Her hair wasn’t lovely black locks, but coils of fire. Her teeth weren’t teeth at all, but tusks that curled up and out from thin black lips. Her skin wasn’t a dusky shade of amber, but a pale and sickly white.
And there was something at the top of her head. A fancy blue hair clip?
No, a twig with tiny blue blossoms. Minus the color, it was identical to the design on their mehndi maps.
It was the sprig of youth.
The first key to the Kingdom of Death.
Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down
“What are you doing out of your chairs, children?” asked Madame Bee.
Mini gulped loudly. The compact closed with a sharp snap.
“Taking in the scenery,” said Aru quickly. “It’s really pretty. Like you.”
Madame Bee beamed her widest smile. She raised an eyebrow and flipped her hair over one shoulder. “I’ve collected beauty for years, so of course I’m beautiful,” she said. “Now sit down, why don’t you? Who should I cut first?”
“Uh…don’t you mean whose hair should you cut first?”
Madame Bee tilted her head. Whatever light had been in the room dripped off the walls. Velvet shadows slid forward like snakes.
“No.”
She tossed her tray to the ground and lunged. Aru only just managed to dodge out of the way, dragging Mini with her.
“Oh, come now, don’t you know it’s rude to play with food?” asked Madame Bee. “I don’t like being rude. Just stay still.”
Mini and Aru ran. Aru skidded on the floor, nearly crashing into a chair. She righted herself and her legs pumped beneath her. But no matter how hard she tried to get to the door, it seemed to loom farther and farther away.
Aru glanced up to the mirrors on the ceiling. Where was the asura? Her reflection didn’t show in the mirrors. Maybe she disappeared, thought Aru for one bright moment.
But then a cold feeling spread through Aru.
A voice right behind her tickled her neck.
“Come closer, darling child. I’m running low on beauty. You don’t have much, but it’ll be good for a bite or two,” said Madame Bee.
Aru jumped and spun around, but Madame Bee disappeared with a pop and reappeared on another side of the room.
“No use in hiding!” she sang.
With every word, she disappeared and then reappeared closer and closer.
“Psst!” hissed Mini.
Madame Bee was still cackling and spinning around in circles, or whatever it was asuras did whenever they were gloating. There, shoved up against one wall, was a giant table covered with postcards, hairbrushes, and bottles upon bottles of hair spray. Mini peered out from under it, and Aru scrambled after her. The asura just laughed, strolling toward them as if she had all the time in the world.
“Boo, help!” shouted Aru.
But if the pigeon could hear her, he didn’t come.
“Don’t think I don’t know exactly who you are,” crooned the asura, “little Pandavalings! It was very considerate of you to come all this way just so I can take your beauty. There’s no use calling for your little feathered friend. He cannot enter my world. Just like you cannot leave it.”
“Oh gods, what do we do?” whispered Mini, drawing her knees to her chest. “How are my parents going to identify my body if I’m only ashes? All I have are dental records and—”
“Mini! The compact!” hissed Aru.
Maybe there’s a reason Madame Bee surrounds herself with false mirrors, thought Aru. All that talk of beauty had given Aru an idea. She fumbled for the bright Ping-Pong ball in her pant leg.
Suddenly, Madame Bee crouched down. Her face appeared upside down. “Peekaboo!” she sang, her ghastly smile stretching wide.
Aru faced the demon, ignoring the goose bumps crawling down her spine. “I lied,” she said. “You’re not that pretty. See?”
Mini turned the compact mirror toward the asura. The demon’s face turned even paler. Her hair crackled and snapped like she’d been electrified by the sight of her own ugliness.
“Nooooo!” the asura screamed. “That’s not me! That’s not me!” She writhed on the floor.
Aru and Mini scuttled backward. The golden Ping-Pong ball warmed Aru’s pocket. She drew it out and squinted. It glowed like a mini-sun.
“I’ll get you!” screeched the asura.
Aru threw the ball straight at her face—
“Not if you can’t see us!” shouted Aru.
The ball’s light blinded Madame Bee, and she fell back. “My eyes!” she howled.
A rosy golden glow filled the salon, and Aru had a strange vision of someone gathering up the first light of dawn in hundreds of buckets.
“Cursed heavenly light,” growled the asura.
Huh, thought Aru. So that’s what’s in the ball….
Maybe it wasn’t so useless after all.
Aru raised her hand and the ball zoomed into her palm. Mini was still holding up her compact and when she saw the ball, she gasped. In Mini’s other hand, an identical golden orb appeared.
“What the—?” started Aru.
Mini closed her fingers around the ball. It vanished.
It was an illusion.
“How did you do that?” asked Aru.
“I…I don’t know,” said Mini, confused. “I just looked at the golden ball and thought about it, and then one appeared? But it wasn’t real!”
“Where aaaaare you, Pandavas?” sang the asura.
Both girls backed away slowly.
The asura was crawling, turning her head from side to side, scanning the room. Aru’s heart rate kicked up a notch. The demon’s eyesight was returning!
“Now what?” asked Mini breathlessly. “How are we going to steal the you-know-what?”
Something was nagging at Aru. Where was that persistent smell of smoke coming from? Where was the asura burning things?
“Show me the room again in your compact,” said Aru.
Mini turned the mirror toward them.
There was one detail Aru hadn’t noticed before.
The unenchanted view of the room hadn’t changed, but Aru’s eyes snagged on a detail: handprints here and there. Handprints of ash. Maybe that smoky smell was coming from Madame Bee herself? Something clicked inside Aru. Everything started to make sense. Even the name of the salon: Bee Asura. B. Asura.
Aru lowered her voice to a whisper: “I know who she is. She’s Brahmasura! The asura who could touch anyone and turn them to ash!”
“How is that comforting?” hissed Mini.
“Because we know how to defeat her.”
“We do?”
“We do,” said Aru, this time more firmly. “Keep the mirror in your hand. I think it doesn’t just show what’s an illusion; it can also make them.”
“Like it made the ball,” said Mini, catching on.
Just then, Brahmasura scuttled closer. “That was not very nice, children,” she crooned. “Don’t you know demons find it extraordinarily rude to be smacked in the face with heavenly light? It…reveals things.”
Right before their eyes, Brahmasura’s skin began to wrinkle and sag. Teeth fell out between her shrinking lips. Her nose lengthened to a snout and a tusk grew on either side.
Aru almost gagged.
The asura’s head whipped in their direction. She licked her lips. “There you are,” she said in her soft, lilting voice. She crawled forward. “So you see the truth about me, don’t you? Well, that’s all right. I’ve always thought that women can see through illusions best.”
Mini’s fingers closed tighter over the compact mirror. She was shaking. Aru grabbed her free hand.
“Poor little Pandavalings.” Brahmasura laughed. “And you thought you could be heroes!”
At this, Mini’s eyes narrowed. “It’s actually heroines,” she said. “We’re girls.”
Madame Bee laughed. She crawled faster now, like some horrible scuttling mutant spider.
“Wait!” Aru shouted. “I wouldn’t hurt us if I were you,” she went on breathlessly. “After all, you’ve lost something, don’t you want it back?”
She nodded to Mini. Sweat shone on Mini’s forehead. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a twig with bright blue flowers. She leaned out as far as she could. The asura’s teeth showed. Mini didn’t flinch as she waved it in Brahmasura’s face.
Madame Bee saw it and let out a shriek. “Where did you get that?”