Merlin The Magical Fluff. Merlin Fights A Ghost. Luna The Magickless Fluff. Merlin Kills A Zombie

“Just following orders.” He flashed me an impish grin.

“What? Whose orders?”

He let out a fatigued sigh.“It’s a condition of my trust fund. I have to keep a steady job to collect. So just to stick it to my old man, I keep the lowliest job possible, doing the exact opposite of what he’d intended for me.”

“So you’re a trust fund baby? That explains a few things,” I said, thinking back to his shiny sports coupe.

“Darling, I’m a trust fund man, and don’t you forget it.” He smiled charmingly, and I couldn’t help but laugh. This was something we had in common, at least. The people in our lives expected more of us—or rather different things. I knew I’d finish my degree eventually, but I still hadno idea what I actually wanted for my life. In truth, I’d chosen Sociology as my field of study because it seemed to be one of the broadest majors available. I’d then signed on to grad school because that’s what you were supposed to do when your bachelor’s degree didn’t offer a clear career path.

I still preferred that life be full of surprises, and settling into a 9-to-5 felt like the exact opposite of that.

“Don’t you get bored, though?” I asked Drake now. “With only working part-time and having no aspirations outside of continuing to collect?” He didn’t need to know that my own aspirations were as of yet undefined.

“Bored? No way. And who says I don’t have aspirations. Like I said, I like to know a little bit about a lot of things. A modern renaissance man.”

“Like gardening,” I supplied with a slight grin. “And makeup.”

He nodded.“And ghosts.”

Oh, good. He’d given me the lead in I needed. I jumped for it. “Actually, I was wondering about that.”

He hung his head and laughed.“Of course, you were. You don’t think I knew that in the parking lot?”

I stopped walking and stared after him.“But you—“

He also stopped a few paces ahead and then turned to study me.“I turned the situation to my advantage. I’ve been wanting to take you out for a long time. I figured this way you’d want it, too.”

“Sneaky.” Now my smile was so big it was busting at the seams.

He winked at me.“Or genius.”

“I’ll stick with sneaky,” I answered with a laugh, then began walking again and looped my arm through his once more. “So are you going to tell me about the ghosts?”

“Ghost,” he corrected. His smile had been replaced by a clenched jaw and furrowed brow. “I’ve only ever seen the one.”

“Tell me about it,” I practically begged as I gave his forearm a little squeeze.

His expression lightened again.“Well, I guess I got what I wanted out of tonight—that is, some extra time with you. I suppose it’s only fair to give you what you wanted. One ghost story coming right up.”

He cleared his throat to begin…

8

“Okay, so it was a dark and stormy night…”

I groaned and flung my head back dramatically.“Seriously?”

“If you want the story, then you’ve gotta let me set the scene,” Drake said, his dark hair falling into his eyes as he smiled at me from just one side of his mouth.

I rolled my eyes and motioned for him to go ahead.

“Like I was saying, it was a dark and stormy night.” He widened his eyes and glared at me, daring me to protest.

When I kept mum, he smiled with the other half of his mouth, too.

“I’d just turned twenty-one, which meant I’d finally come into my trust fund, and now I was in the process of driving all over the country in search of a new place to settle down. The only requirement? That it be as far away from my parents as possible. I was on my way to Miami when a giant storm whipped up, so I pulled over to the side of the road to wait it out. While I sat there, this lady in white appeared out of nowhere.” His eyes became vacant as he journeyed deeper into the memory, and I had no doubt he was seeing the scene unfold anew in his mind’s eye.

Drake took a deep, stuttering breath before continuing.“She wore this old-fashioned gown and no shoes. I could barely see her through the thick sheet of rain, but it was enough to tell that she was semi-transparent.”

I gasped.“Wow, you really did see a ghost.”

“Why would I lie about it?” he asked with one dark eyebrow raised in question.

The intensity of his gaze made me let go of his arm and take a small step to the side.“You’re right. I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

He shrugged.“There’s not much else to tell. Another car showed up, almost drove straight into the thing, but then skidded off road at the very last minute. A soccer mom van stopped to help the person who’d crashed. Eventually the rain stopped, and I carried on toward Miami. Stayed there for a few months but got sick of all the sun. I came back up to Georgia, looking for the place I’d seen the ghost. Eventually I gave up my search. That was when I saw the help wanted sign at Harold’s and decided to settle in Elderberry Heights.”

“Wow,” I whispered in awe, even though I had yet to process his story in its entirety. “So you definitely believe in ghosts?”

“Definitely,” he declared unequivocally as if he’d been asked whether the sky was blue. “I’ve toured haunted houses and talked to psychic mediums in the time since, but everyone I’ve found has been a fraud.”

I grabbed him by the shoulder and waited for him to bend down so I could whisper,“What if I told you I had a ghost materializing in my house right now?”

Drake’s eyes lit up with intrigue. “Then I’d ask what we’re doing out here. Can I see it? Can I talk to it?” He looked like a kid at Christmas.

“I’m not sure it can talk yet, but I know it’s there. Weak, but seems to be getting stronger.” I was proud of myself for not mentioning the cats in my explanation.

I worried that he’d ask questions I didn’t know how to answer, but instead he whipped around and began walking quickly back toward my house, so eager he was to see this ghost for himself.

“That’s my biggest regret, you know,” he said as I struggled to match his pace. “That I just sat in my car the whole time rather than getting out and trying to communicate with it.”

“But you said that a car ran it through,” I reminded him, wrapping my arms around my torso as we walked. Even though it wasn’t the slightest bit cold out, I still needed that added bit of comfort to counteract how this conversation had started making me feel.

He nodded.“Yes, another car scared it off, but there were several minutes of the spirit just floating there. It seemed like maybe she was waiting for someone or something.”

This was getting creepy. I mean, it had already started pretty creepily, but the more Drake shared of his otherworldly experience, the more I began to worry about how my own might play out.

Could my house ghost even be scared off? And if I tried too hard to get rid of it, could the cats and I end up missing an important message from the other side?

If only I knew…

9

I led Drake back to my house and invited him inside to meet my baby ghost. I felt much better allowing him in this time. He now knew where we stood as far as this evening’s non-date, and he’d already confided in me with his ghostly experience.

Granted, I still hoped he’d clear out before the cats returned from Nocturna. I didn’t think I could endure another merciless round of their teasing.

“Well? Where is it?” he asked eagerly, glancing all around the house as if he’d be able to see it with his naked eyes.

“I’m not sure it’s out yet. I think it’s strongest at night, and the sun has only just gone down,” I explained as I pointed to the top corner of the narrow hallway leading to my bedroom.

Drake marched right over to the spot I’d pointed out and reached up a hand with outstretched fingers.

“What are you doing?” I guffawed, resisting the urge to slap my palm into my forehead. “Trying to give the thing a high five?”

He turned back toward me and made a face, not embarrassed as I’d expect but more playful. “I’m checking to see if there’s a temporal anomaly.”

I chuffed at this.“And? Is there?”

“Well, I just realized that I have no idea what a temporal anomaly would feel like. Yeah, I’ve seen a ghost before, but that was more dumb luck than anything.” He tilted his head to the side. “How did you know it was here?”

My heart thudded in my chest. I hated lying, but telling him the truth about Merlin would result in me being locked away in some dodgy magical prison for the rest of my life. That one simple fact made lying essential, but it didn’t make me good at it.

“Oh, it’s my, uh, intuition,” I hedged. “Sometimes I can hear things other people can’t.” That was true, if only because the cats chose to talk to me instead of most other humans.

His eyes widened, and he seemed to look at me with a fresh perspective.“Whoa. So you actually heard it, then? Did it speak to you, like in words?”

I shook my head quickly.“No, no words. It’s more like the sound of, uh, waves crashing softly on the beach.”

“How does one crash softly?” he asked with a chuckle.

I couldn’t tell whether that was a rhetorical question, so I chanced an answer. “It’s hard to explain. Likeshhspspspspshh.”

“Sounds like how some people call their cats,” he pointed out with another soft laugh.

I smiled awkwardly.“Haha, yeah, it kind of does. Anyway, maybe I’m panicking over nothing. I mean, it all sounds pretty crazy, right?”

Drake walked back toward me at the other end of the hall.“Crazy is just what people like to call things they don’t quite understand. For what it’s worth, I believe you about your ghost, and I think it’s pretty freaking cool.”

“Thanks,” I said with a sigh of relief.

Drake raised his hand to touch my forearm.“You’re pretty freaking cool, Gracie. There’s something different about you. Especially lately. And, well, I really, really like it.”

I swallowed hard.“Th-thank you.”

His eyes softened around the edges as he ran his palm up my arm.“Look,” he murmured. “I know I backed you into this date, and that you were too nice to say no. But you can say no now. Okay?”

I nodded as his hand finally reached my shoulder.

He took another step forward.“May I kiss you?”

Oh, wow. That came out of nowhere.“No!” I said, perhaps a bit too emphatically.

Drake immediately dropped his hand and took a step back. He wore a smile, but it was definitely forced.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “It’s just that I have a lot going on in my life right now, and—”

Drake held up a palm.“It’s okay. I get it. I didn’t think you were into me, but I had to find out for sure. I’ll leave you to your evening. If you need any more help with your ghost or just want to hang out, you know where to find me.”

He moved past me and made a beeline for the door.

“Drake, I’m sorry!” I called before rushing after him. “I do like you, and I’ve enjoyed hanging out with you tonight. But I just don’t know you that well yet. And the part about having too much going on to make space for a relationship. That’s one-hundred percent true.”

He tilted his head slightly to the side.“You don’t have to explain it to me. I’m definitely an acquired taste.”

“Hey, then maybe I’ll acquire it after we spend more time together,” I blurted out stupidly. I didn’t feel that way about Drake, and I wasn’t sure I ever could.

He paused with his hand on the doorknob.“So you think you might get a craving for some vitamin D later?”

My mouth fell open. I tried to issue a response, but it came out as more of a disgusted groan.

Drake spun around to face me.“D for Drake! That’s all I meant! D for Drake. Not… the other thing.”

I nodded mutely, my eyes still wide from shock.

“Yeah, I’ll just go jump off a bridge now,” he said, pulling the door open and stepping outside.

For a moment, I debated going after him, but then—

10

“Out of my way, out of my way!” Merlin yowled as he and Luna popped out from the birdbath in a cascade of green sparks.

“Hush, or someone will see you!” I whisper-yelled from my spot in the doorway. I glanced toward the road and was relieved to see that Drake had made his getaway before the magical display on my front lawn.

“That was a close one,” Merlin muttered as he and Luna passed by me on their way inside the house.

I shut the door and locked it. Just in case.

“What happened?” I asked, almost afraid to hear their answer.

Luna stretched to lick Merlin’s forehead, and he visibly let go of some of the tension he’d carried home with him.

“Thanks. I needed that,” he purred to his lady love while continuing to ignore me.

Luna attached herself to Merlin’s side. I wouldn’t have been able to pry them apart if I tried. And I definitely knew better than to try.

“We ran into some cats from Merlin’s past, and they weren’t exactly happy to see him. Or to see us together,” she explained in that lilting voice of hers.

“What did they do?” I asked. Merlin was hardly more than a kitten. Him taking me on as his familiar was the act that officially made him a full-fledged witch, and that had happened very recently. How could such a young cat already have such bitter enemies?

“They challenged him to a duel, which he—” She narrowed her eyes at Merlin. “—then foolishly accepted.”

“Whoa, you could have died tonight?” I spat with equal parts surprise and anxiety. “What were you thinking?”

“He wasn’t thinking,” Luna answered with a sigh. “But you must also remember that we cats do things differently than humans.”

“Duels with guns, right? Like in Hamilton?” I pictured Merlin wearing a period costume and circling another cat in colonial garb while they rapped about their grievances. Now there’s a show I would pay good money to see.

“Certainly not,” Luna said, her lip curled in disgust, almost as if she’d been able to picture the scene playing out in my head.

“Then?” I asked seriously.

Merlin spoke up at last, his fur twitching at the shoulders.“It wouldn’t have been so bad. We cats fight with what’s at our disposal.”

He raised a paw and unsheathed his claws.“We use a combination of magic and good-old fashioned rough-housing.”

Luna nudged him until he put his weapons away.“Cats strike with their paws. Magical cats strike with phantom claws.”

I shook my head, not understanding the strange metaphor.

“We bat at each other’s magic within,” he explained, then pressed his ears back against his head, raised a paw, and hit at the air. “Like that, but we don’t aim to injure faces or hurt pride. We attack each other’s magic until one of us doesn’t have enough left to continue the duel.”

“You kill each other?” The thought seemed so barbaric. But I guess if humans could take each other’s lives, then so, too, could other species. As much as I wished they wouldn’t.

Merlin shuddered.“No, it’s much worse. The loser lives on without magic. A fate worse than—”

“Ah-ah-ahem!” I cleared my throat loudly to stop him.

“What’s your problem?” Merlin asked, then glanced to Luna at his side and dipped his head in regret. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

“I know you didn’t mean it,” she said softly, still clearly hurt by his words. “Just as I know you wouldn’t want to risk your magic when we have an imminent threat in our own home.”

“Why did those other cats even want to fight you? Surely, nothing you’ve done could have beenthat bad.” Sometimes he was sarcastic and off-putting, but overall, Merlin was a good cat. He didn’t seem like the enemy type… Well, other than that thing with Luna. Actually, you know what? Never mind. He’d clearly made his fair share of enemies in his short life. Maybe that was just the way with magic. I was still new to this world and learning all its quirks.

Merlin growled.“Well, before Luna was my girl, she was Tom’s.”

“Tom,” I repeated. “Tom Cat?”

“Yes, and when he saw her without magic, he blamed me. Tom became so angry, he challenged me as part of some misguided attempt to avenge her.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” I said with a sappy smile.

Luna shook her head adamantly.“I do not need to be avenged by Merlin, Tom, or anyone else. I make my own choices, and I fight my own battles with or without magic. Of course, Merlin agreed to the duel before I had a chance to tell him any of this.”

Merlin nodded somberly.“And when Luna made her displeasure known, the only thing we could do was run and hope we made it back through the portal before Tom and his cronies could catch us.”

“Please tell me you got what we needed regarding the ghost before all this went down,” I mumbled, upset.

“Of course we did,” Luna answered with a wide grin, which quickly faltered. “Although it would probably be best if Merlin doesn’t show his face in Nocturna for a while.”

“But without Merlin, neither of us can go.”

“I know,” she said with a flick of her tail. “So consider Nocturna off our resource list for the moment.”

Great.Our direct connection to the magical world had been temporarily severed while we struggled to deal with a very real, very immediate magical problem.

That would make things so much easier.

11

“But you said you got what we needed,” I pointed out, hoping very much that this was true. Without the ability to access other magical creatures in Nocturna, we’d be truly alone in dealing with our unwanted house ghost.

“Relax, will you?” Merlin spat as he stared at me with large green eyes. “Don’t you remember rule one?”

Yes, I remembered that I was supposed to trust everything he said without question. A terrible rule, but one he insisted on enforcing.

I pressed my lips into a firm line and waited for him to share more.

And once he was satisfied with my quiet compliance, he went ahead with his explanation.“We went to the library and found a spell we can use to trap the ghost.”

My jaw dropped open.“Nocturna has a library?” I squealed with glee. Oh, how badly I now wanted to go.

“Yes. What’s the big deal?” He wagged his tail wildly like one of those giant wavy men in front of an auto dealership.

“Nothing. I just love books, and—”

“Can we focus on what’s important here?” Merlin snapped, clearly still out of sorts from his near duel with the rival Tom Cat.

Luna fixed me with a kindly gaze.“The library is lovely, but it is made for cats. I’m afraid you wouldn’t fit through the door, dear.”

Well, there was that dream dashed. I hadn’t even been granted proper time to picture myself ensconced in stacks of magical old books. Sigh.

Merlin lay down in loaf form with his paws tucked beneath him, apparently now delegating the task of dealing with me to Luna.

She stood and stretched, keeping her tail high in the air.“We found the spell we need, and I should have all the ingredients for it in my garden. Since I am no longer magical, I won’t be able to mix the potion myself, but I still have the knowledge. I can guide Merlin in its creation. Or even you.”

Oh, that was right. As Merlin’s familiar, I was also a vessel for his magic. Kind of like a portable battery charger. I couldn’t cast any magic myself, but I always had a ready source for my feline overlord.

“One problem,” I realized aloud. “Your garden is at Virginia’s old place. We don’t have access to it.”

She grinned a devilish grin.“It’s outside. All we have to do is walk up and take what we need.”

I twisted my mouth in a grimace.“Isn’t that stealing, though?”

Merlin laughed.“After all we’ve been through, you’re worried about stealing? Besides, that garden is Luna’s. She planted it, cared for it. How could it be anyone’s but hers?”

“Don’t think about it too hard. You’ll just give yourself a headache,” Luna suggested. She then pressed herself into Merlin’s side. “Well, c’mon. We need to get those ingredients if we’re to dispatch our ghost.”

