Read Online Once Upon a Twist by Michelle Smart, Aimee Duffy - Free Book Online Page B

art of talking human in the short time they had spent as men. Itchy shrugged.
    “You haven’t seen her?”
    He shrugged again.
    “Do you even know what Ana looks like?”
    Looking decidedly shamefaced, he shook his head. Ella knew why. The mere sound of Ana’s voice or footsteps had sent him and Scratchy diving for safety.
    “Never mind,” she reassured him, rubbing his forearms. “Ana is in grave danger. We need to return home as quickly as possible.”
    Itchy and Scratchy exchanged glances.
    “I know she’s an evil bitch but beneath it all she’s still a human-being.” She didn’t add that it would be safer for them back at the house, especially in their current form. Itchy and Scratchy were nervous creatures at the best of times.
    The reigns holding the horses that were really frogs to the carriage had already been unclipped. She stroked their loyal heads. “I hope you two can swim in this form,” she sighed. “The bridge at the front is, err, unavailable.”
    If either of them were nervous, they gave no sign. The weight of their trust lay heavily on Ella’s heart.
    It was only as they left the big square she realized how eerily deserted it was. Surely there should be guards at the back?
    “Keep behind me,” she whispered, extending the blade of the knife. Scanning the area, she neither saw nor heard anything untoward. Deliberately she blocked out the bloodcurdling sounds echoing from the front of the palace. She could not afford to think about it. She especially could not afford to think about anything other than reaching her home.
    “All right boys, we’re going to run for it, okay?”
    Itchy and scratchy both squeezed her shoulders; the horses nuzzled into her neck.
    “All right then, let’s go.”
    The bank was steep and it took every ounce of Ella’s concentration to remain upright. The horses ignored her instructions and galloped ahead, the frogs inhabiting their bodies no doubt delighting in this wonderful new experience made so much easier now they didn’t have the carriage attached to them. When they reached the bank they didn’t hesitate, plunging straight into the deep water.
    For a moment they were both submerged. Ella’s pounding heart skipped with fear, but then their faces reappeared and they used all their froggy skills to get their new bodies across the water.
    She skidded to a halt at the bottom of the grassy slope. Itchy and Scratchy did likewise, both falling onto their bottoms.
    “Ready?” she asked.
    The moonlight accentuated the terror on their faces but they both nodded. On the count of three they jumped.
    The shock of the black, murky depths was so acute it almost paralyzed her. It took a few beats of total submersion before she kicked her legs and broke the surface, freezing water sloshing up her nose. She could only hope there were no nasty parasites lurking in it that would infect her brain. One deadly creature was enough to deal with for one night.
    She swam as hard as she could through the reed-strewn water, hoping against hope that Itchy and Scratchy could swim in their new forms.
    The frog-horses waited on the other side for them, their intelligent faces anxious. When she clambered out of the water and stood dripping and shivering violently before them, they nuzzled their great heads against her.
    Her two human pets scrambled out after her, the living embodiment of drowned rats.
    “We need to get home as quickly as we can,” Ella said through chattering teeth. Even her bones felt cold. “Can we ride on your backs?”
    The horses nudged against her, displaying their acquiescence.
    Thinking quickly, she decided to share one of the horses with Scratchy, leaving Itchy, who was the heaviest of them, to ride the other solo.
    After helping her pets mount, she climbed up in front of Scratchy, accidentally knocking him with her swinging foot. Only by sheer luck did he remain seated.
    Wrapping her arms around her steed’s neck, she whispered, “Run for your life gentle