I could kind of wiggle my fingers and toes again. Without her concentration, the demoness’s spell lost its grip pretty quickly.
“You aren’t welcome here anymore!” Neel approached the Rakkhoshi Queen with his sword raised. “What trick is this that brings you here?”
“Oh, that is where you are very wrong, you source of my acid reflux, you betrayer from my own womb!” the Queen cackled, growing into her full size. The poor maid shrieked and ran out the door.
The Demon Queen was still beautiful, but with pointed ears, jagged teeth, and enormous horns rising from behind her crown. She towered above us, her horns brushing the vines on the ceiling. With another toss of her hair, she froze Neel where he was standing. I could tell he was trying to move, but couldn’t.
“Let me go, now!” he ordered. The Queen cackled, her inhuman voice echoing weirdly.
I ran for my bow and arrow, which I’d put on the floor next to the bath, but with a motion of her warty finger, the demoness flung them out of the way. Her eyes raged with fire, and puffs of smoke shot out of her nostrils.
She rubbed her chest with a clawlike hand. “All those years just hovering in the shadows, waiting for some newcomer fool who didn’t know about the rules of my banishment; it gave me a terrible case of heartburn.” The Queen turned her creepy smile to me. “But you can thank your little friend here for inviting me once again into the kingdom.”
“No!” Neel protested.
“I didn’t!” I yelled, even as I remembered how the “maid” had asked me if she could enter. It was true. I said yes, and by mistake, I had unleashed this terrible monster.
“For that favor, my slithery princess,” the Queen crowed, “I will not kill you—at least not today.” She licked her lips with a black tongue. “But I am afraid I cannot say the same for that tasty morsel Lalkamal!”
With a thunder-like clap, the demoness vanished into thin air. Neel struggled in place, still frozen. He howled in a voice transformed by fear and rage.
“Mother! Ma! No!”
That’s your mother?” I shrieked.
“You should talk!” Neel could obviously move again, and threw my bow and arrows in my direction as he ran toward the door. I grabbed them midair. “At least my dad didn’t force me into exile because he wanted to turn me into a snake!”
“You’re half a rakkhosh, which means half a monster!” I yelled, threading an arrow from the quiver into my bow.
“And what do you think you are, Princess? Ever wonder where your nasty side comes from?” Neel snapped even as he was already running for the courtyard. “I don’t have time for this! I have to warn my brother!”
I sprinted after him, feeling his words burning in my ears. If Neel was half a monster, then so was I. I thought about the last time I saw my parents and how cruel I’d been to them. Was it because, as they would say in the movies, I had bad blood?
Being half serpent certainly wasn’t helping my running stamina, and I was getting winded trying to keep up with rakkhosh-powered Neel.
“Your mom wouldn’t hurt Lal, would she?” I shouted to his sprinting back. But the rate at which he was moving told me all I needed to know.
Obviously, Neel’s mom had a serious case of the wicked stepmothers. Wanting to eat your stepchildren definitely ranked up there with all-time evildoer moves. I felt sick. It was my fault she was after Lal.
Prince Neelkamal ran like the wind. I guess I hadn’t noticed before how fast he could move. Or how strong he was. Or how tall. Or how broad. It had been so easy for him to defeat the rakkhosh on my front lawn. And yet, he hadn’t wanted to kill it. Was it all because of his half-demon heritage?
We approached the royal stables, which were glowing in the evening darkness with an unearthly light. Somewhere, a crow shrieked and a fox howled. A chill ran through my body. The demoness had already gotten here!
There was terrified whinnying as Midnight and Snowy galloped away from the stables toward the woods.
I ran in the direction from where they came, but when I stumbled into the building, I faced a terrible sight. The Rakkhoshi Queen stood on the hay in the middle of an empty stall, a nauseated expression on her face.
“Where is Lal?” Neel thrust his sword at his own mother. “What have you done with him?”
“Oof! That too-proud boy!” She belched. “That willful girl!”
“Ma—tell me that you haven’t eaten my brother and Mati!”
“Eaten them? Of course I’ve eaten them! What do you think I have been waiting for, eh, all these years?” The rakkhoshi turned her red eyes at her son. “Only you were always by your brother’s side, my son, you traitor who nursed at my breast, you were forever protecting him!” She shifted her piercing gaze to me. “But so lucky I am, isn’t it, that this girl finally distracted you away from him. If not for her, this pretty-pretty moon-brat, you would never have left Lalkamal alone!”
The walls of the stable felt like they were closing in. What had I done?
Neel fell to his knees, letting out a demonic yell. “You won’t get away with this, Mother!”
“Vah, such big, big talk!” the rakkhoshi cackled. “My son wants to kill me—what a proud maternal moment! But no, for that you’ll have to find and kill my soul—which is hidden away somewhere even you will never find, my little matricidal maniac!”
Rage boiled in my body. Neel was still on the ground in front of his mother. The demoness might destroy him at any moment. Like everything else, this was my fault. I had to protect him.
I aimed the arrow that was still in my bow. The rakkhoshi was distracted, and I had a clear shot. I closed one eye, and imagined I was shooting a target behind the gym at school. The arrow flew straight and true, hitting the Queen in the middle of the chest.
“Ay-yo!” the demoness exclaimed.
Unfortunately, the next thing she did was to pluck the arrow out as if it were nothing more than a splinter. “Not a bad shot for a skinny moon-chickie!” She used the sharpened end to pick at her teeth.
Uh-oh. That wasn’t good.
But I’d given Neel time to collect himself, and now he ran at his mother, his sword raised. The Queen stopped the weapon with her hand. With a terrible glint in her eye, she brought the sword to her mouth and licked it. The shining steel now dripped with gloppy black saliva. Neel grimaced, throwing it to the ground.
“You think you can kill me with your mortal weapons, you snotty-nosed smarty-pants?” The demoness’s expression was pained. “Really, I cannot believe you young people these days! Just the other day I was telling my interdimensional poison-brewing club what a disappointment my child was to the demonic race. You never listen, do you? The only way to kill me is to find the exact location of my soul!”