The change is quicker and easier every time, though it never quite stops hurting. Dani still doesn't like to see, always turning away and screwing her eyes shut, trying to ignore the cracking of bones behind her.
Thackery touches her arm gently to let her know it is done. "There are witches in the woods," he tells her when she turns around. "I could smell their spells brewing, but they were hidden too deep for me to find them. It was beyond my range."
Her expression grows sorrowful, and she reaches out to take his hands. "I'm so sorry," she whispers.
"No, Dani," he says quickly, squeezing her fingers in his. "It's all right. We'll hunt them together, as we always do."
To that, Dani smiles.
He was angry with her at first, angry and scared, so horrified to see that dark book in Dani's hands. But she was only trying to help him, just as her brother and Allison had wanted to all those years ago, trying to find a way to free poor Thackery Binx.
And Dani, clever Dani, had succeeded.
At least to a point.
Thackery lopes along beside her as they run into the woods, veering off all the old paths to find their hidden witches. He stops to scale the trees occasionally, lifting his nose into the wind to catch the spell scent again before dropping back down to correct their course.
"Are we almost there?" Dani asks.
Very nearly, he does not have to say aloud.
She follows close behind, never losing him.
Dani kept the book for longer than he knew, flipping through it late at night, learning its horrible secrets.
When he found out and begged for her to let it be hidden away again, she agreed, but he still fears it was too late.
The spell she cast on him is strong, freeing him from one prison and binding him to her side instead, and in her sleep she mutters strange, twisting words he does not know.
These witches die as easily as the rest. They've yet to meet a challenge as great as the Sanderson sisters, and each victory makes them stronger, more ready for the next.
Thackery tips their cauldron, letting the steaming brew seep harmlessly into the ground, and Dani bends down to pick their spellbook out of the ashes. When he gives her a wary look, she shakes her head.
"To hide it away with all the others," she says. "I promise."
And though he doubts, he takes her at her word.
He believes her that the Sanderson book is gone, but he knows she keeps some others they find. Not the darkest of magic, perhaps, but still quite dangerous.
She is still trying to free him.
After a hunt like this, they take their rest, Dani on the floor of their home with Thackery draped across her lap. She closes her eyes, strokes his head gently as they both begin to drift to sleep. Already her lips are forming strange syllables, seeking out the spell that will finally release him.
Thackery sleeps restlessly beneath her hands. He wishes he could convince her to stop searching. He wishes he could tell her there is no place he'd rather be than here, bound to her side.
He fears the spell that finally frees him will be the one to drown Dani in the dark.