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Toto, completely oblivious to his reaction, turns to Dr. Karloff. "Did the punch take everyone's memories too?"
"There was a similar case with Galina, who became a ghost, but—" Dr. Karloff pulls a cloth from his pocket and cleans his glasses. “No, this is quite different. Quite different, indeed.”
I have no idea who Galina is, and for the sake of my ever-decreasing sanity, I’m not about to ask.
"So, everyone else transformed exactly at midnight?" I ask instead, my thoughts racing a mile a minute.
Dr. Karloff nods. “As far as we know.” His expression suddenly brightens. “But if Vera took you into Fable Forest before midnight…” He trails off, staring at the three of us. “That would explain it.”
“Explain what?” Nick asks.
“Why you didn’t transform with everyone else. You weren’t in Screaming Woods when the magic took effect.”
I look down at my talons. “So what? It just waited?”
“Essentially, yes.” Karloff gestures toward us. “The magic was already inside you. Leaving before midnight interrupted the transformation, but it didn’t remove the spell. When you crossed back into Screaming Woods today—”
“It finished what it started,” Nick says.
Karloff nods.
“We’ve been in Oz for more than a decade,” Nick says.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.” Karloff shrugs. “Time doesn’t move consistently between worlds, particularly where Fable Forest is concerned. Ten years in Oz might not equal ten years here.”
I shake my head. Magic that can apparently put a pause on turning me into a giant winged lion is rapidly approaching the limit of what my brain can process today.
Beside me, Granger shifts uneasily. “Nick and Leo are remembering things I can’t.” His voice has lost some of its usual humor.
Then his expression changes. “Wait.”
We all look at him.
Granger presses a hand to his temple. “I can see something.”
“What?” I ask.
His eyes squeeze shut. “Green. That fucking green again.”
My pulse kicks up. “The stone?”
“I think so.” His brow furrows. “There’s gold around it. And Vera’s…” He trails off.
“Vera’s what?”
His eyes snap open. “Screaming.”
A chill runs down my spine. “What is she saying?”
Granger stares at me for a long second. “She’s saying, where is it?” He shakes his head abruptly. “That’s it. It’s gone.”
He screws up his face, clearly trying to chase the memory, before letting out a frustrated breath.
He turns to Karloff. “Will they come back? The rest of my memories?”
Karloff’s expression softens. “I don’t know.”
Granger looks down at his burlap hands. “My memory was already shit, but now it’s worse.”
