Page 13 of Princess Takes Academy
Using the roots like a hand bridge, I slowly moved deeper into the darkness beneath the fallen tree. I strained to hear anything. See anything.
The rotten smell of death that came to me first.
I dipped lower, barely keeping my nose out to breathe. Water tinkled and rippled all around me, usually a peaceful sound. Slowly, my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, but not quickly enough when my queen needed me. Her pain tore at me, spreading like wildfire. My eyes streamed with more than tears. I tasted blood. Both mine, and hers in the bond.
It was dangerous for a queen to bleed outside her nest.
Where was the crocodile? Did he have her already?
Blinking furiously, I cleared my eyes enough to see her. On her knees, but not torn apart by the giant golden beast that had killed Mama. A man stood over her, one hand fisted in her hair so he could make her look into a medallion dangling above her face. The gold disc blazed directly into her eyes. It didn’t look like light—it was thick with substance like liquid gold.
I breathed deeply, opening my senses as far as possible. My skin quivered with the effort of trying to sense any magical power from the man, but as far as my Aima blood was concerned, he was human.
He couldn’t be. No human could hurt a queen like this.
“So young,” the man crooned. “The god will be pleased with such a fine offering.”
The smell of death thickened in the air, making me clench my teeth. Crocodiles liked to stash their prey underwater. Let it get good and ripe before they feasted.
“He’s coming now,” the man said. “Your blood wakes him from his long sleep.”
My heart pounded frantically. If the crocodile was some kind of god…
How could I kill it?
:We have to kill him before the crocodile comes,:I whispered in her head.
She screamed in our bond, making me wince and shudder at the force and volume.:I can’t. I tried. I can’t shift. I can’t do anything. Help me, Keras!:
Ideas flared one after another, each more ridiculous and futile than the next. I didn’t have a good position of attack. If this man had prevented Xochitl from using her power, then he wouldn’t be easy to kill. I unsheathed my knife, but I didn’t know if it would even hurt him. Let alone kill him. Could I get close enough to stab him before he hurt her more?
Though how could he hurt her more than the blazing pain scorching her eyes? She couldn’t even see any longer and blood tracked down her cheeks to drip onto her shirt.
Taking a deep breath, I sank beneath the surface of the water, pushing myself deep. I didn’t dare swim or kick, for fear he’d see or hear me in the water. The current pulled me closer to him. To her. Though the water was shallower. Clearer. He would surely see me before I was close enough.
Knives jabbed into my shoulder. Involuntarily, I gasped underwater and started to choke and thrash. My arm burned like it was going to be torn out of its socket.
I turned my head. Saw the stained teeth buried in my arms. The flash of golden scales. An eye. Red and angry, as large as my fist.
A bull’s eye for my viciously sharp blade.
I rammed the steel into the crocodile’s eye up to the hilt. The beast clamped down harder on my shoulder and rolled. Dragging me deep. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t feel my arm any longer. I couldn’t even feel my queen’s pain scorching through our bond.
Cold, dark water would be my tomb. Until the crocodile decided to feast.
6
Xochitl
Curled into a ball, I hugged myself, shivering uncontrollably. Pain. Tears. Blood. Fear.
Such horrible fear. Strangling my throat, crushing my heart, numbing my brain.
Panting, I tried to calm myself enough to reach Mama’s bond, but everything inside me hurt. Even my bonds. It was like he’d burned them. The taste of charred ash was bitter on my tongue.
If my bonds were damaged… Mama wouldn’t be able to find me.
My eyes hurt so bad. Maybe he’d burned them out of my skull. Was I blind?
