Tabby and I looked at each other, then we both looked back down at the book again. I had a feeling we were both wondering about that last line. Although the third answer left me wondering as well, considering I had no idea what a 'cambion' was.

After a few seconds my friend pulled out her phone as she said, "I should have thought of this before, but we should be recording all this! So we have a record of the conversation."

"Oh uh, you can't take a picture of anything in there," I told her. "It's some kind of magic copy protection."

"What?" she frowned. "How's that work?"

I started to explain, then just shrugged "Try it and see. It's not dangerous, it just won't work."

Sure enough she gave it a try, and discovered the same thing I found out the night before. As far as the phone camera was concerned, all the pages were blank.

"Ok that's frustrating," Tabs sighed. She put her phone away then looked at the book again and asked, "What exactly do you mean by that last answer? How does us using you to curse people or things give you life?"

She closed the book and waited a second or two, before opening it to the third page once more so the two of us could see what Hex had to say.

"Every time I'm used, every time a curse within my pages is cast, it brings me one step closer to being restored."

"When enough curses have been cast I will no longer be an inanimate book, I will be alive once again."

"Hence, the more you curse the closer I get to returning to life."

"And before you ask, I do not know how many curses it will take to reach that number. Nor do I know how many curses have been cast so far. All I know is there is a number, and when it has been reached my life will be restored."

"So let's get cursing!"

After staring at that for a few moments Tabby sighed, "This just leads to even more questions. Why were you turned into or imprisoned within a book? Who did this to you? Was this some sort of punishment for doing a bunch of evil deeds? Or were you a victim, did some evil wizard do this to you for their own purposes?"

She closed the book for a couple seconds then opened it to the third page again to check the book's answers. Unfortunately Hex didn't have much to say, and what they did share wasn't all that helpful.

"I don't remember any of those details. I don't know who did this to me or why."

"I barely remember any details of my past. I think maybe that's because my memory is being used to keep track of all the different curses?"

"I assume that when my body and life are restored so too will be my memories."

We both stared at the latest answers for a few moments, before I suggested "We should ask it what a 'cambion' is, because I have no idea what that means? But if that's what Hex is going to turn into when they're freed then we should probably know in advance what to expect."

Tabs pointed out, "You can just look that up in an online dictionary you know? If that doesn't work then we'll consult the magical talking book."

"Oh right," I grimaced as I pulled out my phone. It only took a few seconds to find an answer, then I showed it to Tabby. "So it looks like a cambion is the child of a human and a demon? I guess that means Hex is a half-demon."

She muttered, "Great. So we're dealing with a demon after all? I told you this thing's probably just waiting for the chance to eat our souls or something!"

I frowned, "If Hex was evil why would they tell us that? Like I don't know, wouldn't they be better off lying about that stuff? Like they could claim to be some innocent victim who got turned into a book by an evil wizard or something, so we'd want to help them."

"I don't know Cheryl," my friend slowly shook her head. "And I don't know what to do about any of this stuff. Apart from the obvious, which is get rid of the book because it seems too dangerous to keep it around."

That made me sigh, "Maybe? But if Hex is really an innocent victim then we'd just be making things even worse for them. And knowing that they're sentient and trapped in a book makes me feel really bad for them anyways? Being turned into a book feels like cruel and unusual punishment to me, I think they should be restored."

Tabby gave me a look, "It just said it doesn't know how many curses it'll take to do that. It might be one, but it might also be a million. You can't just sit around cursing everybody or everything over and over. It's not safe regardless!"

"I know," I replied as I reached over to take the book from her. "I wasn't going to sit around casting a million curses. I was thinking though, what if there was a shortcut? What if we could cheat the system?"

"What kind of short-cut? And why do I think this is going to end badly?" she asked as she gave me a look.

Rather than answer her I addressed the book, "Hex, can these curses affect you? Like we know we can curse things, we changed our clothes and ID and stuff. Can we curse you too?"

Then I opened it up to the third page to check for a reply. There was an answer waiting for me, but it wasn't quite what I'd been hoping for.