I sighed. She was right, of course. That didn’t make me feel any better about sneaking around on a property that didn’t belong to us. Just look at all the trouble it had gotten us into before!

Still, once the cats had made up their minds, there was no convincing them otherwise.

I placed a hand on the Maine Coon witch’s back, resigned to what would happen next.

Merlin just had to blink twice, and the three of us were transported to the garden.

Well, actually, we ended up at the far edge of the yard near a thick tree that I knew all too well. I shivered, remembering the times I’d been here before. None of them had been pleasant. First Merlin and I had broken in, only to be threatened by our then-enemy, Luna. She also kidnapped me and used me to make a love spell, although I didn’t know that at the time. The worst memory of all, though, was the showdown we had with Virginia and the wicked illusion witch who’d been pulling her strings. The same tree we found ourselves standing by now had been animated and fought right alongside us.

Creepy, creepy, creepy.

Was it any wonder I was so hesitant about returning now in the dead of night?

A flash of red caught my eye. I turned quickly, half expecting to see a crazed witch running right at me. But it was only the FOR SALE sign flapping in the gentle breeze.

Luna drew up to my side and said,“Virginia had no family. No next of kin. That’s part of why I chose her. It’s much easier to make a familiar of someone without attachments.”

“Is that why you chose me?” I asked Merlin, wondering if I should be offended. Did the witchy cats choose people human society didn’t want? Did this mean my cats thought I was a loser who wouldn’t be missed?

“That’s why I chose your grandmother,” Merlin explained without looking my way. “I chose you by default when she left.”

I chuffed.“Thanks for reminding me.”

“Hey, I’m happy with my choice, however it was made.”

That at least made me smile.“Okay, so we’re here for ingredients, right? Let’s get what we need and go. Whether or not anyone lives here now, I still don’t feel right about snooping around.”

“Your sense of morality is seriously questionable at times,” Merlin said as he raised his head and sniffed the air. “But so be it.”

12

Luna led the way into the back garden. I had a hard time seeing much in the darkness of night, but neither cat hesitated as they plucked various herbs and flowers from the ground and laid them in a pile at my unmoving feet.

“Are you almost done?” I asked after several minutes of this.

That was when a flood light lit up the backyard, blinding me in its sudden brightness.

“Hello!” someone called from the side of the house as footsteps hurried our way. “Who’s out here?”

I froze in place, hoping Merlin would transport us out of there before the other person made it back.

No such luck, though. Honestly, I don’t think he even tried.

“Gracie?” the other person shouted with a gasp. “What are you doing back here?”

Finally my eyes began to adjust to the light. I squinted at the new arrival and watched as it slowly morphed into the familiar shape of my friend and boss, Kelley Carmine.

“Hi,” I said with an awkward wave.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, stepping closer without hesitation now that we’d identified each other.

“Oh, you know…” I laughed to disguise my nerves. “Taking my cats for a nice moonlit stroll.”

She tilted her head to the side.“In my back garden?”

I took a step back.“Your garden? I thought this place was for sale. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize—”

“Oh, you’re fine.” Kelley waved her hand dismissively and made a funny face. “It’s not officially mine yet. My offer was accepted just today, though, which means it will be soon.”

“Kelley, congrats! That’s amazing!” I broke into a relieved smile. I didn’t like snooping around my friend’s place uninvited, but it was much better than if it were a stranger’s.

Her cheeks reddened slightly.“Yeah, now that I own a business here, I’m trying to put down some roots. It felt weird to live in my dad’s old place, so I did some searching and found this cute little cottage. I just came by to take some measurements so I can start planning.”

“Well, you picked a nice house. This garden is very pretty.”

We both looked toward the rows of herbs and flowers that filled almost half of the back yard.

Kelley shook her head.“Do you think so? I don’t even know what half these plants are. I was actually thinking of tearing everything out and replacing it with tulips. That’s my favorite flower, and I hear they’re much easier to take care of than some others.”

Luna gasped and fell over onto the grass.

“Um, is your cat okay?”

“Oh, yes. Luna’s fine. They’re both fine. Sorry about appearing unexpectedly like this. The cats kind of lead the way, and I follow.” This was the best misdirect I’d come up with yet, because it was totally true—just not in the current context.

“That’s okay. Like I said, it’s not mine yet. But when it is, you and your cats will be welcome anytime.” Kelley then grabbed my hand and tugged me along after her. “Since you’re here, you might as well come in and see it. Can you believe it, Gracie? I just bought an entire house! Or I guess I’m about to, but still! A house!”

I laughed as we made our way toward the front door together. While it was strange that Kelley had purchased this exact house, I wasn’t the least bit surprised she was soon to be a homeowner. Her father would have been so proud.

I, however, couldn’t let her know that I’d already been inside because then I’d have to come up with lies to explain myself.

Kelley fiddled with the Realtor’s lockbox on the door and extracted a key. “You have to use your imagination a little, okay? The previous owner had terrible taste, but my agent assures me that everything will be cleared out of here well before I move in.”

I smiled and nodded as she fitted the key into the lock above the doorknob.

“That’s a lot of floral print,” I exclaimed as soon as she flicked on the lights. Of course it was a lot of floral print—this place had been inhabited by a garden witch and her familiar.

“It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? I don’t know how the previous owner died, but I know she had nobody to claim this house or any of her things. When I think of her, I picture this poor little old lady locked up in this time capsule of a house with only a cat or two to keep her company.” She glanced over at me and worried her lip. “No offense.”

Boy, had she gotten Virginia wrong.

“No offense about the cats?” I asked with a playful grin.

“About your house. I didn’t mean to imply that retro can’t be cool. It’s just—” She motioned around the room. “There’s so much floral in here.”

Well now, apparently I’d become an old lady stereotype.Fabulous.

“My house belonged to my grandma,” I explained as we both strode toward the kitchen. “I have lots of good memories that happened inside that house exactly as it is. I don’t have the heart to change it.”

Kelley’s face immediately crumpled into a frown. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize… My condolences.”

I chuckled.“Grandma Grace isn’t dead. She’s just in Florida.”

“Well, that’s good, I suppose.” She winked at me, then guided me into the small formal dining room. “Someday I’ll have you and the others from work over for a real sit-down dinner party.”

“Sounds great,” I enthused.

“Oh, it will be,” she promised, her eyes practically glazing over as if she were seeing that future scene before her.

I, however, couldn’t see past Virginia and the horrible events that occurred here.

Well, at least I knew Virginia was haunting me and would probably leave Kelley alone. Because as hard as it might be to protect myself from an angry spirit, I imagined it would be even harder to help a friend without revealing the existence of magic.

13

After showing me the master suite, Kelley walked me back out into the hall and turned to me with worry reflecting in her pale eyes.“Gracie, do you think I’m taking on too much at once? With the coffee shop and now this house? I mean, I’ve hardly been in town for a month and, well, I’m kind of in a vulnerable spot, what with meeting my dad and then losing him, and—”

I placed a hand on her shoulder.“Kelley, it’s okay. It is a lot, but you’ve got this. You’ve already made such amazing progress with the coffeehouse, and you’ll do great things with this house, too.”

She blinked up at me with glistening eyes.“Do you mean it?”

“Of course I do. I believe in you, and I’ll be with you every step of the way.” It seemed I’d accidentally become Kelley’s mentor by helping her through her father’s death. That was okay, though. I really liked her and wanted her to be happy. I also hoped she never found out that I had initially suspected her of murdering her dad. I now knew she would never do such an awful thing. She just didn’t have it in her.

Kelley sighed and offered me a tight hug.“I’m so lucky to have a friend like you. Seriously. It’s like there’s this vice around my chest. And as we move closer and closer to the grand re-opening, it tightens a little each day. It’s already getting hard to breathe now. What will it be like when the big day is finally here? I worry that I won’t have any oxygen left.”

I patted the back of her head like one would do with an upset child. In truth, Kelley was little more than a child. She had an awful lot on her plate for an eighteen-year-old. Even though I was still pretty young myself, I had nowhere near as many responsibilities thrust upon me—that is, if you chose to ignore the whole magical cat with a seemingly unending supply of enemies.

“It’s anxiety,” I told her, recalling something my grandma had once told me. “It may seem like a bad thing, but it’s good, too.”

Kelley pulled back and looked at me like I was crazy.“A good thing? How?”

“It means you care. Life is so much better when you have things and people that matter to you. And the best part? You can harness that anxiety as motivation. Fuel. Use that nervous energy to propel you toward your goal, and you’ll be there in no time.”

“Seems like you speak from experience,” she said with a tight smile.

I nodded.“Well, from my grandma’s, at least.”

“It’s good advice. Did your grandma have anything to say about love?”

I widened my eyes at this.“Love!”

My friend turned bright red and looked toward the floor.“Well, it’s a crush, and I know I have no extra time to think about things like this, but every time I see him come into the coffee shop, I— Oops, I’ve said too much.”

“Kelley!” I gasped, grabbing her forearm and forcing her to look up at me. “Please tell me it’s not Drake.”

She shrugged coyly.“I know, I know. He’s just so cool, like he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. I wish I had that kind of confidence.”

“It’s important to you what others think, and that’s okay. It’s because you care about them. That’s way better than Drake’s cool confidence.”

“Maybe, but he’s just so smart, and he has all this random knowledge.”

“He knows a little bit about a lot of things,” I said, recalling his words from earlier that night.

“Exactly!” Kelley crooned. “Do you think I’ve got a shot with him?”

“Well, you’re kind of his boss. I’m pretty sure there’s laws against that kind of thing.”

Her features pinched into a frown.“You’re right. What was I thinking? I don’t have time for a relationship right now anyway.”

“Hey. There will be time for all that later. And you’re going to make some guy very happy one day. Look at you with the business and the house!” I hated to discourage her, but I also knew that Drake was interested in someone else—me. What I would give for that not to be true, especially nowthat I knew Kelley would happily take my place as the object of his affection.

She smiled.“You’re right about that, too. I should probably let you get back to your cats before they run away on you, huh?”

Right, the cats.

I gave her another quick hug.“Thanks for showing me around. It’s a lovely house. Congrats again, Kelley, and see you at work!”

I let myself out and raced back around the house, using my phone light to guide me. I found both cats standing near the old well that had served as Luna’s cauldron.

Luna had a lovesick expression on her face, and Merlin was the very picture of rage. Had I just walked in on my cats canoodling?Really?

“If you two have kittens, I am not raising them!” I growled into the night.

“That’s enough out of you,” Merlin growled right back. “It’s not our fault you took forever in there. We had to do something to pass the time. Now are we ready to go, your highness?”

I nodded stupidly.

“Then lay your hand on me, and I’ll teleport us back home,” the cat commanded.

I hesitated.“Um, that’s okay.”

Luna stepped forward, her blue eyes taking on a red hue in my flashlight.“Gracie, dear. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s all right. We were only grooming each other.”

Grooming, uh-huh.

Still, I didn’t want to stay stuck in this awkward situation any longer than I had to. I placed a hand on Merlin’s head.

He blinked twice, and we were home.

14

“Wait,” I cried as my feet touched down on the linoleum kitchen floor. “We forgot the ingredients for the spell!”

“Already took care of that while we were waiting,” Merlin said, jerking his head toward the table where an array of plant life had been spread across the surface.

“What’s this for?” I asked, picking up the only non-organic object on the table—a ceramic garden decoration shaped like a frog with a giant, open mouth.

Luna smiled wistfully.“This was Virginia’s. It used to sit on the edge of the porch. She used it to hide her spare house key.”

“Yeah, her and everyone else in the state of Georgia,” I quipped. Seriously, why have a spare key at all if you were going to make its hiding spot so obvious? “Why did you bring it back? Are you missing her, Luna?”

The normally docile cat snarled at me.“Heavens no! Why would you even think I’d miss that monster? We need something that belonged to the spirit in life. It will help us summon and trap her.”

“As opposed to some other ghost?” I deadpanned. “Because we have so many ghosts knocking on our door.”

Luna shook her head at my snippiness.“The potency of any spell is much stronger if you add an object that belongs or belonged to the intended recipient.”

Oh, yes. I knew this.“Like when you took Merlin’s hair for the love spell?” I pointed out with one eyebrow raised.

She let out a little cough.“Precisely.”

“So is everything ready? Can we make the potion now?”

“Carry it outside for us, and we can get started,” the she-cat told me, and I was quick to comply.

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.”

“It would be irresponsible to bring more kittens into the world, what with all the poor cats waiting in shelters.” Also somehow I felt that my familiar duties would extend to playing nanny too, and my life was already complicated enough without having to be responsible for other living things—especially small and delicate living things.

“Wait. Are you saying—?” Merlin arched his back up and let out a terrible hiss. He even went so far as to take a swipe at me.

“You want to alter my privates? I thought such tales of human barbarism were but mere myths, made up to scare young witches at bedtime. But you… My own familiar? Please tell me you were joking!” He swooned and fell over onto his side, pumping his legs as if running in a dream. Apparently thisis what a panic attack looked like on him.

Oops.I kept forgetting just how differently humans and cats viewed the world when it came to certain matters. Honestly, I should’ve known better on this one.

The coffee finished brewing, and I had to use a spoon to fish out the long, striped cat hair that had landed in my brew. I never should have initiated this conversation without a full cup of caffeine already buzzing through my system.

Unfortunately, since I’d started on this topic, I now needed to finish it. “It’s a minimally invasive surgery, especially for male cats.”

Merlin popped back onto his feet, but his hackles were still raised.“If it’s such an easy surgery, then why don’t you have it?”

“It’s not exactly the same for humans. Besides, I may want kids one day.”

Merlin became Halloween cat again. Yup, I definitely wasn’t winning any points with him this morning. “And you don’t think Luna and I would like to pass our love down to the next generation? Besides, if you’ll recall, I’m the last living descendant of the original Merlin. I can’t let such an important magical bloodline die with me.”

“But what about the shelter cats?” I whimpered pathetically.

“Look, heart to heart here. Luna has already lost her magic. Don’t take motherhood away from her, too.”

I raised an eyebrow, then took a careful sip from my mug. And still wound up with cat hair in my mouth.Gross!

The cat sighed.“Again your sense of morality confounds me. Still, if the shelter cats are so important to you, we’ll find a way to help them. There’s plenty of room in Nocturna. You get them here, and I can get them there.”

“You promise?” I took another swig of my morning java.

“If that’s what it takes to maintain peace in my home while also keeping my privates intact, then I agree.” He came to the edge of the counter with his tail raised amicably, and I patted him softly on the head.

“Thank you. While we’re talking openly about this, I do think you and Luna should wait to start your family.”

“Why? We’re already a bonded pair. Cats don’t need a piece of paper telling us what we know to be true in our hearts.”

“Be that as it may, we’re kind of dealing with a lot right now. With the ghost. And we both know Dash will be back before too long. It just doesn’t seem like the right time to bring a child—or, um, litter—into the world.”

“Fair point. Now are you done with this strange heart to heart? Because I am very, very done.”

I flushed.“Yes, sorry.”

“I mean, you didn’t even ask about the ghost. After all the work we put in. You went straight to talking about my privates.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Now can we please stop talking about your privates?”

He shrugged.“If you don’t want to talk about something, then don’t start the conversation.”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Now tell me about the ghost,” I practically begged.

Merlin arched his back again, but this time in a stretch. He then jumped over to the table and waited for me to join him.“Well…” he began.

16

I hated when Merlin drew things out like this.“Well, what? Did we catch our ghost?” I demanded, and then realized something else strange about that morning. “Hey, where’s Luna by the way?”

I almost never saw the cats apart from one another. Each morning when I woke up, they were together and basking in the glow of their new love.

Merlin sniffed at the air before responding to my questions.“Luna is out on a morning stroll. She said she needed some time to herself. From the smell of it, she’s about two blocks out and making her return to us now.”

Time to herself? Hmm. Did this mean trouble in paradise? The cats had already gone from lovers to bitter rivals and back to lovers again. I was beginning to think I had the Ross and Rachel of felines on my hands. They better not plan on taking a break any time soon, because I was so not prepared to deal with that!

I kept this all to myself, of course. Merlin and I had just been discussing family planning, and that hadn’t gone over well. At all. I needed to resist the urge to play the role of therapist here. Those two were far more experienced in matters of the heart than I was, anyway.

When I didn’t say anything in response to his news of Luna, Merlin continued on. This time telling me about the ghost. “It didn’t come,” he said with a bored yawn. “Luna and I waited all night, and that rotten ghost didn’t even have the courtesy to drop in for a hello.”

I gripped both hands around my coffee mug and sighed.

“That’s a good thing, right? I mean, we don’t actually want the ghost to be here.”

“If it came here once, you can bet it will come again. By not returning last night, it’s just drawing things out for everyone, and that irritates me.” He flicked his tail to punctuate this remark.

“Maybe she knows we set a trap for her?” That would keep me away. Maybe it was stopping Virginia from returning as well.

“Maybe,” he answered pensively. “I don’t really know much about it. But I would assume she wouldn’t know about the potion until she began to materialize, and by then, it would be too late.” He had a point. There was so much we didn’t know when it came to our baby ghost, and that made this whole thing so much harder.

