Page 30 of Monster's Mistake

“If you hadn’t bitten Meic, we wouldn’t have to do this,” I respond, using the glass in one of the cupboards to get him into position.

He reluctantly opens his mouth and sinks his fangs into the fabric stretched over the top of the beaker. I hold him in place for a few minutes.

“How much do you need?” I ask Cethin.

“As much as you can get.”

“Okay.”

I let go once I feel Frank relax, assuming that all of his venom is now in the beaker. It will refill in about ten minutes thanks to the magic. I wish it took as long for it to refill as it does with normal snakes, which would be really helpful for preventing gorgon accidents, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

I head over to the workbench and put down the beaker. “That’s what I’ve got.”

“That should be plenty,” Cethin says without taking his eyes off the small cauldron in front of him. I don’t think his reluctance has anything to do with fearing my gorgon magic though, it has everything to do with watching the pot in front of him.

I go to rejoin Anja, my nerves reaching new heights as I think about how long Meic has spent in the secret room completely turned to stone.

“So, your first kiss?” my friend asks.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“And it was awful?”

“No. The kiss was great. It was Frank biting him and then me turning him into stone that wasn’t so good,” I admit, not seeing the point in keeping it to myself when it’s kind of obvious given where we are.

“Ah, fair.”

“No other questions?” I ask.

She chuckles. “I’ve had a first kiss with my fated mate, I’m not asking so you don’t have to tell.”

“It didn’t go any further than that,” I say quickly. “It was just a kiss, then Frank bit him.”

“I guessed.”

A large puff of smoke comes from Cethin’s cauldron, and he coughs a few times. “Sorry.”

“Is everything all right with it?” I ask.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to do that.”

“How many times have you had to brew a potion like this?” I ask.

“Never. But the instructions mention it.” He waves towards the open book on his desk.

“Oh.”

“So, I’m going to warn you now, there’s a chance that this isn’t going to work. I’ve never made it before,” he says seriously.

“What else am I going to do? It’s not like I can leave Meic in the room until he turns back to normal.”

“Is Meic ever really normal?” Anja murmurs.

I roll my eyes and don’t respond. “I don’t even know how long that’s going to take. My mum told me that it depends on how much venom gets into the system, but I don’t know how to measure that, or even how to.”

“It’ll be fine,” Cethin says. “Meic will understand.”

“Mmm.” That remains to be seen, but I know there’s nothing I can do about it. What’s done is done, I just need toundoit.

---