Rhonda shrugged, her brows raised. “I don’t decide the messages, I just receive them.” She put a hand to the side of her mouth and spoke in a stage whisper. “But if you ask me, I’m not sure the spirits have got the right information in this instance.”
Maple nodded and beckoned Cat back into her arms. As soon as he flapped over to her, the other animals seemed to snap out of their trances. “Rhonda, Iggy, Wiley, Cat, and I will escort everyone back up to the palace.” She pressed her lips together and leveled Princess Imogen with a serious look, a little crease appearing between her brows. “Please be careful down there.”
The princess gave her a soft smile. “We will.” She shrugged it off. “We’ve got Francis with us. What could go wrong?”
Maple made an unconvinced noise.
Will clamped a beefy hand on my shoulder and spun me to face him. He shook his index finger at me, inches from my face. “If you die down there, I’ll kill you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Gee. I didn’t know you cared.” Even though I glared at him for a moment, my expression softened, as did his. “I love you, buddy.”
He held up his palm. “Don’t! No goodbye speeches.”
I smirked. “Fine. But if I—”
He flashed me a warning look, his bushy brows lifted.
I took a breath and started over. “If I…” I searched for a way to avoid saying ‘never come back.’ “If I decide to go on vacation and never return…”
Will looked prim but allowed me to go on.
“…please tell Peter that I love him and to make sure to buy Daisy some plain bone broth next time he gets ramen—it’s her favorite.”
After I spoke with each of the trapped shifters and told them the plan to get them up to the palace, we headed into the night. In the alley, before parting ways, Will pulled me and Heidi into a group hug.
“Be safe.” I pointed at them.
Will kept his arm around Heidi, who still carried the sloth, as they moved up the mountain toward the palace. “You, too, Jolene.”
Princess Imogen, Prince Harry, and Francis and I headed downhill toward the sewer grate that led to the secret shifter underground.
19
THE LAIR
We tromped through the sewers, our feet splashing in the few inches of murky water at the bottom of the tunnels. Rats scurried along the edges, clinging to a narrow, raised ledge.
“Can you understand what they’re saying?” It was odd to hear the princess’s chipper tone come out of Viktor’s mouth, his gold teeth glinting in the flickering torch light. While the prince and princess had never seen my old pal Neo and his subordinate, the wiry, tattooed Viktor, I’d described them well enough that with enough tweaks, they’d both convincingly transformed themselves into the two.
I listened to the rodents for a moment, then turned to the princess/Viktor. “One rat’s bragging about his kids to another—says they have the biggest front teeth he’s ever seen.”
The princess/Viktor smirked. “Cute.” Usually, Viktor was twitching and giggling uncontrollably. It was unnerving to see the princess embodying him, so calm and upbeat.
Princess Imogen and Prince Harry had explained that with their specialized swallow magic, they drew energy from other people, objects, or elements of nature and could therefore fuel more powerful spells than other magic folk, who drew their powers from within. This allowed them to use magic to convincingly disguise themselves as other people. I couldn’t fuel any spells, having lost my powers to the curse Ludolf had tested on me years ago, so I was impressed—and grateful to have them on my side.
I snuck a glance to my right at Prince Harry, who looked almost identical to Neo with his slicked-back hair and even slicker clothes. Grateful, but still kinda weirded out. Francis winged near the top of the stone tunnel in bat form, just so he wouldn’t be recognized.
So far, all our efforts to disguise the royal group had been overkill—we hadn’t run into anyone but the rats. Still, I listened hard for any sounds of footsteps, my stomach tight with worry. I’d barely made it out of here alive on my last visit. Now that Ludolf was even less pleased with me, evidenced by his little redecorating job at my apartment, I wasn’t eager for another encounter with the ol’ mob boss.
We followed the twists and turns of the sewers, the tunnels growing so narrow that we had to fall into a single line. The prince/Neo had to duck through some parts, the walls and ceiling crumbling around us. I spotted a red glow up ahead, flickering off the rough stone walls, and slowed to a stop. I turned to the prince/Neo.
“That’s it, up ahead. You’d better lead the way. Remember our story?”
The prince/Neo nodded. “We caught you and are bringing you down here for Ludolf to test more potions on.”
The princess/Viktor held up a finger with a tiny skull tattooed above the knuckle. “And he also asked us to collect some records for him.”
I nodded. “Good.” I glanced up at where Francis circled overhead. “Francis, you’re backup in case we run into any trouble.” Sea goddess below, I hoped we didn’t run into any trouble.
Prince Harry/Neo led the way, ducking through a half-collapsed doorway into the large, round potions room. I followed, with Princess Imogen/Viktor behind me. The space glowed with the red light of the fire in the giant hearth, which heated a cauldron of sizzling orange liquid.
One of the three hunched old witches stirred a paddle around in it. The other two witches, who I guessed to be her sisters, since they looked identical with their white hair and crooked backs, worked at a tall table littered with animal feet, bottles of potions, and various beakers and spell books. They barely looked up, which I found more unsettling than if they’d grilled us.
“Uh.” Prince Harry/Neo brought a fist to his mouth and cleared his