The cat door flapped open noisily, and Luna came trotting inside.

“How was your walk, my love?” Merlin asked, then hopped down from the table to rub his face against hers. It was the scene with the coffeemaker all over again. Well, at least Luna was already covered in cat hair.

“It was nice to get some fresh air while I thought about why Virginia failed to visit us again last night,” the white cat answered promptly.

Ah, so I’d been totally wrong about the whole trouble in paradise thing. I was glad I hadn’t pushed the issue. I really needed to butt out of my cats’ relationship and let them handle things for themselves. Lesson learned.

“You need to stop blaming yourself,” Merlin said softly.

They both jumped up on the table to reengage me in the discussion.

“Tell him, Gracie,” Luna begged, her blue eyes fraught with remorse. “Virginia was my familiar. I chose her. I failed to see that she had been corrupted. It’s all my fault.”

I reached out to stroke her back.“Merlin’s right. You really can’t blame yourself. Bad things happen to good people—um, cats—sometimes. That’s just the way of life.”

“Well, then life sucks,” she said with a sniff.

“Sometimes,” I agreed. “But you have a lot to be grateful for. Why, just this morning Merlin—” I stopped short. I was doing it again, interfering in their relationship. “Told me how lucky he is to have you.”

The Maine Coon winked at me, and Luna appeared to relax somewhat.

“What conclusions did you reach on your walk? Why didn’t Virginia visit us?” I prompted when I grew tired of the extended silence. That was the thing about talking with cats. They were huge fans of the dramatic pause. They also had no sense of urgency, meaning simple conversations could draw out for hours if I didn’t help to push them along.

“Maybe the ghost wasn’t Virginia,” Luna said. “Maybe it wasn’t even here for us at all, but rather for the house.”

“That’s an interesting theory,” I said slowly, even though I 100% disagreed with her assessment.

“If it’s Virginia, we’re prepared with our potion. If it’s not, then we have nothing to fear,” Merlin summarized.

“Yes, I suppose that’s right,” I said, taking another sip of my coffee. It was now dangerously close to room temperature, so I chugged it down fast and then rose to make a fresh cup.

“Anything else we should do about this now?” I asked while I sifted through my bucket of multi-flavored K-cups and selected a nice French roast.

“Now we wait,” Merlin said in a bored drone. “Either the ghost will return and we can deal with it then, or it won’t return at all, and we’ll be in the clear.”

Luna and I both nodded our agreement, but somehow I doubted it would be as simple as Merlin claimed.

And I think he knew that, too.

17

Several days passed with no more signs of our spectral visitor. As much as I’d doubted Luna’s theory, I now had to admit it was fully possible that some ghost other than Virginia had dropped by. Just in case, though, I called my Grandma Grace to make sure she was alive and well. She didn’t have much time to talk since life in her retirement community was full of exciting social events that were not to be missed, but she assured me she’d never felt better and would drive up to visit soon.

And so as the days ticked past, I focused on work and even managed to get some thesis research in. Drake and I chatted more at work than we had in the past, but I made every effort to keep all of our interactions platonic so that Kelley wouldn’t be jealous and he wouldn’t get the wrong idea about me.

He was an okay guy, but I had no time for close human relationships while I was settling into my role as familiar. And when eventually I did re-enter the dating pool, I needed someone with more direction and ambition than Drake. I could just picture the two of us drifting through life on handouts from my grandma and his parents while we both continued to work at the coffee shop until the day we died. That was not the life I wanted—nor the one I deserved.

Kelley at least had enough chutzpah for the both of them. They’d be a great couple, if Drake ever decided to return her feelings. Whatever the outcome, it would be interesting to watch their story unfold.

I, for one, was glad I had time to consider such matters. With each new day that passed, I worried less about the ghost. Each night I slept better. Each day I was able to focus on the people and cats in my life, try new makeup techniques, and just generally relax and enjoy myself.

It was divine.

I was right in the middle of a fantastic dream in which I won a lifetime supply of cosmetics from my favorite cruelty-free company, when—

Meeeeeeeeh!

REOW! HISSS!

Meeeeeeeh!

I bolted upright in bed as both cats continued to caterwaul in the hallway. This could only mean one thing. Our ghost had returned. And just when I was starting to believe our first visit had been a fluke.

I pulled on the robe that hung from the back of my door and stepped out into the hallway. Sure enough, both cats were going ballistic.

And I do mean ballistic.

Merlin had even begun kicking back his feet in that familiar chicken scratch maneuver, which meant—

“No! Stop! No lightning in the house!” I screamed, but my warning came too late.

A zipping bolt came crashing straight through the roof, illuminating the wayward spirit in the process. Suddenly a bright swatch of blue appeared right where my cats had been staring. Now I saw it, too.

Oh, Merlin. He’d meant to destroy the thing, but he’d only given it more power.

The house let out a giant whomp, and everything went silent—and even darker than before.

“Merlin, you fried the electricity,” I shouted, unable to tear my eyes away from the transparent blue blob floating just a few feet away from me in the hallway.

And then it started to rain inside the house.

“Merlin!” I screamed.

“It wasn’t me,” he shouted back.

I raised my eyes and saw that—yes—the rain was coming through a newly made hole in the roof. That would not be cheap to repair. “You better be able to fix that with magic,” I mumbled.

“You’re worried about that when we now have this?” Luna cried, motioning toward the ghost frantically.

The sudden motion startled the spirit, and it took off down the hall and moved on to rattling about the kitchen.

“Why wasn’t it captured by your spell?” I demanded of the cats.

Meeeeeeeeh!

REOW! HISSS!

Meeeeeeeh!

Not the answer I was looking for. Clearly they weren’t much help in this situation, given their desire to scream about the ghost rather than to capture it.

Come to think of it, I’d been shouting a lot, too. Ugh.

Never mind my initial reaction. Someone had to deal with this thing, and I guessed that someone might as well be me.

I marched into the kitchen and stumbled right into the table. Ouch!

The only light came from the ghost itself, thanks to Merlin’s lightning-induced blackout. The pulsing blue blob didn’t appear human, but what else could it be?

“Hey, Virginia,” I called out, working hard to hide the quiver in my voice. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

The ghost floated closer to me, and it took everything I had not to run out of the house screaming. I guess I couldn’t hold the cats’ reaction against them when I wished I could do the exact same thing.

The spirit continued to inch forward, slow as molasses. I could have run, but I stood transfixed, unable to pull my eyes away from the spectral sight.

Moments later, it completed its journey, stopping less than a foot in front of me.

And then it spoke in a terrible rasping echo that sent a shiver straight down my spine.“Who’s Virginia?”

18

It was hard to tell given the strange echoing quality of its voice, but I was pretty sure our ghost was a boy.

“Who are you?” I murmured. I couldn’t believe I was talking to a ghost. This topped all the strange things that had happened so far these past weeks. I’d reached a new peak of weirdness here and wasn’t sure I liked it. Well, at least the spirit seemed gentle. That’s definitely better than I’d have gotten were it actually Virginia.

“Gracie?” the ghost asked, moving so close to me that the glowing blue blob was but a hair’s breadth from my face.

“Uh, ghost?” I responded stupidly.

“I never wanted to be a ghost,” the strange creature moaned as its blue light undulated. “I don’t know why I’m here, and I don’t know why I came to you.”

That was when I finally recognized something familiar in that eerie voice. This wasn’t Virginia, but it was someone I’d known—someone I’d watched die not too long ago.

“Harold?” I asked in serious disbelief. “Is that you?”

“It’s me,” the spirit confirmed. Wow, I couldn’t believe my former boss had returned from the spectral plane to pay me a visit. He’d hated me, and even more than that, he hatedpaying me anything—especially not what I was owed for all the hours I put in at his coffeeshop.

“No wonder the spell didn’t work,” I murmured to myself, thinking of the useless ceramic frog in the hallway. “It was made for Virginia. And you clearly aren’t her.”

“Who’s Virginia?” Harold echoed.

“Don’t worry about it,” I shot back quickly. I really preferred not to tell him that Virginia was the one who had killed him in the first place. Instead, I swallowed hard and asked, “Why are you here? Why did you come to see me, Harold?”

“I don’t know,” he answered as his blue light pulsed yet again. I wondered if the color he’d taken on was a coincidence or if it was something more of a mood ring. Would evil ghosts glow red? Magical ones green? Interesting to think about, but not what was important at the moment.

“Do you have unfinished business of some kind?” I asked after licking my dry lips.

“It’s hard to remember much in this form,” he said in that jarring echo of his. “But give me a moment, and I’ll try.”

While I waited for Harold to collect his thoughts, the two cats slowly moved out of the hallway and came to stand beside me in the kitchen.

“What does it want?” Merlin asked, swishing his tail so hard it thwapped me in the leg.

“A talking cat!” Harold exclaimed in fright and zipped back toward the sink.

“Yes, he’s a talking cat, and you’re a ghost. Which seems scarier to you?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in disbelief. “Besides, you just saw him talking in the hallway. You also watched him summon lightning, remember?”

“Oh, I think I do.” The blobby blue Harold bobbed back over to us, coming dangerously close to crashing into Luna this time. “And this one threatened me!” the ghost cried when he recognized the white cat.

“I have a name. It’s Luna,” she hissed, arching her back at him.

“Eek! A talking cat!” Harold screamed and raced about the house.

Oh, boy. This was going to take a while.

I needed to take charge here, or we’d be at this all night. “Harold, you came for a reason. I know you’re having a hard time remembering, so I’ll ask some questions to see if that helps. Okay?”

He bobbed up and down, which I took to mean he agreed.

“Is this about how you died?” I ventured carefully.

“I was poisoned.”

“Yes, that’s good, Harold! Yes, you were poisoned.” Oops, my voice sounded all high and babyish like it did when I talked to Merlin—before he started talking back, that is. When I’d still assumed he was just a regular fuzzy wuzzy. Even though Harold seemed harmless, there was nothing fuzzy or wuzzy about the ghost before me.

“Well, you don’t have to sound so happy about it,” he booed.

“Oh, trust me. I’m not happy about it.”

Sigh. I might as well tell him the truth and get it off my chest. He’d forget it in a few seconds any way. “I’m sorry, too. You were murdered because someone wanted to hurt me.”

“But she avenged you,” Merlin added, hopping up onto the table to get closer to the talking blue orb. “She risked her own life to punish those who hurt you.”

“So my killer is now dead?” Harold wanted to know.

I shrugged for lack of a better response.“Um, yes and no. The mastermind is still on the loose, but the one who pulled the trigger is definitely dead.”

“No, I wasn’t shot. I was poisoned,” he insisted in another wailing echo.

“Right.” No tangents, no metaphors. Straight simple language. “Does your visit have anything to do with your daughter? Kelley?”

“My daughter,” the ghost mumbled and then flashed bright cerulean and shouted, “Kelley! Yes, I wanted to thank you for helping her.”

I smiled. Harold would have been a good dad if he’d been given more of a chance. “Of course I helped her, she’s my friend.”

“But you gave her your one wish. You didn’t have to do that.”

My jaw would have hit the floor if it could reach.“You couldn’t remember that cats can talk, but somehow you both knew and remembered that my cat brewed a potion which I then gave to Kelley so her biggest dream could come true?”

The blue blob tilted to the side.“Memory is strange as a ghost. It comes and goes.”

“Well, you’re welcome for helping Kelley. She wants to do your legacy proud. You have a very good daughter there. It’s too bad you didn’t get much of a chance to know her.”

Harold’s hue turned dark like midnight. “It is too bad.”

“Tomorrow is the grand re-opening of the coffeehouse. She kept the name,” I informed him. “To honor you.”

He brightened once more.“Would you please tell her I’m proud of her?”

Well, this was sweet and all, but I really needed to get some sleep since I was scheduled to work a double shift tomorrow.“I’ll see what I can do. Thank you for the visit, Harold. Was that all?”

“Wait!” The ghost raced around the kitchen before returning to face me. “I have a warning to deliver from the other side.”

“That might have been a good thing to start with,” Merlin said snippily.

I shushed him, then softened my voice to speak to Harold.“What is the message?”

His voice grew deep and clear, changed.“Seeds that have been sown will soon bear dangerous fruit.”

I gasped.“Harold? What does that mean?”

He spun slowly as if surveying the room.“What does what mean?”

“The message you just gave me,” I pressed. Please remember, please rememb—

“I don’t remember,” he said and then flashed out of view.

19

The next morning I woke up with a killer headache. Not only had the whole fiasco in the kitchen taken an unpredictably long time, but when it was over I lay awake for close to an hour pondering the meaning of Harold’s ghostly warning.

Seeds that have been sown will soon bear dangerous fruit.

What did that mean?

For all I knew, Harold heard it in some movie before he died and now summoned it back up, confusing it for a real memory. It certainly sounded like some weird prophecy that had come straight out of an epic fantasy film.

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. I guessed I’d just have to wait and see what happened next, as much as I hated not being able to prepare.

It would be a busy day.

The coffeehouse’s grand re-opening had arrived. I had to give her credit, Kelley had made especially fast progress in retooling the menu and retraining the staff. Now the moment of her public debut as owner of Harold’s House of Coffee had arrived.

She’d need all hands on deck because today was going to be non-stop busy. The magic I’d secretly given to her guaranteed it would be so.

At my urging, Kelley had scheduled the full staff to work a double shift for the day, including me.

When I arrived at Harold’s, I found her wearing a white ‘50s inspired party dress with little pumpkins and horns of plenty patterned all over it. She ran over to me with a huge grin on her face. “Gracie, hello! Are you ready for our big day?”

“Your big day,” I reminded her with a grin. “And yes, I’m definitely ready.” No need to let her know I’d lost several good hours of sleep last night, thanks to the paranormal soap opera my life had become.

She nodded, and a pair of jack-o-lantern earrings bobbed along with her.“Good news, the new uniform shirts arrived last night. Grab one from the office and get changed.”

Oh, no.Harold had allowed us to wear whatever we wanted because he was too cheap to invest in uniforms, but Kelley had gone all out by commissioning a series of custom T-shirt designs that would change each month.

I sifted through the box until I found a large, then pulled it on over my other shirt. On the front, my new uniform said“#PSLISBAE,” which was the new hashtag Kelley was trying to get started on social media. The back read, “Ask me about my favorite pumpkin spice!”

Lord help us all.

When I came back out of the office, I found Kelley standing near the creamer station and staring up at the wall. As I drew closer, I discovered she was studying a framed picture that hadn’t been there when last I worked two days ago.

The photo was the same one that had been on display by the casket for Harold’s funeral. It was a close-up of his face, complete with chubby cheeks, narrow eyes, and receding hairline. Kelley should thank her lucky stars that she’d inherited her good looks from her mother.

“Do you think he’d be proud of me?” she whispered when I reached her side.

“I know he would be,” I said giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze.

Kelley turned toward me but didn’t meet my eye. “Really?” she mumbled. “You don’t think I’m overdoing it with the pumpkin spice?”

“People are going to love it. Just you wait.”

Now she looked at me. Her eyes held all her dreams and secret fears. This was so much more than a grand opening to her. It was an opportunity to bond with the father she’d only just begun to know. “What makes you so sure?” she asked.

“I just know,” I assured her, and then, “Hey, should we take a couple quick shots of pumpkin roast espresso to help get us pumped?”

“That’s a great idea,” she gushed, stepping past me and rushing toward the industrial sized espresso maker. “Everyone gather around!” she called as she worked the machine.

The three new hires had already arrived. I’d been so focused on my many magical problems this past week that I hadn’t really made any efforts to get to know them outside of Kelley’s team-building activities. Now that I knew our ghostly visitor had been Harold of all people, maybe I could start to relax even more. To let other people in.

Drake flew through the door just as Kelley was pouring the last shot into a little paper cup.“Sorry I’m late!”

“Actually you’re five minutes early,” Kelley said as she handed him a shot.

Drake jerked his head toward the door.“Should I go back out and come in a little later?”

“Oh, stop.” Kelley hit his chest playfully, and I watched as standoffish, sarcastic Drake blushed. He actually blushed! Perhaps there was hope for these two, after all.

“A toast!” I said, raising my own paper cup in the air.

“To Harold’s. Long may his legacy live!” Kelley cheered.

“To Kelley. Long may she overlook my tardiness!” Drake countered.

“To all things pumpkin spice,” I added.

The newbies shouted a combination of“Cheers!” and “Hear, hear!”

And then we all took down our shots of espresso.

“Ah, hot, hot, hot!” I cried.

“That went straight up my sinuses,” Drake whined.

The others just laughed and laughed.

Yup, we were ready to slay.

20

I dragged myself home at the end of my double shift, reeking of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. As much as my feet ached and my back twinged, I couldn’t be happier. Kelley had truly risen to the occasion, and I loved seeing the way her face lit up as she basked in the success of a job well done.

I was happy, but now very ready to unwind.

Thank goodness the power outage last night had been the result of a sudden electrical overload and not permanent wire damage. A quick trip to my house’s fuse box had restored power. The hole in the roof, on the other hand, would be much more difficult to fix.

