upload

Once again, though, I questioned the wisdom of keeping the cauldron in our front yard, but it was at least late enough that we probably wouldn’t need to worry about gawking neighbors.

The cats worked together in mixing the brew while I kept my eyes on the street, just in case I needed to sound the alarm.

Thankfully, it only took a few minutes for them to finish their witchy work.

“Gracie, come grab this,” Luna called when they were done.

Inside the bird bath sat the little ceramic frog, its mouth filled with a dark green liquid. It looked like one of those disgusting concoctions my mother used to make in her juicer and then try to force me to drink in the mornings before school.

I didn’t care that it had antioxidants, I refused to ingest something that looked like it had been scraped from the bottom of a pond—and smelled that way, too.

I could hardly suppress a gag as I lifted the frog full of potion and carried it into the house.

“Put it in the hallway near the back corner,” Luna instructed. “The same place we sensed the ghost forming last night.”

“Remind me what this will do,” I said after following her instructions to the letter.

“It will help Virginia to materialize faster, and then it will trap her in place so we can deal with her.”

“And how do we plan to deal with her?”

“Eh, we’ll figure it out when the time comes,” Merlin added with a long, lazy stretch.

“Wonderful,” I muttered, pouring some crunches into the cats’ bowl for them. “So glad to know we’re doing everything we can to make sure we stay safe. Now if you don’t need me any longer, I’m going to bed.”

Both cats raced over to eat. Before lowering his head to the bowl, though, Merlin glanced over to the counter and frowned.“Luna, my love, did we forget one of the ingredients for our potion tonight?”

She stopped eating and raised her head.“No. Everything that should have been included was.”

“Then what’s that?” he asked, pointing his nose toward the counter where the black cactus dahlia Drake had given me still sat in a half-empty glass pitcher.

Both cats glanced toward the counter and then me.

“Gracie,” Luna prattled in a sing-song voice. “That’s not from my garden. Does it belong to you?”

No, no, no. I had hoped we’d all been busy enough that we could just skip past the part where the cats teased me about my non-date. They’d already laid into me pretty hard before Drake came over, and I just didn’t have the energy to endure their teasing a second time.

“It was a gift. Don’t worry about it,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“From your new boyfriend?” Luna cooed, her tail waving from side to side in delight.

“What was his name again?” Merlin asked, kicking up his back leg to scratch behind his ear.

“Drake,” Luna answered promptly.

“Not my boyfriend. Not even close,” I said through clenched teeth.

“But he gave you a flower,” Luna pointed out. “Isn’t that considered a romantic gesture among humans?”

“Yeah, he wants me. I don’t want him. In fact, my other friend does. Ugh, never mind. Can we just move past this whole elementary school thing, please?”

“What’s elementary school?” they both asked, completely transfixed on me now.

“It’s a place human kids go when they’re like six.”

“I’m only one year old,” Merlin said with a shrug.

“Me, too,” Luna chimed.

“So I guess it’s not past us then,” Merlin said with a sinister smile. “Now tell us, did Drakey Wakey kiss you nighty wighty?”

“I’m going to bed!” I shouted, then stomped off and slammed my bedroom door for the second time that day.

15

I woke up the next morning to bright rays of sunlight shooting through my blinds. Ugh. I really needed to invest in some blackout curtains if I ever wanted to sleep past sunrise again.

After a quick pit stop to the bathroom, I trudged into the kitchen and straight to my favorite appliance, then popped in a dark roast pod and waited for it to brew.

My morning coffee was becoming increasingly important to me now that everything at Harold’s was pumpkin spice flavored. I used to love getting those special lattes during the fall, but now that I’d been subjected to a PSL overdose at Kelley’s hands, I firmly believed seasonal drinks were seasonal for a reason.

“What are you doing?” Merlin asked, hopping onto the counter and rubbing his face against the coffeemaker.

I pushed him to the side.“Don’t do that. I hate it when you get your fur in my morning cuppa.”

“But it’s so warm and buzzy,” he groaned.

“Speaking of warm and buzzy, I didn’t like what I saw in the garden last night. I think it might be time to consider getting you and Luna fixed.” My brain hadn’t had the chance to wake up fully yet, but I still couldn’t get that picture of them out of my head. It’s like the disgusting scene was seared in my memory.

Merlin crept back up to the Keurig and rubbed his cheek against it again. This time he let out a contented purr as he asked,“Fixed? Why? We aren’t broken. Well, I mean Luna’s lost her magic, but other than that she’s perfectly fine.”