Spelled

Chapter 10: If I Only Had a Head

***This is the last part of a 10 part excerpt of Spelled, a twisted fairytale available for sale NOW at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and more!! I will be adding bonus stories, chapters and deleted to scenes to Wattpad and my website, www.betsyschow.com***

"Rule #14: For protection, a princess should never carry something as unladylike as a sword. Kitchen utensils are handy in a pinch."

—Definitive Fairy-Tale Survival Guide, Volume 1

My dress plumed out around me, but it did nothing to slow my descent. Rexi and I fell like shrieking stones, still holding hands. Kato spread his wings and caught the wind.

I grabbed his paw and prayed to the Storymakers for a miracle. In answer to my prayer, we hovered for a moment. Then we sank again. Kato's wings weren't strong enough to support all of our weight.

I let go of him.

Spinning wildly, turning end over end, the force ripped Rexi and I apart.

In my somersaults, I caught glimpses of the earth below. It was blue. My last thoughts before I hit were, Hooray, water is better than jagged rocks, and then, I don't know how to swim.

The air whooshed out of my lungs as I performed a spectacular belly flop. Momentarily stunned, my head became submerged. When my body decided to obey my brain's commands again, it was too late. The weight of my dress pulled me down as effectively as any anchor.

The water was cold, and my fingers started to freeze up. I struggled with the pearl buttons at my back. If I could only get this Grimm- forsaken dress off.

My chest burned. The desire to take a breath was nearly overwhelming. As my vision closed in, something hit the water with a big splash. Probably a stormball. Maybe it would get me before I drowned.

Just when I thought I would give in to the urge to inhale, something pushed me to the surface. I started breathing a half beat before my mouth met air. Coughing the water back out of my lungs, I noticed that my hacking echoed. It looked like I had emerged under a shelf in a canyon's wall.

Starting to sink again, I flailed around in the water for something to grab. My hand hit horn behind me. I grabbed it and turned in the water to see what I hoped was my rescuer. It was Kato. He hadn't flown off and left me. I won-dered if his cannonball dive was the result of a failed attempt at flight or if it had been intentional when my head hadn't resurfaced. Didn't matter. On my mental score sheet, I had to add a plus column.

Rule of favor or not, I owed him my life.

Lightning cracked through the sky, electrifying the very air. Thunder boomed as evidence of Griz's temper tantrum. Out of sight, she screamed in rage from above. "Do yourself a favor and drown, little princess. Because that will be a much kinder fate than what you'll get the next time I find you."

A light spot in the dark water caught my eye. It was Rexi's blond head. She looked totally different with her hair plastered to her head instead of sticking straight up. "Let's not do that again, okay?" she said, panting and swimming toward us.