I tried not to worry about it as I popped a TV dinner in the microwave, then settled on the couch and scrolled through Netflix. After my hard day of work, I deserved to indulge in the sleaziest, most over-the-top reality series I could find. I settled on one of their original series that asked people to get engaged before ever meeting face-to-face. This would be trashy television gold.

And, yeah, it was interesting right away. I could hardly tear my eyes from the screen when the microwave dinged, alerting me that my slimmed down version of mac and cheese was ready for consumption.

So transfixed I was by the ridiculousness playing out on screen that I accidentally stumbled over one of the cats on my way to the kitchen.

Luna mewled and ran to my bedroom for cover.

“How dare you!” Merlin boomed, marching straight up to me from wherever he’d been.

“I’m sorry, Luna! It was an accident!” I called after the retreating feline.

Then I turned toward Merlin.“Don’t lecture me when you put a hole in our roof just last night! I called a fix-it company for a rough quote while I was on break, and they want more than I make in a month! So I hope you’ve learned your lesson about summoning the elements inside our house.”

“Don’t start a family. Don’t summon lighting. You have so many rules!” the giant fluff of a cat spat.

I scoffed at him.“They’re very reasonable rules.”

“I think you’re forgetting who’s in charge here. I’m the witch.”

“And I’m the homeowner,” I exploded. I seriously didn’t have one drop of energy left to deal with his nonsense today. “I’m also the one who pays all the bills. And I’ve just had a very long, tiring day at work, so don’t push me!”

“You’re lucky you’re not a cat, or I’d challenge you to a duel right here and right now.” He stamped his little kitty foot in rage, but it didn’t scare me either.

“Merlin! Gracie!” Luna cried. “Enough!”

We both looked to her and grimaced.

“It was an accident, and I’m fine.” As she approached I noticed something different about the way she moved. Oh, I really hoped I hadn’t hurt her too badly with my careless mistake. “But you two have both been way too tense lately. Remember, we are all on the same side.”

Merlin moaned.“But she—”

“But nothing. We’re all dealing with a lot right now, and the last thing we need is to start turning on each other. You’re both stressed, and I understand. I think you need a bit of space to cool off from each other.”

“I’m sorry, Luna. You’re right. I’m just really stressed about the ghost and the warning I can’t make heads or tails of, and the hole in the roof, and—”

“I know you are, dear. I would fix the hole for you if I could, and I would have been able to, if I still had my magic. Never matter, Merlin will travel to Nocturna at the first available moment and find a garden witch who can assist with the repairs.”

“But Tom Cat!” Merlin argued. “If he sees me, he’ll challenge me again. I could die, Luna. Die!”

“Then you’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t see you,” she coaxed. “Now I want the two of you to make up this instant.”

“I’m sorry, Merlin,” I said, casting my eyes to the floor. Luna was good at the whole disappointed parent thing. She’d make a great mother one day when she and Merlin were officially ready to start their family.

Luna walked over to Merlin and nudged him with her paw.“Now you.”

“Sorry, Gracie,” he muttered while also rolling his eyes.

Luna nodded, missing that last gesture.“Now, Gracie, why don’t you get back to your show? Merlin, let’s go on a date. It may be our last chance before the children are born.”

“What?” I exploded.

“Run, my love, run!” Merlin cried as they both launched themselves at the cat door.

Well, that was one more huge thing to worry about. Perhaps I should stop assuming that life would settle down and get back to normal. Chaos was the new normal. And soon kittens!

For today, however, I let the melodramatic reality show soothe my anxieties somewhat as I chowed down on my soggy cheese noodles.

And I didn’t even make it to the end of the first episode before I drifted off on the couch.

21

I awoke sometime later, confused at first as to where I was. Then I spotted the message from Netflix on my TV screen:Are you still watching?

I switched off the television with its remote, then sat up and stretched my arms overhead. I needed to move myself into bed, but I was still so, so sleepy.

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.

My cats couldn’t get inside to help me, but I could still hear them at the window. I could still talk to them, let them guide me in this battle. I hurled myself down the hall, passing straight through the enemy ghost, and raced to the living room window.

Merlin sat waiting as I unlatched the window and pried it open.“Gracie, behind you!” he shouted.

I dodged to the side to avoid another painful bite from my spectral opponent.

Virginia passed through the window, screamed in rage, and then hurled herself back the other way.

“She used most of her magic to create her barrier spell,” Luna called from out of sight. “It’s why half her body’s missing. Even with the drain she placed on you, she is regenerating very slowly.”

Yes, Luna was right! By silencing me, she’d lost her stumpy little arms. Her figure now ended at the collarbone. If she cast another big spell, she might blink herself out of existence.

The ghost drove at me again, and I leapt out of the way. Were all these physical attacks meant to distract me while she recharged her magic? And what was the worst she could do to me without magic? Bite me again? That would hurt, but I already knew I could survive it.

Well, two could play at her little game of wait and see.

I ran to the closet and grabbed my broom.

Virginia laughed at me, mocking my choice of weapon. But then I slammed it into her face, grody bristles first, and sent her flying backward.

“You’ll pay for that!” she promised, her green transforming into a blazing emerald as she spat curses at me. “Freeze!”

My feet fused to the floor. I could still move my upper body, but the lower part was now stuck like a fly in honey.

As soon as she muttered this magical command, the rest of her ghostly shoulders disappeared from view. Now she was just a bobbing head and a neck.

“You can’t kill me without killing yourself,” I said as if this were fact and not just my current theory. She’d told me she was now immortal as a ghost, but that didn’t mean she could stay on our earthly plane for long.

“I’m already dead, thanks to you!” she bandied back. As her frustration grew, her words came out faster, more slurred together.

“Gracie!” Merlin shouted from the window. I glanced through Virginia and saw both he and Luna sitting on the sill now.

“We can bind her, but I’ll need ingredients from my garden,” the she-cat yelled.

“No, the frog didn’t work.” If it had, this whole thing would have stopped almost as soon as it started. If only.

Luna didn’t give up, however. “It was too old and lost its potency, but a new batch will work.”

“I can’t leave.”

“Try the door,” Merlin shouted. Thank you, captain obvious.

“I can’t. I’m stuck.” I motioned toward my legs and let out a groan.

This whole time Virginia was shouting insults at us but not actually casting any more spells. It seemed I was right about her not having the requisite power to finish the deed she’d come to commit. She probably hadn’t realized how much the barrier spell would take out of her. It’s not like she was a real witch, anyway. She’d never had magic in life and was inexperienced with it in death.

I scanned the room, all the while searching for some kind of solution that would unstick me from the floor. I spotted my phone lying on the coffee table a good six feet away. I couldn’t reach out and grab it, but I did have a broom in my hands. If I could distract Virginia long enough to get ahold of it, I could send an SOS text to Drake.

Luckily he’d insisted on programming my number into his phone after our failed date. He’d also offered to help with my ghost, should I need it. And I definitely needed it right now.

“Hey, loser!” I shouted loud enough for Virginia to hear me over her deranged ranting. “Think fast!”

23

I pretended to cast a spell. Yes, I couldn’t use the magic within me, and, yes, Virginia knew that. But thankfully my ruse still worked.

I raised the hand that wasn’t holding my broom and made an elaborate twisty gesture. “Merlin, lightning!” I cried.

Sure enough, Virginia spun around just in time to see Merlin summon a bolt of lightning right outside the window. His magic couldn’t cross the barrier she’d erected, but the ghostess couldn’t help but watch transfixed as Merlin’s attempt to come to my aid “failed.”

Quick as a shot, I swept my broom to the side, then pulled it back to me like an oar. This sent my phone skittering across the floor and straight toward me. Thank goodness I’d invested in a good phone case, or this plan would not have worked.

I stooped down still rooted to the spot and grasped the phone in my hands. With a quick swipe to unlock it, I opened my contacts and typed a quick message, both of my thumbs flying impossibly fast over the screen.

Drake, SOS!

Come help me!

I sent each text separately, not knowing when Virginia would manage to wrest the phone from my hands and silence my cries for help.

Ghost is— Virginia reeled back around and tore the phone from my hands with her magic before I could finish. It flew and smashed against the wall, much the same as the frog had. So much for that heavy-duty case.

RIP, my iPhone.

Drake would come. I knew he would. What he’d be able to do to help, now there was a question I hadn’t quite thought out.

I studied Virginia to see if any more of her had faded from view, thanks to her most recent use of magic, but it seemed she had lost no ground. Which meant the drain she’d placed on me was beginning to work.

No, no, no.What else could I do to stall her?

“Merlin, I’m scared!” I shouted, making Virginia positively glow withschadenfreude.

“I won’t leave you,” he promised from his spot at the window. “Even through the barrier spell, my presence is keeping you strong. And yours is also protecting me.”

“But the drain…” My words fell away as if my energy was also being sucked from me along with the magic.

Merlin stood and pressed his paws against the barrier, giving me a full view of his furry tummy.“It’s my magic you carry. A small part of it is going to Virginia, but most of it is able to escape to the barrier and come back to me. I can’t leave or the magic will have no place else to go.”

“Stop helping her!” Virginia raged, but she was also unable to cast through the barrier. To land an attack on Merlin, she’d need to go outside. And we all knew he was a much more powerful magic user than she was, especially with my additional energy flowing into him now.

“You’re stuck until you’ve generated enough magic to enact whatever death spell you have planned.” Merlin addressed the ghost directly, his voice cold and haughty.

To me, he said,“Ignore her. She can’t hurt you yet.”

“Oh, yes, I can!” Virginia screamed and then lunged and bit me again. She came at me so fast, I hadn’t been ready with my broom. Darn it!

This new wound throbbed with pain, but I could survive it. She couldn’t bite me to death, and right now my primary objective was to not die. Honestly, it was kind of my only objective.

“Memorize this list of ingredients,” Luna called to me from beside Merlin. “When your boyfriend gets here, send him straight to my garden. If he brings back what we need, Merlin and I can make a new binding potion.”

“But he’ll see you practicing magic and hear you talking!” I objected. Merlin had drilled it into my head from the start that I could not reveal magic to non-magical people. What was the point of surviving my ghostly encounter only to wind up in a dingy prison for the rest of my life?

Luna’s voice came to me strong and confident. “We have not revealed ourselves to him, so he will only hear meows. And his eyes will invent other scenarios to explain away our actions. Everything will be fine. Just be careful. Now memorize this list. Hawthorn, celandine…”

Luna shouted out at least ten ingredients, and we went over them again and again until she was sure I had them all right.

Virginia continued to spit and howl, but at worst she only made us repeat ourselves a few times to be heard over the din.

Why did it feel like my epic magical encounters always dragged out? Life-or-death confrontations in movies always happened so fast. There was no waiting for a ghost’s magic to recharge or biding time until the correct potion could be brewed.

Real magic was both more exciting and much more boring than the magic in the movies. At least the movies couldn’t kill me.

Virginia, on the other hand…

She swept toward me again, and I hit her away with the broom. I was getting kind of good at this. She rounded back to attack again, but a pair of bright white lights burst through the window, interrupting her efforts.

Drake had arrived.

24

Everything seemed to stop as Virginia and I waited mid-battle for Drake to turn off his engine, exit the car, and come inside.

He pounded on the front door.“Gracie! Is everything okay? Let me in!”

The barrier spell! Would he even be able to enter? And if he did, would he be able to get out again?

“Drake,” I cried out, my voice hoarse from all the screaming I’d been doing that night. “Don’t come in!”

“What’s going on?” he demanded, rattling the doorknob, but it remained shut tight.

“Don’t come in!” I begged, hoping he wouldn’t waste time arguing. I needed him to act and act fast. “Please, I need your help. I need you to go to a garden and get me a list of ingredients.”

Drake pounded on the door with all he had.“What? Gracie, why? What’s going on? Is the ghost back? Are you okay?”

“It’s here, and it’s very angry. I need to bind it before—”

“I’m not an it! Show some respect, you weak mortal!” Virginia hissed and swooped around the room.

“Whoa,” Drake cried, and his pounding stopped. “Was that the ghost? You’re right, it does sound angry!”

“It, it, it! I am not an it! And you, foolish boy, have just been added to my hit list,” Virginia was in fine form, glowing the brightest I’d seen yet. Pride was an important sticking point for her. Hmm, maybe if Drake came in he could talk her to death by getting her to use her magic so muchshe dematerialized, but I couldn’t risk his safety. And I also much preferred ridding myself of her permanently. It was Luna’s potion or bust. I just needed to convince Drake to leave and get what she needed.

“Drake, it’s okay. Don’t listen to her,” I called, hoping that Virginia’s threats hadn’t caused him to lose courage. “Just go to the garden. Bring back what we need. It’s the only way. Do you have your phone? Take down this list.”

A brief moment of silence, and then,“I’m ready.”

I recited the ingredients to Luna’s nodding approval and also gave Drake the address. “Now hurry please! I’m counting on you!”

I listened as Drake’s feet slapped the pavement in retreat, then his engine roared to life and he sped away.

“What now?” I asked the cats who were both still watching from the windowsill.

“We wait and hope that he brings us the correct ingredients. And swiftly,” Luna answered.

“Drake knows a little bit about a lot of things,” I said, recalling the conversation I’d had first with him and then with Kelley. “Gardening is one of them. Besides, he can always look up the ingredients on his phone and make sure he’s picking the right ones. He won’t mess this up.”

For some reason, I believed this with every fiber of my being. Drake would not let me down. In fact, he would save me. Everything would be okay.

I just had to be patient.

“I’m growing stronger by the minute,” Virginia reminded me in a serpentine whisper. And she was right. She’d regained the form she had when I first saw her—a full bust that filled out to just a little below her armpits. “I will kill you, Gracie, and I will make your boyfriend watch. Then I’ll rebuild my power and kill him, too. Next will be Luna. I’m saving my former master for last. Before the night is through, you will all be dead.”

“No one is dying today, you old goose,” Merlin heckled her through the barrier. “Especially not my familiar and not my unborn children!”

Virginia gasped and spun toward the window.“What did you say?”

“We have the power of love on our side. Your hate will never win,” I yelled, because that seemed like the type of thing a good guy would say in a showdown like this.

“It seems I left you at the right time, Luna,” Virginia said coldly. “At least as a witch, you had some power. But you gave that all up, didn’t you? And for what? To play house with some walking hairball and to bear his brats?”

“I owe you nothing, Virginia,” Luna ground out, a growl underlying the words. “And you can never understand that power comes in many forms. My children will grow to be strong and kind and to help rid the world of monsters like you.”

“They will die or live cursed lives. That I can guarantee.” As the ghost shared this eerie promise, I knew better than to doubt her words.

As much as I’d thought this wasn’t the right time for my cats to start a family, I would fight with everything I had to protect Luna’s litter. Virginia had meant to scare us, but she’d only given me more motivation.

I would defeat her once and for all.

Those kittens would never know how close they’d come to ending before they’d ever had a chance to begin.

Auntie Gracie was on the case.

And she would not let them down.

25

By the time Drake returned, Virginia’s ghostly body had materialized down to her navel.

And those twenty-odd minutes of waiting, trapped in place, while she ranted and raved and told us all how awful we were, proved to be among the most excruciating of my life. A few times she charged at me, but I was able to deftly knock her away with my broomstick.

Honestly, I think we were both relieved when Drake’s car pulled into my driveway for the second time that night. This time, however, two sets of footsteps approached my door instead of just one.

“Drake?” I called out warily.Please let it be him. Please let it be him.

“It’s me,” he called through the door.

“And me,” a second voice chimed.

“Kelley?” I croaked. Why on earth would he have knowingly brought her into a dangerous situation? Now that my friends were at risk, too, I felt the pressure mount. Me, Luna, Merlin, the kittens, Drake, Kelley—I had to save us all and fast. Virginia was reforming more and more quickly. Soon she’d be able to cast whatever she had planned for me, and then she’d take us all out one by one.

“I ran into her at that house,” Drake shouted to explain Kelley’s presence. “How come you didn’t tell me it was hers? Anyway, she wanted to help, so I brought her back with me. Now will you please let us in?”

“No, don’t come in!” I shouted, but it was too late.

Virginia used a small bit of her accumulated magic to throw the door open and pull both Kelley and Drake inside.

“Gracie, what’s going on?” Kelley trembled as she caught sight of Virginia’s imposing presence.

“Whoa,” Drake said on the wings of an exhale. “Why is she green?”

“She has magic. She trapped me inside, and now I fear she’s trapped you as w-well,” I sputtered. I was determined to win, but also terrified I wouldn’t be able to. We needed to mix the potion in the cauldron and either lure Virginia outside or bring the mix inside to bind her. But how, if no one could move through the barrier without her consent?

Virginia must have realized this as well, because she chose that exact moment to let out a textbook perfect evil laugh.“And now you’ve brought me one more. I shall kill her, too.”

Kelley choked out a sob, which only made Virginia laugh harder. Oh, she would pay for that!

Drake took Kelley in his arms and made soft shushing noises.“I’ll protect you,” he promised, then glanced up toward me. “Both of you.”

