ne by one, Nikita lifted up the baby plants, whispering to them as a soft green glow enveloped her hands and face. And one by one, she put them back….

Only, the plants weren’t asleep anymore.

And they definitely weren’t happy.

Ten down, five to go. All ten of the uprooted baby plants threatened to summon the statues. One plant hiccupped loudly, and Aru felt her blood run cold as a mongoose statue started to creak. It wouldn’t take much noise for the yali to peel off from the wall and take a step toward them.

“Shh, shh,” said Aru to her two plants.

They were the color of dusty roses with chubby roots and squinty eyes beneath a riot of petals on their heads. Aru wasn’t sure if plants even made expressions, but these two were definitely glaring at her.

“Be quiet or we’ll die!” she said in a singsong voice.

One of the plants burped loudly in response, and dirt sprayed from its roots. The sound of stone grinding on stone echoed behind Aru. She snuck another glance at the yalis. The statues had halfway detached from the walls. It would take them ten steps to cross the room and reach the magical white-chalked boundary.

Once Nikita spoke to a plant, it was up to the Potatoes to shush them. But Aru’s plants weren’t cooperating. She tried to squish them back into the dirt, but they kept climbing out, making strange gurgling sounds, and sometimes wrapping their roots around her wrist.

“Stop that!” she scolded.

One of them began to cry, then the other. Why did she end up with the worst plant babies? Aru glanced around the table to see how everyone else was managing.

Mini was crouched over her pile of plants, diligently tucking them into the soft dirt. The fronded tops of their heads wilted in sleep…or maybe it was boredom. Mini seemed to be muttering something to the plants as she worked.

“What are you doing?” Aru asked.

Mini blinked up at her. “I’m telling them about the human anatomy! They’re finding it so fascinating they’re keeping quiet.”

A low hum broke through the wailing of Aru’s plants.

“They’re snoring,” said Aru.

Mini looked down and sighed. “I really thought they liked hearing about the endocrine system….”

Aru gathered her plants back in her arms, shivering when the cold dirt touched her skin. “Be quiet!” she said, trying to clamp a hand over a little plant mouth, which seemed to work until…

“OW!” she yelped, shaking out a bitten finger.

Aru felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. A creak sounded behind her. She risked a glance over her shoulder. The yalis were now seven steps away.

“What happened?” asked Brynne from the other side of her.

“It bit me!” hissed Aru in a low voice.

“Then bite back!”

Aru had zero desire to do that.

“Why aren’t yours yelling?” Aru demanded.

Brynne dangled a packet of sugar. “Mixed some sugar and water and sprinkled it on them. Bam! Instant sleep.”

“Do you have any more?” asked Aru, feeling frazzled. She tried bouncing the plants a little, but that shook some of the petals off their heads and they cried even louder.

“Nope, all out.”

Behind her, Aru could hear the groans of the approaching statues. Five steps away.

“Get it together, Shah!” whisper-hissed Brynne.

Aru tried to cover the baby plants with more dirt when they suddenly quieted, their wrinkled faces upturned at the sight of…Vajra? Her lightning bolt shone softly on her wrist, and the plants reached their leaves toward it curiously.

“That’s right,” crooned Aru, piling dirt onto their roots. “Look at the shiny thing! Shiny, shiny, shiny.”

At the front of the table, Nikita continued murmuring to the plants. The one cupped in her hands was now violet, and its ink-black roots waved around like the tentacles of an octopus. Nikita raised her head, grinning.

“This one knows!” she said. “But it has trouble talking…bit of a root lisp, so keep it quiet.”

Aru was severely offended.

HELLO, she wanted to say, did you not see the miraculous feat I just performed? Well, probably not. Aru continued to move her hand back and forth over the baby plants, who kept turning their heads to watch Vajra, hypnotized by the light. It was now totally silent in the plant nursery. Behind her, the mongoose statues took a step back, and Aru’s heart rate slowed. Soon, they’d be against the wall again and—

“WAHHHHH!”

A huge piercing wail rose from Aiden and Rudy’s section. Nikita held her plant closer and glared at the boys. “I said quiet! You’re scaring this one!”

A squat green potato-plant baby with one orange spike on the top of its head sat between Rudy and Aiden, howling.

Rudy picked it up and bounced it in his hands. “It’s your fault!” he said to Aiden. “It liked chewing on the jewel, and you took it away!”

“Because it could choke!” said Aiden, tossing one of Rudy’s shiny gems over his shoulder.

“They’re plants!”

“And that jewel could cut its roots!” said Aiden, snatching back the baby and awkwardly patting its spiky head. “Shh…”

“You’re so controlling!” said Rudy, reaching for the plant baby.

Aiden gripped it harder, giving Rudy his shoulder. “You’re reckless!”

“Uh, boys?” tried Aru as the ground began to tremble.

