Page 96 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
“Give up the ferret, Daiedes.”
“What? It took so long to get it. I won’t! I won’t give it up. The king said I could have it.”
“Shall I cut it from your belly? I will, you know. And that would be the end of you.”
The snake groaned and hissed as, scale by scale, it shivered free from the mirror frame and fell with an inglorious thump to the floor.
“It’sssshumiliating,” he cried.
How well Dahlia knew the sting of humiliation. Daiedes’s cheating had cost her far more than she was ever able to admit. She’d been the last to know and had guarded her heart ever since.
“Give it up. Now.”
Daiedes began twisting, regurgitating, inch by inch, the lump moving forward through the snake’s sleek body, bulging and stretching scale and skin as it went. Daiedes wept with each convulsion. “It’s mine. It’s mine.”
“Keep going,” she said.
Finally, his jaws stretched wide, and with one last violent heave, the ferret popped out of his mouth onto the floor.
The ferret’s fur was dry, the snake having none of the juicy insides needed to digest anything. Daiedes only had the memory of what a meal tasted like, from when he had been a human so long ago. If he ever truly was one.
The ferret was dazed, slowly stretching.
Dahlia nudged him with her shoe. “You too, Angus. Wake up!”
Angus startled, instantly shape-shifting to his human form.
“Fritz,” Madame Chastain said, scrutinizing the large hulk of the former doorward of Celwyth.
“Madame,” he returned, fear edging his voice. Fritz stared at her, weighing his choices. He was strong of muscle, but the High Witch was strong in deadlier ways. He avoided powerful creatures like her by stealing through the shadows in his ferret form. But there was no avoiding her now. He could tell by her gaze that she knew of his secret wanderings. Was this his true end? He squared his shoulders, waiting.
“Go back to Bowskeep, Fritz. Stop burrowing through the palace. Stop stealing art. Stay true to Kierus’s last orders. Watch over his daughters.”
Fritz’s furry brows pulled together, and he sputtered over his words. “How—how do you know about Bowskeep?”
“We saw the wards you keep at the house there. They won’t last forever. Go back where you’re needed. Kierus is on his own mission now, and it doesn’t include you.”
“You’re just letting me go?” he asked suspiciously.
Daiedes writhed on the floor. “Noooo. Sssstop.”
“Yes,” Dahlia said to Fritz. “Go back and fulfill your orders in Bowskeep—and stay there. Those girls need you.”
Fritz nodded, and just as swiftly as he had changed to his human form, he shifted back to the ferret Angus, the form he liked best, and disappeared out the door.
The High Witch looked down at Daiedes.
She thought about all the time she had wasted on him, all the things he had taken from her, and the lesson she thought she had taught him. Instead, for years his garish presence had only been a constant reminder of her own foolish mistakes.
She knelt down, stroking his scales. He squirmed beneath her touch, afraid. “Temeesh, arri sen fini. Your curse is lifted.”
The snake writhed, a hissing screech escaping from his mouth, his forked tongue whipping wildly about as he transformed, the golden scales becoming the hair she once loved, his sleek body growing in width and stature, his mouth becoming as perfectly beautiful and dangerous as it had once been.
He scrambled to his feet, staring at her, terror shining in his golden eyes. “What are you going to do with me now?”
“Nothing,” she answered. “Nothing but let you go.”
His eyes grew wider, still waiting for retribution, but when none came, he shuffled slightly, then bolted for the door. Dahlia didn’t care where he went, but knew he would never cross her path again, not even in her thoughts, and that was what mattered most.