“She’s erected a barrier around the house. Nobody can go out or come in unless she allows it. And I can’t move from this spot,” I explained, gesturing toward my useless legs.

“Yeah, no. I’m not letting some ninja turtle looking banshee tell me what I can and can’t do,” Drake declared. He guided Kelley into my waiting arms and then marched back toward the front door.

No, no, no.For all I knew the barrier was electrified. Sure, it hadn’t hurt Merlin when he touched it, but Drake wasn’t magical. Could he withstand the sudden shock of making contact?

“Drake, stop!” I yelled. “She—”

But then he stepped outside. Turning to me, he pushed his hair back with a flip and flashed us all a debonair grin.“You were saying?”

“How is this possible?” Virginia screamed and spun around the house.

At the same time, Kelley launched herself from my arms and went flying toward the door. When she reached the threshold, though, she slammed into it with athwack and fell backward with a heavy thud.“I don’t understand,” she sobbed. “Why can he leave, but I can’t?”

Drake reached through the doorway and offered her his hand, but hard as he tried, he couldn’t pull her through. When he let her go, Kelley pushed herself against the wall and curled into a whimpering ball.

“How did you do that?” I demanded of him. And would I be able to do it, too, once I was able to move from this exact spot on the floor?

Drake shrugged.“I don’t know. Sometimes I can just do stuff others can’t. Or sometimes I just know things, like how I knew where you lived without you telling me.”

“You followed me,” I said, preferring the explanation that made more sense. Even if it was creepy and stalkerish.

He shook his head.“Nope, I just pulled it from of my memory. Weird thing is I don’t remember making the memory in the first place, but there it was, ready to be of service.”

“Enough of this,” Virginia seethed. “Let me recharge in peace.”

“Why would we do anything for you?” I snapped. “You’re just going to kill us.”

“And, oh, how I am looking forward to that.” She flashed bright as her ghostly hips now started to materialize. We were running out of time.

“Drake, take the ingredients you got from the garden to the birdbath in the front yard, mix everything together, and then put it in some kind of container and bring it back inside.”

“How much of each thing? I mean, if I’m making a recipe, surely there are certain measurements required to get it right?”

He had a point. But how could he be so nonchalant about this all? I’d already known all about magic, and yet I was terrified. Kelley lay curled in the fetal position, but Drake was fine with talking casually about everything?

“I… I don’t know,” I mumbled.

But then Luna appeared outside the open door and promptly introduced herself to Drake.“Hi, I’m a cat. I used to be a witch, but I’m not anymore. Still, I can help you save Gracie if you’ll let me guide you in making this potion.”

Drake stared at her with wide eyes.

Kelley’s sobbing intensified.

I waited, afraid to look away. Afraid of what would happen next.

Drake let out a long, stuttering sigh.“Yeah, okay, cat lady. Let’s go do the thing.”

26

It was agony not being able to watch Luna and Drake prepare the potion. Merlin did move to the open doorway to offer an update, but Virginia quickly slammed the door in his face. He then moved back to the window so that the magic flowing out of me would have an easier time reaching him.

“Gracie, do you have a pitcher or something?” Drake called, charging back through the front door so easily Virginia shook and flashed with rage.

“Never mind. Found one,” he called out a moment later. As he passed by me, I realized he’d taken the same pitcher I’d used as a vase for the flower he gifted me. I wondered if he noticed.

He stopped before reaching the door, then turned to address me again.“Oh, the cat lady said I need a piece of some frog to finish the potion. Know where I can get that?”

That’s right. We still needed something that had belonged to Virginia. Even though her little garden creature had shattered, those shards could still be of use. That was a relief.

“Hallway,” I directed Drake, jerking my head to the side, and he took off to retrieve the needed ingredient.

He held up a shiny piece of ceramic as he took his return trip through the living room.“Got it.”

Virginia shrieked and threw herself at him.

I tried to push her away with my broom, but she and Drake were both beyond my reach.“Look out!” I cried helplessly.

Drake glanced up just as Virginia crashed into him… Or rather, through him.

“What are you?” she cried in a quavering voice.

“What are you?” he shot back, then seeing that he was unaffected by her advance, carried on toward the door.

He disappeared outside and returned a couple moments later carrying the pitcher now filled with murky green potion.“The cat lady said to give this to you,” he said, placing the vessel in my hands.

“But what do I do with it?” I offered Drake my broom in exchange.

He didn’t have time to answer before Virginia came flying at us.

He tried to bat her away, but the broom in his hands passed straight through her.

The angry spirit tackled me, and I would have fallen flat on my butt if not for the fact she’d frozen me in place earlier during this encounter.

I remained standing tall, the pitcher clutched firmly within my hands.

Virginia, on the other hand…

“What is happening?” she cried as all the color drained from her form and swirled into the pitcher.

I watched in awe as my vessel filled with pure light, magic.

When I looked back up at Virginia, she was drab and gray. She’d also regained her full body all the way to the tips of her ghostly toes.

“You stole my magic. Give it back!” she hissed and grabbed for the pitcher, but her hand passed straight through. She tried again, only to receive the same result.

“Where’d she go?” Drake asked, still holding the useless broom like a baseball bat.

I pointed straight ahead.“She’s right here. Can’t you see her?”

“No, Gracie. She’s definitely gone.” He let out a dry laugh as if he thought I was trying to trick him.

Merlin’s voice floated to me through the open window. “We couldn’t dispatch her fully because her unfinished business is killing you, Gracie. Until that’s fulfilled, she will be trapped in our realm.”

“Then how do we get rid of her?” I asked, craning my neck to search for him, but he was gone from the window.

“I will kill you!” Virginia growled and dove at me, but remained invisible to the others.

“The potion we brewed relieved her of her magic and bound her to this house,” Luna announced after she and Merlin ran inside through the cat flap. It seemed that Virginia’s barrier spell had fallen when she lost her magic.

“So she’s stuck here? With us?” I screeched. Our house was full enough as it was, especially with kittens on the way. The last thing we needed was another roommate, especially one whose greatest desire was to kill us all.

“Yes, but she can’t harm us. Or anyone else.” Luna nodded slowly. I guessed she didn’t like this arrangement any better than I did.

“Die, brat, die!” Virginia swooped at me once more, but the harder she worked to get my attention, the more her voice and image faded.

“Also you’re not stuck. You can move again,” Merlin informed me, nudging my foot with his paw. “So stop standing there, and move.”

I jerked my foot upward, expecting the simple movement to be extraordinarily difficult. But this only resulted in my losing my balance and stumbling into Drake.

He caught me and helped me stand up tall.“Careful there, compadre.”

“That’s the second time you’ve called me that,” I told him with a curious glance. “Why?”

“It’s just a colorful way of reminding myself I live in the friend zone,” he said with a wink. “And it’s especially important now that I know you’re this awesome witch who fights evil spirits on the regular.”

Ugh.That was right. Drake pretty much knew all my secrets now. Sure, he didn’t know about my Arthurian ancestry or the fact I was a familiar rather than a witch, but he still knew way too much.

I hoped the cats had a plan for dealing with that, and also that I wouldn’t be heading to a wretched magical prison for sharing too much with a mortal.

I may have had a hard time with the ghost, but I’d still beaten her. I doubted I would have such an easy experience with hardened magical criminals while trapped inside an inescapable box.

27

“Hello? Is it safe to come out now?” a haunting voice echoed through the walls.

“Let me go!” Virginia cried, but her words were hardly more than a whisper now. At least that would make it easier to ignore her, if we would truly be living together for—what?—the rest of my life now, I guessed. Besides, Drake and Kelley clearly couldn’t see or hear her anymore. Not evena little bit. That, at least, was a relief.

“Is that you, Harold?” I called out.

A blue hand reached through the living room wall and offered me a thumbs up. Nice to see he was coming into his full form now.

Kelley glanced toward me with glistening eyes.“M-my d-dad?” she sputtered. “Is he really here?”

“C’mon out, Harold!” I called with a smile. And it felt so good to feel my cheeks rise in happiness that I actually laughed aloud.

Harold phased into the living room. He was still mostly a blob, but he did have hands and a face, which was something.

Kelley slowly pushed herself to her feet but hung back from our new arrival.

“It’s okay,” I assured her with another smile. “He’s not like the other one. C’mon.”

When I motioned to her, she came over to stand beside me.“Dad?” she asked, unsure that a ghost could be trusted, even if it was one she’d known in life.

“Kelley,” Harold responded in that melodic echo of his.

She kept her wide eyes directed at Harold, but spoke to me.“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s still a new ghost, so he hasn’t formed all the way yet. Go ahead and talk to him. He won’t hurt you.”

Harold’s chubby cheeks bounced as he hovered in the air before us. “All I wanted was to see you one last time,” he confessed. “To tell you I love you, and I’m sorry I wasn’t around.”

Kelley let out a little laugh and swiped at her freely flowing tears.“You didn’t know about me. Not until the end.”

I turned and saw Drake watching the scene unfold in awe. He and Kelley could both clearly see Harold, but no longer could they see Virginia. All this ghost business was terribly confusing. I doubted if I’d ever learn the exact rules that governed how they interacted with the world of the living.

“I should have spent more time with you once I did know, but I was scared I’d disappoint you. I thought we’d have more time.”

Kelley choked on another sob but was all smiles now.“Me, too. But maybe now that you’re back, we can—?”

Harold’s light dimmed, and she stopped short. “No. I can’t stay. I will watch out for you, but it will be from the other side.”

“Why won’t you stay here with me?” If Kelley had possessed a ghostly light, I expect it would have faded then, too.

“Because my business is completed.” Harold spoke matter-of-factly, but I could see how much it pained him to deny his daughter’s wishes. He had changed so much since just last night. Not only was he speaking full sentences, but he was remembering. Emoting. “You now know how much I love you and wish things could have been different. I’ve seen you again, and I’ve given Gracie my warning.”

“Um, speaking of that,” I interjected, raising one index finger to draw everyone’s attention. “Virginia’s bound now. She can’t hurt us. Thank you for the warning. It helped, I think.”

Harold raised his disconnected hands and steepled them in front of his face. His brow furrowed as he drifted toward the ceiling and looked down on both Kelley and me.“No, my message was not about her, but another. One who still lives,” he said at last, using the same strange voice as he had when first delivering this warning. “The seeds that were sown will soon bear dangerous fruits.”

Kelley gasped, but little could surprise me at the moment.

“Yeah, can you give me more specific details? Like who, what, when, why? Any of that would help.”

Harold dropped his hands and returned to my eye level. His blue had become pale and much more transparent than before.“I’ve already said more than I should. The dead aren’t supposed to interfere with the living. And also I don’t remember enough to say.”

He shifted his gaze back toward Kelley.“Stay well, my dear. I’ll see you on the other side one day. Not too soon, though, okay?”

Kelley stretched her fingers out and touched her father’s ghostly hand.

He bobbed for a moment before fading from view.

“That was so cool,” Drake said from his spot on the couch.

Kelley stumbled over to join him.“I can’t believe that was my dad.”

“He seems like a pretty decent guy,” Drake enthused. “I take back every bad thing I ever said about him.”

While those two kept each other company, I snuck into my bedroom and motioned for the cats to join me. Once we were all inside, I gently closed the door behind us.

“What do we do now?” I whispered to them in a sudden burst of desperation. “They both know about magic. Does that mean I’m going to prison?”

Merlin chuckled in delight.“The thing about that is…”

“We found a loophole,” Luna exclaimed with a rumbling purr.

I looked from one cat to the other. Both seemed pleased as punch.“What are you guys talking about? What loophole?”

“Well, technically Virginia is the one who revealed magic to them both. Not you,” Merlin shared with pride.

“And I only spoke to Drake after she’d shown the true nature of her powers,” Luna added. “Which means you won’t be punished.”

I was so relieved, I could almost feel the heavy emotional burden as it lifted from my shoulders.

“Neither of us will,” Luna said with a Cheshire grin.

I let out a slow, long exhale. Ah, it felt so good.“Awesome. Well done. But what do we do now?”

“Gracie, we have a plan,” Merlin promised, then motioned for me to lean closer so he could share all the details.

28

As it turned out, the cats really had thought of everything. While neither of them had ever possessed the magic to alter memories—that was an illusion witch specialty—Luna was able to successfully guide Merlin in brewing a powerful sleep potion.

They prepared it in gas form so it would be far easier to administer to our subjects. And once Drake and Kelley were out cold, Merlin teleported the lot of us back to Kelley’s new house.

Virginia’s old furniture hadn’t been cleared out yet, so we moved both of our sleeping beauties to the floral-print couch. I took extra care to position them snuggled together with Drake’s head in Kelley’s lap. Just in case that helped to get him thinking about her as a potential girlfriend.

Our primary hope, though, was that they’d wake up in the morning and believe everything that had occurred was nothing more than a crazy dream, one they’d somehow managed to create and move through concurrently.

I, of course, would deny any involvement in their ghostly adventures. While I hated gaslighting my friends, it really was for their protection—and sanity.

It would have been nice to have human friends with whom I could share my magical comings and goings, but it would be selfish of me to expose them to any long-term risks that came with knowing. Without any witches to claim and protect them, they would be on their own and, thus, in grave peril. At least that’s what the cats told me.

Anyway, Kelley and Drake both had enough to keep them busy with how popular the newly improved Harold’s House of Coffee had already proven to be.

The day after our great nocturnal adventures, Kelley was scheduled for another double shift with the new hires set to help during the morning rush and me and Drake to join her later in the morning. Yeah, she’d definitely have to expand the staff again soon, but I trusted her intuition when it came to knowing when to act.

And when I arrived to start work, I found Drake had already beaten me to it—something that had literally never happened before. I also found that he was holding hands with Kelley while she rang up a customer and one of the new staff members worked the espresso machine.

“Good morning!” I cried joyfully once they’d finished tending to the customer. “I got a great night’s sleep and am ready for whatever today throws at us.”

Okay, so maybe I was selling the ruse a little too hard, but they didn’t know that. I’d taken great care with my eye makeup that morning to ensure not even the faintest of dark circles graced my visage. And now I would be chipper and upbeat for the entirety of my shift, no matter how much I wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep it off.

Drake yawned openly, refusing to let go of Kelley’s hand. “What’s so good about it?”

I nodded toward Kelley.“It seems like something’s good. Or at least something’s different.”

They both blushed, and frankly, it was adorable.

Kelley motioned for me to come closer.

“We spent the night together last night. I don’t remember him coming over, but when I woke up, there he was.” She smiled as Drake pressed a kiss to her cheek. They’d really gone from zero to sixty in hardly any time at all.

“I don’t remember, either,” he said, “but that’s not so unusual. I forget stuff I should know all the time and know stuff I shouldn’t.”

Kelley dropped her voice to a husky whisper.“The weirdest part, though, is that we both had the craziest dream. The same dream!”

“Really?” I squeaked, doing my best to imitate surprise.

“You were there, too,” Drake pointed out as if he expected me to remember. “Did you by chance dream about ghosts and magic talking cats last night?”

I shook my head emphatically.“Nope. I slept like a log.”

“Isn’t it so funny how the little bits and pieces of daily life can fuse together to create this whole big adventure in the dream world?” Kelley asked, shaking her head. “Like my dad was there as a ghost! And there was this other ghost trying to hurt us, but Drake saved everyone. That’s when my dad came and told me how much he loved me. I swear, you just mentioned ghosts one time as part of our icebreaking games, and it turns into this!”

“Yeah, and the wildest part is how we both dreamed the same thing,” Drake said, narrowing his eyes at me. “The exact same thing.”

“That is pretty wild.” I nodded toward their joined hands. “It seems to have brought you together, though.”

“Kelley’s a pretty cool chick. Or should I say, pretty and cool,” Drake responded before giving her little butterfly kisses with his eyelashes.

I was happy for them but also felt like if the pumpkin spice didn’t make me puke today, their sickeningly sweet antics might.

“I’ve gotta go do the shift-end debrief with the new guys,” Kelley announced with a sigh. “Be back soon.”

Drake accepted a quick peck on the cheek and wiggled his fingers goodbye, watching her the whole way as she sauntered back toward the office.

“So you and Kelley?” I asked, not even trying to hide how happy I was about this turn of events.

“I know it wasn’t a dream,” Drake told me in a raspy whisper. “And I know you know it, too.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said with a shrug, then flipped my hair and went to wipe down the tables.

All the while I was panicking on the inside. How could he remember? And what would that mean for everyone going forward?

29

I returned home to two very happy cats and one very unhappy ghost. Merlin and Luna sat waiting for me on the kitchen table with huge matching grins spread between their whiskers while Virginia’s nearly invisible form swooped around the house muttering muted curses.

“How’s the new roommate settling in?” I asked the cats as Virginia swept toward me and then phased through me. Physically, I felt nothing, but it still felt like a violation.

I shuddered and yelled at her not to do that again.

“Or what?” the ghost asked so silently I had to strain to hear.

“Well, you are already grounded,” I said with a laugh. “Give me time, though, I’ll think of something.”

Both cats laughed with me as Virginia disappeared into another part of the house.

