by Molly Fitz
C’mon, Merlin! Tell her you love her, you big fluffy jerk!
Merlin took another step back, then turned to face the opposite direction.
And he ran.
He ran faster than I’d ever seen him run before. He moved quick and low to the ground, then zig-zagged and sprinted in the other direction.
“REOWEOEOEOW!” he cried, a cat possessed. His tail had grown puffy. He panted heavily. But still he ran and mewed and ran some more.
“I’m sorry about him,” I told Luna as we both watched the spectacle.
“What’s to be sorry about? He loves me back! He loves me so much that he’s got the zoomies!” Luna watched Merlin’s celebration with the special wonder of a woman very much in love.
I broke out laughing, such was my relief and joy. “Is that what he’s doing? The zoomies?”
Merlin slowed to a trot and made his way back to us. Ignoring me, he kept his eyes glued to Luna as he approached, then closed in tight and rubbed his face against hers.
Both cats purred loudly as they continued to lick and rub against each other. The whole scene made me a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. It also made me wonder if the three of us might have a litter of witchy kittens in our near future.
When at last they came up for air, Merlin moaned, “Oh, Luna. You didn’t have to cast a spell on me. I never stopped loving you. Not for one moment.”
I cleared my throat, knowing that if I didn’t speak now, I’d quickly be subjected to another PDA session from these two. “Um, guys. I’m really happy for you and all, but we still have some problems that need to be addressed.”
“All business, this one,” Luna quipped. “It seems you chose your familiar much better than I did.” She glanced briefly toward the well and sighed.
Merlin moved to Luna’s side, pressing his body up against hers. Although she was a tall and lanky cat, Merlin’s mass of brown striped fur made him appear much larger. In fact, half of Luna’s body seemed to disappear into his magical fluffiness.
Both cats watched me with rapt attention, which I guess was my permission to speak freely.
So I let it out. “Harold was still murdered, and I’m still a suspect, I think.”
“You think?” Merlin asked.
“Well, Officer Dash was the one inspecting things, and apparently she wasn’t a real cop. That’s the part I’m not sure about.” I bit my lip as I waited to hear his theory on all of this.
“The illusion witch?” Luna asked, and I nodded. I guess I could take answers from whichever cat wanted to give them.
“She won’t be sticking around here where she’s so easy to find,” Luna assured me. “Besides, your bond with Merlin is now unbreakable. He’ll be able to find and rescue you from anywhere.”
“So the investigation is dead in the water?”
“The investigation was never truly alive. Dash fabricated the whole thing from the start,” Merlin concluded with a smug grin.
But I still felt uneasy. “How do you know?”
“Because I saw the body, remember? I could tell he’d been murdered by magic, but to the common human observer, it would seem as though Harold passed of a severe and sudden heart attack.”
I shook my head, wanting to trust him on this but also needing to be sure. “I don’t understand. How did Dash expect me to take the fall for this, if everything looked normal?”
“We can’t know her exact motivations, but as an illusion witch, she had many options available to her,” Luna explained as Merlin purred at her side. “She could have posed as a jailer, fabricated reports, made you think you were being arrested by humans but then taken you to some kind of magical holding cell. The good news is she won’t try the same thing twice, so for now you can stop worrying about her.”
I sighed. “How can I stop worrying, knowing that she’ll almost certainly be back?”
“That’s a problem for another day,” Luna told me. “Right now, bask in the moment. Live your love.”
Oh, brother. I rolled my eyes hard, but neither of the two lovebirds seemed to notice or mind.
Still, I felt awful. “Fine, fine, so I’m off the hook for now, but an innocent man still died.”
“That is unfortunate, but it’s not like we can make it up to him,” Merlin told me.
“To him, no. But there is someone else. And I have an idea…”
28
After our big confrontation came to its official close, Merlin teleported the three of us home.
Eventually I’d need to find my way back to my car, providing it hadn’t been towed in my absence. But for now, I just needed to pop a couple painkillers and take some time to veg out on my couch.
I changed into my favorite pair of pajamas and then lay across the sofa with my tablet, wholly prepared to binge that new Netflix show everyone had been gushing about. Unfortunately, the opening credits hadn’t even finished rolling before Merlin jumped up onto my chest and blocked my view of the portable screen.
“I’ve asked Luna to move in with us, and she’s agreed,” he informed me with a rumbling purr.
Well, this kind of felt like a thing he should have asked me first, but even I understood that Luna had nowhere else to go. And even though I’d never known great love myself, I clearly recognized it in these two. I wanted them to be together and happy, even if that meant adding another roommate.
“Congratulations,” I said with a sleepy smile.
Merlin nodded at me. “Okay. Just making sure you knew how things would be. As you were.”
While I tucked into my show, Merlin gave Luna the grand tour of our house, which wasn’t all that grand, given its small size and outdated furniture. Still, I occasionally heard her gushing and exclaiming over things like the shower curtain, coffee maker, and litter box. True, the coffee maker was impressive, but the other things? I guess she preferred my grandma’s hodgepodge aesthetic to Virginia’s all florals all the time.
