ithin moments, everyone had formed a tight semicircle around the pillar (Rudy mostly cowered behind it). If they could beat back the yalis, maybe Narasimha’s anger wouldn’t be awakened.

And then they could figure out how to get out of here.

“On the count of three,” said Brynne. “One…two…”

“Three!” yelled Aru as a yali sprang toward them, jaws snapping and spines waving.

“Shields up,” said Mini. Dee Dee lengthened in her hand, and a blast of violet light shot forward, forcing the creature back.

Aru didn’t even wait for Aiden to say his usual Light it up, Shah. She whipped Vajra to the right and electricity crackled up Aiden’s scimitars so fast he nearly jumped backward.

Aru heard the three yalis, somewhere unseen, hissing and whispering:

“It cannot be…. Freedom! Ah, sweet freedom…Close enough to taste…”

“It is, it is!” said the second yali hungrily. “Instruments of the divine.”

“I knew I smelled godhood….”

The second yali lunged at them, trying to reach the pillar. Deftly, Mini raised her force field, allowing just enough space for Brynne to blast him backward with Gogo. Wind roared through the air, and the creature hit a pile of stones with a hard thud. Brynne whooped triumphantly, but a moment later, the first yali jumped out of the ground a few feet away. The second yali got up and shook rubble from its scales as it zigzagged toward them.

“Camouflage o’clock,” said Mini.

She whirled Dee Dee around her, rendering herself invisible. A moment later, Mini suddenly appeared between Brynne and Aru, standing directly in front of Aiden, who had his sparking scimitars raised to eye level.

“Over here!” Aiden taunted the yali.

The second beast loped toward the pillar. Mini stood her ground. The monster leaped, its huge claws swiping at her body….

Which disappeared immediately.

On the other side of the pillar, the real Mini had turned off her projected illusion. The yali fell onto its belly.

Aiden dashed forward, brandishing his scimitars, and brought them down on the creature’s thick skull. The steel didn’t make a scratch.

The yali hissed as it slunk a few feet away.

Rudy ran to the front side of the pillar, holding out a gemstone that screeched horribly. The first yali flinched but stood its ground.

The third yali emerged from the marble floor. “You cannot hurt us, little demigods,” it scoffed. “Our skin is impenetrable. Now we shall awaken the god’s wrath, and you shall be finished.”

“But our freedom…” said the first yali. The third one hissed at it.

The five kids drew closer to the pillar. By now, another, larger crack had appeared.

Aru spun Vajra in front of her, and the lightning bolt changed from a spear into a glowing lasso. She swung it around her head—briefly imagining she was Wonder Woman minus the cool outfit, great hair, and, well, never mind—and threw it at the third yali. But the creature was too fast. It loped up a wall, out of reach.

Brynne directed all her powerful gusts at the second yali, but the moment it was blown back, the first one returned.

“Come now, surely you must be tired of this game…” said the first yali.

“Let us do our job…” said the second.

Too late, Aru realized they didn’t have visuals on the third yali—it had disappeared into the wall.

On her right, the missing yali zoomed up from the ground, arced across the pillar, and smashed its huge tail against the stone. A huge fissure spiderwebbed down the column. Aru heard the scritching and scratching of claws on rock, and a new odor invaded the air. It was the old-penny smell of blood.

“He is hungry…” said the first yali.

“His bloodthirst must be slaked….”

“And thieves make such sweet morsels….”

The yalis slunk into the marble—in anticipation of Narasimha’s arrival, Aru guessed.

She and her friends were trapped.

If they backed away from the pillar, the yalis could pick them off one by one. If they stayed close to the column, Narasimha would finish them in five quick bites as soon as he broke out. Aru tossed Vajra between her hands as she tried to come up with a solution.

“We’re going to die here, aren’t we?” asked Rudy, collapsing against Aiden. “I can’t die like this! There’s things I haven’t seen! Music I haven’t listened to! I still don’t know what a microwave does!”

