Protagonist Bound (29 page)

“That’s so specific,” Jason laughed.

“Yup, apparently damsels do it by the book,” I responded. “Now then, let’s get this show on the road. Come on, Jason. You’re on.”

“Oh, Crisa, didn’t I tell you?” Blue interjected. “Jason’s not your co-star this evening. Daniel is . . .”

I was pretty sure my blood pressure went up at the mere suggestion. I held up a finger to the boys. “One second, please,” I said brusquely. They gave me a strange look, but nodded as I grabbed SJ and Blue by the wrists and pulled them away.

I lowered my voice so that the boys wouldn’t hear. “Blue, what are you talking about? First off, I can’t believe you even let Jason
tell
Daniel about this. He’s here now, and I’m dealing with it, but there is no way I’m actually going to team up with him for this next part. No way, you hear me? None. Zip. Zero. Just absolutely not—you got it?”

“Crisa,” Blue whispered. “Jason is good at a lot of things—axe-throwing, high-fiving, rope swinging. But confronting people just isn’t his scene, recreationally or otherwise. I mean, come on, the guy’s practically got honest-to-goodness selflessness carved into his DNA. He won’t be able to do this even if he is acting. SJ and I both agree that you’ll have much better luck with Daniel. He’s naturally good at insulting you.”

“Besides,” SJ said, patting me on the shoulder. “Jason told us that Daniel is apparently just as adamant about changing his fate as we are, so we can count on him. You really should give the boy a chance, Crisa. He is not that bad, you know.”

“No, actually. I don’t know.”

“Well, Jason mentioned that Daniel tried to save you during the tournament. He tried to keep you from falling when your prologue pang hit.”

“Emphasis on ‘tried,’” I asserted. “More emphasis on the fact that I definitely didn’t ask him to.”

It irritated me like no other that Daniel had felt compelled to try and save me today. And it irritated me even more that I had put myself in a situation where I needed saving in the first place.

No girl should do that; it’s far too clichéd and way too demoralizing.

But it happened. My attempts at trying to prove I could be a hero had (quite literally) fallen to the ground. What’s more? My heroic boy nemesis had been given a front seat to the whole spectacle and was no doubt itching to hold it over me.

Still . . . as much as I wanted to avoid spending time with him because of this, I knew SJ was right. Daniel would be way better for the role of confronting and hurting me than Jason. And that’s exactly what we needed in order for our mission to get its heels off the ground. So, while I loathed the idea with a passion bordering on detrimental, I reluctantly agreed to the casting change and my friends and I rejoined the others.

Blue cleared her throat as she proceeded to cover the rest of the plan.

She had stolen several Pegasi from the Adelaide Castle stable, which she’d tied to an apple tree in the orchard. She, SJ, and Jason would be hiding with them while Daniel and I did our thing. Then, once I’d “burst into tears,” I would run to the nearby riverbank and Daniel would join them until the Fairy Godmother arrived and I yelled the signal. This would subsequently cause the Godmother to realize she had been called there as a trick and make her take off—creating a trail for us to follow right to our desired destination: Fairy Godmother Headquarters.

Fairy Godmothers travelled in the form of shooting stars, you see. So any one of them would’ve been easy enough to pursue via Pegasi as she flew across the sky leaving a glistening trajectory of light in her wake.

It was kind of a hassle, but this whole routine was necessary because (as mentioned) Fairy Godmother Headquarters floated somewhere in the sky over Book. Not only that, it was always moving to protect its Godmothers from people who would take advantage of them—magic hunters or otherwise.

As such, the only way the Godmothers left themselves vulnerable to outsiders was in the manner I’d just explained. At least theoretically anyways, given that no one had ever made a run at what we were attempting. Only princesses and other female protagonists had the power to call for magical help in this way. And thus far it seemed the majority considered ticking off Fairy Godmothers a risk they’d presumably rather avoid.

I, on the other hand, had already gotten on the bad side of that one Godmother, Lena Lenore, so unlike my protagonist counterparts I figured a second didn’t really make a difference.

In retrospect, I knew ours was not the most elaborate or foolproof plan for reaching the Godmothers’ elusive domain. But to be fair, since it had to be executed tonight, my crew and I had been forced to work pretty quickly to get it together.

