Chapter 2 Arrest Them!

Raina’s POV

Oh, goodness. The guards were coming.

I stared at the Crown Prince, who was now a donkey with an extremely unpleasant expression, then at the men rushing toward us. I needed to run. I needed to hide. I needed to pick up my spell books.

Unfortunately, I had only two hands, and the donkey was making everything difficult. I grabbed the Crown prince

“Unhand me at once, you wretched witch!” he shouted, kicking his legs.

I froze.

Then I looked at him. “Wait. You can talk?”

He stopped struggling long enough to stare at me. “I can talk?”

We stared at each other.

“Oh, you've really done it this time, Raina,” I whispered.

“I heard that!” He shot.

“I know! You’re shouting in my face!”

He opened his mouth to argue, but the guards were almost upon us. I grabbed him around the middle and dragged him toward a thick bush beside the alley. He kicked and twisted as though he were twice his size, which was impressive considering he was a donkey.

“Put me down! Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Yes, unfortunately!”

I shoved him into the bush and crouched beside him, trying to cover his head with the branches. He was not cooperating. His ears kept sticking out, and every time I pushed them down, he shook his head and sent the leaves flying.

“Stop moving!” I hissed.

“Stop manhandling me!”

“Stop being a donkey!”

“I DIDN’T ASK TO BE ONE!”

The guards rushed past the entrance to the alley, then doubled back when they heard him.

I clamped both hands over his mouth.

He bit me.

I yelped and nearly slapped him with the hand he had just bitten. “You horrible animal!”

“Take your hands off my face!”

The guards appeared around the corner, weapons drawn. Behind them came another man in royal clothing. He was younger than the Crown Prince, with a calmer face and none of his brother’s usual arrogance. Prince Richard. The kingdom’s beloved second prince, the one people praised for being kind, reasonable, and considerate.

I had encountered him before. He had even spoken politely to me.

That did not mean I trusted him now.

“Where is my brother?” Richard demanded, looking around the alley. “Where is Crown Prince Otis?”

The guards exchanged uncertain glances.

“I saw him chasing a girl, Your Highness,” one said. “He should be here.”

A loud bray came from the bush.

I squeezed Otis harder.

“Let go of me!” he snarled. Then he managed to wrench his head free and burst out of the branches. “Finally! It’s me, Otis! Your brother! Your Crown Prince!”

Silence fell.

One guard shrieked, “It’s a talking donkey!”

Several weapons immediately pointed at Otis. One man stumbled backward into another, who nearly dropped his sword. Richard’s expression barely changed, but his gaze lingered on the donkey a moment longer than it should have.

I took that as my cue to crawl deeper into the bush.

“Your Highness,” a guard said cautiously, “the animal does sound rather like the Crown Prince.”

“Rather like?” Otis snapped. “I sound exactly like myself, you useless—”

“Enough!” Richard barked. “You expect me to believe my brother has turned into a donkey?”

Otis lifted his head. “You’re looking right at me!”

Richard’s eyes flicked toward the bush where I was hiding. For one brief moment, I thought he had spotted me. Then he turned back to his men.

“This is clearly a trick. That girl has done something to my brother and is trying to confuse us with this abominable talking donkey.”

I nearly choked.

Abominable? I had made a mistake, yes, but I hadn't meant to create an abomination. Also, why was everyone assuming I was responsible for everything? All right, in this particular case, I was responsible. But still!

Otis swung around, his ears flapping. “But yes, Richard, you doofus. I - am - your brother. I'm Otis! There! That girl in the bush!” He pointed. “She did this to me!”

Every head turned toward my hiding place.

I stared at him in disbelief. “You traitor!”

“Arrest them both,” Richard ordered coldly. “The donkey and the girl. If they cannot tell us what they have done with the Crown Prince, they will both be executed.”

My blood ran cold.

Then I ran.

I burst out of the bush and sprinted down the alley, my skirt catching on a branch. Behind me, Otis let out an outraged bray and galloped after me.

“Get back here!” he shouted.

“Why? So we can both get executed?”

“You did this to me!”

“And I’m trying to fix it!”

“You turned me into a donkey!”

“I noticed!”

The guards were gaining on us. I could hear their boots pounding against the stones, along with Richard’s sharp commands.

Otis hurried beside me, his hooves clattering. “If they kill me like this, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your miserable life!”

“How are you going to haunt me? By braying outside my window?”

“I will find a way!”

“Wonderful! A ghost donkey!”

“Wickedd Witch, reverse your curse right now and turn yourself in”

“It's Raina, donkey.”

“I know” He told me, breathing hard as we kept running running.

I nearly tripped again. “you know? How do you know my name?”

“You were shouting it at yourself back there!”

That was fair.

We reached the end of the alley, but the guards were closing in from behind. I glanced around desperately, searching for somewhere to hide. There was nothing. No doorway, no cart, no convenient hole in the ground. Just the road ahead and a growing number of armed men behind us.

Then I remembered something.

A disappearing spell.

I had read about it in one of my books. I couldn't remember all the details, and the book was currently lying somewhere near the shop, but I remembered enough to attempt it.

“I have an idea,” I said.

Otis looked at me with immediate suspicion. “No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to do.”

“You turned me into a donkey. I’m not giving you another chance to experiment on me!”

“It’s a disappearing spell!”

“That is not reassuring!”

Richard and his men were only a few steps away. I grabbed Otis around the neck, trying to hold him still long enough to begin the incantation.

He fought me with all four legs. “Let go! I refuse! Do you hear me? I refuse!”

“Just trust me this time!” I shouted. “I’m not cold enough to let them kill you because of my mistake. I got you into this, and I’ll get you out!”

“Your previous attempt at getting out of something involved turning me into livestock!”

“Can you complain later?” I said, trying to remember a disappearing spell I'd been memorizing recently.

“I can complain while I’m being executed!”

The guards were almost upon us. Prince Richard reached out, his face hard with determination.

I shut my eyes and began reciting the spell. I stumbled over the first words, corrected myself, and pushed through the rest while Otis continued objecting loudly beside my ear.

“Raina, don’t you dare! If anything else happens to me, I—”

The magic surged beneath my feet.

The shouting faded. The guards’ boots stopped pounding. For one strange moment, it felt as though the entire world had been pulled away from us.

Then my feet hit the ground in a blare.

I opened my eyes, looking around in panic.

The city was gone.

So were the guards, Richard, and every familiar building I had ever known.

Ahead of us stretched an open road beside a weathered stone marker at the kingdom’s boundary. We'd left the kingdom?

I looked at Otis.

Otis looked at me.

“What did you do now!” Otis Cried.