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I bet my grandma never would have guessed what was in store for me when she gifted me her small-town Georgia home and retired to the Florida Keys. She certainly didn’t know that a certain magical Maine Coon had already been scoping her out to work as his familiar, or that he’d later choose me in her place.

Honestly, even though my life has taken a turn for the crazy, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love Merlin, and I love our adventures together, no matter how much they frighten the frijoles out of me.

I can’t cast magic, but that doesn’t mean I’m not important in our fight against the wicked illusion witch who has set her sights on us.

But this time when she finds us, I’ll be ready to take her down.

An unholy shriek woke me from a dead sleep.

Meeeeeeeeeeeh!

I darted upright in bed and grabbed my cell phone to serve as a flashlight.“Who’s there?” I demanded.

But was only answered by Merlin thumping down the hardwood floor in the hallway.

Meeeeeeeeeh!the shriek sounded again, and this time I realized it was Luna crying her heart out.

And so it went. Shriek, scamper. Shriek, scamper. Until at last I made my way into the hall and found them both staring at the far corner of the ceiling with their ears pressed back against their little kitty heads.

“What’s going on?” I asked, knowing full well both of them were capable of more than just uncivilized meows.

“Gh-gh-gh-ghost,” Merlin said, then took another sprint down the short hallway.

I glanced up to the spot where Luna still had her large unblinking eyes fixed… and saw absolutely nothing.

Still, I asked her,“What do you see?” Generally, she was the more logical of the two—or at least the one more likely to open up to me.

“I can’t see anything,” she whispered without removing her gaze from the ceiling. “But there’s an energy that’s forming. It’s not wholly in our world yet. It will be soon, though.”

“So you see a pre-ghost?” I summarized.

“Something like that.”

“But how can you tell? You’re not magical anymore,” I reminded her.

Luna couldn’t stifle the hiss that escaped her. “I may not be a witch, but I am still a cat. Magical or not, we can all see into the supernatural realm.”

“Like Nocturna?” I asked, referring to the magical nighttime city that was only accessible to magical creatures at the twilight hour.

Merlin growled and began to kick up his hind legs.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” I cried, reaching down to pluck him into my arms. “No tornadoes inside the house.”

He growled in dismay until I set him back down.

“We must get rid of it before it takes its full form,” Luna told me as she worried her bottom lip with her top fangs.

“The fact that it’s here so soon in its after-life journey is a very bad sign,” Merlin revealed, and when I looked down at him he had arched his back and puffed up to maximum volume.

I grabbed him into my arms again.“Definitely no lightning inside the house!”

“Then what should we do?” Luna asked with a gasp.

“Let me make some coffee,” I said, admitting defeat at last. It was clear that neither cat would let me go to bed until I found a way to bust this newborn ghost… or at least to send it off to haunt some place far, far away from here.

2

Coffee in hand, I settled myself at the kitchen table. The hard wood of the old chair did little to make me comfortable, but it did help keep me awake.

I took a slow sip from my mug, letting the steam warm my face, then glanced over at the two cats sitting across the table from me.

“So a ghost is coming,” I said. “I can see how that would be a bad thing. Do either of you know how to make it go away?”

Luna shook her head sadly.“It’s Virginia,” she said, speaking of her late familiar. “I just know it is.”

Merlin rubbed his head against his girlfriend’s neck. “Her death wasn’t your fault. It was her own greed.”

“It feels like my fault,” Luna mumbled. She’d been blaming herself ever since it happened. When she learned that Virginia had gone rogue in her thirst for magical power, Luna hadn’t hesitated to sever the familiar bond, leaving them both powerless. And in her desperate grasp for the fleeingmagic, Virginia toppled headfirst down a well and met her end.

Now apparently she was in the process of taking ghostly form and planning to haunt my house.

Was she after revenge?

Would she hurt me or one of the cats?

Whatever was going on, it definitely couldn’t be good.

And just when I thought things were starting to settle down.Ugh.

My only hope now was that either the cats were wrong about the ghost or they had a different explanation for its presence.

I sucked in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.“I don’t really know much about ghosts outside of what I’ve seen in old movies. Can one of you catch me up?”

Luna and Merlin exchanged a tense glance.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked with a heavy sigh. I almost didn’t want to hear what they said next, but I needed to be prepared in case I found myself caught in the middle of another magical standoff.

Luna began to speak, but Merlin put the side of his paw against her chest to stop her.