Aiden smacked him upside the head. “Rudy. Shut. Up.”

The naga prince whimpered.

“Well, Shah?” asked Aiden.

“The yalis’ skin is impenetrable,” she mused. “If we can’t hurt them on the outside…we need to go inside.”

“What, like prop open their jaws and toss in a grenade?” asked Brynne sullenly.

Mini looked at Aru, then looked down at her plum sweater and skirt, which were secretly armored. “I think I know what you’re going to ask me to do,” she said with a sigh. “And I don’t like that I’m going to agree.”

Aru called to the yalis, “All right! Kill us! This is boring anyway, and I could use some reincarnation!”

A chasm opened in the floor not ten feet from her. The first yali emerged from it and fixed its glowing eyes on Aru.

“Is that so?”

Aru nodded. Behind the yali, the floor rippled as the other two rose to gaze at her.

“Then allow me to honor your request,” said the first yali.

Aru adjusted her grip on Vajra. Behind her, Brynne stood at the ready. Aiden slashed the air with his scimitars, startling the second yali, who had gotten way too close. Rudy gathered up stones and flung them at the third yali, who laughed and laughed.

The first yali dove toward Aru, its huge jaws unhinged.

“Now!” commanded Aru.

Brynne directed strong winds at something right in front of Aru. Mini’s invisibility glamour melted off as she was lifted and thrown sideways right into the yali’s maw.

“I—HATE—THIS!” yelled Mini. She summoned Dee Dee in stick form.

The yali, confused, fell to the floor. It tried to shut its mouth, to shake Mini out of its teeth, but she didn’t budge. It growled and clamped down harder, but Mini’s armored clothes protected her. She thrust up the Death Danda and wedged the stick between the yali’s jaws, opening them further. Then she slid out of the mouth.

“Do it, Aru!” she yelled.

“Sorry, Vajra,” said Aru, hurling the lightning bolt deep into the yali’s throat.

The monster thrashed angrily as its insides lit up.

The other two wriggled backward, alarmed. The second one said, “How dare you try to kill us?”

“I can show you if you’d like,” said Aru coldly. “All I’d have to do is explode my lightning bolt.”

All three yalis growled.

“But I won’t turn your friend into monster sushi…as long as you play by my rules.”

Behind her, more and more chunks of rock rolled off the shattering pillar as sharp talons tore at it from the inside. In just a few more minutes, Narasimha would be free.

And they’d be goners.

“Get us out of here,” she commanded the yalis.

“We are but humble prisoners,” said the third yali. “Cursed to stay within these walls….”

“Didn’t I hear one of you say something about freedom?” asked Aru.

The first yali grunted twice, as if saying Me! Me!

“Yes!” the second said hurriedly. “It has been foretold. Godly beings will free us….”

“It is only a rumor,” said the third yali. “The curse cannot be broken.”

Aru wondered if the monsters were trying to trick her somehow. But they were nearly out of time—the pillar was breaking. Mini blasted a force field above them, and rocks bounced off the violet shield.

“Maybe we shouldn’t mess with a curse?” said Mini.

“I don’t plan to die here!” said Brynne.

Rudy raised his hand. “Make that two!”

“It’s your call, Shah,” said Aiden.

Aru turned to him. Dirt smudged his face and his clothes were torn. Exhaustion shot through her. They couldn’t win this battle. And they couldn’t save the Otherworld if they ended up dead.

Aru faced the yalis once more. “We’ll free you from this place. In return, you get us out of here safely—or I’ll blow you up.”

The first yali grunted three times, which Aru took to mean You have a deal, puny demigod rather than Come closer so I can eat you.

The second yali took a step forward and said, “We promise to deliver you and your friends from this courtyard.”

“And we always keep our promises,” said the third, bowing its head.

Aru raised her hand, and Vajra zoomed from the first yali’s mouth, hooking Dee Dee along the way. Mini caught her danda in midair and immediately spritzed it with hand sanitizer.

