by Erin Johnson
I shrugged, trying to keep it light. “On the plus side, there was a side effect, and now I can talk to animals.”
The little flame narrowed his eyes. “Prove it.”
“Iggy!” the princess and a few of the group chided.
Rhonda, the famous psychic, spoke, her voice sounding as though her nose was plugged. “Well, I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”
“Ooh! She can talk to Cat.” Maple beamed at Wiley, who seemed equally excited.
I glanced around. “I, uh—don’t see a cat.”
The flame burst into cackles, and the blond shot him a stern look. She then turned back to me and held the little black creature out, her hands under his armpits. He squirmed and scrambled at the air, his tail thrashing and bat wings beating. “No, his name is Cat.”
“Ohhh…. riiiigghhtt.” I nodded slowly. “Cute.”
The flame laughed harder. “I like her.”
I licked my lips and concentrated on the strange little creature. Alright, time to talk to Cat. His back legs kicked as Maple held him out toward me. I frowned, feeling the sound a moment before I heard it—was Cat making that low, humming noise? I looked into the creature’s shiny, round eyes—strange lights and flashes floated across them.
I curled my lip and cringed back. This was beyond odd. Whispering sounded, as though it were coming from all around me and also inside my own head—dozens of voices. Goose bumps rose on my arms, and as hard as I concentrated, I couldn’t make out any individual words. The hushed whispers grew louder and louder—I jerked my hands up to my ears, but it didn’t seem to dampen the noise.
“Alright, wittle guy, that’s enough.” Maple spoke to the creature in the singsong voice I’d use to coo over a newborn.
The whispers stopped, suddenly, and I warily lowered my hands from my ears. The royal gang and Madeline watched me expectantly.
“So, what’d he say?” Wiley stood with his arm around Maple and grinned at me.
I blew out a shaky breath. “To be honest, this has never happened to me. I couldn’t understand him.”
Maple’s face fell.
Iggy shot me a sympathetic look. “Performance anxiety?”
The princess flashed her eyes at her flame as he snickered.
I winced. “Sorry.” They probably thought I was lying about my abilities now. Great.
Cat scrambled back up onto Wiley’s shoulder and nibbled on his ear. I tried not to look horrified. With those teeth, he could take it clean off.
I scratched my cheek. “Your pet is so…” How to put this? “Unique.”
Maple’s face brightened a little. “Aw—thank you.”
Iggy burned suddenly brighter in his lantern on the table, his expression fierce. “It’s not a pet! It’s a mind control demon!”
The princess nodded her agreement.
Come again? “Well… I guess the creepy whispers make sense, then.”
The flame’s eyes widened. “Creepy whispers?”
I nodded. “That’s all I got. Like a thousand voices, whispering.” I wiggled my fingers next to my head, and the flame burst into laughter.
“Okay, she’s legit.”
I looked around the group, confused.
The princess lifted her palm. “Cat is a monster, so that’s probably why you can’t speak to him.”
The prince cleared his throat. “Also, he seems to have mind control powers so… be careful around him.”
I arched a brow. “Seems like that could be pretty helpful, though.” And terrifying.
The prince shook his head. “Getting Cat to do what we want is hit or miss, at best.”
Princess Imogen stepped forward and slid an arm around Prince Harry’s waist. They exchanged a long look and seemed to be having a silent conversation, and then she turned to me. “We’d like to help you, Jolene. What do you need from us?”
I grinned, feeling reassured for the first time in a while. “Thank you.”
14
Teaming Up
“Ludolf keeps records of all the potions he’s tested on shifters in his underground lair. If we could sneak in and steal them, we might be able to engineer cures for the trapped shifters. Once they’re in their human forms, they would then testify against Ludolf.” I bit my lip. “Of course, we’d need a talented potion maker.”
Imogen glanced up at the prince. “Or a team of healers.”
“Our royal healers have some firsthand experience curing curses.” He shot the princess a significant look. “I’ll put them on the task, if we can get ahold of the files.”
