The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,82

reactions pretty well, since I was having the same one too. The sight of Sesha’s evil face made me want to claw his eyes out. He’d tried to kill me not once, but multiple times, when he wasn’t trying to turn me into a snake, that is. He had tormented my moon mother and probably been the reason she was the vague, not-really-there-but-there presence she was in my life. He was the reason I’d been banished to New Jersey and never really known who I was for so many years. He’d tortured and later imprisoned Neel. He was evil. He was terrible. He was trying to destroy the multiverse and all our unique stories. I would think I would rejoice to see him looking so small and beaten and afraid.

Yet, with every squeeze of Pinki’s hands, I felt myself growing weaker and more light-headed. No matter how much I hated Sesha, my fate was tied to his. Neel grabbed me by my elbows, holding me up. “Hold on, Kiran, don’t disappear on me yet!” But with every passing second, I felt my essence growing fainter and fainter.

I tried as hard as I could to control my breathing. In and out, Kiran, I told myself. In and out. I couldn’t control what was happening to me, but I had control over myself, and my reactions.

That’s when I met Ai-Ma’s eyes. And I saw the old rakkhoshi’s eyes traveling over my fuzzy outline and then landing on Neel’s worried face. She squinted at her grandson, like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing, and then back at me. And in that second, I could see that something inside Neel’s old grandma was beginning to recognize him.

Neel caught her glance too. “We need some help, Kiran, come on!” he said. Supporting my weight now entirely, he dragged me to his grandmother. “Ai-Ma, can you help us?”

“How do you know me, little desperate demon-ling?” she said, touching Neel’s face in wonder. “Wait, why does this lollipop of a dung-beetle boy look so much like my daughter?”

“He’s your grandson, Ai-Ma. Your grandson from the future,” I wheezed, hoping that this version of past Ai-Ma was as loving as the one I would know in my own time.

“I can hardly believe it,” she breathed, running her already-wrinkled hands over Neel’s cheek.

“Will you help us, Ai-Ma?” Neel begged. “We can’t let my mom kill Sesha or else Kiranmala will never be born. Look at how she’s fading. We hate him too, but we can’t let him die.”

“Kiranmala, is it?” cackled the old woman. “The name of an adventuress, an underestimated heroine from a long-told tale.”

“But will you help us, Ai-Ma? Please?” I breathed, holding on to the edge of her sari in supplication. Behind us, Pinki seemed to be choking the life out of Sesha. I heard him sputter and choke as the crowd roared. My head spun, and I fell to my knees.

“Kiran!” Neel cried. “Ai-Ma! What should we do?”

“You must invoke the right of challenge kill,” said Ai-Ma quickly.

“What?” I sputtered from my position on the ground.

But without explaining any more, Ai-Ma stood up, holding my fist in the air with her own. “Halt, my daughter! This young rasagolla of a demon-ling invokes the right of challenge kill!”

“What?” Pinki sputtered sharp blades of fire. Taking advantage of her confusion, Sesha somehow pushed Pinki’s hands off his neck and took in some big shuddering breaths. I felt the strength entering my own body again as he did. “You invoke challenge kill? Based on what right?”

“Based on right of … relation,” Ai-Ma said. “This young rakkhoshi has had, erm, loved ones harmed by Sesha’s malice.”

“What?” Sesha snarled. “I’ve never seen that hideous rakkhoshi wench before in my life!”

Of course Sesha wouldn’t recognize me in my rakkhoshi form. I wondered if he would have recognized me in any form.

Ai-Ma wasn’t wrong. He had harmed me and my loved ones—Ma, Baba, my moon mother, Neel, and, indirectly, Naya.

“Well, I’ve seen you before!” I snapped. “But I guess you’ve forgotten me!”

The rakkhosh students around us erupted in shrieks of mocking laughter. They yelled insults and taunted Sesha. “Water, air, land, and flames, the snake’s gone and forgot his name!”

Sesha lost his cookies at that. He snarled at me, pointing with a shaking finger. “My name will never be forgotten! But yours will be—I will erase all of rakkhosh-kind from the multiverse’s memory!” He frothed a little at the mouth. “Just you wait! No one will remember you; no one