In the morning we were leaving Adelaide to return to our respective schools. Once we were back, the In and Out Spell around Lady Agnue’s would go up again—preventing us from leaving the campus and, ergo, from attempting to get to Fairy Godmother HQ to talk to Emma. Which was the whole reason we were doing this in first place.

In order to reach the Author we needed to find a way past the impenetrable In and Out Spell surrounding the Indexlands.

Since the Godmothers were the ones who’d cast the spell all those years ago, we figured that they’d be the only ones with knowledge on how to break it. Yes, we knew no random Godmother was just going to up and share this kind of powerful information with us; that was a given. However, our thinking—our hope as it were—was that my mother’s Fairy Godmother (my own regular godmother, Emma Carrington) might just be the exception to this rule.

Like I said, she used to be a big part of my family when I was little. And despite her withdrawal from our lives a decade ago, the two things I still remembered about her very clearly were how much she loved me, and how she was one of the few people who’d never treated me like a misshapen piece in someone else’s puzzle. She’d believed in me. She’d believed I could be more. So if anybody would’ve been willing to give my friends and I the information we needed and support us with what we were trying to do—I felt certain it would’ve been her.

A minute later when Blue finally finished with the full recap of our plan, she turned to address me specifically.

“Crisa, I don’t know how this Godmother will react to, you know, being tricked down here. But good luck. Assuming she doesn’t turn you into a koi fish, we’ll have to move fast to have a shot at making this work.”

My friend closed the book and pulled up the hood on her cloak in full mischief mode. We said our farewells and she, Jason, and SJ went to hide while Daniel and I were left alone together to execute the first phase of our mission.

He and I proceeded to stroll across the grounds uncomfortably and wordlessly as we tried to find a nice open spot for our imminent performance.

To be honest I preferred the silence, and was dreading when it would end. I didn’t want to talk to him; I didn’t even want to look at him. Just seeing his face filled me with anger. Partly at him naturally for, well, being him, but mainly at myself. One glance and everything came rushing back. I could see his face looking down on me as I dangled from his Pegasus—the epitome of a damsel, of weakness.

Maybe Lady Agnue was right; maybe I was as poor an excuse for a hero as I was for a princess. Maybe I really didn’t have control over who I was no matter how hard I tried and this was all just a waste of time.

No. Stop it. You’re going to prove her wrong. You’re going to prove the Author wrong. You’re going to prove them all wrong,
my inner voice reminded me.

It doesn’t matter what that prophecy says. Who I am isn’t written yet. And the only person who will have a say in it when it is, is
me
.

I shook my head as Daniel and I continued to walk—attempting to rid myself of the doubts that wormed their way into my subconscious the more I thought about this afternoon’s turn of events.

Eventually we stopped at the top of a small hill overlooking a ravine. The moon was casting a glow over the entire property and reflecting off the water below. My right arm still sore from the fall during the tournament, I took a moment to switch my satchel to the left shoulder. Meanwhile, Daniel gazed out into the distance all serious-like as if he were thinking about something deep and philosophical.

Like even.

“So . . . um, Daniel, why are you doing this exactly?” I suddenly asked him—my curiosity inexplicably overtaking my better judgment to avoid speaking to him for as long as possible.

He raised his eyebrows—evidently as surprised as I was that I’d been the one to initiate the conversation.

“Done with the silent treatment, are we?”

“Being silent isn’t one of my specialties,” I replied with a shrug. “Just like being charming isn’t one of yours. Now really, how bad is your prologue prophecy that you felt compelled to join our small gang of rebels? I mean, you barely know us for starters. But more than that, most people would say what we’re attempting is nuts.”

“Yes. They would,” he agreed. “But my prologue and why I’m joining your little quest don’t matter. They’re
my
business. And you of all people shouldn’t get involved. Got it?”

His tone had risen sharply just then and I took an awkward step back in response. He seemed to get a handle on whatever weirdness had possessed him though, and his cool, collected swagger returned in the next instant.

