I struggled to form a question. “But … I’m still here.”
“It must have been placed over them specifically, or it could be there’s an additional spell protecting you,” Lal said. “Anyway, an expired spell also makes everything around it unstable—in this situation, the boundaries between the various dimensions.”
“Which is how the rakkhosh came into your world,” interjected Neel. “We’ve been tracking him since he got your expired spell scent. There’ll be more where he came from if we don’t get you out of here.”
My head was spinning. Spells. Dimensions. Black holes. And my … expired spell scent? Like, eww!
Then I remembered something I’d learned from Shady Sadie the Science Lady’s show, as well as endless reruns of that old outer space program, Star Travels.
“But nothing can survive inside a black hole, not light, not matter …” My words tapered off as my voice was seriously wobbly. I coughed.
“You are unfortunately correct. Most of what you understand to be black holes manifest in other dimensions as demons—terribly greedy rakkhosh—who gobble up everything around themselves,” Lal said.
“Think of them like giant galactic vacuum cleaners,” Neel added totally unhelpfully.
The vivid image made my throat feel even more like it was closing up. I let out a terrified squeak. He was talking about my parents being hoovered up by some outer-space-phenomenon-slash-hungry-demon. This was no joke.
“But enough with the astronomy lesson,” continued Neel. “All you need to know is that there’s still some time before the spell completely collapses and goes all … celestial stardust. Which is why we’d better boogie.” He pointed me toward the house. “Now.”
The princes stayed by the horses and the snoring demon on the lawn while I rushed through the disaster movie that was once my home. The bedrooms were still intact, and the bathroom worked, even though it had a new skylight courtesy of demon renovations. I threw on a fresh T-shirt and hoodie, then tossed a toothbrush and change of clothes in my backpack. I tried to call Zuzu, but only got her family’s voicemail.
“The Tomopolous family is visiting Mount Olympus right now. The Mount Olympus Diner and Bowl-o-Rama, that is! Come to the heart of Parsippany to strike the best baklava this side of Delphi! And if you’d like to leave a message for Marina, Costa, Athena, Alex, Frankie, Niko, Zuzu, Grandma Yaya, or Zeus the dog, do so after the beep! Opa!”
What was I supposed to do? Tell her a demon had broken into my house? That my parents were trapped in an imploding spell? That I was about to fly off with some princes to rescue my family from an intergalactic demonic vaccuum cleaner?
In the end, I fudged the truth.
“This is a message for Zuzu. Uh, this is Kiran. Hi, everybody. Listen, we, uh, have some unexpected out-of-town guests. From, uh, really far away. And I … um … I need to do something for my parents. Something really important. We’ll be back … probably in a few days. I guess … um … you could tell ’em at school, and … collect my homework.” I was getting a little choked up, so I thought I’d better end the message. “Don’t worry, I’ll be …” The recording cut me off before I got to “okay.”
I stared stupidly at the phone in my hand. Now what?
“Hurry up, Prin-cess!” I heard Neel yell. “The big guy’s gonna wake up soon!”
At the last minute, I shoved Ma’s red-and-gold wedding sari into my pack, along with her small jewelry box. My eyes fell on a framed family photograph on Baba’s nightstand. It was taken in front of the Convenience Emporium. My mother was reverently holding a statue of the blue-skinned Lord Krishna as a fat baby, a stolen dab of butter in his hand. Right next to her, my father sported a T-shirt we carried in the store embossed with a New Jersey Turnpike emblem. And I was in between them with a Giant Gulpie in my hand, smiling like a loon.
“I may not have always been the perfect daughter,” I muttered, “but I swear I’ll get you back.”
I threw the photo in my bag and raced out the door.
The rakkhosh was still on the ground, but rubbed its closed eyes with its enormous hands. I held my breath and ran by.
“No time to be lost, my lady!” Lalkamal urged. “It’s time to go home!”
“Come on, get a move on!” Neel waved me toward his horse. “Let’s get out of this place!”
I felt a last pang of hesitation. “Wait a minute!” I looked from brother to brother: one smiling, the other frowning. “This”—I gestured to the rubble in front of me—“is my home!”
“Does she not know?”
Neel scowled. “I guess not.”
“Know what?”
“This is not your home, my lady,” Lal said. “You are from a place far away, a Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers.”
“We don’t have time for this, dude,” Neel urged. “Just grab her; let’s go.”
“No one’s grabbing me!”
Behind me, there was a groaning noise as the demon started waking.
“My lady, you have always known you were different?”
I nodded.
“Perhaps even, not of this world?”
I stared.
There was a low-pitched moan from the direction of the demon. Both horses were flapping their wings and stamping in fear.
“Oh, wake up!” Neel snapped. “No one ever told you about how they found you in a clay pot floating down the River of Dreams?”
“What?” My eyes widened. “How did you …”
And then he said it.
“No one ever told you that you were really a princess?”
There it was. The truth. Staring at me right in the face this whole time.
(Yeah, you don’t have to say it. I know it’s a little ironic in light of my previous attitude toward princesses in general.)
“Hai, mai, khai!” The ground rumbled beneath my feet.
“Run, Princess Kiran!” Lal yelled.
“I’m riding Snowy,” I called, sprinting toward Lal’s white horse. This time, it definitely winked at me.
The horses had just launched off the ground when I looked down and saw the frothy-mouthed demon bolting toward us. It stood on my front lawn, shrieking as we sailed higher and higher into the night sky.
I was flying.
No. Way.
I was flying.
Cool wind whipped through my clothes and hair as we glided into the night. Despite everything, I was in awe. If I were to reach out, I could pluck the very moon from the sky and put it in my pocket. The houses below me were like teeny toy villages, but I wasn’t freaked out. Instead, I laughed out loud. Even the stars seemed to be twinkling at my pleasure.
“It is most wonderous, is it not?” Lal pointed out a few constellations. “You know, every one of those stars is a spell.”
“Are we riding into outer space?” Despite our lack of pressurized space suits and oxygen tanks, it didn’t seem like an unreasonable question to ask.
“Alas, no. Just a different dimension.”
Oh, well, that explained it perfectly.
Not.
I gulped in some crisp night air, feeling strangely new. My parents were missing. My house was a wreck. I was flying off to who knows where. The situation sucked, to put it mildly. But I’d faced down the scariest Halloween monster I’d ever met, and I hadn’t hidden or backed away or anything. I’d acted. I’d fought. I’d done something useful and brave. And that part of it felt kind of, well, amazing.