden. “It’s an undercover mission.”
“I was born to stand out,” said Rudy.
“Well, you’re going to die that way too, apparently.”
Rudy shrugged. “Haters gonna hate.”
Aiden grumbled to himself and reached for his camera.
Brynne dug through her backpack, handing out food wrapped in aluminum.
“I got breakfast covered,” she said. “Berries reduced in sugar and acid, fused with a blended nut butter and spread on toasted wheat.”
“So…a PB