It Isn't Easy Being Queen

9. Excuse me, I'm a What?

What was going on?

Wait, I was worried about a cauldron when I'd just blown up a cemetery?

I really needed to get my priorities straight.

The memories of all that happened at the cemetery flooded into my brain like a massive data dump.

Tyra and Ms. Piltz kept talking about a test. Something about me being the one or not being the one. They argued. One more test, Ms. Piltz had insisted.

Then the minivan. Careening toward Cal. Out of control.

Squealing brakes. Crunching leaves. Throwing up mud along the way. It was about to crush Cal. I leaped in front. Not my best move, I have to admit. As if I could stop a racing minivan with my hands! Who did I think I was? A superhero or a vampire?

Just when I was sure it was the end of us both, I was struck by lightning.

No, that's not quite right. I was the lightning.

The electricity burst out of my body, roiling over gravestones, toppling trees, catching leaves in a swirl, and spitting them out. The sky crackled with blue lightning. Black sulfurous smoke filled my lungs like something from the seventh circle of hell.

And then my dads' minivan rode up into the sky, like Santa's sleigh, only without the cute reindeer.

After the car flew, Ms. Piltz jumped up and down, clapping her hands, and crowing that her magic would be restored. Tyra looked sullen, frowny, barely even gorgeous (which was the best part. I mean, the fact that the car hadn't squished Cal or me was also a plus.)

Obviously, I had something very frightening and wild inside me.

What had Tyra said? "... a real queen would have control. Even if she has magic, it's primal. Untrained. And no help to us. The coronation is a month away. Face it, you found a dud."

Did anything about that make sense?

Like what did she mean by 'real queen?' Someone with a crown and thousands of servants and unlimited teacakes? (Because that's something I could get behind.)

Magic that is primal and untrained? That sounds like a bad kind of magic, although I'm no expert since I didn't know it existed until today.

No help to them? As if I would ever help Tyra with anything other than tying her to a rock and dropping her in the ocean.

Coronation in a month? Like I didn't even have a scepter, or a country, for that matter. What coronation were they talking about?

She's a dud? Did "duds" blow up cemeteries and high school gyms? I didn't think so. That was the opposite of dud behavior.

I had no clue what any of this meant. But I always say, "begin with what you do know, and not what you don't." (Okay, I'd never said this before, but I have now, and it's super good advice.)

Rowen's List of the Known:

1. Magic was real.

2. My favorite teacher was a traitor.

3. Minivans could fly.

4. Mean girls were mean even if they were not even human (and possibly devil spawn.)

Wait!

My stomach twisted. Bile rose in my already sore throat.

Devil spawn!

Oh, my! It made so much sense.

Not that Tyra was a demon ...

... but that I was a demon!