I tried to speak, but the lump in my throat had grown too hard. I wrapped my arms around myself, exhausted and cold and crushed. The grief and hope and betrayal of the past two days were too much.

Eventually, I asked the question I dreaded most. “So what now?”

“You have a choice, Kiki,” said Ashwini. “You can break the gandaberunda’s eye right now. Or you can refuse and Mahishasura will find a way to force you.”

“There’s nothing he can do to force me,” I said, teeth clenched. “After what he did to Pip, I’ll never help him get back to the real world.”

“We both know that’s a lie,” said Ashwini. “If he threatens to hurt your mother, you’ll do whatever he says.”

“He can’t get to her!”

“I can,” she said, looking me straight in the eyes.

I didn’t believe she would do that, or maybe I just didn’t want to believe she would do that, but the fact that she had even said such a thing made me want to shake her until her teeth rattled. “I’ll stop you, and I’ll stop him.”

“How?” she asked gently. “With a sword you don’t know how to use? With a bow you can’t fire?”

“I’ll find a way,” I snapped. “And you? What are you going to do if you can’t get out of here?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll find a way, too.” And then, with one last small smile, she said, “Good luck, Kiki. Maybe one day we’ll meet again.”

As she said the words, she whirled around. Lej, obviously sensing what she was about to do, leaped forward, but he was too late. With one last look over her shoulder, Ashwini jumped over the balcony rail.

“No!” I shrieked.

Lej grabbed me around the waist to keep me from throwing myself at the rail. “Kiki, don’t!” he said, yanking me back. “She knows exactly what she’s doing. Look!”

I saw the bird Asura from the sky swoop down, so quick it was not much more than a blur, and a moment later it flew up into the air with Ashwini safe on its back. I watched her until she vanished into the blue.

She didn’t look back.

“We should go,” said Lej in a low voice. As I wiped my wet cheek with the back of my hand, I saw him do the same thing to his face with his sleeve. However heartbroken I felt about what Ashwini had done, he had to feel worse. “She’ll tell Mahishasura what happened. He’ll turn this city to dust just to force you to break that eye. We have to stop him.”

I let out a ragged, incredulous laugh. “You say that like it’ll be easy.”

“You know, I was up here for a while before I let you see me,” he said. “I could have come out sooner and warned you not to break the eye.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I didn’t need to. I knew you wouldn’t do it.” This was perilously close to an actual compliment, so I just blinked at him, shocked, and he went on, “Just like I know now that you’ll find a way to win.”