“Mr. Caterwaul.” Princess Imogen/Viktor corrected. She seemed to suddenly remember my coaching from earlier about Viktor’s mannerisms and began jerking wildly, as if having some kind of medical emergency.
Oh, this was not going well. Iggy’s words floated back into my head. He’d been teasing her about her “absolute zero chill,” as he put it, and inability to play it cool in tense situations. Snakes, he hadn’t been kidding at all.
I stepped forward. “Bunch of detritus, if you ask me.” I crossed my arms and shot the prince/Neo a challenging look. “But whatever—bring it on. What’s one more potion?”
I rolled my eyes, trying to act as snarky as I always did, then subtly jerked my chin to the large wooden cabinet at the far side of the room. It sat beside a second entrance—one I’d seen Ludolf enter through before. Icy fear ran through me—if the witches called our bluff and summoned him, we’d be done for.
The prince/Neo followed my gaze and gave me a slight nod back. He turned to the princess/Viktor, who was still flinging her arms and legs in every direction. An A for effort, but a massive fail in execution. “C’mon, Im—I mean, Viktor.”
I pressed my eyes shut, trying hard not to lose my cool. They were helping me, I reminded myself—or at least trying to. But these royals clearly had no street smarts.
When I opened my eyes, the prince and princess in disguise were threading their way between the tables toward the cabinet full of records. I glanced behind me. Francis hung, in bat form, upside down from a rusted pipe in the tunnel, his dark eyes watching intently.
I felt slightly better remembering that we had the vampire on our side, though I wondered how effective he’d be if Ludolf discovered us and sicced the entire shifter underground on us.
The prince and princess stood in front of the cabinet and held their hands up, their lips moving as they no doubt muttered spells. While the real Neo and Viktor used wands, the prince and princess didn’t need them. Princess Imogen/Viktor consulted the parchment I’d given her with the names of all the trapped shifters on them.
Blue light radiated from their hands, growing brighter. The wooden cabinet had a few wide, deep drawers in the bottom. One flew open, several manila file folders floating out and hovering beside the prince. Several more rolled scrolls flew from the lattice of cubbies stacked on top of the drawers.
Good. It was working. Once we had the files and the notes about which potions and curses had been used to trap the shifters in animal form, the royal healers could reverse engineer cures for them. We just had to make it out of here first.
The stack of files and parchment piled up, magically hovering beside the prince and princess. I bit my lip and bounced my leg. The three hunched witches didn’t look up, but a strange, quiet noise began to fill the space. Oh, no. This had happened once before. The witches gradually hummed louder and louder. The last time they’d done this, it had summoned Ludolf.
I tried to catch the prince’s and princess’s eyes. I cleared my throat, and when Prince Harry/Neo looked my way, I flashed my eyes at him, then spoke loudly, as if to the witches. “You ladies don’t have to summon Ludolf—I’m sure he’s already on his way.”
The one by the fire glanced my way and sneered between stringy locks of her white hair. Their humming grew louder, the song some strange, eerie melody I’d never heard before. Soon their voices were echoing off the round stone walls.
“Should we, uh—come back another time?” The princess/Viktor asked. For good measure, she yanked her shoulder up toward her ear so hard, she winced and rubbed her neck after. I pinched the bridge of my nose and then waved them toward me.
“Yeah, I think we’d better.”
One of the witches at the tall table looked up, a bloody dagger in one hand and what appeared to be a dead rat in the other. “You’re not going anywhere.” Her voice came out raspy, as though she hadn’t spoken in years. I half expected moths to flutter out of her mouth.
I bit the inside of my cheek and jiggled my leg. We needed to hurry.
And then, as the prince and princess rushed toward me, skirting along the curved stone walls, the files magically hovering in tow, Ludolf himself stepped through the second entrance by the records cabinet. My breath caught. Oh, snakes.
20
VILLAINS
I expected Ludolf to show surprise and anger, but he merely glanced around the room, his eyes half closed as though he was bored or about to yawn. “What’s all this racket about?”
The three witches looked his way, frowning. The one by the cauldron cocked her head, as though confused. “Master? We thought you’d wish to be alerted that the—”
He stepped into the room, his skeletal frame casting a long, flickering shadow in the firelight. “That the subordinates I summoned are doing my bidding?” He glared at the three women. “And?” His voice came out deadly quiet.
What was happening? My heart hammered in my chest. Had Ludolf actually sent for me and thought that this was all according to plan? Had he not noticed the dozens of files we were about to abscond with?
The prince and princess rejoined me. The prince/Neo looked as wide-eyed and frightened as I was, but the princess/Viktor had an odd smirk on her face.
The witch by the fire bent her head. “I’m sorry, master. We—we were wrong.”
“Hmph.” Ludolf strode toward us, his bony shoulders hunched into his ears, his hands stuck in the pockets of his suit trousers. “I’ll deal with you all later. See that you don’t disturb me unnecessarily again.”
I shivered as he drew closer, wishing I had my magic to defend myself with. I reminded myself that I was with two powerful swallows and a vampire. I squared my shoulders and
