by Molly Fitz
Well, whatever he had gotten up to in my absence, it hadn’t caused any obvious damage. In fact, the house was exactly as I’d left it. Even Luna’s journal still lay open on the couch, exactly as it had been when we’d reviewed it together earlier. He must have taken it, and then brought it back. But why?
“Merlin?” I called as I moved toward the couch and peered down at the filched object. The two-page spread on display was filled with furious illegible scrawl, and I couldn’t make any sense of it.
Yeesh. I’d hoped he would have returned his nemesis’s journal when he was done with it, or at the very least hid it somewhere. It was like he was courting trouble here and doing it on purpose.
I took a quick picture of the journal’s pages on my cell phone, then grabbed it up and headed out to return it myself.
Problem was, I didn’t know exactly how to get to Luna’s cottage, seeing as we’d teleported there and back, but I remembered seeing the crossroads at the edge of the property when we escaped. One of the roads was called Persimmon. I typed the street and city name into my phone’s GPS and got directions to the general location. Thank goodness for modern technology.
Persimmon lay on the other side of town, but still it only took me ten minutes to find Luna’s home and park outside. I tucked the journal into my purse and moved toward the door.
An older woman answered before I even had the chance to knock.
“Hello. Virginia?” I asked hopefully.
“Gracie,” she answered with a sigh, then stepped back and allowed me to enter.
Good. This was good.
Now I just had to find a way to return the journal without her noticing I’d taken it in the first place.
So I put on my best, most cordial smile, and said, “I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself. I know our cats are fighting, but I see no reason why we can’t get along.”
Although she was much older than me, Virginia seemed to possess a grace and easiness within herself that I’d never known. Her blonde hair was an obvious dye job even though I couldn’t see any dark roots peeking through, and her green eyes studied me with a quiet intelligence I found comforting.
“Would you like some sweet tea?” Virginia offered, gliding toward the kitchen.
“Please.” I knew it would rude not to accept, but also kind of stupid to actually drink anything she gave me, given that I didn’t know if we were on good terms. Still, I liked her, despite Merlin’s warnings. There was something I instantly related to, although I couldn’t say what. Maybe we familiars had more in common than just our job. I thought about all this as I stood waiting awkwardly near the door.
Virginia cracked a tray of ice cubes and dropped several into each of two glasses.
Focus. I needed to focus. Remember the purpose for this visit.
Hmmm. Could I just stick the journal on the entry table and call it good?
No, no. Too obvious.
“Come. Let’s have a seat.” Virginia guided me to the tacky floral couch I’d spotted on my first visit, and we both settled in with our sweet tea. She smiled warmly at me as if we were old friends and not new acquaintances.
I placed my purse on the floor by my feet. When she wasn’t looking, I could take the journal out and kick it beneath the couch for them to find later. I just had to wait for my opportunity.
“You’re still very new,” Virginia pointed out. When I looked at her askance, she added, “To the familiar life.”
I bobbed my head and pretended to take a sip from my glass.
Virginia’s casual smile faded at once. Even the soothing green of her eyes appeared to sharpen in an instant. “Our witches’ feuds are ours, too. We don’t have any autonomy in their world. So if our cats are fighting, then we are, too.”
I coughed and set my sweet tea on the coffee table. It seemed there was no need to keep up appearances if she was going to wear her hostility on her sleeve here.
“Are you sure?” I asked with a frown. “It just seems so silly. Shouldn’t we witches and familiars stick together?”
“That’s not our decision. Now that we’ve met, I hope you’re satisfied. You may finish your tea and leave.” Virginia drained hers in a single gulp, then wandered off down the hallway and let herself into a private room.
I had to act fast. Something told me if I wasn’t gone by the time Virginia came back, I might not be able to get away. How quickly she had transformed. This frightened me. Would I one day become like her, too? Was this the life my witchy cat had cursed me to live in choosing me as his familiar?
Desperate to get out of there and fast, I knocked my purse onto its side with my heel, trying to make it look like an accident in case anyone was watching. Then I bent down and grabbed it, taking care to shove the journal as far back as I could.
Satisfied with my work, I took my still full beverage to the kitchen and dumped it down the sink drain, then let myself out into the yard and bolted for my waiting car.
So much for diplomacy.
Whatever our cats’ problem with each other, the two felines would just have to find a way to work it out for themselves.
14
I thought about my strange encounter with Virginia the entire drive home. How she had transformed from pleasant to frightening in the quickest of moments. Merlin had said that familiars themselves don’t possess magic, but Virginia’s personality shift had felt wholly unnatural. Did Luna bespell her somehow?
And, more importantly, would Merlin do something similar to me?
I didn’t like this one bit. Was it too late for me to tell him “thanks, but no thanks” and leave him to find someone better suited to lifelong magical servitude?
I had a feeling that no matter where I ran to, Merlin would find me and drag me back. And other than being a little rude, he hadn’t done a single thing to hurt me. In fact, he’d promised to protect me, at least when it came to Harold’s murder investigation.
