“Must have been your kiss.” Kato smoothed my hair and ran a hand across my cheek.
“But that means the fairy tales rules are fixed.” The spring water must have disenchanted the broken pieces of the star that Griz had stuffed into her vest. I’d forgotten they were even there until I saw them in the puddle, but it didn’t occur to me that, fractured, the star might still have been cleaned of the wish. When I threw the shoe, I’d just been remembering something the pixing wizard had said about Griz being afraid of water.
Wrapping his arms around me, Kato twirled me away. “I guess that means we get the happy ending after all. We skipped this part the first time, but would you do me the honor of being my queen?”
Rexi’s moan was cut off by a little kick from Verte. “Shh, this is the best part.”
“Yes, for all of ever after.”
The words had barely left my lips before he kissed them. If it’s even possible, it was better than the first. And this time, there was no Hydra head to spoil it.
I broke off the kiss, startled by the mental image of her head rolling around somewhere after I dropped it in the hazy mess of the halls. “Oh, pix. I forgot about Hydra.”
The smoke was still creeping into the furnace room, and a big puff of it was right in front of me. When it cleared, I was left looking at Kato’s unamused furry face.
Rexi snorted. “You’re right. This is the best part.”
Verte helped her off the ground and cackled, “Hehe. Guess the rules aren’t as fixed as lover boy might like.”
I sighed and rested my forehead on Kato’s. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. Maybe the star being broken messed the reversal up. Or maybe some of the pieces had fallen out of the Gray Witch’s brazier on the ride over. Whatever happened, it meant we still had some work to do.
The ground rumbled beneath our feet.
Kato frowned. “The defenses should be turned off now that the danger’s passed.”
“Yay. One more thing that isn’t working like it should.” Rexi rolled her eyes and leaned on me for support since she was still a little wobbly. I suppose being very nearly dead will do that to you.
“Unless you want to see a volcano erupt up close and personal, I better figure out what’s going on. It’s probably easier to check the defenses as a chimera. But after I’m done, you’ll change me back, right?”
“Ooh, she’s got you by the short whiskers now, boy,” Verte cackled.
Kato shook his head in mock disgust and lowered himself down next to Rexi. “Get on. This is a one-time offer, and if you say one word, I might drop you into the lava,” he warned her.
Rexi mimed zipping her lip and collapsed onto Kato’s back, then they flew from the room.
“I suppose we’d better find Hydra.” I nudged Verte. “Can you use your emerald eye and do whatever it is you do to find me all the time?”
She jiggled her belt. “This can’t find anybody. Never has, never will.”
“Then how did you know where I was, and how did you know to come here?” I asked.
Grinning slyer than a fox, she pointed at my broken and discarded heels. “I always put tracking spells in all your shoes because they’re the only thing I can count on you hanging on to with your last breath.”
“That’s it?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s why you told me, ‘Don’t lose your shoes’? That’s the only reason I’ve been wearing these blister makers? What about the being enchanted and protecting me from all the dangers I’d run across?”
Verte’s eyebrows curved sharply down, meeting in the middle to form a V shaped unibrow. “I didn’t put anything like that on them. Were they modified by elves while you slept?” She hobbled over to the broken shoe, picked it up, and gave it a good sniff. “Something smells like mildewed doughnuts.”
“Excuse me?” I said, more than mildly offended at the foot odor insinuation.
Ignoring me, she turned the shoe this way and that, then finally licked along the broken edge of the heel.
“Ewww.”
Verte smacked her lips, savoring the taste. “Yup, I knew that smelled familiar. They haven’t been modified. They’ve been ozified.”
“Is that kind of like ozmosis?” I asked.
Verte ignored me, lifted up her hat, and felt around. Finding nothing, her eyes narrowed at me. Or rather past me as she darted to the discarded book and scooped up what looked like a small green creature.