Fluffikins glanced up toward the sun. Only for an instant, but it was enough.
As soon as his opponent was distracted, Dash charged for Merlin’s cage, ready to steal his blood and bring the cursed artifact back to life.
“No!” I screamed.
But Dash was already at the cage, fiddling with the lock. Although he kept his black cat form, he bespelled one of his claws into a key that fit the lock in question perfectly, no doubt.
Merlin pressed himself against the back wall, trying to put as much distance between himself and the dark wizard as possible.
From the corner of my eyes, a blinding shot of pink streaked across the summit and slammed into Dash like a speeding freight train. It didn’t stop with impact, but kept pushing, charging straight off the mountaintop and out into the pre-dawn sky.
The ball of pink magic curved, reversing course and whipping back toward us. It stopped at Drake’s side, and the magic faded to nothingness.
“What happened?” I asked Mr. Fluffikins.
“He wasn’t paying attention, so I pushed him off the mountain,” the big boss cat said, his chest puffed with pride.
“And you are so going to regret that,” the dark wizard’s voice boomed as he crested over the mountain. But he wasn’t a cat anymore, nor was he a hoary-bearded human.
An enormous dragon now treaded air before us.
And he did not look happy.
23
I stared at the monstrous green dragon with my mouth hanging wide open. I’d witnessed a lot of magic in the past few months, but none of it had shaken me quite like the sight of the awful behemoth flapping its wings before me now.
Dragon Dash roared and unleashed a torrent of flames that charred the grass at my feet.
“What’s happening?” Drake shouted, finally waking up and scrambling to his feet. “Whoa, cool special effects.”
The dragon puked flames and sent them weaving toward Drake.
“No!” I screamed just as the inferno enveloped my poor friend.
The dragon laughed and moved on to his next victim: Mr. Fluffikins.
I stared at the pillar of fire, still burning bright several paces away. Sweat beaded at my brow and above my lip. There’s no way Drake could have survived that.
And it was my fault. I’d brought him into this.
In the distance, the cats resumed their battle. Although Dash’s new form greatly outweighed the little black cat, Fluffikins did not back down from the battle. He launched himself straight at the menace and picked up the fight exactly where they had left off.
I left the cats to it and hung my head in remembrance as the fire burned itself out.
“Ouch, that was hot,” Drake murmured, and when I glanced up I saw him stepping away from a scorched mound of earth. He didn’t have a single burn on him. Not even a smudge of soot.
“Drake,” I whisper-yelled, when I was sure the two witchy cats were fixated on each other and not paying attention to us.
When he looked my way, I nudged my chin to the side to motion for him to come closer.
“Aren’t my new vampire powers awesome?” he asked with an enormous smile. “I literally just walked through fire.”
“Yeah, super great.” Of course, I had a billion questions to ask about that, but something told me Drake didn’t have any of the answers, either. Besides, we had more important things to focus on right now.
“Listen,” I continued. “I need you to get Merlin out of that cage. Dash unlocked it before Fluffikins pushed him off the edge of the mountain, so you should just have to unlatch it. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“And move slowly and quietly. Dash doesn’t think you’re a threat, and the last thing we want to do is change his mind about that.”
Drake gave me the thumbs up, then crept across the summit to Merlin’s cage several yards away. Sure enough, he was able to simply unlatch Merlin’s cage, no fancy lock fiddling required.
I expected Merlin to jump out of the cage with magic blazing, but instead he crept out with a faltering gait. The poor guy had been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours, and I wasn’t sure how much more he could take.
I wanted to shout encouragements at him, but that would risk revealing his new freedom to Dash. For now, I just had to trust that my cat knew what he was doing.
And he was definitely doing something.
Merlin moved slowly but decisively toward me. Was he coming to break my chains? Would I finally be able to join this fight rather than just cheerleading from the sidelines?
No. The Maine Coon stopped a few feet shy of me and my boulder, and I realized in horror what he planned to do.
“Merlin, you can’t,” I rasped, barely above a whisper. I still couldn’t risk alerting Dash to his freedom.
Merlin glanced up and met my eyes for a brief moment before returning his attention to the discarded sword.“We have no other options left,” he said stoically.
And before I could stop him, he raised one clawed fist into the air and brought it down hard, swiping against his chest, exactly the same as Dash had done before.
His blood spread across his long fur, then at last dripped down onto the sword.
My cat had just reforged Excalibur, the weapon meant to destroy us.
24
Now infused with the blood of the final member of our cursed trio, the ancient sword glowed a hot and angry white.
Merlin took a deep breath and pulled himself up onto his hindquarters, then pounced down on the sword with both of his front paws.
The sword hissed and sizzled, extending its glow to Merlin’s body as well. Together, they shone like a beacon, drawing the dragon’s attention straight to them.
“No!” Dash pulled away from Fluffikins and sped toward the light.
“Drake,” I yelled, motioning for him to join me again.
“I have a plan,” I said as the dragon frantically tried to separate Merlin from the sword, but it seemed as if the two had now fused into one.
I whispered my plan to Drake, but he met me with a grimace of uncertainty.“I don’t know. That seems pretty crazy.”
“Just trust me on this one. It’s our best shot.”
He nodded and sauntered away.
“What have you done?” Dash bellowed, though he didn’t seem to be asking anyone in particular.
Finally the sword released its hold on Merlin, and my cat fell to his side, completely spent.
The dragon grappled for the sword and easily gained hold. No one was left to fight him for it. With renewed confidence, Dash lunged at Fluffikins, slicing with enormous strength.
“Look out!” Drake and I both screamed.
Mr. Fluffikins produced a pink whip of magic and grabbed onto the sword, easily breaking it free of the dragon’s grasp. He then used his magical whip to point the sword at the dragon’s heart.
And as his magic held onto Excalibur, it became abundantly clear that the sword hadn’t fulfilled its intended purpose. Mr. Fluffikins’s magic still burned strong and sparkled bright.
“You idiots have ruined my beautiful plan,” the dragon cried when he, too, realized the artifact had failed to rob the other cat of his magic. “For this, you will die!”
Dash and Fluffikins continued their battle, both still equipped with their full abilities. Excalibur fell to the ground, little more than a useless relic now.
Merlin cracked an eye open as he lay panting on the earth.
Drake crouched in the distance, waiting for the perfect moment to act on our plan.
I remained chained to that danged boulder.
“What did you do, you silly cat?” I asked Merlin. Once again tears streamed down my cheeks. I was really turning into quite the crybaby.
“My blood,” he said with a shudder. “It’s no longer magic. The spell is broken.”
“You reforged the artifact and then nullified it so no one else could use it,” I realized aloud.
“Yes,” he said before passing out again.
“Merlin!” I screamed, but nothing I said or did could wake him.