Ashwini continued to scowl. “Better that than dead,” she snapped. “I can’t keep you all alive every second of every day, you know! You have to be able to protect yourselves.”

Suki bit her lip. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Come on, up to the roof,” Ashwini said more gently, relenting. “You too, Kiki.”

I followed her, wondering what new disaster I was about to walk into.

12

In the corner of the kitchen, behind a blue door, was a small, rickety wooden elevator. There was only room for Jojo and one other person inside, so once he’d wheeled himself in, Pip and Suki dove forward and elbowed each other to get in next.

Suki won. “Better luck next time,” she said cheekily, and pulled the door firmly shut. I tried very hard not to giggle at the look of sheer outrage on Pip’s face.

As the elevator rattled upward, the rest of us took the stairs.

I had been more than a little bewildered by the idea that it would be safe to practice fighting Asuras on the roof, where, presumably, the Asuras in question could easily see us, but I needn’t have worried: as soon as we reached the top of a small set of spiral stairs and pushed open a trapdoor in the ceiling, I saw that the rooftop was completely hidden.

“Welcome to the Crows’ Nest,” Pip said to me, grinning.

And it was very much like a nest. The rooftop’s floor was made up of dark brown tiles, and it was surrounded and covered by a canopy of thick vines, trellises, and plants. Bright gold shafts of late-afternoon sunlight spilled in through the gaps between the leaves and vines, and the shade made it feel cool and breezy up there in spite of the day’s heat.

Jojo and Suki were already there, both examining a flower on one of the vines. “I’m sure it’s a lotus,” Suki was saying.

“But they don’t grow on vines,” Jojo objected.

“This is our Mysore, Jojo. Anything is possible!”

Up against the sides of the rooftop were a handful of shelves, tables, planks of wood, and a workbench. There were mats stacked on one side, like the kind I’d seen Emily use in her gymnastics classes, and two squishy armchairs identical to the one in the front room downstairs.

“This is amazing!” I said. “I bet picnics up here are incredible.”

Lej raised his eyebrows. “We don’t come up here for picnics.”

“Oh.”

“Okay,” Ashwini said, putting her hands on her hips. “Let’s get to work! There’s a slightly stale and very delicious cake waiting for us when we’re done.”

As the others whooped, I looked closer at the shelves. I could see shields and swords and spears, some made of steel, some made of wood, some clunky, some shiny, a collection as mismatched and messy as we were. Ashwini and Lej had their swords with them, but the others immediately split off to different parts of the room to get their own weapons off the shelves, like they were parts of a machine and they knew exactly what role to play.