Page 29 of Monster's Baby

I looked at the portraits on the walls, but couldn’t see a door.“Umm...”

“You’ve got the key,” he said impishly.“I can’t give youallthe answers!”Chuckling to himself, he left me alone in the corner.

I took out the key and tapped it against my palm.“A keyhole would be at a specific height, usually,” I said to myself.

The walls looked flat everywhere I could see.

“Maybe magically?”I muttered, casting the spell on my eyes the next second.Still nothing stood out to me.

“I am not going to be beaten by a door,” I huffed, removing the spell.

Rather than letting my eyes do the work, I ran my fingertips along the wall around the frames.I couldn’t feel anything, and was starting to get frustrated before I finally looked at the portraits themselves.They were both old witches, with long beards and old-fashioned clothing.But the background of one had a door.

My eyebrows rose.“It can’t be that obvious.”Then I laughed to myself.It certainly hadn’t been obvious to me.

I fit the key to the lock and turned it.Something clicked, and the portrait swung off the wall.

It was a bit of a step to get up into the hole behind it, but I managed, closing the portrait behind me.As was usual, there was a hallway, several hidden doors off it.I had no idea which one would be Emma’s, so I started opening them all, closing them once I knew they were empty, despite wanting to explore them.

The fourth was the one I sought.

Emma squeaked and cast a clumsy invisibility spell on herself, but I stood in the doorway calmly.

“We need to talk,” I said.

She gave up on the pretense of not being there after a few tense minutes.She dropped the invisibility spell and sank onto the makeshift bed she’d set up on the floor.“How did you find me?”she asked.

“That’s your first question?”I was shocked.“Not, ‘How is Professor Reynolds?’or ‘I’m so sorry!’”

Emma put her face in her hands.“I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

I snorted and entered the room, sitting in the desk chair.“Obviously.”

“I just wanted him to love me.”

I rolled my eyes.“Is that really love?”

She sniffled.“No.But maybe it couldbecomelove?”

“You know it wouldn’t.”

“I suppose not.”Emma sighed heavily.

“What’s your plan?”I asked.“Hide in here for the rest of the school year?”

“I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

I wanted to groan.“Well, Professor Dunlop sent me to retrieve you for our lesson.He knew you’d be here.He probably let you have last night to yourself to let you think about things.Now, are you ready to get to work?”

“Work?”

I wanted to shake her.“Yes, work.We need to try to cure the professor.He can’t stay a baby forever, and it’s not fair to force him to go through puberty a second time.”

Emma chuckled weakly.“No, that wouldn’t be nice.But how can I help?”

“Well, having your love spell would help immensely.Do you have any leftovers?The written spell would help as well.”

She nodded.“I can get you the written one, but I don’t have any leftovers.”

---