He rose. It was like he slowly unfolded himself, growing taller and more menacing as he stood. He turned his sharp, hooked nose in my direction. “I think you won’t want to miss what I have to say to you.”
I gulped.
He smiled, and I wished he hadn’t. He revealed tiny, pointed teeth, his cold eyes sharp and mirthless. “I believe I’ve found a cure for you.”
33
A CONFESSION
I recoiled in spite of my best efforts to hold my ground. One of the old ladies cackled, a rasping, coughing sound, and the other two—they had to be her sisters, they looked so alike—took it up, their barking laughter echoing around the room.
Viktor joined in with uncontrollable giggles until Neo shot him a hard look, and Sacha came up from behind and wrapped him in a tight bear hug. His tic quieted and he grew still, though a muscle in his face still twitched.
I gulped and wished, desperately, I was in my bed.
The lady cutting the creature set down her knife and handed Ludolf a beaker of glowing green potion. It steamed and bubbled. He approached me, his movements deliberate and eerily controlled. I felt as though I were being stalked.
Neo and the boys edged away from me. Cowards. I balled my hands into fists at my sides to hide their trembling. I thought back to what Opal had said about potion masters being able to possibly find a cure for a curse. I lifted my chin as Ludolf’s hard eyes locked on me, his pupils so wide, nearly his entire iris was black.
“No offense.” I licked my lips. “But you’d need to know exactly what curse was used against me to concoct a cure.”
He didn’t stop his slow advance.
My mouth grew dry. “I understand that trying to cure a curse without a thorough knowledge of it can do more harm than good.” Was that what he intended? I edged back, my heart thundering in my chest. “I don’t want it.”
He loomed over me.
“No!” I screamed.
My voice echoed off the walls, but Ludolf in a quick flash doused me with the potion. I cringed against the cold stone wall, shaking as the potion burned, then cooled, then evaporated away, leaving me dry.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but the memory of Eve dousing me with the curse that had stripped me of my powers and ability to shift wouldn’t stop playing behind my eyes. I trembled, lost in the horrible memory, until Ludolf’s quietly menacing voice brought me back to the present moment.
“Try.”
I peeled an eye open and stared at him, not understanding.
“Try to use magic. Or shift.” His chest heaved, and a childlike eagerness laced his words.
I didn’t understand his excitement, but it creeped me out. I let my arms drop to my sides and nodded. I tried to shift. Nothing happened. I tried to sense the magic inside me. Nothing.
I shrugged and shook my head at him.
His expression darkened. “Try harder.”
I gritted my teeth. “It didn’t work.” Anger burned in my chest and throat. “Like I said, you’d have to know what was used to curse me in the first place. It’s useless!”
He moved closer and lurked over me. “How dare you question me.”
I froze. He’d always been sort of quietly menacing, but there was a gleam to his eye I’d never seen before. Open hostility hardened his words. “I know what I’m doing.”
I huffed. “If that were true, then you should know you can’t—”
“I know what curse was used against you!” he shrieked.
Icy dread flooded down my spine, and I stared, frozen, up into his hard face with its sharp nose, cold eyes, and stringy hair. “How?” I sucked in a shaky breath. “How do you know what was used against me?” My chin trembled, and tears welled in my eyes, though I wished them away. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
That case I’d been working, defending that young kid—Ludolf had been the one he’d taken the blame for. Shell, he was probably still behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.
Ludolf watched me, unblinking. “You were getting too close.”
Goose bumps prickled my arms.
“That boy had agreed to take the fall for me. He was paid well for his years in prison. You needed to be silenced.”
I leaned back against the wall for support. It felt like the room was spinning around me. “How did you know?”
“Emerson was in my pocket.” He narrowed his eyes. “You recently put him behind bars, yes?”
I’d been right—all those years ago, I’d been right and punished for trying to do the right thing. That kid—I’d convinced him we could fight it, that I could protect him. Next time I went to visit him in prison, there’d been a man to see him—a Mr. Ronstadt. I hadn’t recognized the name, but my client changed his tune. The kid told me he was taking the fall and warned me to drop it.
I suddenly remembered—that’s where I’d seen the name Ronstadt before. He was the same man John (now an iguana) had told me came to buy the remainder of the potion that had turned him into a lizard. He’d bought the contaminated potions for Ludolf, just like he’d convinced that kid years ago to take the fall for the mob boss.
My throat grew tight. “Why not just kill me?”
He shrugged his bony