“Well you’re boring!” said Rudy. “At least I’m fun—”

“Fun? Fatal? What’s the difference to you?” demanded Aiden.

“AIDEN,” shouted Brynne.

He stopped and swiveled around. The statues all took one thunderous step forward. Aru wondered if she could just zap them backward with Vajra, but the moment she moved her wrist away, her baby plants started to wail.

In three more steps the yalis would be at the boundary.

“Stay where you are, Aru,” said Mini. “I’ll make sure they can’t get to us.”

She let loose her Death Danda, but the violet glare woke her plants and set them howling.

“Oh no!” said Mini. “Don’t be frightened! Remember the cardiovascular system? Wasn’t that fun?”

Her plants howled louder, as if saying It was not fun!

The yalis were now two steps away. Small pebbles quivered and tumbled on the ground and the statues’ feet sent up tiny dust storms when they moved.

“I’ve got this!” yelled Brynne.

She brandished her wind mace but only succeeded in kicking up the dust and sending it swirling around the plant-nursery bed. A chorus of wails sliced through the air. The statues towered over the babysitters, casting a cold shadow over everything. The Potatoes couldn’t leave the baby plants, but they’d be killed if they stayed put. The mongoose statues slowly raised their fists as each lifted a foot to take the final step….

“Almost have it!” yelled Nikita. “Just make it quiet!”

Aru was torn. Any movement from her would only make her plants scream louder and the statues move faster. Vajra, equally torn, kept shifting back and forth between a spear and a bracelet.

A sound cut through the plants’ crying and the statues’ creaking movements….

A song.

Aiden was singing a lullaby. All the baby plants began to nestle contentedly in the dirt. Some of them propped clumps of soil behind their fronds like loamy pillows. The yali statues stepped back.

Aru wasn’t even sure the song had lyrics. Aiden’s singing was like Rudy’s gift with the jewels. It summoned a feeling of contentment, like spending the whole day out on the lake or at the pool, drowsy with sunshine.

Brynne’s warning rang through Aru’s head: Don’t look at him. He’s using one of his apsara powers.

Aru tried her best, but the lure of the song was too strong…. She couldn’t help herself. She looked.

Aiden appeared backlit by the sun. An invisible wind stirred his dark hair, and the plants beneath him glowed.

She knew the stories about apsaras. How they were not just beautiful, but capable of drawing the whole world’s focus. It made them dangerous and sought-after. All this time, Aru had thought it was all just poetic exaggeration….

But when she gazed at Aiden now, the nursery fell away. Aru imagined the world was frosted over, snow spangling like diamonds, and she and Aiden were dancing the way people did in movies. Not a movie where the wind was blowing her hair and all the landscapes kept changing and people could somehow dance and sing at the same time, but dancing the way she imagined it should be…where you’re held close and the music is the humming of hearts and—

“Okaaaaay, gonna reel you back in now,” said a voice.

Aru blinked to find that she had her arms lifted as if she were dancing a waltz. Brynne gently brought them back down to her sides.

Rudy was laughing. Mini was shaking her head in pity. And Aiden? He was staring at her. The plants beneath him cooed in sleep, and the yalis had reclaimed their spaces against the wall and gone still.

“Next time, just set me on fire,” Aru whispered to Brynne, her face flaming.

“I told you not to look when he does his apsara thing.”

Aru scowled.

“How come you didn’t do that earlier?” Mini asked Aiden.

“I didn’t want Nikita’s plant to fall asleep.”

“Oh.”

Unfortunately for Aru’s wounded dignity, that made sense. At the other end of the nursery table, Nikita gently lowered her now-slumbering plant back into the earth. When she looked up, a huge grin split her face.

“I got it,” she whispered.

“Where’s the tree?” asked Brynne.

“The Atlanta Botanical Garden,” said Nikita. “It’s the only place in the mortal world that has direct access to something called the Botanical Pavilion of Lost Cities? Kinda like the Otherworld, but with more plants.”

“What?” said Aru. “It’s been there all this time?”

Aru had been to the Atlanta Botanical Garden often. Around Christmastime, her mom would take her to see the holiday lights show, where the whole garden got dressed up in shimmering colors and the air smelled like cocoa and cider.

She’d seen all the exhibits, and there was no way a ginormous wish-granting tree was hiding in one of them. How would that even work? Statistically, there had to have been one visitor who offhandedly said, I wish I had some ice cream right now, only to have a huge vat of it land on their head. Wouldn’t someone report that? Or maybe they thought it was so awesome they didn’t want to share the news, and kept it to themselves….

That’s totally what she would’ve done.

“Let’s go!” said Brynne, but Rudy stood frozen, still stunned. He flailed a hand at Aiden.

“You can sing?” asked Rudy, awed.

“Sometimes,” said Aiden cagily.

“Wait, with my music and your voice—”

Aiden winced. “Please don’t—”

“We—”

“No.”

“Should start—”

“Rudy. No.”

“A BAND.”