“She hates it, and we love it,” Merlin answered with bright eyes.

Luna seemed less amused despite her earlier laughter.“I still feel somewhat responsible for this all.”

“You can’t control the evil within someone else,” I said, running my fingers over her smooth white fur. “And besides, now your children will know much more about ghosts than you ever did. That’s a good thing, right?”

“I suppose,” she said with a sigh and leaned into my touch.

“Never mind about that.” Merlin stood and arched his back in a deep stretch. “We have a surprise for you.”

I raised one eyebrow.“Oh?”

“Right this way, if you’ll please.”

Both cats hopped off the table and trotted down the hall to my bedroom. They stopped before entering, though.

“Look up,” Merlin said with wide, eager eyes.

I looked up and saw nothing—or at least nothing that wasn’t supposed to be there. And the sight of that plain, boring white ceiling made my heart leap with joy.

“You fixed it!” I cried, stooping down to pet both cats in thanks. “How? I thought you needed to go to Nocturna to find someone?”

“As much as I’d like to take credit, it was all Luna,” Merlin announced with pride. “Tell her, Luna.”

The she-cat looked embarrassed by her good deed.“Well, you know how we’ve been going to my garden so much lately?”

“I do.”

“I figured if there were other garden witches nearby, they would have similarly well-stocked gardens.” She paused, and Merlin picked up where his partner left off.

“We spent all day teleporting to various neighborhoods around the state until at last we found what we were looking for two towns over. A place called Beech Grove. There we met a magical human of all things! The garden was his, but he introduced us to a cat he knew named Mr. Fluffikins.”

“And Mr. Fluffikins came with us and fixed the roof with just a swish of his tail. Can you believe it?” Luna cried. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this Fluffikins had left quite the impression on her.

Merlin didn’t seem the least bit jealous, though, and I admired how secure their relationship had become after its rough start.

“I can’t believe you went through all that for me. Thank you.”

“Well, it was Merlin’s fault, but now he knows better than to summon lightning indoors. Right, dear?” Luna glared at him.

Merlin’s head drooped toward his chest. “Yes, dear.”

“I appreciate you making it up to me, thank you.” I gave them each another pat on the head before rising back to my feet.

“Oh, that’s not him making it up to you,” Luna said in a stern voice, directed more at Merlin than at me. “That’s just setting things right. Merlin has another surprise for you as part of his apology, though.”

Merlin took a deep breath.“I thought a lot about our talk the other day, and how important it is to you that Luna and I embrace human customs while living in the human world…” His words drifted off, leaving me confused. What was he getting at?

Luna nudged him with the side of her paw.“Well, go ahead. No need to dilly-dally.”

The Maine Coon raised his head and regarded me with glowing green eyes.“And as such, Luna and I have decided to get married. Officially. Before the kittens come.”

I clapped my hands together in excitement.“You guys, that’s great! I’m so happy for—”

“And you will plan it for us,” Luna gushed. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

My smile faltered for a moment.“Uh, you guys don’t have to do all this on my account.” Especially if you expect me to do all the work, I added silently. I’d never planned a human wedding before, let alone a cat wedding. Where did one even begin?

“Think nothing of it, dear. We want to do this for you,” Luna assured me. She really had no idea.

“Thanks,” I said, trying so hard to keep some form of a smile plastered on my face. “When is the happy day?”

“This weekend!” they both cried in unison.

Oh, boy.

30

And so one adventure came to a close while many others loomed large on the horizon. I had a cat wedding to plan post-haste, a litter of kittens on the way in less than two months, a ghostly roommate I now needed to work hard at avoiding for the rest of my mortal existence, and the big bad was still out there.

I had no doubt we’d see Dash again, especially given Harold’s eerie warning about sown seeds and dangerous fruit. Still, we had no idea how to find her, which meant we’d have to wait for her to come to us.

In the meanwhile, Merlin and I would just have to work to become as strong as possible so that we’d be ready when she returned. Thanks to Virginia’s drain, I’d lost a good portion of the magic I’d accumulated since becoming Merlin’s familiar. Luckily, my witchy cat was able to patch me up just fine. I had also started taking on magic faster the more and more time we spent together.

Everything would be fine. I had to believe that, or I would most assuredly go crazy.

The one thing that bothered me most about everything we’d just gone through, however, wasn’t the near-death experience at the hands of an enemy I thought had been killed once and for all. It was the fact that my current coworker and former admirer Drake now knew about me and my cats—and who knows what else?

He had special abilities that none of us did, and he took them all in stride. The ghost hadn’t weirded him out or broken his cool. He’d treated it like everything else in his life, somewhat interesting but mostly just… normal.

I longed to ask him what he was, but I figured he’d have no problem telling me if he actually knew himself.

He definitely knew what I was, though. And he often tried to talk to me about that night’s events when we found ourselves alone at work.

Let me tell you, the tabletops at Harold’s had never looked shinier, thanks to all the good polishes I gave them whenever I needed an excuse to avoid him.

For now, Drake was taking care to speak to me only when we were guaranteed privacy, but what if he started blabbing to others? Would I be held responsible by magical law enforcement and forced to pay for this exposure?

Merlin and Luna had said I was in the clear since Virginia was the one who exposed herself to him, but I still felt sick about him knowing.

I trusted him with my safety, but my secrets?

Not a chance.

I had a feeling I’d need to make some very difficult choices soon in order to protect him, my magical family, and myself.

And with a sweet, innocent litter of nieces and nephews on the way, I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes…

2.5. LUNA THE MAGICKLESS FLUFF

1

My name is Gracie Springs. I’m a part-time barista and full-time familiar to my magical Maine Coon Merlin.

Yes, as it turns out, magic isvery real. Although around my small South Georgia town of Elderberry Heights, it’s wielded by cats far more than people.

In fact, my main job as Merlin’s right-hand gal is to serve as a vessel for his magical overflow. I can’t do anything with it myself, but when I’m around, he’s much more powerful. That’s a good thing, because he’s got a handful of enemies, any of whom would love to take me down right along with him.

We’ve also made some fantastic friends during our time together. Most notably, Luna, a gorgeous white cat and former witch. She gave up her magical powers to save Merlin and me from almost certain death. Of course, she retains her knowledge of all things magic, but can’t actually perform any on her own. She and Merlin are crazy in love and even expecting a litter of kittens together!

They’ve decided to get married, even though that’s not something cats usually worry about. It’s my fault, really, for bringing it up in the first place.

Now they’re expecting a lavish affair, and they’ve graciously voluntold me to plan it. They’ve also given me less than a week to do so.

Yeah… This would be a difficult task to complete within the given timeframe for a simple, run-of-the-mill human wedding. A magical cat wedding, however, comes with so many added complications that my job as their pro bono wedding planner is practically impossible.

First and of foremost concern, I have to find a way to herd cats from their hidden night city, Nocturna, over to our mortal realm. I also need to make sure no non-magic folk stumble upon the celebration and start asking questions.

I can’t exactly stop showing up for my shifts at work, and I can’t take vacation since I’m not going anywhere. Elderberry Heights is a small town, which means the gossip mill is always churning. There’s no way I could avoid someone spotting me during my fake-cation and then reporting back to my boss at the coffee shop. And that would bring questions I have no possible way of answering. I’m not the best at lying, and I’m not exactly allowed to share the truth about what my cat is, either.

This means somehow, I need to figure out a way to do it all, no matter how much it seems I can’t.

Who needs sleep anyway?

Haha.

Sigh.

“Will you turn that down please?” I asked Merlin for at least the fifth time that afternoon.

“Relax. It’s almost over,” my cat said, snuggling closer to his intended on the couch as the two watched yet another wedding rom-com on my iPad.

While I was hard at work making the actual preparations, Merlin had made it his mission to study up on human wedding customs via some top one-hundred list he’d found online. And as distracted as I’ve been this past week, I realized too late that he’d used my credit card to purchase them all, even the ones he could have watched for free via Netflix.

Add together the cost of all those movies plus the various wedding bric-a-brac, and this whole thing was costing me an arm and a leg—or maybe a kidney. Those were still worth good money on the black market, right?

Honestly, there was no way I could have ever hoped to afford all this if I wasn’t already living rent-free in the house my grandmother gifted to me when she retired to the Florida Keys. Whatever tiny savings buffer I’d built up had now been obliterated, and I was afraid to find out how much of my future income I’d lose when my next credit card statement came due.

At least I knew my cats were madly in love and would stay together for the rest of their nine lives. And since I was single and planned to stay that way for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t have my own wedding to bankroll anytime soon.

“Oh, Gracie!” Merlin cooed a short while later, his green eyes wide with wonder. “Come look at this. Jane has twenty-seven bridesmaids. Do you think we should add some more, too?”

“No!” Luna and I shouted at the same time.

He balked at the both of us and then casually licked a paw.“It was just an idea. I’d hate for our wedding to be upstaged by a human one.”

“It’s Hollywood,” I explained with a heavy sigh. “It’s not real.”

“Don’t worry, dear. Our wedding will be perfect,” Luna purred. “Isn’t that right, Gracie?”

“Right,” I said, then bit my bottom lip before I could add anything else to that statement. Talk about pressure!

Both cats watched me as if waiting for me to finally crack. When I couldn’t take it for even another second, I threw my hands up in the air. “All right. I’m going outside to finish setting up for tomorrow. It’s a little after five, which means, Merlin, you’ll need to head over to Nocturna to escort the guests in a couple of hours.”

He actually had the audacity to yawn.“Yes, yes, I know.”

I turned to the all-white cat.“Luna, stay inside. I want the venue to be a surprise for tomorrow. So no peeking!”

She nodded pertly.“You have my word.”

“Good. See you guys in a bit.” I moved toward the door and slid my feet into my favorite pair of flip-flops.

“Hey, Gracie,” Merlin called from where he still lounged on the couch. “What are we doing for my bachelor party? Should I wear anything special?”

My mouth fell open.“Your what?”

“I know some humans like to hire a stripper, but I hope you haven’t done that for me. First of all, hairless cats are gross. Second of all, naked humans are even grosser. And most importantly of all, I only have eyes for my Luna.”

And with that lovely visual, I ran outside and slammed the door behind me. For once I was happy the cats weren’t trying to offer any help.

2

I took one last stroll through the beautiful wedding garden I had prepared, enjoying the fresh air and relative silence. As a former garden witch, Luna loved to be among nature. Our tiny suburb boasted mature trees and well-kept lawns, but not much else. Creating this special place in the backyard was my gift to her. I’d even managed to find some of the herbs she’d once kept for mixing potions and planted those in the far corner of the yard where they were less likely to get trampled by guests.

Putting that together for her was the easiest part of this whole thing. I still had the list of ingredients Luna had used to bind the ghost of her former familiar to our property.

Long story there, and another thing I had to worry about. With so many guests arriving later that night, would our resident specter see this as the perfect opportunity to cause some misery for us all?

The best I could do is hope that Virginia would remain in line. She’d been drained of all her magic, but that didn’t stop her from being mighty irritating. I would never forgive her if she undid all my hard work and spoiled the big day.

Of course, this was another reason we were having the wedding outside. Virginia couldn’t cross the threshold of our house, which meant she couldn’t ruin the ceremony.

Unlike most wedding planners, I wasn’t at all worried about rain. If drops threatened to fall, Merlin could easily create a barrier to keep us dry. That was one of the perks of having a sky witch in residence. On the downside, though, he’d once summoned lightning while inside and blasted a hole through my roof.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I added purple wisteria to the wedding arch I’d constructed to serve as their altar. I wanted to make sure each of the flowers I chose meant something, and wisteria was said to keep demons away. I didn’t know whether demons were even real, but I figured the wisteria couldn’t hurt. And now it looked gorgeous with the lilacs, white roses, and sprigs of lavender I’d added to the arch earlier that afternoon.

“You’re forgetting chrysanthemums,” a strange voice said from across the yard.

I turned toward the sound and spotted a mostly black cat with a small white patch on his chest.“How did you get here before the portal opened?” I asked in surprise.

He tilted his head and squinted his eyes, as if I confused him somehow.

“From Nocturna?” I prompted.

He shook his head but made no move to join me at the altar.“Oh, I’m not from there,” he relayed. “And I came by early to see if you needed any help. It’s a good thing I did, too. Otherwise, you would have forgotten the chrysanthemums.”

Suddenly, a puff of glittery pink surrounded the black cat, obscuring him from view. I hardly had time to wonder about where he’d gone, because a few seconds later, the pink fog reappeared right beside me, quickly dissipating to reveal the cat and a basket full of white flowers.

“For fidelity, loyalty, and friendship,” he said, motioning toward the flowers with his nose. “Chrysanthemums.”

“Right. Thanks.” I bent down to grab the basket. Surely, I could fit these into the arch somewhere. It’s not like I had spent the better part of an evening designing this thing by hand. What was one last-minute addition from a bossy stranger?

“It’s the least I could do, seeing as I’m the best man,” the cat announced, finally enabling me to identify him.

“You’re Fluffikins.”

His tail twitched behind him but didn’t fully wag. “That’s Mr. Fluffikins to you.”

“You’re the one who fixed the roof after Merlin blasted a hole through it.”

“Right again. Now where can I find our groom to be?”

“They’re in—” I stopped short as an idea occurred to me.

“Say, what have you got planned for Merlin’s bachelor party?”

“Excuse me?” A low growl emitted from his throat, telling me I’d caught him off guard. Well, I’d been caught off guard, too. The least I could do was share the misery.

“His bachelor party?” I said, as if its occurrence had been a given all this time. “I assume as best man, you’re the one who’s planned it.”

But the black cat did not appear to be properly chastened. Darn it.“I thought as his human assistant that was your domain.”

I balked at this, crossing both arms over my chest.“I’m his familiar, not his assistant. Thank you very much.”

Mr. Fluffikins merely shrugged.“I guess I can take care of it, if you haven’t. I’m used to having to put out fires.”

“This is not a fire. Just a last-minute addition,” I reasoned.

“How many bachelors are we expecting for said party?”

“Actually, I think it will be just the two of you. Merlin doesn’t have many friends.” Admitting this aloud made me sad for my poor kitty cat. Was he demanding? Sure, but beneath all that fluff and bluster, he was a genuinely good guy.

Fluffikins considered this.“I thought you were expecting a big turnout.”

“Yeah, but they’re all friends of the bride.”

“Say no more,” he commanded, then trotted around the side of the house. I didn’t know him well enough to trust him, and given our interactions so far, I didn’t much like him, either.

Still, time was running out and my to-do list was only getting longer by the minute. At this point, I’d take whatever help I could get.

3

And then dusk fell, heralding the arrival of our guests from Nocturna via the magical birdbath in our front yard.

I’d always hated that Merlin’s cauldron—his connection to the greater magical world—was in such a visible spot, but he refused to let me move it to the backyard, stating that the otherwise unassuming birdbath might get damaged during transportation.

To his credit, Mr. Fluffikins helped solve one of our bigger logistical problems without even being asked. As soon as he learned what we were planning to do, he erected some kind of barrier that kept non-magic folk from being able to see what was happening in and around our house. That took care of one massive worry. Now I just had to make sure everyone had a place to sleep tonight.

I had some general ideas of where I could put out pillows, blankets, and other nesting materials for the cats, but it was hard to finalize a plan without knowing the exact count of overnight guests I’d be accommodating.

As each cat sprung forth from the birdbath with a blast of glowing green magic, I attempted to keep count.

At least at first.

When the number surpassed twenty-five, I had to divert my attention to keep from pulling my hair out. The original plan had been for no more than twelve cats—a nice round number—but every day the guest list grew by what felt like a mile. Peacekeeper that she was, Luna refused to deny an invite to anyone who wanted one, which made me wonder why we didn’t just hold the ceremony in Nocturna rather than trying to cater to everyone in our small two-bedroom ranch.

I had to admit that Luna did appear to be in her element as she played hostess to her shockingly large friend group. She chirped and trilled and made a number of other cat-bird hybrid noises as a steady flow of friends shuffled over to her and offered their congratulations.

While our yard was filling to the brim with merrymaking felines, Merlin remained on the other side of the portal, helping each new guest cross through.

Mr. Fluffikins spoke to no one, channeling all his energy into making sure his barrier held.

Seeing as everyone else was occupied for the moment, I slipped into the house to prepare dinner for our guests.

Earlier that week, I’d stopped by the party store to purchase a couple packs of small decorative paper plates. Unfortunately, since I couldn’t find a bridal design, I’d had to choose between various cartoon characters, graduation motifs, or baby shower designs. Ultimately, I decided to go with My Little Pony, because the white unicorn with the dark purple mane reminded me a bit of Luna.

I purchased two packs of twenty and hoped it would be enough.

The cats who lived in Nocturna rarely got to indulge in the simple pleasures of cats in our mortal realm. That’s why I’d gone all out with all the best cat food brands. I’d bought the local pet store out of Fancy Feast on more than one occasion. I’d also picked up a few cans each of Sheba, Iams, Friskies, Blue Buffalo, Wellness Complete—even the store’s bargain label. Yes, I was going all out for these cats. And I sure hope they appreciated it!

