She stammered incoherently, and I took a second to enjoy her shock. Then I turned back to Luca and tugged him toward my car, leaving Peyton to stare after us.

“What was that all about?” Luca asked as I opened my driver’s side door. “Dancer drama?”

I shrugged. “Just establishing the new pecking order. I figure if I can snatch us from the jaws of certain death in the Netherworld, I can handle just about anything this world has to throw at me.”

Luca’s brows rose. “This world has some Netherworldly things to throw too,” he reminded me.

“Then maybe you should stick around and help me swing a bat.” I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him closer, and for the first time in my life I didn’t care what I looked like or who saw me. At least for the next few minutes, none of that mattered. What mattered was that I now understood things I’d never imagined possible before—not just about the Netherworld, but about myself. I was truly awake, for the first time in my life, and if asleep was what I’d been before, I never wanted to sleep again.

“That sounds like fun. In a terrifying kind of way,” Luca said, with half a smile.

He was right. I probably should have been scared. Later, I probably would be. But in that moment, with the sun shining, the monsters vanquished, and Peyton stunned speechless at my back, I kind of felt like a new kind of princess. A warrior princess, ready to swing her battle-ax through hordes of the fashion-challenged and the socially unfortunate.

I felt like I could do anything. I could lead the dance team. I could stand up for Laura. I could even let my cousin’s crazy drama slide right off my back. And if no one else would tell me what I needed to know, I could damn well find my own answers.

But as Luca slid into my passenger seat to accept my offer of a ride home, the most pressing question was already weighing heavy on my mind.

What does a warrior princess wear for her first day on the throne?