Aru Shah and the End of Time (Pandava Quartet #1)(37)

Aru’s confusion must have showed, because Summer shrugged and said, “Hotness doesn’t belong to any one gender.” The spirit winked before flipping their bright gold hair over one shoulder. Summer wore a tunic of flames. Their skin was the color of a smoldering ember, red-veined with fire.

“Why are you here?” Winter asked the girls. “Did that wretched sign bring you? Because we’re not in the mood to design anything. Especially not for random people who haven’t made an appointment. Besides, the inspiration to create just isn’t there, is it?”

“It certainly is not.” Summer sighed. “We only make dresses for the most fabulous of beings.”

They glanced at Aru and Mini, making it clear that they did not consider the girls remotely fabulous.

“You’re…tailors?” asked Mini.

“Did that just call us tailors?” asked Winter, aghast. Winter bent down to Mini’s height. “My little sartorially challenged slip of a girl, we are ateliers. We dress the world itself. I embroider the earth with ice and frost, the most delicate silk in the world.”

“I make the earth the hottest thing out there,” said Summer with a blazing smile.

From the rainy section of the forest, a third figure appeared: a gray-skinned woman whose hair clung damply to her face. She looked soaked to the bone, and delighted about it.

“I am Monsoon. I make the world elegant with a dress of water.”

A fourth walked up. Vines crawled over her skin. There were flowers in her hair. Her mouth was a rose.

“I’m Spring. I dress the earth in jewels,” she said haughtily. “Show me a ruby darker than my roses. Show me a sapphire brighter than my skies. Impossible. Our other two siblings, Autumn and Pre-winter, would join, but they are in the outside world, attending to a number of designing needs. All celebrities need an entourage.” She looked down her nose at the three of them. “But you wouldn’t understand that.”

“Do you always travel in pairs whenever you go into the world?” asked Mini.

“I will ignore the fact that you addressed me directly and will now face the empty space next to you to answer your question,” said Spring.

Aru thought this was a bit much and wanted to roll her eyes, but she controlled the impulse.

“Of course!” said Summer, looking pointedly at the air next to Mini. “One for the incoming season, one for the outgoing. It’s important to keep up with the times. Don’t you know anything about fashion?”

Aru looked down at the Spider-Man pajamas she was still wearing.

“Apparently not,” said Summer drily.

“What do you children want, anyway?” asked Spring, breezily.

“Well, we were hoping you could tell us?” Mini turned redder with each word. “Because, um, we were led here, and um—”

“Um-um-um,” mocked Summer. “You were led here? By a pea-brained foul-looking fowl? I’d believe that.”

“Puns!” said Winter, clapping his hands. “How devastating. How delightful. Chic cruelty never goes out of style.”

“Watch yourself,” warned Boo.

“Or what? You’ll poop on us?” asked Monsoon.

The four Seasons started laughing. Aru felt as though someone had grabbed her heart in a tight fist. It was the same acidic feeling she got when she was called out for not arriving to a school in a fancy black car. This was just like Arielle and Poppy taunting and jeering, making her think she was small.

But they were wrong. She was Aru Shah. Daughter of Indra. And yeah, maybe she had made an epic mistake, but that didn’t make her any less epic.

Most important: she had a plan.

They needed additional armor to reach the Kingdom of Death safely. Some extra weapons wouldn’t hurt, either. That’s why the sign had led them to the Court of the Seasons. And she wasn’t leaving without what she needed.

Aru grabbed Mini’s hand. Then she squared her shoulders and tossed her hair. “Come on, Mini and Boo,” she said. “I’m sure we can find better.”

Mini shot her a questioning look. Boo cocked his head.

“They’re not good enough,” Aru said, glaring at the Seasons.

Aru started marching through the forest. The Court of the Seasons was the size of a football field, but she could see an EXIT sign glowing in the distance. Even without looking back, she could sense the shocked gazes of the Seasons. She would’ve bet all her pocket money that no one had ever walked away from them.

“Aru, what’re you doing?” hissed Mini. “We need their help!”

“Yeah, but they don’t know that,” said Aru. “Bring out your compact. Conjure us some big sunglasses. And ugly hats. Things celebrities would wear.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” huffed Boo. “I don’t like groveling any more than you do, but this is no time to be proud.”

“Oh, I know what I’m doing.”

Aru knew because she’d dealt with it every day in school, that flare of not knowing where you belonged. That craving to be seen and go unnoticed at the same time.

Mini handed her a hat and sunglasses before jamming on her own pair. Even Boo got a pair of bird shades.

“These are ridiculous,” he snapped.

“We’re Pandavas,” said Aru, loudly enough for the Otherworldly spirits to hear. “We can do better than the Seasons.”