Agatha was breathing heavily from her fight with Snow White’s witch. The same Snow-White who was now lying dead nearby. She felt the hot blood seeping out of the wound the witch gave her and staunched it with her hand as she twirled around to defend against the witch—
But the hallway was empty, the witch gone.
Agatha hobbled to the edge of the stairs. The den was as quiet as when she came in, the slatted window over the bookshelf wide open and blowing in the breeze.
Tedros burst through the front door, his face cherry red. “Agatha, where are—” He saw her on the staircase and flushed two shades redder. “DO YOU WANT ME TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK! I’M SCREAMING LIKE A FOOL, NOT KNOWING IF YOU’RE ALIVE OR DEAD, AND HERE YOU ARE PLAYING HIDE-AND-SEEK LIKE A CHILD ON A PLAYGROUND, LOOKING A HOLY BLOODY MESS AND—”
Tedros’ face changed.
“Agatha,” he whispered, looking very scared. “Why are you bleeding?”
Agatha shook her head, tears welling, hyperventilating too fast to talk—
A cry came from outside. Agatha and Tedros went rigid with twin gasps. “Uma.”
Instantly, the prince dashed out the door, Agatha racing behind him—
Princess Uma, the former Animal Communications teacher who had rescued them only a few hours before sat against a tree, near the dwarves’ corpses, her eyes spooked wide and legs out straight like a porcelain doll’s.
Tedros skidded to his knees in front of her, jostling her by the shoulders. Uma didn’t move. “What’s wrong with her!” he cried.
Agatha landed next to him and touched Uma’s face. Her fingers made a hollow sound on her teacher’s ashen skin. “Petrification,” she said, remembering the curse once used against the teachers.
“What’s the counter-spell?” her prince pushed.
Agatha paled. “Only the one who casts the spell can reverse it.” She looked at Tedros. “That witch…that witch did it—”
“What witch?” Tedros pressed, but Agatha was frantically scouring the deserted glen…She slumped. They’d never find that old hag. Princess Uma was as good as dead.
Not her too. Not our only hope. Agatha tuned out a bird’s loud chirps and sank her face in her hands. How do we get to Sophie now?
“Agatha…”
“Not now,” she whispered, head throbbing with fear, grief, and strident birdcalls.
“Agatha, look…”
Agatha spun. “I said not no—”
She frowned. A dove they’d seen before was in the prince’s lap tweeting angrily at both of them.
“What’s it saying?” Tedros asked her.
“How should I know?”
“You’re the one who took Animal Communication!”
“And burned down the school in the process—”
Agatha stopped because the dove was drawing in the dirt with its wing. “Why is he drawing an elephant?”
The dove let out a torrent of chirps, furiously modifying his picture.
“It’s a weasel,” Tedros guessed. “Look at the ears.”
“No, it’s a moose—”
“Or a raccoon.”
The dove was apoplectic now, slashing more lines.
YOU ARE READING
Fire Princess
FanfictionYears ago, once her fairytale had ended, Rapunzel married a prince who's entire family possessed the powers of phoenixes. That same power was passed onto her children. This is the story of her daughter, Phoenix of Firebirch, who attends the School f...
