The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1)(9)

“Imagine”—Lal pointed dreamily to the sky—“when a star is dying. It grows bigger, then smaller, and finally it implodes into a black hole.”

Okaaay. No matter how stupid Neel thought I was, I knew about black holes. I’d been to the planetarium. I even loved watching that public television science show with Shady Sadie the Science Lady.

“But what does that have to do with my parents? Or spells? Or rakkhosh?”

“The spell that was protecting your family has, well, run out of gas,” Lal stammered.

“Gas?”

“The spell’s begun to lose power,” Neel said. “As it gets closer to imploding, it first shoots the matter within it—your parents—into a new place, a new dimension.”

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, Princess!” 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!”