I didn’t care about the garden when I broke through hedgerows, tearing across the flower beds and splashing across shallow fountains, sprinting as hard as I could after them, but they were getting farther away. I was going to lose them.
At the edge of the garden, I burst into the yard just in time to see Nix being carried toward the open front gate. She looked at me, tears shining on her cheeks, and my heart plummeted.
I was too late. I couldn’t do anything.
Nix struggled and screwed up her face. “Put me down this instant; that is an ORDER!” she yelled. She raised her hand and slammed it into her captor’s lower back. He went stock-still, stiff as a board, and fell forward with a yell. She’d locked the muscles in his legs with her power. With a solid thump, she and the man hit the ground. She got on her feet while he lay crumpled in a heap.
I caught up to them, fists raised. Magic or not, I was going to fight.
The other cloaked men had come to a stop after swooping in, ready to take her again, when she held out her hand once more.
“Stop this at once!” she yelled. “Or do you plan to defy a command from your princess?”
The men looked at her for a long minute before, one by one, they dropped to one knee and lowered their heads.
What was going on? Were these assassins working for Nix? I stood there, baffled, not quite sure what to do, when I heard the two men coming up behind me.
“Easy now,” one of them said. He pulled his mask off. To my surprise, he was a boy, no older than me. His crooked nose was bleeding from when I’d punched him. He appeared to be East Asian, with straight black hair tied into a small ponytail at the back of his head. He wore a black shuhe and black trousers, similar to the Arnis uniform I had worn earlier.
“Relax, Phoenix,” he said, his voice confident and low, though slightly nasally from his bleeding nose. “You know we wouldn’t hurt you.”
Panting, I still had my fists raised, sweat beading on my forehead. Nix stared at the guy with a stony expression, her eyes hard.
But to my surprise, he wasn’t menacing. He was smiling.
I blinked a few times, not quite understanding. “Who are you? Nix, what’s going on?” I asked.
Nix straightened, lowering her hand. “This is my older brother,” she said. “Crown Prince Qian of Jade Mountain.”
3
“Are youhurt?I’m coming home right—” My mom’s worried eyes took up most of the face of the crystal. Even through the illusion, her panic was palpable.
I interrupted her. “We’re all okay, Mom, seriously. Don’t worry. Don’t come back. It’s over now.” I strode toward the grand hall, where the cloaked men from Jade Mountain were sequestered for the moment before I could meet with them properly.
“Of course I’m going to worry! It could have been so much worse! What if it had been an actual attack? What if someone had tried to harm you?”
“I know,” I said, rubbing my sore eyes. I was so tired. “But they didn’t. It’s all under control. Elias is taking good care of us.”
By now the whole palace had heard about Nix’s attempted kidnapping. Guards had come to the scene shortly after to escort us back inside, and Elias ordered the rest to search the grounds for any more trouble. The moment I set foot back inside the palace, a footman shoved the crystal in my hands to talk with my frantic mother, who had been the first to be informed. Strangely enough, her freaking out made me calmer.
Mom frowned at me, her eyebrows scrunched, and shook her head, but she didn’t argue. She trusted Elias, too. If anyone could watch out for me while she wasn’t around, it was him.
“I’m going to talk with the prince from Jade Mountain now,” I said, and stopped in front of the doors to the grand hall, flanked by two of my guards. “I’ve got this. I’ll see you when you get back from your trip, okay?”
My mom sighed. “Fine. But if I catch so much as a whiff of trouble—”
“I know,” I said, smiling. “I love you.”
Her brow softened a little, and she said, “I love you, too. Be good.”
“I will.” I hung up and took a deep breath. I slipped the crystal into my pajama pocket and pushed through the double doors only to walk into an argument.
“—go back there, you can’t make me!” shouted Nix. She was standing at the round table, her elbows locked as she braced herself against it, looking the angriest I’d ever seen her.
She was glaring at Prince Qian, who was sitting on one of the chairs on the opposite side, holding ice wrapped in a towel to his nose. He had shrugged off his cloak and was now down to a tight-fitting black T-shirt. He was shaking his head like he was frustrated.
The rest of Qian’s entourage stood at the back of the room, masks lowered, arms folded across their chests like proper bodyguards. I wished I had an entourage like that. I was feeling vulnerable and unprotected despite the guards at the door. Qian’s own guards looked around the room, though, taking in the decor and—specifically—me.