Princess Imogen blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Are the files guarded or something?”
I explained about the potion lair and the three old women who worked down there.
The princess tapped a finger to her lips. “So if you could distract the potion makers, someone else might be able to steal the files?”
I nodded.
The prince cleared his throat. “Then we’ll go down into the sewers with you to retrieve the files.”
Francis the vampire drifted forward, his toes dangling over the floor. “I volunteer as well.”
Rhonda pouted. “Be careful, baby.”
I was moved—and also not sure this was a great idea. “Maybe you should send a palace guard or something?” I glanced at Madeline. “It seems dangerous and risky for actual royals to go down there.” I blew out a breath as I thought about the way the lion shifter and I had made eye contact. “Plus, Ludolf’s goons know I was the one who cried out and warned Sam before they fired the spell at him. Which means Ludolf knows… or will soon. I’m already on thin ice—walking into the underground means I’m going to have a target on my back. And so will anyone who’s with me.”
Madeline shook her head. “Compared to some of the other nonsense this gang has gotten into, it’s actually pretty tame.”
Princess Imogen and Prince Harry had another silent exchange and then the prince turned to me. “Imogen and I are swallows—which means we can turn into animals, like a shifter.”
The princess nudged him. “You’ve been practicing, too.” She beamed at me. “He’s getting way better.”
The prince blushed pink with pride.
Princess Imogen blew her bangs out of her eyes. “We can convincingly look like other people, too. Would that be helpful?”
I nodded, a plan already forming in my mind. “Yeah. Actually—I think that’d be perfect.”
She beamed. “It’s settled then.” She turned to the prince. “Ooh—we haven’t gotten to do anything really exciting in a while.”
Iggy gave a fiery smirk. “By exciting, you mean dangerous.”
She shrugged at her little flame in the lantern. “Potato, potahto.”
He shot her a flat look. “What does this have to do with potatoes?”
The princess rolled her eyes. “Human saying—never mind.”
I grinned. “Well… thank you. Sincerely.” I couldn’t wait to tell Peter, Heidi, and Will that I was doing a recon mission with the prince and princess and Francis the vampire.
Peter would be less than thrilled with me risking a trip back down into the sewers, but I was sure he’d feel better about it once he knew I had some decent backup.
The prince squared his shoulders. “We also pledge to try this Ludolf Caterwaul fellow fairly for his crimes—and to make sure the corruption my father fostered doesn’t allow him to escape justice.”
“Oh!”
We all spun to face Rhonda the Seer. Her body stiffened, and she threw her head back, mouth open, frozen.
“Oh, boy,” Iggy muttered. “Here it comes.”
The seer’s forehead glowed golden for several long moments, and then she suddenly relaxed, her shoulders slumping. She shook herself and blinked.
Her vampire boyfriend placed his long, slender hands on her shoulders. “Are you alright, my darling?”
She nodded, her headful of tiny braids bouncing over her shoulders. “Got a vision.” She closed one eye. “Something a
bout ‘it’s cool, you can trust Ludolf’?”
I frowned. “Not to be rude but—that doesn’t sound right.”
She shrugged. “I’m just the messenger. The ether tells me what it will.”
Amelia lowered her voice. “Her visions are usually cryptic, and frankly, I don’t think even she knows what they mean half the time.”
I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.” I could tell Amelia was still deeply worried about her friend. She crossed her arms and drummed her fingers, agitated.
“Hey, and I’ll put out the alert to as many animals and shifters as I can to keep an eye out for Sam. I’ll let you know if anyone spots him.”
“He shifts into a little green snake,” Kenta reminded me. “Thank you.”
Amelia’s gray eyes lit up. “That gives me an idea—we don’t want the shifter haters on the lookout for him, but maybe we could put up lost pet signs, like we’re missing our pet snake.”
Kenta nodded. “That’s not bad—we should offer a reward if anyone’s seen him—or better yet, found him.”
The prince grinned. “I think I can provide a sizable reward for Sam.”