Somewhere into my third episode, the pet door opened and closed with a swish. I assumed the two lovebirds had gone out for a walk through the neighborhood, but a moment later, Luna jumped onto the coffee table and waited for me to pause my show before speaking.
“I sent Merlin out for a while,” she said, adjusting herself into a more comfortable position. “To give us two girls some time to talk.”
I sat up and patted the couch beside me. “What’s up?”
Luna hopped over and took a quick breath before launching into what seemed to be a prepared speech. “At first I wasn’t sure you were worthy of my Merlin. That’s why I gave you such a hard time. But today you proved yourself more than worthy. You were very brave, but moreover, you were there for him in a terrifying situation. And you did not run or abandon him. I was wrong about you, and I want to apologize for that.”
I blinked slowly as I took in the weight of her words. “Of course I was there for him, he’s my cat. And now that you’ll be living with us, I’ll be there for you, too.”
Luna began to purr. “It will be nice to have a human who loves me for a change. Virginia only loved my power. I should have taken more care in choosing, but I was hurt and distracted, knowing that Merlin and I would have to end our relationship so we could each take our full places in the magical community.” She paused for a moment. “I know we have only just met and that most of our encounters have been negative until now, but Merlin trusts you and that’s good enough for me. I love you, as he loves you.”
“Thank you, Luna,” I whispered softly. “That means a lot.”
She rubbed her nose against my face in affection, but I pulled back and let out a pained hiss.
“What’s the matter?” Luna asked, concern reflecting in her cornflower eyes.
“Dash gave me a nasty cut,” I said, raising my fingers to my face and wincing again.
“Oh, no,” she wailed. “Merlin and I were so caught up in each other that we didn’t tend to your wounds. The moment he is returned, he’ll whip you up a nice salve.”
“Th
at would be nice,” I admitted, unable to refuse the promise of help.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Luna wanted to know.
“My shoulders are sore from being handcuffed so long, but Dash didn’t touch me at all. Except when she slashed me. It was really weird, actually. She looked at my blood and said it explained a few things. What do you think she meant by that?”
Luna shook her head. “I don’t know. Normally illusion witches can’t read biomatter, so if Dash did, she is exceptionally powerful.”
I shuddered at this. “Well, that definitely doesn’t make me any less afraid for our next battle.”
“No.” Luna stared off into the distance as if seeing something I couldn’t. “But there is a way to learn what she knows.”
“Oh?” Now she had my interest.
“Has Merlin told you about Nocturna?”
I shook my head, even though the movement caused the cut to sting all the more.
“It’s only accessible at night, but many of our kind live in the open there,” Luna explained in almost a whisper, as if the place itself were sacred. “We can take you, find a blood witch, have him tell us what he sees there.”
“Can we go tonight?” I asked, hope creeping up anew.
“I don’t see why not. It will be up to Merlin to decide, though. He’s the only one of us with a magical passport now.”
“Okay, I’ll ask when he gets home, then,” I said with a small smile of gratitude.
“Actually, sweetie. Leave that part to me. I know exactly how to get a yes from our Merlin.” She winked, then hopped away.
I cringed but thankfully avoided summoning a mental picture of what Luna’s persuasive methods might entail. I already had enough to worry about, thank you very much.
29
At this point I was just stalling. I knew I’d need to be up and active at night to visit the magical city Luna had called Nocturna, but before we could go, there was one more thing I needed to handle today.
After a quick conversation with Merlin to confirm I could actually do what I had planned, I shot Kelley a text asking her if we could meet up. She invited me to come out to the coffeehouse for another round of PSLs and frozen banana nut bread.
By the time I had fetched my car and driven over to Harold’s, I found her working with the espresso machine. A big smile stretched across her face when she spotted me.
I raced over to hug her. “You look so much better today. Does this mean you got good news?”
Kelley’s smile widened. “My dad’s lawyer contacted me today about the will. He changed it up about four weeks ago and left it all to me. He may not have taken much opportunity to get to know me, Gracie, but my father did love me.”
I hugged her again. “Oh, I always knew he did!” I cooed, even though I’d honestly had no idea. “He probably just wanted to be careful about how he approached your relationship, figuring he had more time.”
We both became somber.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Kelley said.
“Officer Dash contacted me today,” I revealed. This would be the only part of my confession that was actually true, but I knew Kelley would need to hear this in order to move on. “Your dad wasn’t murdered, after all. He had a heart attack. The medical examiner who suggested he’d died by poison was fired for getting it so wrong.”
“I’m glad he wasn’t murdered,” Kelley said, “But I’m still so sad that he’s gone.”
She finished preparing our lattes and we relocated to the big corner booth. Of course, I still hadn’t revealed the biggest part of my plan but knew I couldn’t put it off much longer or I’d risk losing the nerve.
“So what’s next for you, Kelley? Will you be going back to Ohio with your mom?”
She shook her head. “No, definitely not. I mean, why would I do that when I now have my own business to run?”
“You mean…?”
“Yes! The coffee shop is mine. I’m going to be making some big changes to the menu and to the payroll… you should definitely be making more than you currently are… but I’m going to keep the name in honor of Dad.”
