“It’s okay,” Ashwini said weakly. “Practice makes perfect.”

Monkey Pip made an alarmed ooh-ooh ah-ah sound that left us in no doubt whatsoever about his views on letting me practice anymore. Suki made the mistake of giggling and was immediately sent to the corner of the roof to search the witch’s spellbook for a way to turn Pip back into himself.

“Don’t worry, Kiki,” said little Samara, giving me a kind pat on the shoulder. “This doesn’t come easily to everyone. Ashwini is a natural at this stuff, but I’m not. It’s okay that you aren’t, either.”

I was pretty sure I had never been so embarrassed in my life, but I ignored the blush flaming up my neck and said, “There has to be some other way I can be useful.”

This was obviously too much for Lej. “The way you were supposed to be useful,” he snapped, “was by getting to the top of that palace and breaking that statue’s eye. How will you do that if you can’t fight off whatever comes for you while you’re up there?”

I was already furious with myself, so it was very easy to transfer that fury to him. I glared at him. “Is there anything I can do that would make you happy? You’ve been horrible to me since I got here. I’m doing my best. I’m not trying to be bad at this.”

“No, that part comes naturally to you,” he retorted.

“Lej,” Ashwini protested.

“She needs to hear this,” he said. His eyes flashed at me. “I don’t think you understand that no matter what happens, we can’t win.”

I objected, “Of course we can win.”

“Not you,” he said bitterly. “Us. We can’t win. You can go home anytime you like. We have nowhere else to go. If you fail, we’ll be stuck here with the monster you set free. And if you do break that eye and banish him, well, we disappear, too, don’t we? So why are you surprised that I haven’t fallen over myself to be nice to you? We have to give up everything to stop Mahishasura. All you have to do is break a piece of stone. And apparently you can’t even do that.”

I could practically see smoke coming out of Ashwini’s ears. Pip, who was back in his human body, scowled at Lej. The rooftop had gone so quiet that I could hear the rumble of a drill somewhere in the distance. It hurt my head. I swallowed and tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Then, without warning, there was a thud above us.

Everyone froze. Ashwini’s grip tightened on her sword. Her eyes landed on me and she pressed a finger to her lips.

The warning was unnecessary. I didn’t think I could make a sound even if I wanted to.

I stayed absolutely still, except for my face, which tipped against my will so that I was looking directly up at the canopy of vines and leaves. A winged silhouette loomed above, completely blocking out the sun.