The Arranged Marriage

Chapter 1

Splat. Ew.

"Neel!" I screamed. I put a hand to my forehead, the same spot where Neel's sticky rasagolla had landed.

"Oh my gosh," he rushed over to me. "That was supposed to hit Priya, I swear!" Neel fumbled for something, but I held a hand up.

"Neel," I said through gritted teeth, prying the dessert off of me. "Why were you throwing food at Priya in the first place?"

"She was making faces," Neel explained. At my unimpressed expression, he shrugged. "You would have done the same if you saw the faces she was making."

"Hand me a napkin," I sighed. Neel got a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to me. As I wiped the syrup off my forehead, Priya nudged me in the ribs.

"Ow," I mumbled. "What was that for?"

"Don't look now," she whispered. "But your crazy snake brother just showed up."

"What?" I gasped, looking up.

There, at the dining room entrance, was my seven-headed snake brother, Naga, slithering past the gaping palace servants and swatting at the guards who tried to stop him.

"What the heck?" I grabbed my bow and knocked an arrow, aiming my weapon at Naga.

"Careful, sissster," he hissed with the lisp I hated so much.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. I noticed Priya didn't seem concerned about any of this, so I kicked at her leg under the table.

"Oh, right." Priya jumped up. "Bad guy."

"Oh, nothing," Naga slithered towards the table. "Jussst here to tell you to prepare to get married."

I shot my arrow, not considering what he had just said. I got another arrow from my quiver, shooting three more as Naga tried avoiding them.

"Ssstop!" he hissed.

"Give me one good reason," I ceased my fifth arrow.

"Uh," Naga tilted his seven heads.

"That's what I thought," I arched my bow again but stopped when Naga yelled.

"Wait!" he said. "Did you not jussst hear what I said? Prepare to get married!"

"Why on earth would she believe that?" Neel asked. He, Lal, and Mati had their swords out, ready to fight, while Naya and Priya stood protectively with us.

"Becaussse I'm the diabolical villain! Why wouldn't I do sssomething like that?" Naga already sounded frustrated.

"Cause you can't?" said my adopted cousin, Mati. "It's not like you're her dad or something."

"But I can!" Naga said. "As the new Ssserpent King, I have the sssame power as my father over Kiran and every other sssnake. Since she's a sssnake princesss, she's 3 ranksss down from me!"

What was he talking about? "Naga," I started. "Explain."

"Gladly," he smirked. "The king can marry off hisss daughter to whomever he wishesss. But, sssince our father passed, I take on the resssponsibility that he had. Which includesss the title of king."

"Wait," Priya shot me a look. "That means you can marry off Kiran?"

"Yup," Naga slithered closer, and I shot four bows in his direction, trying not to panic.

"I already have sssomeone chosen for you, too," Naga grinned.

I shot arrow after arrow, my moon-magicked quiver never running out. This couldn't be true. I can't be getting married!

"You're kidding," Neel said. I could hear the disbelief in his voice.

"Not at all," Naga lunged in my direction, laughing as I flinched.

Randomly, I looked over to Naya. I watched the look in her eyes turn from confused to humored. Then, she started laughing.

"That is a very good one," she said to Naga in between giggles. "You almost fooled me!"

"It's not a joke," I breathed. No one could hear me over Naya's laughter.

"I'll leave for now," Naga slithered out of the throne room, calling to us. "Get ready to meet your husssband-to-be shortly!"