“Sounds like we have a plan.” Princess Imogen beamed at all of us. “I think you all know what this calls for.” She stuck her arm straight out in front of her, palm down.
Her little flame groaned, and even most of her friends looked less than enthusiastic.
I leaned close to Madeline. “What’s she doing?”
The reporter shrugged.
The princess threw her head back and huffed. “Oh, come on!”
Her friends and husband reluctantly circled up around her and stacked their hands on top of hers. Madeline and I followed suit, and I found myself turned sideways, smashed between Yann, the big redheaded dude, and Rhonda the Seer.
“One—two—three—Go team take down Ludolf and find Sam!” Princess Imogen threw her hand up and the others and I followed suit, though I had no idea what I was doing. As awkward as it was, I just felt grateful—and jittery with nerves. The royal group was on my side, and we were actually going to take down Ludolf… or die trying.
15
The Door
After some discussion, we decided it’d be best to move the shifters who were still trapped in their animal forms out of my apartment and into the much safer—and larger—royal palace. I knew Heidi would miss taking care of them—especially the sloth, who she carried everywhere like a baby—but it’d be way safer for them and her.
Ludolf’s goons had been keeping an eye on my place. And while Peter had made sure to send police patrols around as often as he could, it still made me uneasy that Heidi was there alone so much of the time.
Amelia, the event coordinator, had promised to pop over to the jail and pass a message along to Peter, filling him in on our plans. I knew he wouldn’t like that I was going down into the sewers, but when it all turned out fine, I was sure he’d forgive me. Hopefully, it would turn out fine.
A few of the group stayed behind, but Prince Harry; Princess Imogen and her flame, Iggy; Maple; her boyfriend, Wiley; Cat; Francis the vampire; and Rhonda the Seer snuck out of the palace and came with me back to the Darkmoon District.
I bit my lip and glanced at the royal group to gauge their reactions as we passed three drunk men stumbling through the street, arms over each other’s shoulders, singing sloppy sea shanties. One of them rushed to the gutter and vomited up his dinner.
I bit back a grin, half worried, half amused. Welcome to the Darkmoon.
But the princess just shrugged at her blond friend, Maple. “Eh. No worse than the Rusted Wreck on a Saturday night.”
Maple giggled.
The prince leaned close to me to be heard as we passed a lively bar, dancing spilling into the street, a bass beat thumping so loud it made my teeth rattle. “The Rusted Wreck is our favorite dive bar in Bijou Mer. We visit it anytime we’re in town.”
I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets, chilly from the fall night air. Clouds drifted across the moon, and bats winged overhead, chirping.
Weeeee!
Josh—bugs over here!
I frowned, amused. “No offense, but I have a hard time seeing you lot hanging out in a dive bar.”
We took a shortcut down a dark, narrow alley. The ancient buildings leaned in overhead to the point that they nearly touched.
Wiley, the tall one, fell in behind me, Cat riding on his shoulders. The strange little creature chirruped and chittered, and I had the uneasy sensation of again not being able to understand him. I’d gotten so used to speaking to animals that it felt deeply uncomfortable to not be able to converse with this one.
Wiley chuckled. “If you’d have met me a couple of years ago, you wouldn’t have a hard time picturing it. I practically grew up in dive bars.”
Maple let out a disapproving noise.
“Those days are behind me now.” Wiley dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “Mostly.”
Maple clicked her tongue. Someone was in the doghouse. I grinned to myself—Daisy would not have approved of that saying. Weird—I kind of missed the furry mutt.
We emerged from the alley on the other side and wound our way toward my home. I tried to take as many alleys and side streets as possible to avoid the busy shopping and dining areas. Francis and Rhonda were so well known that despite their disguises of sunglasses and hats, it’d be hard not to recognize the world’s last vampire and the famous psychic—who pulled down her glasses and winked at her reflection in every window we passed.
I checked my street and found it mostly clear—except for the debris blowing through the gutters, the pulsing bar below my flat, and the usual beggars, partiers, and general riffraff. I turned and waved the group forward.
