them.”
“Is this the entrance?” asked Brynne.
They had made it to two pillars that looked like they were made of wet shadows. Where the thin January light hit them, Aru could see shapes in the damp black stone. They flickered strangely, as if they were alive. She shuddered, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. She tightened her grip on her backpack, which held the living key in its velvet pouch. All they had to do was get to the A7 vault, use the key to open it, and find the clue to the tree’s whereabouts. Easy enough, thought Aru.
“Not like I’m scared or anything, but this place is kinda creepy,” said Brynne.
Mini took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Well, at least there’s not a dragon?”
Aru, Mini, and Brynne passed between the pillars together. Aru closed her eyes against a fine mist of rain that drifted across her face. No sooner had she opened her eyes when a siren blared.
“I DETECT THE PRESENCE OF GODS! I DETECT THE PRESENCE OF GODS!”
Vajra sprang into the air, on the verge of transforming, but Aru quickly caught it and shoved it back onto her wrist.
“We can’t give away who we are!” she hissed at it.
Beside her, Brynne and Mini were trapped in similar struggles with their own weapons. The alarm shouted louder. Bright lights flashed on, blinding Aru. She could just make out the shape of a huge door ahead when plumes of steam shot toward them.
The smoke parted, revealing a huge reptilian face. It had catlike yellow eyes with black slits, and its nostrils were smoldering. The creature’s scaly head was the size of a dining table, with slender horns protruding above its eyebrow ridges. Aru didn’t even want to imagine what the rest of it looked like.
The monster’s gaze lingered on them one by one, and then it croaked out, “Gods?”
Well, Never Mind, Then
Aru had only just processed that there was an actual dragon staring at them when the sound of something lumbering echoed through the antechamber. The only thing worse than one dragon was…two.
Aru braced herself and drew closer to her sisters. There was no way they could take down two dragons without using their Pandava weapons. Their clothes might be enchanted, thanks to Nikita, but Aru doubted that her pants, Brynne’s jacket, and Mini’s skirt and sweater would do much for them in this situation.
Beside them, Aiden had his hands in his sleeves, ready to summon his scimitars. Rudy was trying to hide behind Aiden with little success due to his blindingly white jacket.
A new form manifested before them…but it wasn’t exactly a dragon. Rather, it was part of a dragon. Specifically, its tail, four taloned feet, and a torso that looked as if it had sprouted flames at the top. The other creature turned its head, and Aru bit back a gasp. That’s all it was—a head! A head glancing at the rest of its body.
“You’re late, Ketu!” said the dragon head. “I despise it when you’re late—”
“You despise most things, Rahu,” said Ketu calmly.
Aru’s eyes widened.
Um…did the headless dragon torso just talk? she asked her sisters.
Their incredulous stares were answer enough.
Ketu sighed and the flame atop the torso wavered. Aru realized that the fire functioned as his head.
“We’ve been through this before, and there’s simply no point in getting worked up over it again,” said Ketu. He plopped onto his tail, pressing his taloned front feet together like he was praying. “You must free yourself from attachments.”
“Easy for you to say! You are unattached!”
“And that is by the will of the universe—”
“Oh, don’t give me that. The universe didn’t throw a spinning chakra at our neck—a god did, you blithering trunk!” spat Rahu.
“Anger,” said the torso serenely, “makes one blind to happiness. Again, free yourself from useless attachments.”
“And how does that fit with your collection of scented candles? That’s definitely a useless attachment, if you ask me. What’s the point when you don’t even have a nose?”
Ketu rolled off his tail and planted his feet on the ground. The flame rippled across his back. “They were on sale!”
Aru was watching all this, utterly spellbound, when she felt a sharp jab in her side. She looked over to see Brynne pointing with her chin. About fifty feet beyond the two pillars where the dragon halves bickered was the door to the crypt—solid black with shadows and mist curling out from its gap. All they had to do was get to it.
Maybe they could sneak past while the