ru 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 head and the torso argued.

Brynne took a step forward, and Rahu swung to face them.

“You,” he said.

“Oh, right—them,” said Ketu, waving his tail. “How do you do?”

Aiden shoved Rudy forward. The naga boy trembled for a moment, then took a deep breath, fixing the dragon parts with an imperious stare. He raised his hand, and the scales on his wrist shimmered.

“I am Prince Rudra of Naga-Loka, and this is my entourage,” he said, his voice wavering only a little. “I’m here to enter the crypt, which I’ve visited many times with my parents. My father has a chamber here, and—”

Rahu sniffed the air, moving closer.

“We are requesting entry,” Rudy finished quickly.

Aru had to hand it to Rudy. She didn’t think she’d be able to keep her cool if a disembodied dragon head struck up a conversation with her.

“The presence of gods was detected,” said Rahu. “We do not allow gods into this crypt. They may send an attendant, but they themselves are not welcome here.”

“Do we look like gods to you?” asked Aiden. “I mean, seriously. Maybe your alarm system is faulty.”

“Maybe a god snuck past?” tried Brynne. “We’ll go inside with you to check—”

“Ha!” Rahu snorted. “Even we are not permitted past the Door of Shadows.” His eyes rolled in its direction.

“We only guard its entrance,” added Ketu. “Which is preferable, really. I don’t like the crypt—it’s very drafty in there.”

A spark of hope shot through Aru. If the dragons couldn’t go in, all the Pandavas had to do was figure out how to get through the door without the guardians noticing…which meant they needed a distraction.

“We’ll have to see some identification,” growled Rahu.

“Please,” added Ketu.

Aru glanced at the hem of her pants, where the coiled-up sticky threads were disguised as embroidery. A plan formed in her head. Through their mind link, she quickly shared it with her sisters.

Aru took a step forward. “We need some ID from you, too. How do we know you really are Rahu and Ketu?”

“You want us to prove our identities?” Rahu was so insulted his nostrils started smoking again.

While Mini whispered the plan to Aiden and Rudy, Brynne started to pace.

Rudy said, “You’ve never been here when I’ve come with my mother or father. We always head straight to the door and trust the yalis inside to act as security guards.”

“Yeah,” said Brynne. “I mean, why would the great and fearsome Rahu and Ketu be protecting the entrance to their own crypt?”

“I am great,” said Ketu delightedly. “I think I shall add that to my list of morning affirmations, right after ‘Though I am a half, I am whole.’”

Aru bent down and pretended to adjust her shoelaces. Her fingers brushed the enchanted swirl designs on her pant legs. At her touch the threads separated from the fabric, entwined, and elongated to form a sticky translucent rope. Aru quickly balled it up and tossed it to Aiden.

He caught it with a sharp clap.

Rahu swiveled to face him.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Aiden said, his hands clasped in front of him like he had just finished applauding. “Give it up for the yalis.”

Mini quickly changed the subject. “You don’t seem to like gods very much,” she said to the dragon body.

Rahu snorted. “The gods are liars! Despicable! Tricksy!”

Aru couldn’t help herself. “Hobbitses?”

“Hobbitses?” Rahu blinked. “Is that a profanity of the human realm?”

“Sure,” said Aru.

Aiden cast her a look that clearly said Why are you like this, Shah?

Rahu grumbled, “Then they’re all tricksy hobbitses, and we hate them.”

By now, Aiden had tossed the sticky ball to Mini.

“Hatred solves nothing,” said Ketu peaceably. “Hey—what are you doing there? I hear footsteps.”

Mini, who was sneaking behind the dragon head while trying to unwind the rope, froze. In the firelight from Ketu’s torso, the cord was slightly visible. Aru hoped his vision was weak…given that he didn’t have any eyes.

“Just trying to appreciate, um—”

“All angles of the situation,” finished Aru loudly.

Ketu turned back toward Aru.

“Are there other split dragons like you?” she asked.

Rahu huffed. “It is impossible to be like us! We were created by the gods!”

“By accident, perhaps,” mused Ketu. “But Rahu is correct. We’re unique, because nobody could’ve been made like us….”

“Made?” prompted Brynne, while Mini looped the middle of the cord around a pillar. It stuck fast.

The fire atop Ketu’s back roared as it climbed higher. “It was a terrible day,” he moaned. “So much walking. My legs and feet and tail ached horribly….”

Images formed in his wall of flames, showing the devas and asuras churning the Ocean of Milk. In the long line of asuras tugging the snake-rope with all their might, Aru recognized Rahuketu, a dragon with a slick head and wingless serpent body.

“I was so thirsty,” said Ketu with a sigh.

“We were in an ocean of milk!” said Rahu. “You could’ve just had me lap some up!”

“And pollute my body? My temple? With milk that people had sweated into and stepped in?”

“Get on with it, Ketu,” grumbled Rahu.

The flashback in Ketu’s flames changed, showing the devas and asuras separated into two lines. When it came time to divvy up the nectar of immortality, the god of preservation, Vishnu, took on a new avatar and transformed into the beautiful enchantress Mohini. She was so enchantingly lovely that everyone agreed to let her pour out the nectar. Mohini walked to the devas first, but she kept her head turned toward the asuras…smiling all the while so that none of the asuras even noticed she was giving away all their nectar.

None except Rahuketu.

In the scene playing out in the flames, Rahuketu disguised himself as a deva and switched sides, quietly slipping in between Surya and Chandra, the gods of the sun and the moon. Mohini stopped in front of Rahuketu, not looking at him, just tipping a bright gold jar of what looked like liquid sunshine toward his mouth. Rahuketu closed his eyes, parted his lips, and drank. A glow radiated from within him, bursting through the pores of his skin, and then…

Thwhip-thwhip-thwhip-thwhip-thwhip!

A razor-sharp silver disc spun straight toward him and chopped off his head.

“That was so rude!” said Ketu.

Rahu closed his eyes, shaking his head at the memory. That gave Rudy and Aiden a chance to slip Aru the two ends of the magic rope, which she quickly tied together.

Aru tsked sympathetically, and Rahu opened his eyes again. By now, she and her friends had formed a circle around the head and torso, holding the cord behind their backs. Following Brynne’s lead, they all took tiny steps forward, gradually herding the celestials closer to the column.

“But we’d swallowed the nectar of immortality,” said Ketu, “so we became separate entities with separate responsibilities as the ascending and descending lunar nodes, and we take that responsibility very seriously—”

“Except when one of us gets mad and tries to devour the moon,” added Rahu.

“To be fair, it does look like a cookie,” said Ketu defensively.

“See?” said Rahu. “You’re not so high and mighty after all!”

Rahu and Ketu launched into a new argument, this time over which was the more popular eclipse: Solar? Lunar? The third Twilight book? They were close enough to each other that Rahu could’ve poked Ketu with his nose.

It was time.

Aru nodded to her friends and they let go of the rope. She held on to it and walked slowly backward until it was stretched taut. One by one, the others ducked under it and stepped away.

When Aru lifted the cord over her head so she could hold it out in front of her, Rahu turned toward her, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry about this!” she yelled.

Aru let go of the sticky line. Snap! It contracted like a rubber band, binding Rahu and Ketu to the pillar.

Rahu roared. Steam hissed out of his nostrils, clouding the chamber.

“I can’t see!” yelled Ketu.

“When can you ever see?” snapped Rahu.

Aru swiveled around, lost in the mist, until she felt Brynne’s hand around her wrist.

“Run for it!” yelled Brynne.

Together the group raced to the Door of Shadows.

“Come back here, children,” bellowed Rahu, “and let me eat you!”