“That’s wonderful, Kelley. You’ll be a great boss, and I can’t wait to hear all your ideas!”
As it turned out, she couldn’t wait to share them with me. “I can go over some of them now if you’d like. To start, PSL is no longer a seasonal item. We’ll serve it all year round. And also—”
“I hate to interrupt, especially because I love that idea so much, but there’s something I need to say,” I said, my heart thumping hard in my chest.
Kelley looked at me with concern.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I promised.
“Then what’s going on?” she pressed.
I reached into my purse and took out an empty water bottle. Merlin had helped me prepare the potion I requested, even though he warned me against it more than once. Still, I knew I was making the right decision with this.
I uncapped the water bottle and set it in the middle of the table. Nothing happened. At least that’s how it looked to those who didn’t know it held an invisible form of magic.
“What’s with the empty bottle?” Kelley asked with one eyebrow raised.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said, waiting for her to shift her gaze back to me.
I didn’t continue until her eyes met mine. “This is kind of a weird question, but I want you to tell me the first answer that pops into your head. Okay?”
Kelley shrugged, but said, “Okay.”
“If you could wish for anything, anything in the whole wide world, what would you ask for?”
She snorted. “Like a fairy godmother kind of thing?”
“Something like that,” I answered with a secretive smile. “You don’t have to blurt it out. You can take a moment if you need to, but not much longer. So, tell me, what’s your one big wish?”
A smile blossomed from cheek to cheek. “Well, I guess I—”
“Wait,” I cried, reaching over to the bottle and giving it a good squeeze. “Take a deep breath first,” I instructed, wanting to be sure she breathed it all in.
I watched as Kelley sucked in the invisible gaseous potion, waiting nervously to hear what she would say next.
But she knew exactly what she wanted. “I want to honor my dad’s legacy by making Harold’s House of Coffee the most successful coffee shop this town has ever seen,” she said with a firm-set jaw.
“You will,” I promised her.
After all, I’d just passed on my ask-for-anything familiar spell. Merlin had told me I shouldn’t, because he wouldn’t be able to make another one. And, yeah, now I could never get to be Lady Gaga, or King Arthur, or someone else crazy famous…
But Kelley needed this more than I did, and giving her this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity felt right, considering all she’d lost because of us.
I couldn’t bring Harold back, but I could make sure his daughter was well taken care of in his absence, and that’s exactly what I planned to do.
30
When I came home, I showed both cats the empty bottle I’d used to pass my wish on to Kelley.
“Yup, it’s gone,” Merlin whined, rolling onto his side dramatically. “I can’t believe you gave that away.”
“She’s a good one,” Luna told Merlin as she pressed her body against the side of my leg and shook her sleek white tail. “My familiar destroyed herself by craving power. Yours freely gave it away. You’re a lucky witch.”
“That, I am,” Merlin admitted with a wink. “Even if she is a little bit crazy.”
“What’s done is done,” I said with a shrug. Before I’d gone to see Kelley, Merlin had whipped up an anti-pain potion, taking the hurt out of both my shoulders and my cheek, which meant I could move freely now. “Let’s focus on what we can still hope to change.”
“Are you sure you’re ready to enter Nocturna?” Merlin asked me tersely. “It’s rather overwhelming for a first-timer, especially one so new to magic as you are.”
“I’m sure,” I said, pressing my lips into a tight line. “I’d rather have the knowledge than not.”
“The sun is setting,” Luna said, and we both stared at Merlin, waiting for him to speak.
“Then let’s go,” he acquiesced.
I followed Merlin as he slowly stalked toward the door.
He ran through, but Luna waited for me to open the big door. “Remember, you can do this,” she assured me with a simple smile.
I took in a deep breath and stepped outside into the evening twilight.
Merlin had already seated himself upon the bird bath. “The moment the sun disappears over the horizon, we’ll be able to use the cauldron as a doorway to Nocturna. Shouldn’t be long now.”
“How am I going to fit through that?” I squeaked, studying the small stone fountain.
“Magic, duh!” Luna answered with a laugh and then hopped up beside Merlin.
“Step forward,” he said as he splashed in the water and placed a wet paw on Luna’s forehead.
“Lean in close,” he instructed. When I did, he dipped his paw again and touched it to my head. “Luna will go through first, and I’ll go in last to make sure nothing goes awry.”
“Goes awry? Wait. Does that mean this is dangerous?”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie,” Luna cooed.
In the distance the sun finished its descent. The cauldron glowed a bright mint green, swallowing Luna whole.
“Whoa, I don’t want to do this!” I whined and took a giant leap back.
“Too late,” Merlin said, then summoned a gust of wind that sent me stumbling right into the fountain. I closed my eyes as I braced for impact, and I screamed and screamed and screamed, until I noticed that everything was absolutely fine.
When I opened my eyes again, I stood on a dark stone path. Both cats were at my side. The surrounding buildings had been built in a Bavarian style, white with dark crossbeams.
Luna nudged me forward. “What do you think?”