She let out a shuddering sigh.
“Speak!” Merlin barked, a strange sound coming from a cat, indeed.
Luna gasped and hopped down from the edge of the well and pressed her side against it. She looked to Merlin, then cast her gaze aside as if she’d been burned.
“Speak!” Merlin yelled even louder.
The lanky white cat turned her pale eyes to me.“I didn’t want to hurt either of you. It was a…” She continued speaking, but her words became so soft and mumbled that I couldn’t make them out.
“A what?” I prompted, leaning closer in an effort to better hear.
“A love spell. A potion to make Merlin fall back in love with me!” Luna’s voice grew louder and stronger with each word.
I turned to look at Merlin, and he stood with eyes wide and unblinking, his mouth hanging slightly open.
“I love you, Merlin,” she continued, stepping forward and coming to stand less than an inch from her flabbergasted ex. “I always have. I tried so hard to hate you once we took our familiars. I knew the laws of our society. And yet… Forgetting you was the one spell I couldn’t cast.”
She paused as they locked gazes, then took a small tentative step forward.
“Now I’ve given up my magic in the hope that we can be together. I will protect you all my days with or without magic to aid me. I will love you forever and always, no matter what. Will you love me, too?”
I held my breath as we both waited for Merlin’s response… Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect next.
27
The battle-worn Maine Coon took one step back, then another.
Luna had just poured her heart out to him, and yet he seemed to be in search of an escape route. I loved my cat, yet a part of me vowed I would kill him if he really was planning on breaking her heart a second time.
Yes, Luna had kidnapped me, but now that I knew why, it was actually kind of sweet. Add in the fact she had given up her magic on the slight chance he’d reciprocate her love, and these cats were the stuff of classic love stories. Provided Luna’s affection wasn’t unrequited.
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.