“Then it’s back to demon school we go?” I suggested. “For Naya?”
“For Naya.” Neel’s eyes locked with mine.
I looked away from him, feeling suddenly shy at his nearness. “What if it only takes the one of us who is doing the reading? We should probably read it together.”
“That makes sense. And maybe just to be safe, maybe we should … uh … hold hands while we read.” Neel’s voice cracked in a funny way as he finished that sentence.
Without meeting his eyes, I held out my hand, hoping it wasn’t too gross and sweaty for him to hold. He grasped it with his own warm one, interlacing his fingers with mine. I felt a zipping electricity where our skin touched, and my stomach gave a lurch.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I muttered. “One, two, three …”
Even as we started reading the first sentence of the story together, it was hard to stay focused. Neel’s fingers kept a tight grip on mine, and he was sitting so close, I could feel the words of the story rumbling in his chest as he spoke them out loud.
“Nothing’s happening,” Neel whispered as we finished the first sentence.
“Keep reading. Stories don’t work unless you keep reading, dive into them,” I said.
And so we kept reading, our voices rising and falling together, the words rolling off both our tongues, the images and plot being built by both our voices. Not long after we’d finished the first paragraph, I felt it, the tugging at my belly. I looked at Neel, who was starting to look all smudgy—like a charcoal drawing being erased by someone’s fingers. I saw his eyes widen as he looked at me, so I figured I must look the same.
“Here goes nothing,” I said.
He nodded. “We’re going to demon school.”
We landed with a thump on the rocky ground right below one of the many balconies jutting out from a majestic building of turrets, mosaics, and open porticos. I was at first really impressed by the architecture, until I realized most of the mosaics were images of bloody rakkhosh attacks—pictures of demons tearing people and animals apart in a bunch of gross and horrible ways. This was obviously the famed Ghatatkach Academy of Murder and Mayhem! It was twilight, and from the voices I heard just above us, I knew we weren’t alone.
There was a light on in the balcony and two people up there, near the edge. Luckily, Neel and I had landed next to a broad tree with thick branches, so we were shielded from view. As I glanced over at him, I realized that he looked really different—with small horns peeking out of his dark hair, and fangs hanging below his lips, and even a little wart on his cheek. His eyes widened as he looked at me, and putting my hands to my face, I realized that I too had somehow been transformed by our magic time-traveling storybook into a rakkhosh! But I didn’t have time to worry about how many warts I had on my face. Right now, we had to concentrate on not being found out. We both leaned hard against the tree, listening to the people in the balcony.
“Oh, my suave serpentine suitor! How patient you have been!” someone was saying. Neel put a hand over his mouth, like he was stopping himself from crying out. Wait a minute—the person talking was Pinki, his mother. I was sure of it!
“Oh, my demonic darling! You are more than worth waiting for!” This time it was my turn to clap a hand over my mouth. That voice—it couldn’t be, could it? I snuck a quick look up at the balcony from around the tree. What was he doing here? Sesha!
Neel put his hand on my arm, like he thought I was stupid enough to leap out from behind the tree and confront my snake father. I shook my head. I loathed Sesha for all that he had done to us, but I wasn’t that stupid. Plus, what exactly could I do to him from down on the ground when he was up in that balcony? But what in the world was he doing here in Demon Land? Neel and I eased ourselves out from behind the tree but were careful to stay well in the shadows so we could hear and see their conversation without any threat of being seen ourselves.
“Tonight is the night we have been waiting for, my darling! The night of the choosing ceremony! When I choose you as my consort and declare our love openly!” With the light behind her, and her thick dark hair pouring over her horns and shoulders, Pinki absolutely glowed.
“Everyone will know and we won’t care, my sadistic sugarplum!” Sesha singsonged in his oily way. He was clean-shaven, younger, and his hair was shorter, but there was no mistaking his features. Maybe I was imagining it, but I could also hear a hint of the evil malice that would define his adult personality.
Neel shot me a questioning look, and I shook my head. What was happening here? It was uncomfortable enough hearing our parents’ teenage selves talking about love—but with each other? I mean, yuck!
“I won the title of Demon Queen fair and square—after so many tests of intellect, bravery, and rodent disembowelment!” said Pinki, placing a long-clawed hand on Sesha’s arm.
I mouthed, “Rodent disembowelment,” at Neel, and he scowled, putting a finger to his lips.
“That you did, my clever, bloodthirsty, disemboweling minx!” Sesha tweaked her nose as he said this, earning another shocked look from Neel. I mean, the Pinki we knew would probably chop off the arm of anyone who dared to tweak her nose.
“And tonight’s choosing ceremony will show everyone that I know how to chart the best course for our people’s future!” young Pinki added breathlessly. “I’ll show them that love is the answer to the riddles of the multiverse!”
“We will combine our powers and rule them all!” Sesha cooed. “Tonight, after you choose me at the ceremony and not that nincompoop Rontu, the human prince from the Kingdom Beyond!”
Yet again, Neel almost gasped. “Rontu is my dad!” he hissed. “She’s choosing between Sesha and my dad!”
What? I’d understood from the conversation so far that there was some kind of choosing ceremony set up, where Pinki would have to choose a future husband. But it was shocking to hear that the choices were either my dad or Neel’s!
“I can’t believe my mother and Headmistress Surpanakha want me to marry that buffoon of a human prince!” Pinki’s voice was a little higher than I was used to, but it still had that same sarcastic confidence. “They say it’s important for the future of demon-kind and humankind. I mean, blah blah blah! Who cares about that?”
“All that matters is our eternal love,” Sesha drawled.
Neel looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. “Gross!” he mouthed at me. I was feeling just as horrified as he looked.
“Oh, Seshi!” Pinki tittered. “You’re such a dreamboat!”
“I adore you, my sly sweetheart, my fanged femme fatale!” Sesha leaned to kiss her, and the two became a single silhouette against the light of the room. Neel made a disgusted face, and I felt like puking too. “Our love may be forbidden now, but it won’t be after you choose me as your consort!”
“They say you just want me for my power!” Pinki scoffed. “I know you love me for myself!”
“Oh, I do! I do!” Sesha sounded way overconfident. “I adore you, my demented dumpling!”
Neel looked like he was about to burst. I felt like I was going to scream, or laugh, I wasn’t sure which. Sesha and Pinki had been forbidden high school sweethearts? Like an evil Romeo and Juliet? And she actually trusted him? I was starting to wonder if Neel wasn’t a little bit right about his mom being fooled by Sesha into marrying him.