“Neither did Gideon,” I said.
The words sat between us, heavy but honest.
Before Celeste could respond, the dining hall doors swung open with unmistakable enthusiasm.
“Well,” came a bright, delighted voice, “this is exactly the sort of chaos I was hoping to walk into.”
Lady Limora swept into the hall like a vision in velvet and moonlight, her silver hair piled high, eyes gleaming with unrestrained interest. Behind her came Mara, steady and vigilant; Vivienne, already cataloging every detail with academic delight; and Opal, who looked like she’d just been promised front-row seats to something spectacular.
And dangling upside down from Lady Limora’s hand—
“Oh no,” I said.
Celeste shot to her feet. “Absolutely not.”
Lady Limora beamed, holding the toad, my ex-husband, by one leg like a prize catch of the day.
“Look what I found wandering the corridor. A transformation of this magnitude, unbound, spontaneous, and emotionally charged? That’s an omen if I’ve ever seen one.”
The toad croaked indignantly, swinging slightly.
Mara squinted. “Is that… a person?”
“Formerly,” Lady Limora said cheerfully. “And not a very nice one, from what the walls were whispering.”
Opal clasped her hands. “Is it cursed?”
“Yes,” Celeste and I said in perfect unison.
“And no,” I added immediately. “You are not putting him in a cauldron.”
Lady Limora blinked. “Oh, I wasn’t going to puthimin the cauldron.”
Celeste paled. “That was not reassuring.”
“I was going to consult the cauldron first and see if he wanted to go for a swim,” Lady Limora clarified. “Big difference.”
She turned, already half-lifting her free hand. “Opal, dear, fetch the…”
“NO,” Celeste and I shouted together.
The force of it echoed off the stone walls.
Lady Limora startled, her grip loosening just enough for gravity to intervene.
The toad slipped free.
There was a brief, undignified flail.
Thensplat.
Alex landed belly first on the dining hall floor, stunned into silence for half a second before letting out the loudest, most offended ribbit of the night.
Every sprite froze.
Twobble, who had just entered with a plate of pastries, smiled…the biggest, toothiest grin I’d ever seen.
The toad scrambled upright and hopped backward, directly into the leg of a bench, glaring at all of us like this was somehow our fault.