I grinned back at them. “Now, prepare to be underwhelmed, this isn’t quite on par with your palatial digs.”
The princess snorted. “I lived in what was basically a closet back in Seattle, so don’t sweat it.”
“Before you burned it down?” Iggy sweetly asked.
She shot him a look, and he cackled.
There seemed to be a story there.
“Oh!” I held up a finger. “And to the tall guys, watch your heads. The stairwell’s steep and—” I stopped dead in my tracks. The metal door to my apartment—the one we’d given Heidi strict instructions to keep locked—stood ajar. Icy dread flooded my stomach.
“Oh, no no no no no!” I rushed forward, shaky with panic. My door was plastered in peeling band posters and graffiti and through it all, a symbol had been carved into the metal that looked like a crooked letter t—Ludolf’s symbol.
“No! That sea slug!” I pounded my fist against the door. It boomed like a drum as the swinging door slammed against the brick wall.
“What’s wrong?”
“You okay?”
The voices of my new friends sounded miles away. I gripped the doorframe and pulled myself inside, then dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. “Heidi! Heidi?!”
16
Missing
Gasping, I stumbled through the beaded curtain and into my kitchen. Footsteps thudded up the stairs behind me. The prince and Wiley shoved past, wands drawn, and Francis swept into the room in bat form. He squeaked and swooped near the ceiling, then in a black cloud of smoke he materialized as a man again, his toes dangling above my stained carpet.
My chest felt as though someone were sitting on it. The place was empty. No Heidi, and none of the two dozen trapped shifters. They were all gone. I knew, even before the prince and Wiley finished sweeping through my bedroom and bathroom—there wasn’t the usual sound of monkeys and parrots and bouncing antelope.
I wanted to collapse into one of my kitchen chairs, but whoever had done this had broken them to shards. The couch had been overturned, stuffing scattered everywhere. The torn curtains hung askew on the window that looked out into the street. Even the clock on the wall had been smashed.
I put a trembling hand against the cracked counter
top to steady myself. Ludolf’s goons had ransacked the place. I pressed a hand to my stomach. What had he done with my friend and all the shifters?
Imogen, Maple, and lastly, a huffing Rhonda, emerged from the stairwell behind me. They stared wide-eyed around my trashed apartment.
Maple sucked in a quick breath. “Oh, it’s, uh—” She swallowed. “Homey?”
I shot her a flat look. “It doesn’t normally look great, but it’s not this bad!”
She winced. “Sorry.”
I blinked back tears, my hands clenched into tight fists. “Ludolf did this.” And what was he doing now to Heidi and the trapped shifters?
Wiley, the prince, and Francis emerged from my bedroom.
“Is anyone in there?”
They shook their heads.
“Looks like someone torched all your clothes, though.”
“Oh.” I let out a humorless chuckle. “So that’s what that smoke smell is.”
“Oh.” Maple bit her lip. “I thought the smell might be the animals.”
I huffed. “Yeah, okay, some of the odor is the animals.”
“Jolene?”
My heart stopped, and I spun around to find my landlady standing in the doorway behind me. Her nickname around the Darkmoon was “the dragon,” not only because it was rumored she was a dragon shifter but also because she had the personality of one.
I glanced around at the utter destruction. Cabinet doors had been ripped from their hinges, insulation poured from holes in the walls as big as my torso, and the whole place reeked of smoke and animal droppings. As horrified as I was that Heidi and the shifters were missing at Ludolf’s hands, I was nearly as terrified of my landlady’s reaction. She’d once yelled at me for putting holes in the wall to hang my beaded curtain. I could only imagine the tirade I was about to face.
I held up my palms. “Mrs. Kim, I can explain. I just—”
She cut me off with a sharp swipe of her hand. “No need. I know what happened.” She narrowed her dark, glittering eyes. “You can thank me later.” She sniffed and glanced around the room, all eyes on her. “You can pay me later, too. You have rich friends, I guess.” She sneered, revealing several missing teeth.