The Arranged Marriage

Chapter 19

New POV... Third Person

Neel stood outside of the cavern that Poli had led them to. She had a feeling that Ned and Kiran would be there because according to her, it was a secretive place, but seemingly the least likely for a villain to be. But it would only seem that way to someone who didn't know how a villain thought.

Neel took a deep breath and turned to face the people who were with him.

"You're all going to have to stay out here," he said.

"What?" Priya stepped forward. "No way! We should be helping you get Kiran!"

Neel shook his head. "I want to see what's in there. If it's something dangerous, I'd rather it be me who finds out." He saw his friends begin to protest, but he raised his hand to silence them. "No. Please, just stay out here. I'll be back out before you know it."

Priya looked ready to argue, but a thought seemed to stop her, and she reluctantly agreed, the others following her lead.

"Don't die, brother," Lal said.

"That totally helps calm my nerves, Lal," mumbled Neel as he made his way inside.

When Neel was fully inside, he crept around, unsure of which direction he should go. Then he saw a glow out of the corner of his eye. He turned to it and followed the light. After some time, he found out where the glow was coming from. Behind a door, the light peeking out from the openings. Neel opened the door slowly, noise suddenly filling the halls once he did. They were screams.

Neel peeked into the room, and he felt his blood run cold. There was Kiran, in one of those same orbs that they'd both been tortured in by Sesha, Kiran's biological father. Except, this time, the orb had been formed by... Naga?

Naga was in the room, as well as Ned, the two laughing at the sound of Kiran's screams.

Neel ran into the room, unable to bear the sound of Kiran screaming. Naga and Ned turned to him.

"What- how did you find us?!" Ned demanded.

Neel scowled. "That's not the problem." He turned to Naga. "Let her go."

If Naga had shoulders, Neel was sure he would have shrugged. Naga flicked his tail in Kiran's direction, and Kiran fell to the floor, panting. Neel tried running in her direction to get to her, but Ned got there first, attempting to help Kiran up from the floor.

Kiran used Ned to get up, but as his arm trailed off her arm and towards her face, probably to do some cheesy, romantic move, Kiran growled and kicked him... where it hurts.

Ned howled and bent over in pain. Neel almost felt bad for the guy, but he reminded himself that he 200% had it coming. Neel made his way to Kiran and pulled her aside.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Kiran breathed. "I'm fine." She shook her head. "Why would you come to save me? Do you have any idea how much trouble you're going to be in?"

Neel looked up from Kiran and glared at Naga, who was watching them with a bored expression, and Ned, who was still rolling around on the floor, cursing loudly. "There's no way to get in trouble if you get rid of your punishers."

Kiran raised an eyebrow. "When we have kids, don't tell them that. They'll probably take it too seriously and try to kill one of us."

Neel laughed before he realized what Kiran had just said. When they have kids? So, she wanted to have children with him? She believed that they would get that far into a relationship? Neel smiled down at Kiran, trying not to let on how fast his heart was beating.