Damien and Penelope headed out of the mansion at the hour that was reaching midnight. They walked on the streets and as Damien had made use of his ability, Penny didn’t know where exactly they were going.
“Do you remember what spell to use to turn one to a toad?” Damien asked her whilst they walked down the dark empty street.
“Yes, but I haven’t tried to cast it before. Each spell requires practice, Dami,” Penny said, keeping up with his feet. And the only person the spell was tried on was the butler who now was missing.
He didn’t let go of her hand and held it tightly in his, “I have faith that you will be able to do it with a few tries,” said Damien taking another turn that looked like a village they were walking in.
She heard the clock strike twelve in the nearest clock tower that stood tall and easy to look at. She didn’t know where they were going and who they were going to turn into an experiment rat right now. The villagers had gone inside their house and were now fast asleep with not a single soul that walked anywhere except for them in the village right now.
Penny wondered what Damien had in his mind as they made their way to a smaller looking house before he walked to the door and knocked on it, not too subtly. It made her wonder whose door they were standing in front of.
When the door opened, Penny caught sight of the lean man who appeared to be in sleep as he rubbed his eyes.
“Master Damien?” it was Kreme, Damien’s work associate who had answered the door. His brown hair was sticking everywhere right now and the glasses he wore looked crooked on his face.
“Were you sleeping?” Damien stepped inside the house making himself comfortable as he asked the obvious question the human. When the young man caught sight of Penny he offered her a bow and she returned it back to him to follow Damien’s footsteps.
Kreme closed the door shut, turning around to see Damien who was sitting on his small bed and the lady who appeared to be standing quietly. He quickly went to make way for the lady by pulling out a stool for her to sit but she shook her head. He wondered why they were here. It was usually Master Damien who came alone to give him quick work but seeing the lady in here, it made him question what it was.
“Kreme,” Damien called the man’s name, “How much do you trust me?”
The question made Kreme nervous.
It wasn’t the first time he was hearing this question and every time he gave the pureblooded vampire a smile, everything had gone downhill. At one point Kreme had to swim in the river because Damien Quinn had thrown him into it right after the question. And the water that day was too cold, so cold that he had caught a slight cold that had him sneezing the entire day.
It wasn’t like he had an option to say no that he didn’t trust the man as he was his senior councilman at work. Doing that would not only be rude but also disrespectful.
Kreme unwillingly nodded his head with a nervous smile, “Why do you ask, Master Damien?” asked the human. Out of nervousness, he tried to tame his errant hair on his head with his hand.
“This beautiful lady here wants to test out something on you. If everything goes well, it will be great news,” Damien placed both his hands behind him on the bed so that he could lean and stretch his back.
“Test?” asked the man with the glasses.
“Penelope is a white witch and she created a spell,” Kreme looked at the lady, “She needs to test the spell to make sure it works,” Damien replied to him.
The man gulped softly, his head still filled with sleep where he was trying to get rid of it and he asked, “What if it doesn’t go well?”
“Then you will be stuck as a toad for the next-” Damien turned to Penelope and she was the one to explain,
“Mr. Kreme, Penny spoke to the man with respect, “I want to try out a spell. The spell needs to work both ways. In casting and reversing the process. We didn’t know who else to look for and are here.”
“You can take two days off, Kreme. Sleep to your heart’s content,” Damien suggested to the man who quickly agreed. It was very rare to get a decent amount of sleep especially with the amount of work Damien piled up one after another for him. It made Kreme wonder if his senior overestimated his capabilities.
“I am ready!” Kreme came to stand in front of Penny to attention, “Would you like to drink something in the meantime? Water?” he asked the lady.
“No, I am fine. Thank you,” Penny responded back to the young man’s hospitability.
She looked at Damien who gave her a smile of encouragement. Penny was slightly nervous as she had never cast a spell that belonged to a black witch. It was a magic she hadn’t touched and the success rate would take time.
“Let me take a look at the notes you made,” Damien said to Kreme, going to pick one of the closest parchment papers that rested on the little table while giving space to Penny to do what she wanted to do right now.
Thankful, Penny recollected the words the black witcher had used on Durik, the butler. Spells didn’t have to be told out loud if they were clear in the mind. Which was why witches who were used to practicing spells didn’t have to open their mouth wide and loud to utter the words to cast the spell.
“I need you to bring your hand up,” Penny directed Kreme who quickly lifted his hand up in the air. Penny let her fingers touch the tip of one of his fingers and she said the curse in her mind and in no time Kreme had turned from a human to a small toad.
Croak! Came the noise in the room and this had Damien shift his gaze lazily from the parchment to the toad on the ground, “I told you. You have an exceptional gift,” he gave a closer look at the toad who croaked. The toad looked around, croaking to look at both Damien and Penny, “How are you feeling, Kreme?” asked Damien as if he would understand the toad’s language.
“Mr. Kreme, please don’t panic. I will now have to use the reversal spell which is what we are testing. If the spell doesn’t work, we will let the twenty-four hours pass,” said Penny bringing the parchment she had written the spell closer to her.
“Do you think it is possible that once a person turns to a toad they return back to their normal self?” Damien questioned Penny and this had the toad snap its neck to look at Master Damien.
They weren’t sure if he would return back to his original self. Damien threw his head back, laughing before saying, “This is really fun.”