Whatever the case, he and I clearly needed to have a long talk before he asked anything more of me. Lesson two said that I was supposed to trust him, but he needed to trust me, too. And he needed to offer some kind of guidebook into my new life if he expected me to assimilate.
Yes, we would have a nice long chat, provided I could find him. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to my home, more than ready for a heart-to-heart.
But I didn’t find Merlin waiting for me.
Instead, the house had been ransacked during my brief visit with Virginia. I’d only been gone half an hour, tops, but cushions had been torn off the couch, chairs overturned, the whole nine yards.
Thinking fast, I grabbed a broom from the front closet and proceeded deeper into my house with the end raised like a baseball bat.
“Who’s there?” I called as my eyes darted all around. Who would burgle me in broad daylight? And why? I didn’t have anything good.
Suddenly the broom flew from my hands and whipped back around to pin me against the wall.
“Where is it?” a lanky white cat demanded, tiptoeing toward me. Luna.
“Let me go,” I cried, struggling against the broom, but Luna’s magic proved stronger than my muscles.
“Not until you tell me where it is!” She stopped about a foot in front of me and unsheathed the claws on one paw. “Tell me right now!”
I could play dumb and pretend I didn’t know what she was talking about, but it seemed easier to give in to her demands. “The journal?” I asked.
Her glowing green eyes widened. “So you admit to the theft?”
“I admit I took it, but I also brought it right back. I’m sorry.”
“You have no idea what you’ve done. What trouble you’ve caused.”
“Again, I’m really sorry. Please let me go?” I begged meekly.
“No,” she told me with a beastly growl. “You started this, and you’ll be the one to finish it.”
The broom dropped, and I lurched forward. No sooner had I been freed than one of my wooden dining chairs slammed
into me from behind. I fell into a sitting position and then the broom pressed me against the chair, securing me in place.
“Please…” I cried actual tears now. “I never asked to become Merlin’s familiar. I never asked for any of this.”
“You’re coming with me,” Luna said, then blinked once, twice…
And we were back at her cottage. “Are you going to kill me now?”
“Where’s the journal?” Luna hissed, ignoring my desperate question.
“Under the c-c-couch,” I sputtered, seeing no point in lying now.
The thin cat ran beneath the couch, then came out with the notebook gripped between her jaws.
I remained stuck in the chair, only able to watch as she levitated the book to the coffee table and flipped through its pages.
Apparently having found what she was looking for, she smiled, blinked, and took us into her rear garden. Then she approached an old stone wall, dragging me along with her magic.
“What are you doing?” I ground out.
“That doesn’t concern you.” Luna hopped onto my lap and pawed at my pants, picking something up and dropping it into the well.
Then she ran back and chomped at my hair, ran back to the well, and spit inside.
“Is that your cauldron?” I guessed.
“Ah, so he has taught you something, at least. Not enough to keep you from playing right into my paw, though.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“Good, then your boss won’t see it coming, either.”
“What are you plotting?”
“Nothing that concerns you. I’m just setting things right,” she said, walking through her garden and plucking various leaves and petals to drop into the well.
I watched her work for at least twenty minutes, but nothing I said could convince her to tell me anything more. Sometime later, a shimmering emerald puff rose from the well and Luna laughed girlishly rather than wickedly.
“Purrfect,” she exclaimed. “Now return home and mix this in your master’s water dish.” She pushed an empty plastic bottle into the well with her paw. And when she brought it back up with her magic, it held a small amount of liquid. No more than half an inch deep.
“I won’t do it,” I said, struggling against the broom and chair once more.
Luna laughed again as the broom snapped away and the chair crumbled into a pile of sawdust. “Funny thing is, you don’t have a choice. And you won’t be able to warn him, either. It’s brewed right into the spell.”
“That’s why you took my hair,” I realized.
“Yes. And his. It’s lucky for me he sheds so much and can’t resist a warm lap, eh?”
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t get away with it.”
“I already have,” Luna said with a smirk.
She blinked once, twice…
And I was back home with the water bottle clutched firmly in my hand. Before I could stop myself, I poured its contents into Merlin’s bowl. As soon as I did, the plastic container dissolved into thin air and completely disappeared.
No, no, no! I strained for his dish, but something yanked me back. I couldn’t stop whatever Luna had planned from happening, and I couldn’t find Merlin anywhere to keep an eye on the situation.
What now?
15
I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I knew the sun had crept between my bedroom blinds and was now beaming directly into my eyes.
Merlin jumped onto my chest and brushed his fluffy tail in my face. “You sleep a lot for a human. Are you sure you’re not part cat?” he quipped. A wry smile stretched between his bright white whiskers.
And that was when everything came rushing back—Luna, the potion, my part in it all.
“Merlin!” I cried and hugged him hard against my chest. “You’re okay!”
He struggled from my grip and then jumped out of reach, looking at me like I was crazy. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be okay?” His fur twitched in odd spasms across his back, a sure sign I’d overstepped my bounds as a cat owner.
