upload

Yes, we would have a nice long chat, provided I could find him. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to my home, more than ready for a heart-to-heart.

But I didn’t find Merlin waiting for me.

Instead, the house had been ransacked during my brief visit with Virginia. I’d only been gone half an hour, tops, but cushions had been torn off the couch, chairs overturned, the whole nine yards.

Thinking fast, I grabbed a broom from the front closet and proceeded deeper into my house with the end raised like a baseball bat.

“Who’s there?” I called as my eyes darted all around. Who would burgle me in broad daylight? And why? I didn’t have anything good.

Suddenly the broom flew from my hands and whipped back around to pin me against the wall.

“Where is it?” a lanky white cat demanded, tiptoeing toward me.Luna.

“Let me go,” I cried, struggling against the broom, but Luna’s magic proved stronger than my muscles.

“Not until you tell me where it is!” She stopped about a foot in front of me and unsheathed the claws on one paw. “Tell me right now!”

I could play dumb and pretend I didn’t know what she was talking about, but it seemed easier to give in to her demands. “The journal?” I asked.

Her glowing green eyes widened.“So you admit to the theft?”

“I admit I took it, but I also brought it right back. I’m sorry.”

“You have no idea what you’ve done. What trouble you’ve caused.”

“Again, I’m really sorry. Please let me go?” I begged meekly.

“No,” she told me with a beastly growl. “You started this, and you’ll be the one to finish it.”

The broom dropped, and I lurched forward. No sooner had I been freed than one of my wooden dining chairs slammed into me from behind. I fell into a sitting position and then the broom pressed me against the chair, securing me in place.

“Please…” I cried actual tears now. “I never asked to become Merlin’s familiar. I never asked for any of this.”

“You’re coming with me,” Luna said, then blinked once, twice…

And we were back at her cottage.“Are you going to kill me now?”

“Where’s the journal?” Luna hissed, ignoring my desperate question.

“Under the c-c-couch,” I sputtered, seeing no point in lying now.

The thin cat ran beneath the couch, then came out with the notebook gripped between her jaws.

I remained stuck in the chair, only able to watch as she levitated the book to the coffee table and flipped through its pages.

Apparently having found what she was looking for, she smiled, blinked, and took us into her rear garden. Then she approached an old stone wall, dragging me along with her magic.

“What are you doing?” I ground out.

“That doesn’t concern you.” Luna hopped onto my lap and pawed at my pants, picking something up and dropping it into the well.

Then she ran back and chomped at my hair, ran back to the well, and spit inside.

“Is that your cauldron?” I guessed.

“Ah, so he has taught you something, at least. Not enough to keep you from playing right into my paw, though.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“Good, then your boss won’t see it coming, either.”

“What are you plotting?”

“Nothing that concerns you. I’m just setting things right,” she said, walking through her garden and plucking various leaves and petals to drop into the well.

I watched her work for at least twenty minutes, but nothing I said could convince her to tell me anything more. Sometime later, a shimmering emerald puff rose from the well and Luna laughed girlishly rather than wickedly.

“Purrfect,” she exclaimed. “Now return home and mix this in your master’s water dish.” She pushed an empty plastic bottle into the well with her paw. And when she brought it back up with her magic, it held a small amount of liquid. No more than half an inch deep.

“I won’t do it,” I said, struggling against the broom and chair once more.

Luna laughed again as the broom snapped away and the chair crumbled into a pile of sawdust.“Funny thing is, you don’t have a choice. And you won’t be able to warn him, either. It’s brewed right into the spell.”

“That’s why you took my hair,” I realized.

“Yes. And his. It’s lucky for me he sheds so much and can’t resist a warm lap, eh?”

“I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t get away with it.”

“I already have,” Luna said with a smirk.

She blinked once, twice…

And I was back home with the water bottle clutched firmly in my hand. Before I could stop myself, I poured its contents into Merlin’s bowl. As soon as I did, the plastic container dissolved into thin air and completely disappeared.

No, no, no! I strained for his dish, but something yanked me back. I couldn’t stop whatever Luna had planned from happening, and I couldn’t find Merlin anywhere to keep an eye on the situation.

What now?

15

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I knew the sun had crept between my bedroom blinds and was now beaming directly into my eyes.

Merlin jumped onto my chest and brushed his fluffy tail in my face.“You sleep a lot for a human. Are you sure you’re not part cat?” he quipped. A wry smile stretched between his bright white whiskers.