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Just as I was about to force myself to stand, I heard a series of clicks and scratches coming from across the living room.What the heck?

I tiptoed over to take a look and saw the silhouette of a cat in the window. My cat.

“Merlin, what are you doing out there?” I cried, racing to open the window.

But before I could make it across the room, a bright green light burst forth from the wall and blocked my path.

“Harold?” I squeaked, even though there was no mistaking the figure before me.

“So we meet again,” a ghostly Virginia drawled. Unlike Harold, she was much more than an amorphous glowing orb. Her face was fully formed in a perfect replica of how she had looked in life—except now she was green and semi-transparent. She was also missing most of her body. In fact, her figure ended slightly below the armpits, giving her a bust-like appearance.

Virginia charged at me and gnashed her teeth.

I dodged out of the way just in time.“Get out of here, and leave us alone,” I shouted, running for the hallway.

Virginia followed, cackling as if she were a witch and not a ghost. Maybe she was a witch now, too. She was certainly glowing green with magic, which put me at a double disadvantage. I couldn’t wield any power of my own, and I had zero idea how to kill a ghost.Wonderful.

I groped about in the corner of the hallway until I found the ceramic frog with the potion pooled within its open maw. As soon as I got a firm grip on it, I spun and thrust it toward my assailant.

“Take that!” I shouted, proud of my quick thinking despite the fog of fatigue that enveloped me.

“What are you doing with my frog?” Virginia asked with a dry laugh. “And why are you waving it at me like a weapon?”

I braced myself with feet shoulder width apart.“I hereby bind you, ghost!”

“Silence.” Virginia’s bellow echoed, reverberating through the entire house.

I pushed the frog at her again, but it flew from my hands and crashed into the wall. When I tried to speak, I found my mouth was sealed shut.

“That’s better,” Virginia said with an approving nod. “Now enough with the theatrics. I’m here to kill you. Nothing more, nothing less. You’ll pay for what you and your witch did. I have more magic in death than I ever had in life, and now I will use it to avenge my untimely death. So, any last words?”

She rotated her head on her stump of a torso and released her magical hold on me.

I gasped, then shouted at her the second I was able to move my mouth.“Where are my cats?”

Her green dulled with apparent disappointment.“Well, that’s a waste of words. If you must know, I’ve magically sealed this house. They can’t get in, and you can’t get out. You’re entirely at my mercy. First I’ll take care of you, and then I’ll finish them off as well. It’s almost too easy.”

“You don’t have magic. H-h-how is this possible?” I sputtered. If I could keep her talking, I could keep me breathing.

Virginia had such a large ego she not only wanted to murder me, but she also wanted me to bask in her brilliance before she did it. The quintessential villain divulging her master plan instead of actually implementing it.

“Oh, anything is possible if you have the right friends. Luna was an amateur, a fool! But my new master appreciates what I am, what I can do.” She was so textbook bad guy, I almost felt sorry for her. Unfortunately, I felt much sorrier for me in this moment, though. Virginia had no morals that I had seen, and she wouldn’t hesitate to deliver on her promise of my demise.

Even though I was still shaking in my boots, I forced myself to roll my eyes.“Dash, you mean? You’re still working for that witch after the last time literally got you killed?”

“I know what you’re doing, and I’m not stupid enough to fall for it,” a glowing, green Virginia hissed.

“Funny choice of words. Fall for it? Isn’t that how you died the first time? Maybe it’s how you’ll die this time, too?” I would have crossed my arms over my chest, but I needed to have them ready in case Virginia flew at me again.

“I am immortal in my new form!” she boomed triumphantly. “The only one dying tonight will be you. And your little kitty friends.” She hurled herself at me with her ghostly mouth wide open and clamped down on my shoulder.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. It hurt so bad! Much more than any bite should have stung. Somehow I knew she had infected me with magic.

But what kind?

And what would it do?

I swooned on my feet. No, I couldn’t let her win.

Especially not so easily.

But then I swooned again.

“What did you do to me?” I croaked.

22

“I created a drain. Soon the magic within you will begin flowing to me,” Virginia revealed, circling me with glee. “And once I have enough of it, I will use it to end you. How’s that for poetic justice?”

Virginia sure was full of herself. But even I had to admit that her plan was a good one. Killing me with my own well of magic.

Just wow.

I hadn’t even made it a full month as a familiar, and already my ties to the magical world had led to my imminent death.

Sorry, but no.

I was not going down without a fight.