As soon as I pulled the metal ring to open the first little can, the pet door flapped open, and all the guests came rushing inside to join me in the kitchen.

Wow. As it turned out, cats loved that sound so much, it had somehow worked its way into their DNA. I mean, I was pretty sure that our visitors from Nocturna had never heard the sound of a can opening before, but still they innately knew something good was about to happen.

I spooned a serving of beef pate onto a plate with a pink pony and set it on the ground. A chubby Scottish fold instantly pushed herself to the front of the crowd to claim it for herself.

All the others mewled their excitement as I got to work on the second can—a seafood medley from Sheba. Before I could set the plate down, a cat with a tortoise shell coat used four sets of very sharp claws to climb up my side and settle herself on my shoulder. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out in pain.

“That’s for me,” the torty announced matter-of-factly.

And so it went, until all the cats had been served—some even tricked me into giving them seconds, but I just played along rather than make a big deal of it. Yes, I’d have to take another trip to the store to make sure I had enough for the morning, but for now at least everyone was happy.

Once their bellies were properly full, some of the cats wandered back outside while others explored the house. Others sat around the house grooming themselves post-meal.

I, however, didn’t have any time to rest. Instead, I grabbed a trash bag and began picking up the used pony plates. Once I had a full bag, I headed outside to toss it. That was when I overheard a conversation between Luna and a few of the cats from Nocturna—one that they definitely wouldn’t have wanted me tohear.

“All I’m saying,” a posh voice floated into the night air. “Is you could have done much better.”

“Everyone thinks so,” another voice chimed in.

“She’s right, dear. Why settle for Merlin? There are so many other cats to choose from. What about Tom?”

“I love Merlin.” Luna’s voice came out strong and sure. “And I’m very happy to be starting a family with him.”

“Starting a family? No, dear. You’re just going through the motions of some odd human ritual. You can still change your mind.”

“Actually, we’re expecting kittens,” Luna announced proudly, which made me smile to myself.

The other cats gasped in a chorus.“Oh, you poor thing. First you gave up your magic for that stray, and now the rest of your life?”

“Well…” Luna began but paused when her voice cracked.

Oh, no. This was not okay. They could not upset Luna on her wedding eve, nor could they talk bad about my Merlin. I simply wouldn’t allow it in my presence.

Without giving it a second thought, I slammed the trash can lid down, startling them all into silence, then stormed back into the house.

4

Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins left shortly after dinner. While I was curious how the two young cat guys would celebrate their bachelor’s night out, I didn’t dare ask. As long as Merlin was happy and didn’t overhear all the terrible things some of Luna’s friends were saying about him, we’d be okay.

And this would all be over tomorrow.

I just have to get through the night.

With Fluffikins gone, the barrier he had erected had also dispersed, which meant I needed to get all the lady cats to stay indoors for the next few hours at least.

I clapped my hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Who wants to play a game?” I shouted with every bit of cheer I could muster.

Their eyes wandered over to me rather reluctantly, telling me my job would not be an easy one.Oh boy.

“Okay!” I called out with more enthusiasm than I felt. “This one’s called toilet paper wedding dress. We’ll split off into groups and each pick a model. You weave the toilet paper like this…” I paused to demonstrate by looping some double ply over my torso like a sash. “See? It’s easy, right? And whoever makes the best dress before time’s up wins.”

A Russian blue tapped my foot.“Wins what, human?”

I leaned forward, putting my hands on my knees.“Um, you can just call me Gracie, okay?”

“Okay, so what do I win?” the blue demanded again.

“Well, you win bragging rights, of course!”

She curled her lip at me.“A cat doesn’t need to prove herself in order to brag. What else you got?”

I glanced around the living room and kitchen, trying to think fast.“Uh, extra canned food to take home with you?”

A symphony of meows rose to meet my ears. Well, well, well. Suddenly they were very interested in playing my little game.

“Groups of five to seven, okay?” That should give us about six groups, which wouldn’t be too bad or cost me too much in toilet paper. “Luna and I will both be judges, but she’ll have the final say!”

Luna jumped up onto the kitchen table and motioned for me to join her.“I think I invited too many cats,” she whispered in confidence.

I kept my face as neutral as possible. It wouldn’t be right to shout “I told you so” at a distressed bride on the night before her wedding.

“Some of them are…” She trailed off, glanced toward the far corner of the living room, and sighed.

I tried to follow her line of sight, but there were just too many furry bodies moving about to be able to tell which of them she was looking at.

“Luna,” I said softly, placing a gentle hand on her back. “I know.”

I paused to sigh before revealing,“I heard them talking outside. They have no right to judge you or Merlin. You know that right?”

She shrugged delicately, as was her way since sacrificing her magic.

“They don’t know the two of you like I do. You guys are perfect for each other. I have zero doubts in my mind.”

She glanced at me through half-lidded eyes.“Do you really think so?”

And I gave her the biggest smile of my life.“I know so.”

We didn’t say anything more as we watched the cat-testants configure their toilet paper wedding gowns.

When I called time, a few of them hissed at me and demanded they be allowed to finish.

At Luna’s urging, I granted that request.

Unfortunately, that meant the game took an agonizing two hours to complete. I even had to run to the store to buy more toilet paper partway through. And since Luna was proving far too distressed to carry on much of a conversation, I ended up spending most of the evening playing a match three game on my phone. Not exactly what I had planned for the big night before, but I’d already learned more than once—and the hard way—that the act of planning when it involved magic cats was mostly time wasted.

After what felt like an eternity, the last of the groups announced that they’d finished, and I heaved a giant sigh of relief.

Now, at first, I tried to help Luna judge the various dresses, but none of the cats knew how to take even the slightest criticism. When an orange tabby struck at me with her claws for pointing out that the hemline was uneven, I decided to let Luna finish evaluating the toilet paper gowns on her own.

Of course, I’d forgotten to specify that they should use the provided material only when crafting their dresses. Many of the teams had trotted out their magic to create impossibly beautiful works of art. My personal favorite belonged to a frost witch who had adorned the entire bodice with tiny beads made of ice and the skirt with a subtle snowflake netting.

Ultimately, Luna declared everyone a winner, which meant I’d be traveling around the county tomorrow morning to buy all the pet stores completely out of their stock.

“I’d like the duck pate, please,” a black and white spotted cat informed me.

“And I’ll take the salmon cuts,” an orange Persian declared.

And then they all started mewling orders at me.

Oh, no. Oh, no.There was no way I’d be able to cater to all their special requests. Why had I ever thought a cat wedding would be a good idea? Luna was not a bridezilla, but all her guests were of the feline persuasion—and that was so much worse.

“I just need a minute to catch my breath,” I said, backing toward the front door and groping for the knob. I burst outside into the empty night and heaved another giant sigh of relief.

What am I doing here? Is Luna even enjoying this? I wondered as I thought back to our brief conversation at the table.I’m such an idiot for even suggesting this.

It would be okay, though.

It had to be.

Hopefully, nobody would remember the night before when they thought back to this occasion. Tomorrow’s ceremony would be a true thing of beauty, and I knew Merlin and Luna were looking forward to it after all the time they’d invested in watching wedding rom-coms the past week.

I smiled to myself as I crept around the house, making my way toward the gorgeous wedding garden I’d created. Looking at it would remind me of what was important here. It would give me the strength to make it through all the casual complaints and pointed demands.

It would…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” I screamed into the night, no longer caring who heard it.

5

Only hours ago, my backyard had been a gorgeous oasis of flowers, herbs, and everything a former garden witch, who was also a future blushing bride, could possibly desire.

Now it all lay in tatters. The spell-casting herbs had been ripped out by their roots. The flowerbeds stomped into the dirt. Worst of all, though, the wedding arch had been shredded into confetti.

So much for wisteria keeping the demons away. Whoever had done this was a monster of the worst kind.

I stood silently, shaking with rage as I struggled to keep the tears back. It wasn’t just that all the hard work had been lost, but also the fact that Luna deserved a beautiful wedding to celebrate her love with Merlin and officially mark the start of their new lives together. He did, too.

Yes, someone had just selfishly and cold-heartedly ripped that away from them. I would find out who had done the deed and make sure they never received so much as a crumb of hospitality from me ever again.

I’d barely had time to take the whole scene in when a sparkling pink cloud erupted a few feet in front of me and both Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins leapt out, ready for a fight.

“What’s the matter, Gracie?” my cat asked, running straight to my side.

“We could hear your screams all the way on the other side of town. Or at least he could,” Mr. Fluffikins added with a sneer. Rather than approaching me, he turned to survey the scene.

And I could see the exact moment he noted the wreckage that surrounded us. His golden eyes grew wide before blinking hard and then darting wildly from side to side to take in the full extent of the damage.

Merlin’s attention, by contrast, remained focused solely on me. We shared such an unbreakable bond that he had felt the pain and anguish overtake me. This wasn’t a normal thing that happened with us, but it had occurred a couple times in the past when an emotion had come on especially sudden and strong for one of us.

And this time fear, anger, and sorrow had all collided on me at once. Now Merlin needed to make sure I was okay before he diverted his attention to anything else.

“Oh, Merlin,” I whispered, crouching down to stroke his head sadly. “Look behind you.”

As soon as he turned, he sunk low to the ground and pushed his ears back against his head.“Wh-what happened?”

I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer. They fell hot against my cheeks. “I worked really hard on preparing this place for tomorrow’s ceremony. It was such a beautiful garden, too. I thought it would help Luna feel more at home, but—”

“Someone destroyed it,” Merlin hissed, his green eyes glowing fiercely as they looked up into the night sky. “They destroyed my Luna’s garden, but I’ll make sure they don’t get away with this.”

I shook my head as the tears continued to fall.“I can’t remake it before tomorrow. I just can’t. I spent days tracking everything down. I—” My voice cracked, and Mr. Fluffikins moved to comfort me.

“There, there,” he rasped in that strange snake-like voice of his. “It’s a terrible thing, but we’ll make it right. First we need a barrier.”

No sooner had he said this than a rippling, translucent glow sped out in all directions and formed a dome around my yard. As soon as the shape had formed, the magic flashed and faded from sight. I knew it was still there, working to keep any would-be gawkers unaware.

Merlin paced around the yard, deep in thought. Occasionally, he muttered something under his breath, but not loud enough for me to make out. The poor guy. He was just as torn up about this as I was.

“Cut that out!” Fluffikins spat as soon as he noticed what Merlin was doing. “You’ll muddy up the paw prints and any other clues the culprit may have left behind.”

“Point taken.” Merlin dropped his butt to the ground and twitched his ears.

“Did you see some tracks out here?” I asked them. It was too dark for me to make any out, but their vision was infinitely better than mine.

“I haven’t had the time to look yet,” the black cat admitted with a frown. “But we’ll need some kind of evidence to help us find the responsible party, and paw prints are as good a place to start as any.”

“I can help bring them to the surface with my magic,” Merlin offered, rising to all fours to show he was ready to get to work.

“Then do it,” Mr. Fluffikins commanded, clearly used to being the one in charge.

I watched quietly as the cats worked out a plan, all the while wondering why neither Luna nor her guests had come out to investigate following my scream. Had they not heard, or did they just not care?

Merlin padded on the ground with his front paws, much like he did before settling himself on the couch. As he worked, little dew droplets rose from the earth and hovered a few feet above ground, creating a 3D replica of our yard.

Wow. I studied the image, looking for anything that stood out as unusual. Honestly, it was all unusual and astonishingly beautiful, too.

“Can you isolate the prints?” Fluffikins asked, coming to stand beside me as he watched Merlin work.

Merlin changed the speed of his padding maneuver, sending a majority of the dewdrops straight up into the sky where they instantly evaporated.

“Take out the human shoe prints,” Fluffikins ordered next. Then added a bit more politely, “And can you change the colors to differentiate each set of cat tracks?”

“I can try,” Merlin managed between clenched teeth. Mr. Fluffikins was clearly pushing him to the edges of his magic.

As a sky witch, Merlin often played with rain, wind, and thunder. In theory, he should be able to manipulate color, but it was something I’d never seen him do before. Still, he wasn’t giving up, and I admired him for that.

He struggled to find the right tempo, alternating his speed, direction, and even stomping patterns, until at last the dewdrops began to glow with new colors.

A set of yellow-hued tracks led up to Fluffikins.

A set of green made their way over to Merlin.

That left us with three others.

Blue. Purple. Red.

One of them belonged to our vandal.

Now we just had to find out which.

6

Mr. Fluffikins rose above the dewdrops and floated around the yard, studying each unique set of tracks without saying anything to us for a long time.

“Gracie,” he said to me at last. “Merlin and I will handle the crime scene. You may go inside and start questioning the suspects. We’ll reconvene at 0100 hours to discuss our shared findings.”

I looked to Merlin, but he was so focused on maintaining his dewdrop magic that he didn’t notice when I turned his way or even when I called his name.

“Okay, sure,” I said with a quick nod.

“And have Luna help you,” the bossy black cat added. “It takes a cat to know a cat. And besides that, she knows all the suspects far better than any of us do.”

“Who are our suspects?” I asked, wondering if he’d been able to determine something I hadn’t while studying the prints.

“Everyone,” he said with a grim expression.

I tilted my head to the side.“You mean all the guests?”

“No, I meaneveryone. All of our prints are back here, too.”

I took in a quick, sharp breath.“So nowI’ma suspect?”

“Not a likely one, I’ll admit. But we can’t rule you out yet.”

“Fine. Whatever. At least I know I didn’t do it.” I stomped off, once again overly emotional about something a cat had said. Yes, this was my life now.

“Oh, and Gracie?” Mr. Fluffikins called after me.

I stopped walking but didn’t say anything. I was happy to have his help but irritated by the fact he would consider me a possible suspect after all the work I’d put in to make tomorrow special for my two cat roommates.

“Make sure no one leaves until we figure out whodunnit.” His words echoed into the night. An order. A plea. A necessity.

I turned and offered him a quick salute, then ran back into the house.

Luna met me at the door.“What’s wrong, dear?” she asked, studying me closely.

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” I asked in little more than a whisper.

She looked past me, fixing her blue eyes on the door.“Let’s go outside.”

“Um, I’d rather not, if that’s okay.”

She frowned as she glanced around the main living area, which was positively overflowing with cats.“Well, I don’t think we’ll get much privacy anywhere around here, but we can perhaps try the bathroom?”

“Good thinking,” I said, picking her up and carefully weaving my way through the clowder of magical cats.

I did have to shoo away one overly friendly ragdoll, but once I did, Luna and I had the bathroom to ourselves. I lowered the toilet lid and sank down into a sitting position while Luna hopped up on the edge of the bathtub and waited for me to speak.

“There’s no easy way to say this,” I began as tears threatened to spill once more. No, I needed to be strong for Luna. The last thing she needed was for me to spoil her big day before it even arrived.

“I made a special garden for you in the backyard,” I revealed with a sniffle. “It’s why I didn’t want you going back there. It’s got some of the spell-casting herbs you had before, and there was this beautiful arch made of so many flowers.”

Luna’s mouth formed anO.“Oh my, dear. That sounds like a little piece of Heaven on earth.”

“It is. I mean, it was. Someone destroyed it.”

She gasped.“Destroyed it how?”

“They completely demolished it. Luna, I’m so sorry.”

She sucked in a deep breath.“But who would do such a thing?”

“It had to be one of the guests, especially after what they were saying about you and Merlin.”

She hung her head, speaking softly.“It’s bad enough that they don’t understand our love, but to try to ruin our wedding? Oh, dear. Perhaps it would just be best to call the whole thing off. I don’t want to get married in front of anyone who thinks that Merlin and I shouldn’t be together.”

I put a finger under Luna’s chin and tipped her head up. “I understand how you feel. Believe me, I do. But you can’t let one bad person ruin the most special day of your whole life. We’ll find out who did this and make sure they’re not here for the ceremony tomorrow.”

She stared at me with large, unblinking eyes.“But how? How can we possibly figure out which of the guests did this when so many had such terrible things to say?”

“Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins are seeing what they can pick up from the crime scene outside,” I told her, choosing to focus on what we could do to make things right.

“Oh, should we go help?”

“No, I don’t want you to see the mess. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, Luna.”

She mewed softly and reached out a paw to touch my thigh.“I understand, dear. Thank you for working so hard on your gift for me. Even if I didn’t get to see it, I can imagine how beautiful it must have been.”

“It really, really was. We have to find out who did this to you, Luna. Can you help me question the guests? Maybe we’ll catch someone in a lie.”

“Of course, I can help. You know, I’ve been much more observant of things like that since I lost my magic. It’s like my other five senses are working harder to accommodate for the loss of my sixth.”

I let out a sad little chuckle.“It’s kind of funny. Isn’t it? We’re the only two without magic, and yet we’re the ones taking lead on this investigation.”

“Better to laugh than to cry,” Luna agreed as she hopped down from the tub and padded toward the door. “You wait here, and I’ll bring in the first cat to question.”

I rose to unlatch the door for her.

It was a good thing Luna was choosing who we should question first, because if we had to talk to all forty-plus cats before finding our culprit, then we’d be up all night with this interrogation.

