That night I woke to my upgraded bedroom door creaking open. Not wanting to move, I listened. Padded footsteps approached my head. It wasn’t Roquette. She would have knocked. Was Kalculus trying to smother me in my sleep?

  If I don’t act now it’ll be too late.

  I leapt from the bed and threw my covers over whoever was standing there. The action didn’t give me as much time as I would have liked. The black-hooded intruder quickly tossed them aside. My eyes were drawn to a wicked object in his hand: something that looked like three obsidian arrowheads whose points were fused together.

  My heart hammered in my chest. Whoever this was was trying to kill me. Who? Why?

  I shoved my suspicions down and bounced my eyes across the room, trying to find anything I could use to escape. There. The second story window. But the intruder was standing in front of it.

  What can I do?

  In a desperate move I threw a pillow at the intruder’s head. He slashed out with the terrifying weapon and bird feathers exploded out in a funnel around our heads. I jumped around him, and braced myself as I jumped through the window. Shattered glass rained down around me.

  I hit the ground hard, with sharp glass stabbing into my elbows. I cried out. Small rivers of blood trickled down my forearms.

  He vaulted through the window and expertly landed next to me. He trained that wicked tripoint towards my face.

  My mind froze. My body refused to move. Terror held my body rigid, as though presenting an offering to the assassin.

  Change, change! I thought to myself. I needed the boar’s power to run away, to fight back.

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  Change! The triple pointed blade raised to an inch over my eye.

  In a moment of desperation I squealed. Like, literally squealed, trying to imitate the sound of the boar.

  Something clicked, and I felt myself change. I experienced the welcome taste of strawberry lemonade. My snout elongated with pointy tusks. The assassin jumped back to avoid them.

  That’s right, just try and kill me now!

  Six powerful hooves stomped from my hands and feet. The earth rushed to embrace me as its master.

  Yes! Yes! I mentally screamed victory.

  But then the earth froze. So did my body. Even the muscles tightened in my throat so I couldn’t scream. That’s when a dark understanding pierced my mind. This fear wasn’t natural, it wasn’t a fear I was producing. It was being imposed on me.

  I couldn’t breathe. I lost control of my limbs. I started to panic as my throat swelled and I started to lose consciousness. I heard my captor chuckle mirthlessly. His steps towards me were an ominous countdown of the few seconds I had left to live.

  That’s when a powerful gust of wind knocked the intruder over and broke his spell on me. I heaved wheezes from my powerful lungs, struggling to stand.

  I looked up and saw a beautiful creature half the height of the mansion, with a wingspan twice that. The plumage was beautiful and silver. Powerful fur-coated legs ended with talons the size of swords. A chilly shriek ripped through the night sky from a large, hooked beak. It beat its powerful wings, pinning the assassin with an unstoppable gale to a pillar. The weapon flung loose from his hands.

  The two-legged gryphon whirled out a terrifying localized tornado and slung the intruder through the air. I heard his anguished cry vault over the city wall. Poetic justice was served as the man who trapped me with fear was thrown headlong into the Mantrapper. With a sploosh.

  I saw the gryphon land, and I couldn’t look away as its predatory eyes fixed on me. In a second miracle, it transformed. Its powerful talons retracted into the light flesh of toes. It’s sharp clamp of a beak receded into a human nose. Its eyes kept their color but sunk back into his skull.

  Well that throws that theory out the window.

  I drew a sharp breath as the person who stood before me was none other than Lord Kalculus of House Alaster, resplendent in grey pajama robes.