"I have no idea."

"I don't think anyone has ever tried that before."

"Now I am feeling anxious."

"What are you thinking of doing to me?"

After reading that I closed the book and sighed, "I guess there's only one way to find out if this'll work or not."

Tabby shook her head, "Whatever you're thinking Cheryl, stop thinking it. At least for a few minutes ok? Tell me what you're planning, so I know whether to try and talk you out of it or just run for cover. Or I don't know, maybe I can help somehow if it turns out not to be a terrible idea."

I rolled my eyes but told both her and Hex, "So like I said, we know the curses can affect things since we've already cursed clothes and ID and stuff right? I was thinking, what if we used that transformation curse on the book? We could curse the book to turn into its original form, then Hex would be alive again like they want. Right?"

My friend shook her head, "I can think of a dozen ways this could blow up in your face. Including literally! Like what if you create some sort of feedback loop and the book blows up?"

That hadn't actually occurred to me, but I wasn't sure if it was possible or likely anyways. I was still thinking that through while Tabby came up with some more reasons to not help Hex.

"Or what if it works?" she asked. "Then we've got a half-demon person here in your home, who knows what they'll do to us? Or what they're capable of doing?"

Tabs continued, "Even if they don't do anything to hurt us, even if they're completely good and innocent there's still a bunch of issues you probably haven't thought of yet. Like where will they go? What will they do for clothes, or money? Will you be responsible for them? What will you tell Avery if you end up having a half-demon hanging around the house forever?"

I sighed again, "I get that there's challenges and stuff ok? But imagine if you were in Hex's position? Wouldn't you want someone to try and help you, however they could?"

"Actually Hex, what do you think of my idea?" I added as I looked down at the book. "Do you want to give it a go? If this works maybe you could be freed right now?"

"And if it doesn't work, maybe you'll get us all killed!" Tabby interjected. "Or worse! Who knows what else could go wrong? Messing with magic and curses and demons and stuff, there's probably a million potentially awful outcomes Cheryl!"

That just made me pout, but I didn't bother trying to argue. Instead I just opened the book up again to see what Hex had to say on the subject.

"Ok Cheryl."

"I'm willing to give it a try."

"I promise if this works and I'm restored I won't do anything evil or harmful to you or Tabby or Avery."

"(Not that I plan on doing anything evil. I'm just saying in a precautionary sense, on the off chance that I was evil or that restoring me makes me evil, I promise not to turn on you or your friend or sister.)"

I smiled, "Thanks Hex! That's good to know."

"What did it say?" Tabby asked.

After I showed her she sighed, "That doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence."

I rolled my eyes then said, "Ok I'm going to find that transformation curse and give it a shot."

"I'm going to get a drink," Tabby responded as she got to her feet. "I'll be in the kitchen, so if this goes badly I can call you an ambulance or something. Let me know when it's safe to come back to the living-room."

"Ok Tabs!" I smiled as I flipped through the book looking for the curse she used on herself the other night.

While I was doing that my catgirl friend went up the stairs then into the kitchen. I heard her get something out of the fridge, then she just stayed up there and waited for me to give her the all clear.

It took me another few minutes of searching before I found the curse at the back of the book. I read through it carefully to make sure it was the right one, then asked quietly "Ok Hex are you ready? I'm going to try and phrase this so it'll transform you into your original form ok? Or do you have a better idea on how I should cast it?"

With one finger tucked into the back so I didn't lose my place, I quickly checked the front of the book again to check its response.

"I'm ready."

"My only suggestions are to ensure you're careful and specific in your wording."

"Good luck."

I nodded, "Yeah, good luck. Ok here we go..."

Turning back to the curse again I sort of mentally braced myself, then focused on the goal of cursing Hex, the book in my hands, to turn them into their original form. Then I quietly read out the four lines of gibberish text that made up the magic part of the curse. And when I got to the end I stated their name like it said in the text, "Hexinomicon!"

