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“Listen,” I continued. “I need you to get Merlin out of that cage. Dash unlocked it before Fluffikins pushed him off the edge of the mountain, so you should just have to unlatch it. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And move slowly and quietly. Dash doesn’t think you’re a threat, and the last thing we want to do is change his mind about that.”

Drake gave me the thumbs up, then crept across the summit to Merlin’s cage several yards away. Sure enough, he was able to simply unlatch Merlin’s cage, no fancy lock fiddling required.

I expected Merlin to jump out of the cage with magic blazing, but instead he crept out with a faltering gait. The poor guy had been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours, and I wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

I wanted to shout encouragements at him, but that would risk revealing his new freedom to Dash. For now, I just had to trust that my cat knew what he was doing.

And he was definitely doing something.

Merlin moved slowly but decisively toward me. Was he coming to break my chains? Would I finally be able to join this fight rather than just cheerleading from the sidelines?

No. The Maine Coon stopped a few feet shy of me and my boulder, and I realized in horror what he planned to do.

“Merlin, you can’t,” I rasped, barely above a whisper. I still couldn’t risk alerting Dash to his freedom.

Merlin glanced up and met my eyes for a brief moment before returning his attention to the discarded sword.“We have no other options left,” he said stoically.

And before I could stop him, he raised one clawed fist into the air and brought it down hard, swiping against his chest, exactly the same as Dash had done before.

His blood spread across his long fur, then at last dripped down onto the sword.

My cat had just reforged Excalibur, the weapon meant to destroy us.

24

Now infused with the blood of the final member of our cursed trio, the ancient sword glowed a hot and angry white.

Merlin took a deep breath and pulled himself up onto his hindquarters, then pounced down on the sword with both of his front paws.

The sword hissed and sizzled, extending its glow to Merlin’s body as well. Together, they shone like a beacon, drawing the dragon’s attention straight to them.

“No!” Dash pulled away from Fluffikins and sped toward the light.

“Drake,” I yelled, motioning for him to join me again.

“I have a plan,” I said as the dragon frantically tried to separate Merlin from the sword, but it seemed as if the two had now fused into one.

I whispered my plan to Drake, but he met me with a grimace of uncertainty.“I don’t know. That seems pretty crazy.”

“Just trust me on this one. It’s our best shot.”

He nodded and sauntered away.

“What have you done?” Dash bellowed, though he didn’t seem to be asking anyone in particular.

Finally the sword released its hold on Merlin, and my cat fell to his side, completely spent.

The dragon grappled for the sword and easily gained hold. No one was left to fight him for it. With renewed confidence, Dash lunged at Fluffikins, slicing with enormous strength.

“Look out!” Drake and I both screamed.

Mr. Fluffikins produced a pink whip of magic and grabbed onto the sword, easily breaking it free of the dragon’s grasp. He then used his magical whip to point the sword at the dragon’s heart.

And as his magic held onto Excalibur, it became abundantly clear that the sword hadn’t fulfilled its intended purpose. Mr. Fluffikins’s magic still burned strong and sparkled bright.

“You idiots have ruined my beautiful plan,” the dragon cried when he, too, realized the artifact had failed to rob the other cat of his magic. “For this, you will die!”

Dash and Fluffikins continued their battle, both still equipped with their full abilities. Excalibur fell to the ground, little more than a useless relic now.

Merlin cracked an eye open as he lay panting on the earth.

Drake crouched in the distance, waiting for the perfect moment to act on our plan.

I remained chained to that danged boulder.

“What did you do, you silly cat?” I asked Merlin. Once again tears streamed down my cheeks. I was really turning into quite the crybaby.

“My blood,” he said with a shudder. “It’s no longer magic. The spell is broken.”

“You reforged the artifact and then nullified it so no one else could use it,” I realized aloud.

“Yes,” he said before passing out again.

“Merlin!” I screamed, but nothing I said or did could wake him.

Please don’t be dead; please don’t be dead.

It couldn’t end like this. We couldn’t win this battle only to lose the war. Merlin couldn’t die. And he hadn’t. I refused to accept it.

Fluffikins and Dash continued to fight for what felt like ages. It must have felt like a long time to Drake, too, because he decided to depart from the original plan.

“Yo, dragon breath!” he shouted, jumping up and waving his hands in the air.

“You! I thought I already disposed of you!” Dash roared and pulled away from Fluffikins, making a beeline for Drake.

Oh, that stupid jerk. Now he was going to die, too. Why couldn’t he have just waited like I told him?