She perused scraps of plans: grabbing Nitya’s hand and making a break for it. Offering herself up in exchange for Nitya. Taking Venkat as her own hostage until Madhu agreed to leave Nitya alone. They all ended in the same place—with both sisters carted off to Nagalok.

No. No, no, no. The realization crashed over Tanvi like an avalanche.

She couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t do anything. If she gave herself away, they’d both get caught, and then she’d never be able to help her sister.

“Madhu speaks truly. Tanvi returns with us,” Nayan declared. “As for you, Princess, I will brook no more of your nonsense. We leave now.”

Madhu’s eyes bored into Sameer, then Tanvi. “Surely neither of you will be foolhardy enough to repeat anything you overheard here. If you are, well . . .”

“N-no,” Sameer stammered. “Of course not.” Tanvi could only shake her head.

“Oh, fine. No need to be so stodgy, Uncle.” Asha flicked her fingers dismissively at Sameer. “It was entertaining for a time, but I have no more need of you or your little friends. Go home and make your little movies.” Smirking, she glided toward Nayan and Madhu. “Perhaps one day you could even make one about me.”

Tanvi seriously doubted that Nayan bought the sudden reversal, but Asha had given her an out, and she had to take it. She nodded at Sameer and backed up, step by step by step. Then she sprinted all the way around to the front of the mandir.

Sameer thudded after her. “What was that?” he asked when they reached the doors. “Who are you?”

Tanvi felt as deflated as Indu’s real soccer ball. “Tanvi. Listen to Asha and go home,” she told him tiredly. “You’re better off, believe me.”

Alone in the dark of the mandir’s parking lot, Tanvi almost sobbed. She’d never felt more broken, sifting through her memories and realizing how much she still didn’t grasp.

Worse, Venkat had been right; now that she remembered everything, she couldn’t even cut the memories loose. She didn’t want to. Definitely not for any bracelet. They were what connected her to Nitya and her mom.

Despair, storm cloud–gray and bleak, descended over her. She wasn’t a dream runner anymore. She wasn’t anything. Just a failed sister and daughter and friend.

It was her fault this had happened, and not only because she’d come here tonight. If she’d never left with Asha all those years ago, Nitya would be safe now, tucked snugly in bed.

They all thought Nitya was Tanvi, so what would Madhu and the garudas do to her?

Worse, they blamed Tanvi for distracting Venkat. What if, to punish him, Nayan put Nitya through the dream runner initiation? If they’d worked out the rest, they must know Tanvi had woken up, too.