As soon as it was done I closed my eyes and braced myself physically too, incase there was any sort of explosion or some other kind of magical backfire like Tabby was afraid of.

Happily there was no boom.

Instead I felt a pair of arms suddenly wrap around my neck while a bit of weight settled on my lap. Then a pair of lips pressed against my own as I received a big surprise kiss. As soon as I felt that my eyes popped open and I found myself face to face with a small strange girl.

"Hex?" I asked as I pulled back from the kiss. "Is that you?"

She nodded, then shook her head while grinning wide enough for me to see her small fangs. At the same time she exclaimed, "Yes! No! Hexinomicon was my book name, but that's not my real name!"

Her small arms were still wrapped around my neck so I couldn't pull far enough back to get a better look at her, but what I could see so far told me she was even shorter than me. She wasn't a child though. I could tell that even without looking, based on the fact that I could feel her substantial bosom pressing against my own ample chest.

I kind of wanted to move her back a little, like outside my personal space at least. Except I realized she was completely naked, and I didn't want to accidentally touch her in the wrong place, so for now I was sort of trapped until she let go and moved on her own.

"Ok," I replied as I sort of awkwardly left my hands resting to either side. "What's your real name? And uh, what pronouns should we use for you?"

"And uh, maybe you could let go of me?" I added. "We should probably see about getting you some clothes or something..."

She laughed as she let go then jumped from the sofa onto the coffee table, "Oh, right! Sorry Cheryl!"

Being naked in front of me didn't seem to bother her in the least, she wasn't even blushing as she struck a pose and announced, "My name is Jinx! And apparently I'm a girl! So I want the same pronouns as you and Tabby!"

"Seriously?! Your name is Jinx?" Tabs asked from the top of the stairs. "Instead of a magic curse book named Hex, you're a demonic short-stack named Jinx?"

"Uh-huh!" the demonic short-stack in question nodded happily, while her long black tail swished back and forth behind her.

I didn't bother to comment, I was mostly just staring as I slowly took in the newly-restored demon's appearance.

Jinx couldn't have been more than a hundred and twenty centimetres tall, and I'd almost bet she was closer to one-fifteen. She was definitely no child though, her body had the proportions of a fully developed young woman. I'd guess her age to be somewhere around the same as me or Tabby, so about twenty at most. Maybe a bit younger.

Her skin was very fair, almost to the point of being pale, while her eyes were a very dark hazel and her shoulder-length loosely-curled hair was jet black. Her narrow waist was tiny, even in proportion to her small stature, while her hips and behind were very curvy and well-padded. And describing her chest as 'ample' was maybe an understatement.

She actually looked almost completely human, other than being unusually short, but the tail was a bit of a deal-breaker. It seemed long for her body, like probably half her height at around sixty centimetres, and it was fairly skinny. It was coated in fine black fur along its length, but the tip ended in what looked like a dangerously sharp point, with a single barb on one side.

"I take it everything worked out? Honestly I was expecting some sort of catastrophic backfire, knowing what Cheryl's luck is like," Tabby asked.

My catgirl friend was still standing at the top of the stairs with a can of cola in her hand, her tail was swishing back and forth while her ears both pointed forward, towards me and Jinx. I got the feeling she wasn't in any big hurry to come any closer to the pint-sized demon girl standing in front of me on the coffee table though. I figured maybe she thought there was still some danger or something.

"I guess so?" I replied with a shrug. "What do you think Jinx? Are you fully restored? Is this your normal form?"

She flashed me another wide excited smile then shook her head, "I have no idea!"

"I still can't remember most of my life," she added as the grin finally faded. "My head's still full of endless curses, so I think maybe you fixed my body but I'm still bound by whatever rules turned me into the Hexinomicon?"

A moment later she was smiling wide enough to show her fangs again as she exclaimed, "But now I can cast my own curses! I just have to keep cursing everyone and everything until I get my memories back! So yay! Thanks Cheryl, this is great!"

Back at the staircase Tabby facepalmed as she groaned, "I knew it!"

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