It was bright and sunny and orderly. It made my brain ridiculously happy.

“Thanks, Crow House,” I whispered.

Ashwini smiled. “One of the best things you did was give us this house, Kiki. It can’t cook us dinner or replace our worn-out shoes or help us fight the monsters, but it keeps us safe and it gives us everything we need to make it feel like home.”

“But if we win,” I said, “if we break the gandaberunda’s eye and banish Mahishasura, this house will be gone, too. It’ll just be a picture in my sketchbook.”

“It’s a small price to pay for saving the world,” she said gently, and left.

As the door clicked shut behind her, I limped over to the fluffy bed. I wanted to look out of the window, to see more of this city, my city, but I was too tired.

I crawled under the cool, soft covers and, for the first time in months, fell asleep instantly.

And, after what felt like only minutes, I woke to the earth-trembling roar of a lion.

10

Still reeling from the roar, I let out a startled yelp when Lej stomped his way into my room without so much as a knock. “Your presence is required downstairs,” he said.

I was sure there were people in the world who, upon hearing the roar of a lion, felt like the most sensible course of action was to make their way toward the sound. Me, not so much.

“I’m good here, thanks,” I said.

“You truly are the hero Mysore needs,” Lej replied with an obnoxious amount of sarcasm. “Come on. The lion’s on our side, I think.”

“You think?”

“He asked for a cup of tea and didn’t eat any of us, so yeah, I am assuming he is on our side.”

I goggled at him for a full minute before deciding I didn’t have the energy to figure out whether he was joking. I clambered reluctantly out of bed and followed him downstairs.

The kids were all crowded around the door to the front room, which had been shut fast, their ears literally pressed to the door. Jojo even had his chair wheeled close and a glass wedged between his ear and the wall.

“Kiki, there you are!” Suki’s attempt at a whisper was practically a shout. “Try to speak as loudly as you can when you’re in there, okay? We want to hear everything!”

Wait, I was supposed to go in there and face the lion alone?

Before I could protest this absurdly unfair turn of events, Lej opened the door and pushed me into the front room.

I had seen the front room earlier, so it was impossible not to notice the very significant difference between then and now: there was an enormous lion stretched out by the window, with a cup of tea in front of him.

And then Ashwini said, “Here she is,” and I turned my head to look at who she was talking to.