Page 24 of Princess Takes Academy
Queen Shara Isador, the last daughter of Isis. So powerful that she’d brought back the dead Triskeles court.
Gulp.
The last time I’d talked to her, I hadn’t exactly been nice.
I winced, remembering the colossal tantrum I’d thrown when she locked the heart tree and refused to let me follow Keras. Though she’d been to our nest several times over the years, and Mama had been called to House Isador several times for queen business, I’d refused to go.
Once she’d been my favorite indulgent auntie. But when she’d kept me from sneaking after Keras…
Yeah. She’d gone on my never-speak-to-her-again list.
I nodded grudgingly. I’d do it. I said I’d do anything, and I meant it.
Even if I was scared to death.
2
Xochitl
What did one wear for an audience with the Triskeles queen—when she’d seen you wailing and stomping your feet like a toddler just a distressingly few years ago?
I wanted to show Queen Shara how far I’d come—yet also remind her of how much she’d loved me before I was such a brat. At least I hoped that she’d loved me, at least a little.
“Don’t be silly.” Mama looked me over from head to toe but didn’t comment on my prim and proper knee-length black dress. “She loves you.”
The dress was the most adult thing I had in my closet, and I despised it. But it made me look more mature. It was certainly nothing like the sparkly pink-and-purple princess gowns I’d worn as a child, or the comfortable jeans I’d adopted in my tomboy years.
The only hint of color I wore—other than my lacy hot-pink lingerie—was sparkling pink earrings hidden beneath my hair. I’d left the heavy mass free to hang down my back. I could change my entire wardrobe at the drop of a hat, but I took one look at the classic bun I’d twisted my hair into and had nearly burst into tears.
It wasn’t me. At all. A stranger had looked at me out of the mirror. At least I could recognize myself like this, even if I did think the dress looked ridiculous.
“Good goddess.” Grandmama paused on her way to her hut with a basket of herbs for her potions. “I’m not dead yet. Why are you dressed for my funeral?”
I rolled my eyes and Mama hid a knowing smirk behind her hand. Ignoring them, I tossed my hair back off my shoulders. “It’s a formal presentation, right? I mean, Her Majesty is the Triskeles queen now. I’m assuming that means a great deal has changed over the years. I bet even Marne Ceresa would be nervous visiting her.”
Mama held her hand out to me. “I forget that it’s been several years since you went to the Isador nest.”
I wrapped my fingers around hers and hoped she didn’t notice my clammy palm. I gave Grandmama an imploring smile. “You’re coming too, aren’t you?”
Shaking her head, she chuckled as she opened the door to her hut. “Not in a thousand years, child. Even for you.”
Mama was dressed in one of her favorite dresses that I’d seen her wear a hundred times at least. The soft peach maxi dress looked incredible against her skin—but it certainly wasn’t formal. My black dress looked even more somber and ridiculous against such a pretty color. I turned, determined to go back upstairs and change for the hundredth time, but Mama tightened her grip on my hand. “If you change again, we’ll be late, and our queen is expecting us.”
“She is?” I hated the slight tremor in my voice. I wanted to be brave and brash and confident—like the old Xochitl.
Who’d charged off through the magical heart tree to kill a golden crocodile all by herself. Though that hadn’t gone well. At all.
I’d lost so much that day. I’d come home without a scratch on me—on the outside. On the inside…
All my blood bonds had been burned out of me. I couldn’t feel Keras or Queen Shara any longer. Even Mama’s and Papa’s bonds had been damaged, though they were quick to re-establish our blood bonds as my parents.
But Keras had gone away to Scotland before I could renew our bond. When Shara took him through the tree, I’d refused to ever see her again. So I’d lost the blood bond with our queen too.
Would she demand a new sibling agreement with me now? Or was she merely waiting for me to show up so she could formally disinherit me? I wouldn’t mind a blood bond with her again. In fact, if I hadn’t had that blood bond from the first time she’d visited Zaniyah, I might have been lost to the crocodile forever.
She’d helped me fight through my fear and pain when no one else had been able to reach me. And I’d paid her back by screaming that I hated her for taking Keras away.
“Ready?” Mama asked.
