“Yes, I think this will work.”

“What?” I urged.

“What if Kiev went to Derek personally to apologize, and vice versa?”

I stared at her. “Well, obviously that would be the best option, but how on earth—”

“How on earth do we get those two stubborn mules to ever do it? Simple. We don’t.”

“Huh?”

“There is a spell I believe I can pull off.” Corrine stood up and began pacing the room. “But we’re going to need Mona’s help.”

“What spell?”

“I can give you Derek’s appearance. And also Kiev’s appearance.”

I gasped. “That’s brilliant, Corrine. So I would look exactly like them? My voice would sound like them too?”

Corrine nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

I pushed the pen and paper away from me.

“And why do we need Mona?”

“I need some form of both of the men’s DNA. A hair will probably be the easiest and least… unhygienic.”

“Okay. We’ll ask Mona. I’m sure she’ll agree. She’s not happy with the tension between the two of them either.”

“We just have to trust that she won’t blab to anyone about it,” Corrine said.

“I trust Mona,” I said immediately. How could we not trust her about something as small as this when we’d already placed our faith in her to protect the entire island?

“I do too.”

Corrine and I stared at each other as the weight of our planned deception fell upon us. I just hoped that I’d be able to keep a straight face while doing all of this.

“Okay,” I said, standing up. “I’m going to get one of Derek’s hairs now. I’ll get it from his hairbrush.”

“No,” Corrine said. “It needs to be freshly plucked. It will be more potent that way, and the effect of the potion will last longer.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought about that. How long does the potion last?”

Corrine scratched her head and consulted the book again.

“Hm. I’m not sure exactly.”

“Well, it should last at least a couple of hours, right?”

“It should do…”

She didn’t appear confident, but this was an idea too delicious for me to pass on.

“All right, let’s think,” I said, beginning to pace up and down the room myself. “I should turn into Kiev first, and visit Derek. It only makes sense that he would be the one to approach Derek first, since he has a lot more to be sorry for. Then once the spell wears off, I’ll visit Kiev as Derek.”

“So we need Kiev’s hair first,” Corrine said. “That means I need to fetch Mona.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here.”

Corrine vanished. I sat down again, drumming my fingers over the table. I paged through her spell book, but not being able to understand a single word, I soon got bored.

She returned about half an hour later. Mona appeared by her side carrying a pair of pants and a shirt over her shoulder, clutching a hair between her fingers.

“How did it go?” I asked, eyeing the hair.

Mona looked at me, bemused. “Are you really sure this isn’t all going to backfire?”

“No. I’m not sure. But things can hardly get any worse than they are now.”

“Let’s go into my potion room,” Corrine said, leading us out of her bedroom. “Oh, and you might want to bring one of those sheets with you,” she added, pointing toward the bed.

We walked through the halls of the Sanctuary until we reached Corrine’s potion room. Mona laid the hair down on a plate near the sink. I bent over the hair, studying it more closely. I wasn’t sure that I dared ask where she’d plucked it from.

“From his leg,” Mona said, as though she’d read my mind.

“Great,” I mumbled.

“Trust me, there are worse places it could have come from.”

Mona and I hovered over Corrine for the next fifteen minutes watching as she stirred ingredients into a cauldron and brought them to a rolling boil. The liquid hissed and turned a bright green color. A foul smell began emanating from it.

“Okay,” Corrine said. “This is done.”

Mona and Corrine exchanged glances, then both set their eyes on me.

“Ibrahim isn’t expected back, is he?” I asked, glancing at the door.

“No,” Corrine said, “he’s not due back for a few hours. Now, I’m going to leave the room for this. Mona will take things from here. Good luck.” She patted me on the shoulder and left the room.

I looked at Mona nervously.

“The first thing you need to do is strip.”

I looked down at my dress. Strip. Of course.

Mona held the sheet around me while I undressed. Once I was done, I clutched the sheet against me as Mona let go and began pouring the potion into a goblet. She passed it to me.

“Drink up.”

Holding the cup to my lips, I took the first sip. It was hot, but surprisingly tasteless. I downed the rest. Mona took the empty goblet from me and walked over to the sink. Picking up the hair, she returned with it.

“Now you need to lay this on your tongue. Don’t swallow it.”

“Can you at least wash it first?” I grumbled.

“Hygiene should be the last thing on your mind right now.”

I opened my mouth, allowing her to lay the hair on my tongue. I almost gagged.