he chamber walls melted away, and Aru found herself kneeling on the ground before Aranyani and Kalpavriksha.

Aru couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. She wanted to pull herself together, but it seemed impossible.

It felt like all the air in the world had disappeared. And not just the air, but the world itself—the world she thought she’d known, full of people she loved and who had loved her in return, had been yanked out from beneath her feet like a carpet, so she didn’t know where to step, where to turn….

Whom to trust.

Trust was the knife that had finally cut loose an emotion she hadn’t realized she could feel:

Fury.

She felt it coursing through her veins like blood, thrumming in her body like a whole new pulse. She was more fury than girl. More fury than Pandava.

Aru heard her mother’s broken voice: When I saw how much he had changed, I didn’t know what to do.

Aru wanted to claw through time, to scream at Hanuman and Urvashi to leave her mother alone, to show them everything Suyodhana had suffered simply because he’d loved his family. He had loved them enough to sacrifice a wish that would have given him a future. Her father had been stolen from her through no fault of his own. It was the devas’ fault. It was her mother’s fault. It was everyone’s fault but his.

She inhaled a shaky breath before her thoughts turned to Boo….

Boo, who liked to perch on her head, and eat Oreos from her hands, and sleep in her home, and nag her to floss every night and take her vitamins. Boo, who had loved her and taught her, but betrayed her sisters anyway.

Sheela’s words from the dream took on a whole new light.

He’s making a terrible mistake….

And you will hate him for his love.

“I do hate him,” she choked out. “I hate him.”

A bright glow fell over Aru. She looked up, almost shocked to realize Aranyani was still standing before her. She wanted to get out of here, return to her friends, but Aranyani’s gaze held her in place.

“This is the price of your wish, child,” said Aranyani, tilting up her chin with two fingers. “Knowledge. Do you understand? This will be your regret, the thing you must always carry should you decide to use Kalpavriksha’s power.” She pointed to the necklace. “You are too young to bear such burdens, and I can remove that last vision from your memory. I can take you back to your friends. I can even have the grove swallow up the Sleeper’s army, though I cannot stop the war. It’s up to you. If you choose to bear this weight, go ahead and speak your wish.”

Aru didn’t care if it was cowardly—she almost grabbed Aranyani’s hand and begged her to take this piece of knowledge away, to hide it from her forever. It was too much to hold—her heart didn’t have the room. Her friends would be okay. The Otherworld would survive. No one needed her to carry this. They’d all stay safe….

Safe for now, whispered a voice in her head. And after that?

Aru remembered the venomous words Opal had spat at them, telling them they weren’t good enough, hadn’t proven themselves yet. Aru thought of the doubt that had been growing in her heart—the doubt she’d pushed aside because she thought it made her untrustworthy, the “untrue” sister. All this time, it hadn’t been she who was untrustworthy, but them. The devas. The Council. The teachers—Urvashi, Hanuman, and Boo—who had held her hand and promised not to let her fall.

She didn’t want to fight for them.

But the Sleeper was no better. She’d seen the bleakness in his eyes, the ruthlessness of his army, and the pain and destruction they’d wrought on the mortal realm and the Otherworld. What had happened to Suyodhana wasn’t his fault, but what he was doing now wasn’t right either.

More than anything, she wanted the world to be uncomplicated, for right and wrong to be as easily divided as the black and white sections of an Oreo. But the world was not a cookie. And sometimes right and wrong was nothing more than a frame held up to the eye, the view always changing depending on who held it.

Only one thing felt right to Aru.

Her sisters and friends. Strong Brynne and her fragility. Shy Mini and her secret strength. Nikita and Sheela, who didn’t deserve to be abandoned or treated like puppets by the Council. Aiden, who only tried to capture beauty in the world. Even Rudy, who had so much more to offer than what his family believed.

She would fight for them. She would wish for them. No matter what that meant for herself.

Aru wrapped her hand around the little golden tree once again. She looked up at Aranyani, her gaze unflinching and her voice steely as she said, “I wish we win.”