The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,38
second emotion. I mean, who did this guy think he was? Plus, I was a Jersey girl, and so I had a reputation to uphold as not so easy to impress. “Get your hands off me,” I snapped, even as I felt my cheeks heating up and heart thumping kind of offbeat.
Ned didn’t have a chance to answer, though, because just then the cafeteria double doors behind us banged open, and somebody yelled, “You heard her, creep—back off!” while someone else cried, “En garde!”
I whipped around to see Jovi and Zuzu in fighting stances, their fencing foils drawn and pointing at Ned.
“You giant jerk!” Jovi yelled. She turned panicky eyes toward me. “Kiran, are you okay?”
“Ladies, relax! Relax! I think you have the wrong idea …” Ned began, reaching out an arm like he was going to wrap it around my shoulders.
“Get away from her!” Zuzu flourished her sword in Ned’s direction. “Now!”
“Hey there, ho, there.” Ned put his hands up and backed away a little from Zuzu’s pointed foil. The sword made little zipping sounds through the air as she waved it at him.
“What did he do to your face?” Jovi pointed at the cuts bleeding hotly on my injured cheeks. I touched my sore jaw. I was definitely going to be black-and-blue there.
“Enough talking, Jovi, move aside so I can cut this patriarchal pig to ribbons!” Zuzu yelled. “How dare you hurt her?”
As weirdly unnerving as Ned was, I knew I had to stop Zuzu from attacking the guy. “Hang on, I know what this looks like, but Ned didn’t hurt me, he was helping me. It was actually …” I gestured to the pile of ashes, but then I realized Principal Chen was no longer exactly a piece of material evidence. I’d have to explain that part later. “Someone else,” I concluded, adding, “Wait, what are you two doing here?”
“We heard you were in trouble and that you needed help!” Jovi explained. “I mean, I was surprised, I admit, to have a gecko talk to me at first, but I figured it must be an emergency for you to send it.”
It was only then that I saw what was sitting on her shoulder. Or rather, who. It was Tiktiki One, looking all pleased with itself as it absentmindedly boing-boinged its tongue in and out of its mouth. Oh man, the lizard-gram had totally malfunctioned. I had sent Tiktiki One off to get Mati and Neel, not Jovi and Zuzu. But I was really touched by how worried both of them looked.
“I’m okay, but thanks for coming.” Even if Ned hadn’t been the one to attack me, I was relieved Jovi and Zuzu had come right when he was getting all suave and weird.
“If you say so.” Jovi lowered her sword, but she took a little “fake-out” punch-step toward Ned, who gamely backed up. “But watch it, pretty boy!”
“Do I even want to know what’s going on with that giant bird?” Zuzu pointed her sword at the eagle.
“Let’s just say it’s been an interesting day,” I sighed.
After Jovi and Zuzu had finally lowered their fencing foils, Ned raised an eyebrow at me. “Shouldn’t you stop fooling around and be getting on with your heroic agenda?”
“Heroic agenda?” I repeated, my teeth chattering from the cold.
“Did you forget about your friend stuck in the tree?” As he spoke, both Ned and his eagle cocked their heads again and looked at me.
At the question, my limbs got all liquidy. How did this kid know so much about my life? He must be from the Kingdom Beyond too. It was the only explanation.
“How do you know about my friend Lal?” I demanded, trying to inconspicuously wipe my nose on my sleeve. “He’s here, then? In this dimension?”
“In the same tree where first I met you, darlin’,” drawled Ned.
“You have a friend stuck in a tree?” asked Zuzu.
“Is Lal okay?” said Jovi almost at the same time. It was so weird, having my BFF and my frenemy in opposite roles. Obviously, in this version of New Jersey, it was Jovi who knew about my identity as a princess from the Kingdom Beyond, not Zuzu.
“It’s a long story,” I said, my teeth chattering more than ever. “A little bit hard to explain. But I have to go help him.”
“Oh, how rude of me.” Ned whipped off his ski jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. He had on a green fleece under it that matched his ski hat and scarf.