Peter J. Eschwey

While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, Aru will be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip. Is it any wonder that she makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a chauffeur? One day, three schoolmates show up at her doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don't believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. Just a quick light, Aru thinks. She can get herself out of this.

It’s April 1913, and survivors of the RMS Titanic have gathered to remember those who didn’t make it onto the lifeboats. Debutante Elizabeth Farr, who had been in first class, lost her father. Steerage passenger Katie Hanrahan nearly lost her life. Still, neither of them wants to be at the remembrance service. All they really want to do is forget. A year after that awful night, Elizabeth still feels the chill of the frigid arctic air, and Katie can’t sleep because of nightmares of being trapped belowdecks, waiting for death.

Aru is only just getting the hang of this whole Pandava thing when the Otherworld goes into full panic mode. The god of love's bow and arrow have gone missing, and the thief isn't playing Cupid. Instead, they're turning people into heartless fighting-machine zombies. If that weren't bad enough, somehow Aru gets framed as the thief. If she doesn't find the arrow by the next full moon, she'll be kicked out of the Otherworld. For good.