I wished I could do the same, but it just wasn’t possible. Nothing could distract me for long—not playing board games, not reading a book, and not even making dosas again. The anxiety was too sharp, too persistent, and it scratched and scratched and scratched.

That night, after dinner, Ashwini dropped something of a bombshell. “So I’ve been thinking it over all day,” she said. “And I reckon the only thing to do is go to Lalith Mahal and rescue the Good Witch.”

“What?” Jojo said incredulously. “No way. We’d never get in, let alone get out again!”

“I think we can do it,” she said. “I know it’s a tiny bit more perilous than anything we’ve ever done before, but if we don’t do it, how will we get to that statue?”

Lej gave a sharp jerk of his head. “There has to be a better way to get to it.”

“And what would that better way be?” Ashwini asked him. “Oh, you don’t know? I didn’t think so.”

“If we go to Lalith Mahal, we won’t come back.”

“We will if we’re clever.”

“Do you have a way in and out?”

“Not yet, but—”

“Then this is pointless,” Lej snapped.

I really, really hated agreeing with Lej, but I did. Ashwini was probably the bravest person I had ever known, and I was in awe of that, but I knew Lalith Mahal. It would be impossible to get in and out. (I had made it that way. I had had this idea that I needed to make everything really hard for the heroes so that it would be much cooler when they won. Thanks, Past Kiki. Thanks a lot.)

“What if we try Plan B?” I said quietly.

Both Ashwini and Lej stopped shouting and looked at me. Every other head turned, too. Ashwini’s brow furrowed. “Plan B?”

“Vishnu’s way,” I said, swallowing.

“The plan that involves you fighting and destroying Mahishasura?” Lej asked with an air of profound doom. “That plan?”

“I don’t like it either, okay?” I said. “I’m terrified. But what if it’s the only way? What if it’s the better way?”

Ashwini looked shocked. “How can it be better? You can’t beat him, Kiki.”

“So what you’re telling us,” said Lej, “is you think that the better way is for you and your silly unicorn pajamas to battle the Asura king?”

“This may come as a surprise to you, but I really don’t care that you think my pajamas are silly,” I said. “I like them. And, yes, I do get that it sounds like a terrible idea. Maybe it is a terrible idea. But what if it works?”

“It is absolutely a terrible idea,” he said. He looked ready to pull his hair out. “You’ve demonstrated a frankly implausible level of incompetence with every weapon I’ve had the misfortune of seeing you hold, so I have no idea what you think you’ll be able to do if you go up against Mahishasura. Unless you think you can sneak up on him and smother him in his sleep, there is no way you can win. You’re more likely to get yourself killed and, more importantly, get the rest of us killed with you.”