“I am very good at distractions,” Pip chimed in.

With a quick glance around us, Chamundeshwari put one hand on my shoulder and the other on Pip’s and ushered us under the shelter of one of the larger stalls. Beautiful silk shawls lay across every surface of the stall, and I had to put my hands behind my back to stop myself from touching them.

“It is not possible,” Chamundeshwari said quietly.

I snapped my eyes away from a peacock-blue shawl and up to her face, realizing suddenly that it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence that she happened to be here this morning. “You tried,” I said.

“I could not get past them, not even to catch a glimpse of the balcony and see if your possessions are still there.”

“You tried,” I said again, shocked.

She looked puzzled. “I did tell you that if I could, I would.”

I put my arms around her waist and hugged her. She stood stock-still, obviously stunned, then very awkwardly patted me on the back.

“Do I get to be involved in this display of gratitude and affection?” Pip wanted to know.

I grabbed his sleeve and roped him into the hug, too, which only made Chamundeshwari even more awkward.

She extracted herself pretty quickly. “Tell me this,” she said. “Why does Brahma feel that the best way to defeat Mahishasura is to banish him? Why does Vishnu believe you should slay him instead?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I never spoke to Brahma. He told Ashwini that I had to break the gandaberunda’s eye. Maybe he knew I couldn’t win any other way.”

“I do not believe that,” said Chamundeshwari, “but I will respect his decision. That is what you should be doing right now, Kiki.”

“I know,” I said, ashamed. There was an entire Asura army searching the city for me, but I had come out anyway because my uncooperative, untrustworthy brain had drowned me in noise and anxiety and what-if this and what-if that until, in the end, I had to come out here to make it stop.

I should have just stayed put.

But if I could have, I would have.

Chamundeshwari tilted her head to one side. “Tell me more about the gandaberunda,” she said. “Brahma told your friend that breaking its eye would banish Mahisha-sura back to the Nowhere Place. How?”

“By turning this world back into ink and paper. When that happens, anyone here who came from other worlds will go back to where they came from.”

“But what—”

The sound of a terrible shriek cut her off.

Pip’s face paled.

Shadows fell over the cobblestones of the street and there was another shriek from the sky. My heart went cold.

“They know you’re here,” Chamundeshwari said. She stayed calm, but her eyes had narrowed. She pushed Pip and me out of the stall and into the street. “Run! Quickly!”

I didn’t dare look up. We bolted down Pretty Corner Market, but the shadows followed us. To my horror, there seemed to be more of them than there had been just seconds before.