“Because I—” I began, but my words were abruptly cut off.
“Well, yester—” I tried again. “L—”
Each time I tried to speak, I found myself gagged mid-sentence.
“You’re being weird,” my cat said, his ears pressed back against his head.
And he was right; I was being weird. I also didn’t know how to stop. Maybe if I tried talking about something else…
“Want breakfast?” I asked casually, and sure enough, that I could get out without being magically silenced. Whatever Luna had worked into her spell, it seemed impossible for me to get around it.
Perhaps if I had more knowledge or guidance, I’d be able to find a way… but only Merlin could give me answers, and I wasn’t even able to ask him any of the right questions.
“Yes, I want breakfast. Do you even need to ask?” Merlin hopped off the bed and slipped through the doorway.
Worry gnawed at my brain as I followed.
In the kitchen, I found that his water dish had been licked dry. I wanted to ask how he was feeling after lapping up Luna’s potion, but couldn’t. So I simply shook my head and refilled his dish from the tap.
“Are you going into work today?” Merlin asked as I opened a can of wet food and plopped it in his bowl.
“Not today.”
“Good. We can continue your training.” His piece said, Merlin turned his attentions toward his breakfast.
Biding my time until Luna’s spell activated proved to be complete agony. I was glad that everything appeared normal thus far today, but waiting for the other shoe to drop made it hard to focus on anything else.
“Aren’t you going to make some coffee?” Merlin asked me some time later.
I glanced toward his bowl and saw he’d already polished off his breakfast. Wow, I must have been lost in space for the last few minutes.
“Yes, coffee,” I said, not unlike a zombie as I made my way to the Keurig to brew some liquid energy.
“Lesson number three,” Merlin announced from his spot on the linoleum kitchen floor. “In all things you do, you are a representative of me. If you do something good, I will receive the praise. If you do something bad, I will receive the punishment.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked nervously.
He stared at me unblinking, unmoving even. “So you don’t mess up.”
I gulped hard. I’d already messed up and messed up big, but I also had no way of telling him that. Shoot.
“You are not magical,” he continued, unaware of my raging internal conflict. “But you are a reservoir. Kind of like a living, breathing cauldron. Your presence amplifies my magic. The longer we spend in each other’s company, the more of my magic will bind to you. You can’t use it for yourself. Only contain it for my later use.”
Now this was a big revelation, far too big for me to understand pre-coffee.
Merlin hopped up on the counter and studied my face. “In fact, it seems you’ve already collected some,” he said.
“What?” I croaked, lifting my fingers to my face.
My cat smirked. “Your eyes.”
“What about my eyes?”
“Stop panicking and go have a look.”
I marched toward the bathroom and flicked on the light. Instead of my usual dark brown, my eyes now appeared a deep forest green.
“Green!” I shouted, unable to believe the image that floated right before me. “Why are my eyes green?”
“Well, that’s easy,” Merlin said, appearing in the hall outside the bathroom. “Eyes are the window to the soul. Green is the color of magic. Now you are magic, thus your soul is tinted green.”
“You said I wasn’t magical,” I argued hopelessly. It was really hard to trust everything he said when so much of it seemed contradictory.
Merlin yawned and stretched out in a yoga-like pose. “You’re not magical. You are magic. It’s a su
btle distinction, but you’ll get it eventually,” he assured me.
Either Merlin had faith in me or was too stubborn to admit he’d been wrong in choosing me as his familiar. And at that precise moment in time, I really didn’t care to know which.
Ugh. Why was this my life?
16
I still hoped to speak with Merlin about Luna, but my magic bindings shut me down every single time I even thought about it too hard.
To avoid wasting time completely, I decided to ask him about something much safer—the open murder investigation.
“Merlin?” I asked as my second cuppa brewed. “Can you use your magic to find out who killed Harold?”
He thought about this for a moment as he shifted to follow the sunbeam that had slowly begun to migrate across the living room. “Possibly. But I would need to see his corpse to do so.”
I shuddered. “Let’s make breaking into the morgue our backup plan,” I suggested, wrapping my arms around my torso to hug myself.
“Suit yourself,” Merlin responded, then closed his eyes and purred. “If you do end up needing me, you know where to find me.”
Yes, I did. For right now, at least. His constant coming and going hadn’t bothered me much before. But now? Now every time we were apart presented another opportunity for one of us to be kidnapped.
Oh, if only I could warn him.
I knew he had just recently been made a full witch—something he said only happened when a cat officially took on a familiar. But still it seemed his casual attitude could be putting us both in danger. I, of course, was even newer to the whole magical powers thing, which meant he had no reason to listen to me if I asked for better protection.
And seeing as I couldn’t come right out and explain why I needed that protection, we were both stuck.
I sighed and added some milk to my new cup of coffee and stirred while I mentally sorted through what I already knew about my late boss’s death. It would be easier to focus on my magical problems if I got my more mundane ones out of the way.