Merlin growled.“Well, before Luna was my girl, she was Tom’s.”
“Tom,” I repeated. “Tom Cat?”
“Yes, and when he saw her without magic, he blamed me. Tom became so angry, he challenged me as part of some misguided attempt to avenge her.”
“That’s actually kind of sweet,” I said with a sappy smile.
Luna shook her head adamantly.“I do not need to be avenged by Merlin, Tom, or anyone else. I make my own choices, and I fight my own battles with or without magic. Of course, Merlin agreed to the duel before I had a chance to tell him any of this.”
Merlin nodded somberly.“And when Luna made her displeasure known, the only thing we could do was run and hope we made it back through the portal before Tom and his cronies could catch us.”
“Please tell me you got what we needed regarding the ghost before all this went down,” I mumbled, upset.
“Of course we did,” Luna answered with a wide grin, which quickly faltered. “Although it would probably be best if Merlin doesn’t show his face in Nocturna for a while.”
“But without Merlin, neither of us can go.”
“I know,” she said with a flick of her tail. “So consider Nocturna off our resource list for the moment.”
Great.Our direct connection to the magical world had been temporarily severed while we struggled to deal with a very real, very immediate magical problem.
That would make things so much easier.
11
“But you said you got what we needed,” I pointed out, hoping very much that this was true. Without the ability to access other magical creatures in Nocturna, we’d be truly alone in dealing with our unwanted house ghost.
“Relax, will you?” Merlin spat as he stared at me with large green eyes. “Don’t you remember rule one?”
Yes, I remembered that I was supposed to trust everything he said without question. A terrible rule, but one he insisted on enforcing.
I pressed my lips into a firm line and waited for him to share more.
And once he was satisfied with my quiet compliance, he went ahead with his explanation.“We went to the library and found a spell we can use to trap the ghost.”
My jaw dropped open.“Nocturna has a library?” I squealed with glee. Oh, how badly I now wanted to go.
“Yes. What’s the big deal?” He wagged his tail wildly like one of those giant wavy men in front of an auto dealership.
“Nothing. I just love books, and—”
“Can we focus on what’s important here?” Merlin snapped, clearly still out of sorts from his near duel with the rival Tom Cat.
Luna fixed me with a kindly gaze.“The library is lovely, but it is made for cats. I’m afraid you wouldn’t fit through the door, dear.”
Well, there was that dream dashed. I hadn’t even been granted proper time to picture myself ensconced in stacks of magical old books. Sigh.
Merlin lay down in loaf form with his paws tucked beneath him, apparently now delegating the task of dealing with me to Luna.
She stood and stretched, keeping her tail high in the air.“We found the spell we need, and I should have all the ingredients for it in my garden. Since I am no longer magical, I won’t be able to mix the potion myself, but I still have the knowledge. I can guide Merlin in its creation. Or even you.”
Oh, that was right. As Merlin’s familiar, I was also a vessel for his magic. Kind of like a portable battery charger. I couldn’t cast any magic myself, but I always had a ready source for my feline overlord.
“One problem,” I realized aloud. “Your garden is at Virginia’s old place. We don’t have access to it.”
She grinned a devilish grin.“It’s outside. All we have to do is walk up and take what we need.”
I twisted my mouth in a grimace.“Isn’t that stealing, though?”
Merlin laughed.“After all we’ve been through, you’re worried about stealing? Besides, that garden is Luna’s. She planted it, cared for it. How could it be anyone’s but hers?”
“Don’t think about it too hard. You’ll just give yourself a headache,” Luna suggested. She then pressed herself into Merlin’s side. “Well, c’mon. We need to get those ingredients if we’re to dispatch our ghost.”
I sighed. She was right, of course. That didn’t make me feel any better about sneaking around on a property that didn’t belong to us. Just look at all the trouble it had gotten us into before!
Still, once the cats had made up their minds, there was no convincing them otherwise.
I placed a hand on the Maine Coon witch’s back, resigned to what would happen next.
Merlin just had to blink twice, and the three of us were transported to the garden.
Well, actually, we ended up at the far edge of the yard near a thick tree that I knew all too well. I shivered, remembering the times I’d been here before. None of them had been pleasant. First Merlin and I had broken in, only to be threatened by our then-enemy, Luna. She also kidnapped me and used me to make a love spell, although I didn’t know that at the time. The worst memory of all, though, was the showdown we had with Virginia and the wicked illusion witch who’d been pulling her strings. The same tree we found ourselves standing by now had been animated and fought right alongside us.
Creepy, creepy, creepy.
Was it any wonder I was so hesitant about returning now in the dead of night?
A flash of red caught my eye. I turned quickly, half expecting to see a crazed witch running right at me. But it was only the FOR SALE sign flapping in the gentle breeze.
Luna drew up to my side and said,“Virginia had no family. No next of kin. That’s part of why I chose her. It’s much easier to make a familiar of someone without attachments.”
“Is that why you chose me?” I asked Merlin, wondering if I should be offended. Did the witchy cats choose people human society didn’t want? Did this mean my cats thought I was a loser who wouldn’t be missed?
“That’s why I chose your grandmother,” Merlin explained without looking my way. “I chose you by default when she left.”
I chuffed.“Thanks for reminding me.”
“Hey, I’m happy with my choice, however it was made.”
That at least made me smile.“Okay, so we’re here for ingredients, right? Let’s get what we need and go. Whether or not anyone lives here now, I still don’t feel right about snooping around.”
“Your sense of morality is seriously questionable at times,” Merlin said as he raised his head and sniffed the air. “But so be it.”
12
Luna led the way into the back garden. I had a hard time seeing much in the darkness of night, but neither cat hesitated as they plucked various herbs and flowers from the ground and laid them in a pile at my unmoving feet.
“Are you almost done?” I asked after several minutes of this.
That was when a flood light lit up the backyard, blinding me in its sudden brightness.
“Hello!” someone called from the side of the house as footsteps hurried our way. “Who’s out here?”
I froze in place, hoping Merlin would transport us out of there before the other person made it back.
No such luck, though. Honestly, I don’t think he even tried.
“Gracie?” the other person shouted with a gasp. “What are you doing back here?”
Finally my eyes began to adjust to the light. I squinted at the new arrival and watched as it slowly morphed into the familiar shape of my friend and boss, Kelley Carmine.
“Hi,” I said with an awkward wave.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, stepping closer without hesitation now that we’d identified each other.
“Oh, you know…” I laughed to disguise my nerves. “Taking my cats for a nice moonlit stroll.”