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Persimmon, I read just as my feet made contact with the pavement. Now that we’d stepped off Luna’s property, the thorns and flowers that held Merlin fell away.

He jumped from my arms, shook off, blinked once, twice… And we were back home.

“All that for nothing,” he mewled, padding toward his water bowl then taking a few long laps to refresh himself.

“Not for nothing,” I revealed, tugging the filched journal from my waistband and bringing it into view.

“Gracie,” my cat exclaimed. “Good girl. Very good girl.”

I basked in his praise despite his dehumanizing tone.“I can see why you don’t much care for Luna,” I added softly. “Or the name Fluffy. I’m sorry.”

“She’d have killed me if you weren’t there,” he said with a casual shrug. “She’s been like that ever since I dumped her to take my place as a full witch.”

I threw my hands up and took a step back.“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up there.”

Merlin turned away but kept one eye trained on me from the side.“A cat doesn’t become a full witch until he takes a familiar.”

“Not that part. The dumping part?” I clarified, wondering why he hadn’t told me this bit of his history with Luna in advance of our trespassing—and me stealing the journal.

Merlin yawned and stretched his back legs lazily.“Oh, yeah. We used to date. Not a big deal.”

“Actually, it seems like a very big deal,” I corrected, hoping he would tell me more.

“It’s not my fault the rules state that no two witches may live under the same roof. It was fine when I was stray, but things change. There was no way I’d give up my awesome powers in favor of a fling. Nope. Anyway… No need to dredge up the past when we have our futures to worry about. Now show me the book,” Merlin commanded without a second thought about his past love affair.

I tromped over to the couch and set the journal in my lap so we could read through it together.“What is all this?” I asked, squinting at the strange series of symbols interspersed with sketches of various flora and fauna.

“It appears to be a grimoire. Not her primary one, mind you, but something new she’s working on.”

“A spell book? Do you have one of those, too?”

He nodded, continuing to study the page.“I have many, but I would never leave them in plain sight.”

“Where are they?” I wondered aloud.

“That’s privileged information, aka on a need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know right now.”

“Ouch. Okay.”

Merlin mumbled to himself as he flipped through the pages, completely unbothered by the fact that he’d hurt my feelings.

“So what are we looking at here?” I asked after a little while of watching, waiting, and understanding absolutely nothing.

“She’s developing a new potion. A powerful one. But she doesn’t seem to quite have it yet.”

I stared at the book harder but still couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “To do what?”

“I can’t quite tell. This is all garden witch stuff. They’re big on brews. Me? Not so much.”

“Do you think it could be a poison?” I asked, thinking of poor Harold. Yeah, he may have been stingy and mean, but he certainly didn’t deserve to be murdered over it.

Merlin immediately picked up my suggestion and ran with it.“You think Luna could be behind Harold’s death?”

I nodded.“Yeah. I mean, why not? We don’t really have any other suspects that make sense.”

Merlin slammed the journal closed.“A very interesting theory. She may have been trying to get to you, but nabbed Harold instead.”

I gasped, unaware of just how much danger I’d been in this whole time, how much danger I was still in. “She would do that? Kill me?”

“Duh.” Merlin yawned as if this very important conversation bored him. “Luna is very dangerous, and she has it out for me, which means now she has it out for you, too.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have broken her heart then,” I mumbled, adding to the long list of reasons why I was very upset with my cat that day.

If only I’d have adopted a dog instead…

10

“I have to get to work,” I said before shuffling my way toward the shower. We’d spent the better part of the last hour poring over that stolen grimoire and still had nothing to show for it. Well, except for my poor frazzled nerves.

“If Luna’s so dangerous, perhaps you should return that journal,” I shouted back toward Merlin before I closed the door and enjoyed some much-needed time to myself.

And he seemed to have taken my advice, because by the time I finished getting ready for my shift, neither he nor the journal were anywhere to be seen.

Honestly, I didn’t know whether I was expected to show up for work that day, given the whole crime scene thing, but I decided it would be best to at least try to honor my responsibilities to the late Harold.

When I reached the coffeehouse, I found that it was still blocked off by police tape but that my coworker Kelley was moving about inside.

I let myself in, too.

Kelley glanced up suddenly from her place behind the glass pastry display case.“Oh, hi, Gracie,” she said with a frown.

“How are you holding up?” I asked gently, coming over to stand beside her.

She shrugged.“Honestly, I don’t know.”