“How much?” I raised my brows. “I’ve only got like ten gold coins on me.”
He glared. “You think you’re so funny. Someone needs to teach you a lesson.”
I scrunched up my face at his breath. “And someone needs to teach you a lesson about brushing your teeth.”
He sucked in a breath, his expression darkening. “Why you—”
Neo flashed his eyes at me, then shot the dude a tight smile. “Let’s let Ludolf do the punishing, hm?”
The guy sniffed, then jerked his cleft chin toward the witches. “What was with the alarm then?”
The one in the middle raised her hand and waved. “False alarm!” Her voice came out hoarse, but cheery, and I guessed it was the princess. “You know us—” She threw her arms around the other two and hugged them tight to her sides. “Just a few senile old hags stuck underground for decades. Bound to make a mistake and wail for no reason now and then.”
Viktor wrung his hands and giggled maniacally. I prayed to the sea goddess he wouldn’t blow our cover. Sacha placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, and he quieted a bit.
The guard dude frowned at the witches, clearly uncertain, but turned back to us. His narrowed eyes slid to the writhing sack. “What’s in there?”
Neo’s throat bobbed. “Heron shifter. Dude runs a shop in the Darkmoon and wasn't paying his dues. Ludolf had us pick him up for questioning.”
The dude sneered, a few teeth missing. “Questioning.” He chuckled, and a few of the guards up front, who could overhear, chuckled with him. He pounded a fist into the palm of his other hand. “Wouldn’t mind helping with some of those ‘questions.’”
My breath came in short pants as I looked over their heads—the line of shifter soldiers stretched back so far, I couldn’t see the end of it, but there were at least a hundred of them visible. So many that they’d make short work of us—or at least, me.
Hopefully, our gamble paid off, and, out of shame at what he was, Ludolf hadn’t revealed to anyone that he was a heron shifter. The dude stalked over to Sacha. “Open it.”
Sacha looked at Neo, who gave a slight nod. He opened the sack, holding the edges with his enormous hands. The guard dude leaned forward and peered inside, then jumped back as a sharp yellow beak jabbed up at him.
“Snakes!”
Sacha clamped the sack closed again and lowered the heron down to the ground.
The guard dude curled his lip at the sack, then at Neo. “Fine. We’ll walk with you down to the office.”
Neo waved him off. “Nah. Ludolf asked us to meet him here.”
“We have more potions to test on that one!” The middle witch pointed a knobby finger at me.
The guard dude hesitated and looked past us toward the back entrance where Francis waited, out of sight, with the real witches. After a long moment, my breath held and heart pounding, the dude shrugged.
“Fine, whatever.” He glared at the prince, princess, and Horace in their old lady disguises. “Just no more false alarms.” He shook his head as he turned, grumbling to himself. “I brought half the underground army with me.” He cupped his hands to the sides of his mouth and shouted at the waiting ragtag group. “False alarm—stand down!”
Slowly, they all shuffled back, grumbling, and I shot Neo a small grin, while Viktor twitched and giggled.
“What do you say we get out of here and deliver this heron to the cops?”
Neo raised his brows. “I know you’re dating one, but you really think you can trust them?”
I nodded, thinking over my talk with Chief McCray. “Peter’s not the only good guy on the force. Plus, we have the royals backing us.”
We glanced behind us as the three old hags transformed back into Horace, Princess Imogen, and Prince Harry. Francis drifted around the corner from the back entrance.
I grinned. “Ludolf’s reign is over.” I could hardly dare to believe it as a rush of relief washed over me. “We’re free.”
38
SAM
Peter, Daisy, and I headed back up to the top of the mountain, accompanied by Francis the vampire (who kept ahold of Ludolf in his heron form), Horace, and the prince and princess. I didn’t let go of Peter’s hand the whole way up, and this time, even the climb through the bustling cobblestone streets didn’t feel like a chore. Catching my nemesis definitely gave me a little extra pep in my step.
We reached the royal grounds and the guards with their golden lances let us in through the main gate. I slowed as we entered, remembering that Sam Snakeman had stood behind the podium in nearly this exact spot when he’d been attacked by Ludolf’s goons. I glanced out over the dark palace grounds, the tree line marking the edge of a small forest. Where could he be?
We paused inside once the golden gates were locked behind us. Being securely on the palace grounds suddenly made it all feel real. We gathered in a little circle.
Prince Harry pointed to our right, toward the jail. “We’ll go with you and make sure Ludolf’s processed properly and guarded.”
Iggy nodded his flaming head. “It’ll also make these guys look less insane when they try to book a heron for kidnapping, false imprisonment, and murder.”
I grinned. “Thanks.”
The prince rubbed his wrist and spoke more to his princess than the rest of us. “We’ll have to coordinate with the healers. They’ll need to make up a cure so Ludolf can be properly tried in human form.”
She shrugged, grinning. “I don’t know—it’d be kinda cute to put a heron on trial.”
He smirked and shook his head.
Horace stood a little apart, his eyes half closed as if he had much more important things to be doing than talking to us. “I’d leave him a bird a little longer—clip his wings to make sure he can’t escape.”
The princess shot him a wary look. “Metaphorically, or…?”
Her little flame
