Chapter 2
2
Doors opened. Cold air hit me. I was thrown over a shoulder and carried outside. The sky, which had been blue and sunny when I walked in that morning, had gone dark gray, menacing, with storm clouds swirling like dozens of tornadoes about to form. I was too terrified to even scream. I felt like I was outside of my body, watching it all happen.
My captors shoved me into the back seat of a black car. Two patianaks got in, one on either side of me and another in the front passenger seat. The driver was already there, waiting with the engine running.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded as we sped away from the school. There were blinding flashes of lightning directly overhead, followed by earsplitting claps of thunder.
I lunged over to open the car door and jump out, but the patianak on my right wrapped his hand around my wrist before I could.
I tried to yank my arm away from him while struggling to get at the door with the other, but then he gripped both my wrists, and he was far stronger than I was.
I sank into the seat as if I’d given up trying to escape. When he let go of me, I leapt for the door again, but it was no use; he effortlessly blocked me. The car jerked to the right, knocking me sideways, then back to the left, so that I tumbled the other way.
“Seat belt,” he hissed.
I held on to the headrests in front of me and yelled, “What are you doing?!” I looked up—we were speeding toward a red light. “Stop!” I screamed. “Stop!”
The car flew straight through the intersection, dodging other cars, which spun around behind us, blaring their horns.
The speedometer crept up, up, up, past eighty-five, then one hundred miles per hour. No way could I jump out now. This ride was going to end in a fiery crash.
We weaved around traffic. Narrowly dodged a slow-moving minivan. Cars drove off the side of the road to avoid us. I clutched on for dear life and closed my eyes, bracing for impact. We went faster and faster. Like we were flying. And maybe we were flying. I was afraid to look.
How were they so calm? Once it felt like we were at least traveling in a straight line, I peeked out of one eye. We were careening right into the back of a huge tractor trailer. I opened my mouth to scream right as we rammed into it—except, we didn’t.
Somehow we swerved and dodged it.
I whipped around to see the truck still in one piece. When I faced forward again, we were speeding directly for a bunch of preschoolers. They were toddling across the street with their teachers, who couldn’t see us behind the huge umbrellas they were holding over the children’s heads. This time, I did scream.
Right before we collided, the front of the car pulled up and flew right over their umbrellas.
We were flying. Literally flying into the thunderous sky. The driver spun the wheel all the way to the right, narrowly avoiding a bright white flash of light.
And then, all at once, we were nose-diving.
I shut my eyes tight again as my stomach heaved. This is it. It’s over.
The car hurtled toward the ground below. I bent forward instinctively and covered my head with my arms, even though that probably wouldn’t do any good. The seconds felt like minutes, each one drawing out the inevitable.
But then the car yanked upward again, straightening out and slowing down. Once it was clear we were back to a stable position, I sat up cautiously and opened my eyes. We were over a huge empty lot, coming in for a landing.
Eventually the car came to a smooth stop in the dirt. At first, I was relieved to be on solid ground again, but then I had to figure out how to escape.
“Is Don Elias ready for us?” the patianak to my left asked one of the others.
Elias—I knew that name. I had vague memories of meeting him as a child; my mother talked about him. He worked for the crown, hence the title Don, which marked him as one of the lords of the court. Now, apparently, he was a traitor. Had the king’s daughter kidnapped. He probably wanted the throne for himself, then. That’s what this was.
My three captors stepped out of the car, one of them offering his hand to me. “Oh, now you have manners?” I didn’t take it. “No, thanks. I’ve got it.” I scooched over and got out. I was a bit wobbly on my feet after all the death-defying aerial stunts. “Where are we?” I demanded, but none of them answered me.
My heart was throbbing painfully.
They’d already killed the soldiers sent to fetch me. Would they also kill me? The hunters sent to protect me had come too late.
They gathered around me in a circle so that I couldn’t flee, and herded me across the lot. I could drop to the ground, maybe. Knock their legs out from under them and make a run for it. There was no way I should let them walk me into a field. I needed the perfect moment, something to distract them, and then I could...
Before I finished the thought, the air in front of me changed, and for a moment everything was pixelated. Great, now I was hallucinating from the anxiety. I hoped I wasn’t about to faint, because that would really screw up my escape.
But the image got clearer—it wasn’t a hallucination. It was a door. An actual door. Made of dark wood, with a curved top and a gold handle. Out in a field.
Overhead, the storm clouds gathered again, as if they’d followed us there. A sudden boom of thunder, coupled with a bolt of lightning that hit the ground mere feet away, made me drop to the ground.
“Hurry!” someone said, taking my arm and getting me back up.
They began running, pulling me along, until we got to the door. One of them threw it open and pushed me through it.
All at once, the storm was gone. The field was gone. The door slammed shut, and I jumped at the sound.
We were in some kind of round room. I got the feeling we were underground, even though we hadn’t gone down stairs or anything. There were no windows and no other exits. And it was oddly cozy for a kidnapper’s lair. I looked around at the walls, made from the same polished mahogany as the door. There was a gray stone fireplace and an antique-looking table and chairs. Then I saw him.
“Don Elias,” one of the patianaks greeted him. He was seated in a high-backed chair. A throne. So he’d already made himself king, after all. I felt a sharp stab of betrayal as I remembered exactly who he was. Elias was my father’s most trusted adviser. Head councilor to the king. My godfather.
And now he meant to get rid of me, the inconvenient heir. I’d watched enough prestige medieval fantasy television shows to know how these things worked.
He sat there, large hairy hands gripping the armrests, regarding me with something like smug curiosity. The way he’d scrutinize an insect before smashing his foot down on it. I stared right back at him. I was sure he was going to kill me, but that didn’t mean I had to make it easy for him.