Even teen evil queens need love. Right? (Or at least a handsome sword-fighting minion to do their bidding!)
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Bad things happen when Rowen is around and the worst part is, she has no idea why until a massive family secret sends her on a fantastica...
"If anyone ever demands you endure a dangerous trial to prove yourself, tell them you have to wash your hair that day"—Rowen Keckilpenny Brown
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Nellie roared in my wake as I cradled her treasure in the crook of my arm like a football, extended my other arm straight up Superman-style, and pierced the shield, which cracked like a ... well ... egg. I rocketed into the night sky, so high above Brittlebane's spires and turrets that it looked like Princess Barbie's castle, although less pink. The moon gleamed so close I could almost touch it. I shivered, my teeth chattering. I wanted to go higher, to escape Nellie's haunting, plaintive roars, but the air was already too thin and cold.
I hung there in the sky and created a new mantra:
I had no choice. I had no choice.
But a tiny, super annoying voice in my head countered: You had a choice. You had a choice.
Inner voices are the worst!
"I should give Nellie back her egg," I thought to Vermeil.
"Then you will have failed," he replied.
"That's one interpretation."
"It's the only one that matters."
But I had to figure out my next move before I could let what remained of my conscience get the better of me. I had to return to Tyra's Tunnel of Doom, as it shall henceforth be known! (STOP IT O' MEDIEVAL VERBIAGE!) I didn't enjoy being underground. Underground was for moles and bacteria and corpses. Not for human witch-type people. But that was where I'd get my next trial assignment, and I could check on Blade. Poor Blade. Would he live to annoy me once again? Maybe he was healing! Perhaps I hadn't permanently damaged him. However, it seemed I excelled at hurting people. Part of the Evil Queen gig, I suppose.
But maybe I could make a quick stop first to return Nellie's egg. I solved the trial, right? Was there a trial rule stating you had to turn your booty to some evil fairy? Finders keepers. Possession is nine-tenths of the law and all that. Ergo, I could do what I wanted with the egg.
But just as I was about to head back to the moat, something sparkly and smelling of lilac and fairy dust burst in front of me. I screamed and nearly dropped the egg. "Tyra," I spat as she floated directly before me, blocking my path.
"I see you succeeded at your first trial," Tyra purred. I couldn't tell whether she was happy about it. She looked like she'd have enjoyed having me trapped in the moat until Nellie got peckish for a scrawny witch. She held out a flowy pink-sleeved arm. "Give me the egg."
I held it tightly, the egg warmly vibrating against my belly. I could feel its yearning to return to the moat, or maybe that was my stomach complaining about hunger. "Actually, I was about return it to Nellie." It felt super weird to be having a discussion floating in midair, but welcome to my life! We were like Superman and Lex Luthor in his war suit, bobbing in the sky and trading barbs before the battle. Except I didn't have a cape, and Tyra wasn't bald. But other than that, we looked just like them.