After shaking monster saliva from her own weapon, Aru said, “I release you,” in as authoritative a tone as she could muster.

For the first time, a ghostly collar could be seen around each of the three yalis’ throats, connected to chains that snaked down their backs and wrapped around their torsos.

Aru used Vajra to zap the collar and chain off the monster she’d nearly roasted.

The other two yalis waited expectantly before Mini and Brynne. The glare never left Brynne’s face as she aimed her mace at the second yali’s collar. One blast and the restraints shattered off its hide. The other yali hissed in Mini’s direction. With pursed lips, Mini jabbed her Death Danda at the chain around the monster’s rib cage.

Once freed, the three yalis rose before them, as tall as bears standing on their hind legs. They stared with grateful glowing eyes and panted, showing teeth that were yellow and pocked.

Behind the Pandavas, the pillar finally cracked all the way open. A deafening roar shook the courtyard.

“Climb onto our backs or die,” said the first yali.

“Well, when you put it like that…” said Aru, hurriedly grabbing some spikes on the creature’s back for handles and swinging her leg over its wide body.

Brynne and Rudy took the second yali, while Mini and Aiden clambered onto the third.

Giant feet stomped toward them, shaking the marble floor. The yalis reared back, and Aru held on tight as her beast launched itself upward and wriggled through the air toward the grate covering the twilight courtyard. She flattened herself against its scales as it snaked through the iron bars. Behind them, Narasimha howled, swiping at them with huge bloodied claws….

Aru squeezed her eyes shut as they broke past the clouds, climbing steadily higher and higher. The yali’s hide was uncomfortably hot; it felt like sitting on the hood of a car in summertime. Every now and then it whipped its head around, jaws wide and tongue lolling, as if reconsidering what it had done to gain its freedom.

Where should we ask them to take us? asked Mini.

My place? offered Brynne.

Aru nodded and said, in her most imperious voice, “Yali, we wish you to return us to New York City. The address is—”

As one, the three yalis dived toward the earth.

“Whoa! Hold up!” said Aru. “What are you doing?”

“Keeping…”

“Our…”

“Promise…”

The yalis zoomed down so fast, Aru couldn’t catch enough breath to speak. They burst through the clouds again, and the air turned from cool to humid and heavy. Aru spotted a mountain range—beautiful rolling greenery ribboned with silvery mists. But it was coming up at her way too fast.

“AHHHH!” she screamed.

Because of the wind, it was a lot more like:

“Ahhh”—spits out bug…gasps for air…chokes a bit—“ahhhhh!”

She reached for Vajra. Maybe she could manage to turn her lightning bolt into a hoverboard and dive off in time. But what about the others? Aru tried to sneak a glance back at them, but clouds obscured her view. The only thing she could hear was Rudy yelling, “BUT I’M A PRINCE!”

Aru’s stomach swooped as they descended altogether too fast and finally came to a bumpy landing on a grassy patch on the top of a hill. She tumbled off her yali, and probably would’ve kept rolling down the hill if a huge log hadn’t stopped her. The others dropped to the ground moments later. Brynne and Aiden dismounted immediately, their weapons blazing. Mini took a minute longer to get up, her face looking kind of green. Rudy stayed sprawled on the ground, his hands still clutching the wooden bird they’d found in the vault.

The yalis turned away from them and bent their short legs, preparing to spring into the air.

“Wait a minute!” said Aru, her lightning bolt falling to her side. “You’re not leaving us here, are you? You said you’d bring us to safety!”

The third yali looked back at her. “We promised to deliver you from the courtyard,” the creature said, its lips curling in a snarl. “And we did.”

“Why would we want you to know our whereabouts?” said the second yali. “This is far safer.”

And then, as one, they flew off, disappearing into the clouds.

“Well,” huffed Aru. She opened her mouth, closed it. Then she crossed her arms. “That’s just rude.”