Page 23 of Princess Takes Academy
I didn’t hear any music. Only the sad sigh of the breeze through the trees. In the distance, a jaguar screamed out an answer to the magic filtering through the jungle. Mama had always been able to speak to the great cats, and all of her Blood could shift into jaguars.
I still remembered the day that Queen Shara had named me Princess of Unicorns, when I had declared that I would call unicorns as my Blood. Keras was no unicorn—but a king rhinoceros. I’d loved him just the same, even if I never had any more Blood of my own.
“It’s time,” Grandmama said.
I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or Mama, though when she didn’t reply, I assumed she had meant those words for me. “For what, Grandmama?”
“For a long-time Zaniyah tradition to resume.” Turning to me, she cupped my face in her gnarled hands. “After we lost Citla, I couldn’t bear any more loss, so I ended the tradition. But I feel it’s right to begin anew with you.”
Everything inside me froze, drawing tighter and tighter with anticipation. Did she mean…
“Are you sure?” Mama whispered, her voice breaking. “She’s still so young. Too young.”
Her pain should have wounded me too, but I couldn’t hold back the swelling tide of hope and longing. I had to find Keras. He was the key to regaining my power. I knew it with every fiber of my heart.
“There’s risk anytime a baby bird leaves the nest. But to find her own wings, she must be able to fly.” Grandmama winked at me. “Or at least whinny.”
I threw my arms around her neck and squeezed her so tightly she grunted softly, patting me on the back. “Thank you, Grandmama! Thank you! I’ll be careful, I promise.”
“Knowing you as I do, my suggestion is to not make promises that you can’t keep, child.”
She said it kindly, without reproach, but heat still burned my cheeks. Mama always said—
“If there’s trouble to be found, Xochitl will be at the heart of it.” Mama sighed again, but this time with resignation. “Do you have a suggestion on where she should be fostered?”
I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. I didn’t want to be fostered in some lofty court with a formal, boring structure. I wanted Keras. I wanted adventure. I wanted to find my unicorn again and go galloping across the clouds.
Is that too much to ask?It wasn’t exactly a prayer, but I cast my longing out into the night, hoping that the Great One might hear. Isis wasn’t my bloodline’s goddess, but She’d gifted me with Her blood once, so I carried a slight connection to Her.You promised me wings someday. I don’t care if I can fly—as long as I can find Keras.
“I don’t think she needs formal court structure. Our princess would find that too stifling.”
I closed my eyes for a moment and silently whispered,“Thank you, goddess.”
“I suppose she might as well join Keras at the academy,” Mama said. “Though I don’t know that they’ll accept a young queen as a student.”
I couldn’t breathe. I had to have heard her wrong. They’d worked so hard to keep us apart…
“That’s what you still think? After all these years?” Mama’s voice sharpened with exasperation. “We’ve been over this so many times. Keras wasn’t being punished when we sent him to the Academy of Blood. Some of the finest young Aima warriors in the world have gone into service from that esteemed school. There’s no better place for him to learn how best to protect you.”
She’d never understood. Taking him away from me after the incident—even to go to a prestigious school—was definitely punishment. Not getting to see him every day, let alone talk to him. For years. He hadn’t been home since he’d left.
My Blood. My best friend. Gone.
“What worse punishment could you have given me?” Bitterness laced my words, but I couldn’t help it. I’d never forgive them for taking him away from me.
Mama sucked in a soft breath as if I’d wounded her. How could we carry a mind-to-mind connection through our shared bonds, both as Aima queens and mother to daughter, yet still have so much misunderstanding and hurt?
She’d never understood me. And I’d never understood her.
“Someday you will understand.” Grandmama patted my cheek again and lifted her hand up to Mama, who helped her stand back up. “Our butterfly will soar again, but only when you take back what was stolen from you. And I don’t mean Keras, child, because we never stole him from you. We just gave you time to grow up a little so you could both develop into the fine young people we know you’ll be.”
I scrambled to my feet. “So you’re serious? I can go to Keras? When?”Right now? Tonight?I bit back my questions—they sounded too much like demands, even to me.
Tears shimmered in Mama’s eyes, but she still managed to smile. “Yes, on one condition.”
“What? I’ll do anything.”
“You’ll need to get permission from our queen first.”
