Page 15 of Princess Takes Academy
The vizier squeezed my chin harder, dragging my gaze back to the dangling medallion. Reflexively, I squeezed my eyes shut. Shuddering, I refused to look into the burning sun.
My eyes. My bonds. I couldn’t bear to lose them.
“Let’s draw your coven quicker with your screams.”
:Shift, Xochitl.:Queen Shara’s voice was fragile and faint.:Mayte’s close but she needs a distraction.:
:I can’t! I tried.:
I felt the glowing heat on my skin. My eyelids flinched in anticipation. I squeezed my eyes tighter, refusing to look.
Light seeped into me anyway.
I’d always thought light was a good, pure thing. Scary monsters and things that would hurt me only roamed the shadowed darkness. Light chased away nightmares. The sun rose again each day, promising hope. A new start. Green, growing things couldn’t survive without it.
But this sun punished, seared, and scorched. It blistered my skin and charred my flesh. It wormed into me like hungry fingers, eagerly searching for any trace of my bonds so it could destroy them. Scorching everything inside me.
I fled deeper into myself, avoiding the blazing light. I galloped as my unicorn, running as fast as I could. Trying to save even a small part of myself before it went up in flames. In the labyrinth of my mind, I cast doors and locks behind me. Castle walls and spiny fortresses to slow the hungry fire blasting through my mind.
Each defense crumbled to ash beneath the force of the vizier’s punishing blaze.
Sobbing, I curled up tighter, squeezing into a small, dark space. I couldn’t hold the unicorn shape even inside my head. It hurt too much. I clutched my gift from Isis like a stuffed animal to my heart. She was small, now. As scared as me. Shivering and crying and whinnying with desperate fear. She didn’t want to lose me either.
I pressed my face to her soft fur and breathed in her sweet scent. Maybe it was my imagination, but she smelled like cake. I’d always loved cake.
:Her horn is very sharp,:Shara whispered, her voice fluttering like a candle almost blown out. Almost gone forever.:Focus, sweetheart. Put all of your will in that horn. All your rage. All your fear. You can do this.:
I ran my fingers over the ivory spiral of my unicorn’s horn. Once it’d glittered like an icy rainbow, but the light and sparkles had gone out. Too much pain and fear. But Shara was right. It was still wickedly sharp.
I pictured the vizier with his creepy grandfather voice and fake benevolent smile. His pale eyes, empty. Dead. I wanted my horn to go through his eye. Just like Keras’ blade had gone into the crocodile’s. But I built the image further. My horn was longer. It’d go completely through the vizier’s skull. There was no chance he could live. I wouldn’t let him get Mama.
Light flickered closer, threatening my hiding place.
I gripped my unicorn in both hands in front of me, her horn razor sharp. Long. Longer, like a spear. Yes.
And I threw her at the light with all my strength.
7
Keras
I’d thought Xochitl’s screams were horrible, but her silence was even worse.Goddess, please. Please protect her. Save her. Take me instead.
I dragged myself across the sand, as quickly as I dared without drawing the man’s attention. I had to get to her. Worst case I could throw myself on top of her and take whatever torture he was doing to her.
A body toppled to the sand nearly on top of me. His mouth gaped open, but he didn’t scream or make a sound other than a faint gasping death rattle. One of his eyes was a ruined red hole, almost as if he’d taken on the crocodile’s injury.
I wasn’t sure what had happened. I didn’t care. His other eye stared ahead, blank and empty. I scrambled up to my hands and knees and threw myself to Xochitl’s side. She hadn’t shifted, so I wasn’t sure what had caused the man’s injury. So small, she curled up into a ball. Trembling, she flinched when I laid my hand on her back.
“It’s me,” I whispered. “He’s dead. You did it.”
She shook harder, her face tucked up against her arm. My brave, daring queen—hiding. Afraid. I touched her back again, feeling her shiver and shake. At least she didn’t flinch away this time, but she didn’t fling herself against me. Instead, she burrowed deeper into her own arms, clutching her arms around her body.
Tentatively, I reached for her mind and bond, but I couldn’t feel her.
I couldn’t sense her. Anywhere.
My scalp prickled and a black blur brushed past me. A giant black jaguar crouched over her, golden eyes flashing with silent fury and deadly promise. He gripped Xochitl’s nape in his mighty jaws and leaped back up to the tree bridge.