“So, on to
our
business,” he continued as he began to pace around me. “I can see that this confrontation is already unpleasant enough for you, so I think we can check that off the list. Which means that I guess now I’ll proceed to, quote, ‘hurt you with my words.’”

I crossed my arms and maintained eye contact with him as he circled around me. “Honestly, Daniel, no matter what our friends believe, I don’t think there is any insult you could throw my way that would hurt me. Tick me off, sure. You’ve proven that time and again. But hurt me? You’ve got no chance.”

“Because you’re not like the other princesses,” he said. “You’re not fragile, delicate, or sensitive.”

“Exactly,” I agreed.

“Not subtle, graceful, or naturally endearing.”

“I suppose not,” I said.

“You’re rude, impatient, and judgmental.”

“Yeah, and so are you,” I scoffed.

“True,” Daniel continued without missing a beat. “But unlike you, I’m not the self-destructive outcast of my school. I mean let’s face it, Knight, you don’t really belong at Lady Agnue’s, and the only reason they don’t kick you out is because of who your mom is.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say—”

“It’s too bad, really,” he interrupted. “Your mom is one of the most famous fairytale characters of all time, beloved by people in every realm. And
you
are her legacy—literally the worst princess Book has ever seen. Bringing shame to her name and yours one stupid stunt at a time, like at today’s tournament.”

“Hey, that’s not—”

“And the saddest part,” he cut me off again, “is that even if you are okay with this, you can’t fight what’s coming. No matter how much you struggle against it and try to be something more, in the end who you are will never be yours to decide. In fact, that role is already picked out for you. It’s sitting on a shelf right now, telling you the same thing that everybody else already knows but you’re too stubborn to admit—you’ll never be strong enough to fight it, no matter how much you wish you were. All you can ever be is exactly what you are—a sorry excuse for a princess and another damsel in distress incapable of being a hero.”

I was wrong.

That had hurt me. At the very least it had gotten under my skin.

My first instinct was to punch him, but then Daniel winked at me and I realized this was my cue. So instead I allowed my legs to carry me quickly down the hill toward the ravine.

I wasn’t sure if the moonlight had prevented Daniel from noticing how red my face had gotten, but I hoped it had. While the tears I forced out of my eyes and my dramatic collapse to the riverbank were fake, the doubts he’d managed to hone in on definitely weren’t.

How did he do that?
I wondered as I knelt in the marsh.
How did he know just the right words to get to me like this?

I already had to regularly fend off the insecurities about everything I was and everything I wasn’t brought on by archenemies like Lady Agnue and Mauvrey. With them, at least I could keep the effect of their words at a minimum by either staying away from them, or dishing back sassy retorts that sufficiently silenced their venom. But Daniel was different. I couldn’t push him away like an enemy because he’d somehow slipped his way into my inner circle of friends. Meanwhile, since I really didn’t know anything about him (aside from the fact that he had a shocking amount of self-confidence and a blatant disregard for people’s feelings toward him), I had no kind of ammo to throw back in his face.

The worst part still was the fact that someone I’d basically known for a month could pick up on insecurities I tried so hard to conceal. Which in turn made me wonder if maybe they were a lot less baseless than I wanted to believe.

I mean I’d known Mauvrey and Lady Agnue forever so it was way more acceptable that they’d learned enough about me over time to discern my insecurities. But with Daniel . . . well, he’d noticed them right away.

Were they—was
I
—really that obvious?

I continued my bogus crying by the riverbank for a couple more minutes but, alas, nothing happened. No magic, no fairy dust, nothing. Absolutely zip. And the previous mental tangent having worn me out already, I was starting to get uncomfortable sitting there. The embankment was cold and kind of damp. Add to that, I didn’t know how many more fake tears I had left in me before my supply dried out.

Thankfully, right as I began to get discouraged and think this a failed endeavor I noticed a bright red glow reflecting in the river beside me—rapidly getting bigger.

I turned my head toward the sky and witnessed a ball of fiery glitter zooming across the clouds before plowing into the mud a few feet away. When the flash of light subsided, a woman appeared before me. She was dressed in a luminescent silvery gown with shimmering ruffles that made it look like streaks of lightning were embedded into the fabric. The remarkable ensemble, like her smile, lit up the area around us.