Definitely not how any of us wanted to spend the night before Luna and Merlin’s nuptials.

Yet here we were.

And I would do anything to make sure tomorrow was every bit as blissful as it ought to be.

7

Luna returned a short while later with the first of our suspects. I instantly recognized the torty from the whole feeding fiasco. She’d been the one who had so rudely climbed my body to claim a can of seafood medley. And I still had the claw marks as a memento from that lovely interaction.

I winced now as that same cat hopped up and settled herself on the bathroom counter.

Luna entered a few moments later, and I closed the door firmly behind her. She claimed the top of the toilet tank, meaning she was at a disadvantage, height-wise.

To balance things out a bit, I decided to remain standing as we asked our questions. The extra height would shift the power dynamic in my favor. Hmm, maybe Luna and I would unwittingly end up playing the good cop bad cop dynamic here. It certainly fit our personalities.

My partner in this informal interrogation took a deep steadying breath before making the introductions.“Gracie, this is Tess. She used to live down the street from me when we were just kittens growing up in Nocturna.”

“Hi, Tess,” I said, keeping my face arranged in a neutral expression rather than smiling politely as I would have done under normal circumstances. “Do you know why we asked you to come speak with us tonight?”

“Is there more food?” Tess’s eyes grew wide with greed; her tongue even darted out to lick her upper lip.

“Yes, yes. You were right to do this privately,” she continued as a small droplet of saliva formed on her chin. “We wouldn’t want the others getting jealous, would we?”

I raised a hand to cut Tess off, and she recoiled.“Funny you should mention jealousy, because we suspect that’s the motive for our vandal.”

The torty glanced toward Luna with pleading eyes.“Vandal? What are you talking about? And am I getting more food or not?”

“Not,” Luna said, her features pinching together in sympathy.

I made aspspsp sound to draw the suspect’s attention back to me. “Someone destroyed the wedding garden, and we think that someone might have been you,” I said, slipping into the role of bad cop right on time.

Tess flicked the tip of her tail.“What wedding garden? This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“Don’t play stupid with me. We brought you in before the others for a reason,” I said, glaring down at her and hoping that Luna suspected Tess, too, rather than having simply selected her at random.

“Look,” Tess said, a low growl underlying her words. “I don’t know what you’re accusing me of, which in itself should tell you I’m innocent. But if it helps, yes, I’ll admit I’m a bit jealous, okay? Did I expect Luna to land a mate before me? Absolutely not. That would have been okay in and of itself, but this huge wedding party? Cats never get that. And now if I have a party when it’s my time, everyone will accuse me of copying Luna. So I just learned about this amazing new thing, but I also know it could never be mine. Who wouldn’t be jealous of that?”

“Oh, Tess. I had no idea,” Luna muttered softly.

“Yeah, and why would you? It’s not like you come around the old neighborhood much anymore. And anytime you have, it’s been with Merlin glued to your side. It’s like you forgot about all of us, and then invited us here to gloat. I almost didn’t come, you know?”

“So you admit you’re angry?” I cut in before Luna had a chance to either backtrack or attempt an unwarranted apology.

“Of course, I’m angry. We were close once, but now that Luna has Merlin—” she looked up at me with disgust— “And you, too, I guess. It’s like she doesn’t need us anymore. Doesn’t want us, either.”

Luna jumped onto the counter beside Tess and attempted to rub against her, but the torty jerked back.

“Tess, it isn’t like that. Please understand,” she whispered. “I can’t come to Nocturna on my own because I don’t have my magic anymore. Yes, I love my new life, but I’m also stuck in it.”

A knot of anxiety formed in my stomach. I hated seeing Luna so upset, especially knowing there wasn’t anything I could do about it in the moment. Yes, I could find the cat who’d wrecked our garden, but I couldn’t change how her friends now saw her.

Tess sniffed and shifted her gaze toward the door.“If you wanted to see us, you would have found a way. Now are we done here?” She turned her nose up in the air and walked to the edge of the counter closest to the door.

“Any further questions?” I asked my co-investigator.

“No,” Luna answered with a sigh.

I opened the door so that Tess could get back to the party, which she wasted no time in doing.

“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” I said, leaning forward to run my fingers through Luna’s soft, white fur.

“I deserve it,” she muttered distractedly.

“No,” I insisted. “No, you don’t. You’re a hero. You gave up your magic to save Merlin’s and my lives. Nobody should make you feel bad about that.”

Luna tilted her head to the side.“Do you think Tess is right? Do you think I’m just showing off? Trying to rub my happiness in everyone else’s face?”

“Of course not. A wedding may be this strange, new concept for cats, but it’s something almost every human does at least once in their lives. You live in the human world now, so it’s natural you would adopt some of our customs.”

She sighed again, heavier this time.“I suppose you’re right. Thank you for always being here to make me feel better, Gracie.”

I smiled as she leaned into my touch.“I love you, Luna, and I will always have your back. Now are you ready to bring in our next suspect?”

8

Luna led our next suspect into the bathroom. She was a sleek Russian blue with long legs and a graceful gait. But because there was more than one Russian blue at the party, I wasn’t certain whether this was the one I’d had an earlier interaction with.

“Greetings, human,” she droned, apparently bored with me already.

Yup, this was definitely the same blue who’d approached me after I’d attempted to explain the toilet paper wedding dress game, demanding to know what she would win when the game was over.

“I asked you to call me Gracie,” I said with a stern look and one hand on my hip. “Remember?”

“Oh, was that you?” She shrugged. “Apologies. All you humans look the same to me.”

“This is Sasha Alexandrovna,” Luna said. This time she claimed the higher ground, forcing the blue to settle on the closed toilet seat. “Sasha, Gracie is my friend and Merlin’s familiar. She’s also the only human here.”

Sasha rolled her large emerald eyes.“Fine, fine. Gracie, it is. Now what do the two of you want with me?”

“We’re questioning all the guests to find out who destroyed the wedding arch and surrounding gardens,” I explained, taking a step closer. “Know anything about that?”

“Well, I was just—” Sasha’s eyes widened; she arched her back and let out a terrible hiss. “What is that thing?” she cried.

Luna and I both glanced toward the far wall, where—sure enough—our resident ghost peeked out from the painted wall. Virginia hadn’t phased all the way through, though, so it looked as if the wall had consumed her, leaving only the tips of her fingers and top of her tilted head visible.

“Oh, don’t you have anything better to do?” Luna cried, throwing in an indignant huff for good measure.

Virginia reached her arms through the wall and the rest of her head and neck followed.“Boo!” she said with a wicked grin.

“Eeeeeh!Ka Chortoo!”Sasha shouted, along with a string of other words I didn’t understand. I was pretty sure she was speaking Russian, though.

“It’s fine. That’s just Virginia. She is literally harmless, even though she wishes otherwise,” I tried to explain patiently.

Sasha slowly lowered herself back into a seated position, keeping her eyes trained on Virginia the whole time.

“Why do you have to ruin my fun?” the ghost whined. “Someone was finally afraid of me for a change, and you just couldn’t wait to mess that up for me.”

“You tried to kill me,” I bit out.“Twice.”

Sasha picked her butt up off the toilet seat and swung her poofed-up tail in agitation.

“Gracie is right, dear,” Luna offered her friend with a supportive smile. “She can’t hurt you. Annoy you? Yes. But hurt? Never.”

“Just try to pretend that she isn’t there,” I said with a sigh. “Now you were saying something before? Something about the destroyed garden?” I prompted. We needed to get a move on if we wanted to make sure we had time to question everyone before sunup.

“What’s this I hear?” Virginia floated away from the wall and hovered near the door, her nearly transparent face filled with delight. “Someone destroyed that hideous thing you’ve been building in the backyard? Well, good riddance, I say. Honestly, who would mix wisteria with lilac? That’s just tacky.”

Luna growled a warning, but Virginia just laughed.

“I don’t have to listen to you anymore, doll. You’re just as big of a dud as me now. Aren’t you?”

Rather than arguing back in her own defense, Luna fell quiet. She’d given up her powers to stop Virginia when her former familiar had been corrupted by a dark illusion witch and tried to murder both me and Merlin.

“Ignore her, please,” I said through gritted teeth. “And answer the question.”

Sasha kept her eyes trained on Virginia, unwilling to look away.“Yes, I know something about it,” she confessed.

“Oh, you poor, stupid kitty,” Virginia ground out. “You don’t just admit everything the moment they ask. Otherwise, what’s the point in even messing with them to begin with?”

Sasha tore her eyes away from the ghost and looked up at me.“I didn’t do it, but I do know something about it.”

“Please go on,” I said, when she didn’t offer anything more.

“Fine,” she said with a humph as she rearranged her position on the closed toilet seat. “I was outside when it happened. I overheard someone talking to herself, but I didn’t look to see who it was.”

Her?That narrowed our suspect pool down by two. If the culprit was female, then it definitely hadn’t been Merlin or Mr. Fluffikins. Not that I suspected them, anyway.

“What was she saying?” I asked.

And at the same time, Luna blurted out,“Why were you wandering around outside?”

“I was angry. With her.” Sasha raised one shaky paw and pointed it my way. “It wasn’t fair that you granted more time for the contest. My team worked hard to get it done within the allotted time. If others couldn’t time-manage properly, why shouldwe be punished?”

“But it all turned out okay. Everyone won in the end, including you,” I pointed out.

She flicked her tail and let out a low growl.“Which really means nobody won. Doesn’t it?”

“You still get the prize,” I said, more than a little irritated.

She just rolled her eyes.“Yes, but it will only taste a fraction as good, knowing that others who are far less worthy will be enjoying the same meal.”

“Are you sure you didn’t do it?” I nudged. “Sure seems like you had an axe to grind.”

“I would have done it if I could ever break out of this awful place,” Virginia interjected.

Sasha glanced toward the ghost briefly, then turned back to me with a hard, steely gaze.“Why would I take my anger out on Luna, when it’s you I’m mad at. By the way, don’t be surprised when you look in your bedroom closet next.”

“My what?” I shouted. “What did you do?”

“The next time you want to wear those red heels, maybe you’ll remember that trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one.” She jumped off the toilet and marched over to the door with her head held high.

Virginia gave me a slow clap as I went over to open the door.“You’re really bad at this whole cop thing,” she said with a laugh. “But it makes for great entertainment.”

“Please go away,” I groaned.

“Not a chance,” she shot back with an enormous grin. “Not a chance.”

9

Virginia phased into the bathroom mirror and stared out at me with ghostly eyes—and a whole lot of amused judgment.

“I think this might be a good time to check in with the guys,” I muttered, trying my best not to get worked up by Virginia’s antics.

Luna hopped onto the counter and tapped the mirror with partially extended claws.“I don’t suppose we can trust you not to cause any trouble while we’re gone?”

Our unwanted roommate let out a wicked laugh. It was a bluff on her part, I knew that, because in her specter state she couldn’t wield magic or even interact with any objects in the physical world. She could, however, upset the swarm of cats in my living room, leading them to cause mass amounts of damage in her stead.

I wasn’t sure she’d thought that far ahead, but I also didn’t want to take any chances. “Are you okay to hang back here and play babysitter while I catch up with the guys?”

Luna nodded.“I have the most experience with her and with our guests. It makes sense for me to stay.” She eyed Virginia warily. “Only, don’t take too long, please, if you don’t mind. You know how she drives me crazy.”

The ghost’s laughter followed me even after I clicked the bathroom door shut behind me. A few cats turned to look my way with idle gazes of curiosity.

“Everything is fine,” I said in a calm, assertive voice. It was supposed to work with dogs, but it failed to impress the crowd of felines. In the end, cats would listen only if what I wanted was something they already planned on doing anyway.

“Is Luna okay?” asked a black-and-white tuxedo with medium-long fur and a bulging belly.

I smiled, taking care not to show my teeth.“She’s fine. Just having a few pre-wedding jitters is all.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me blankly.

“Oh, it’s all part of the tradition,” I said with a dismissive laugh. “Nothing to be concerned about. In fact, I was just getting ready to go and get that special canned food I promised you all.”

A cheer circled around the room.

“Well, go on then. No point in dilly-dallying,” Tess the torty said, tapping at my ankle with her paw as if she was trying to physically spur me into action. Either she was helping me with my ruse, or she didn’t realize I was misdirecting everyone so I could make a clean break.

One thing was for sure. I wouldn’t buy a single can of food until we caught the culprit, and nobody could change my mind on that particular point.

I hurried out the door, making sure to grab my keys and jingle them around so the cats would buy my cover story. Once outside, I powerwalked around the side of the house and found Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins still engaged in their colored water droplet exercise.

“Hey, guys. Any updates?” I asked as I moved to stand beside Fluffikins in the near corner of the yard.

No sooner had I spoken than all the rainbow dewdrops crashed down toward the earth and disappeared from sight.

“Merlin, no!” the black cat cried in apparent agony. If you asked me, he may have been overreacting just a touch.

My Maine Coon did a deep yoga stretch, then shook out his fur coat.“Sorry. I got distracted. I wouldn’t have been able to hold it for much longer anyway.” He actually didn’t look sorry at all. In fact, it looked like he’d been looking for an excuse to call it quits for quite some time now.

“But I was so close to recreating the scene perfectly.” Fluffikins now came as close to whining as I’d ever heard him.

“We weren’t close. Wehad it. But I’m not sure how much it helps in the long run.” Merlin finished with his stretches and then trotted over to where Fluffikins and I stood.

“She came from here,” he said, then continued forward, placing each of his steps carefully. “And she went this way.”

He arrived where the tattered pile of the arch’s remains sat blowing gently in the breeze.

“She did her thing, and then she ran this way.”

He took off running toward the spot where the magical herb garden had once stood.“We believe she hid here for a while and then took off running this way once the coast was clear.” He finished his big show by darting around the opposite side of the house.

I glanced toward Fluffikins with raised eyebrows.

“Yes, that’s more or less accurate,” he confirmed with a slight nod.

“Merlin keeps saying ‘she.’ Does that mean you narrowed down the list of suspects?”

“Yes, we think so. Once we isolated the culprit’s set of tracks, we were able to compare them to mine and Merlin’s. Neither was a match. They also weren’t human, so you’re off the hook, too.”

Well, that was a relief.

“Have you and Luna learned anything that could help us narrow it down past that?” Merlin asked, returning to Fluffikins and me.

“We also figured out that the vandal was female. An ear witness heard her muttering but didn’t see what was going on. So I guess we took two separate paths to the same conclusion.”

“Interesting,” Mr. Fluffikins said simply.

“Yes, very,” Merlin added, adopting the same stance as the black cat. He was so cute I could have hugged him then, but I knew that would embarrass him in front of his friend.

“So I guess we keep at it then?” I suggested with a sigh.

“We have nothing left to do out here,” Mr. Fluffikins said as Merlin nodded along.

“Yeah, we’re about done here, I’d say,” Merlin agreed.

“We’ll help question the suspects,” Fluffikins decreed with his nose held high in the air and his whiskers twitching against the night sky.

“Actually, we’re already a pretty tight fit in the bathroom, especially now that Virginia has decided to make herself part of the process.”

“Virginia?” Mr. Fluffikins responded to my words but looked to Merlin for the answer. As a human, I seemed to be lesser-than in his eyes—or rather in all our guests’ eyes.

“Our ghost. Long story, don’t ask,” the other cat said. “Is there something else you need us to do, Gracie?”

“Oh, actually there is one thing.” A small smile crept to my face when I realized I could delegate a less than desirable task to the haughty black cat. “Can you use your pink sparkly teleportation powers to get us some more cans of food? I’d really appreciate it. Okay, thanks. Bye!”

10

“Back so soon?” Tess cried when I returned from outside. So much for sneaking by undetected.

“Don’t worry. Food is on its way,” I said without making eye contact.

“Somehow I don’t believe you,” the torty said with a sneer.

The nerve of this cat.

“I enlisted a helper. Relax, it’s coming,” I muttered as I wound through the clowder and made my way back toward the interrogation chamber Luna and I had set up in the bathroom.

With Tess still hot on my heels, I had to push myself into the bathroom quickly and slam the door behind me so she couldn’t follow. Unfortunately, this resulted in another very unpleasant experience…

“How dare you!” Virginia boomed. Her voice felt as if it originated from deep inside of me, and it now echoed through my chest.

A thousand little spiders skittered over my skin—at least that’s what it felt like. I wanted to run away screaming, but neither my legs nor my lungs seemed to work in that moment.

And then, all those little spiders ripped away from my skin, leaving an icy chill behind. Virginia now floated in front of me, and she wore a look of absolute indignation.

“You’ve violated me,” she choked out. Then, regaining some of her bluster, she shouted, “Violated!”

“I-I didn’t mean to,” I sputtered, raising my hands to rub at my arms in the hopes of bringing some of the warmth back.

“Hmmpf!” the ghost cried as she turned her nose up in the air and phased through the wall, leaving Luna and me alone in the bathroom.

Luna jumped up onto the counter and regarded me with curious blue eyes.“If we knew that was what it took to get rid of her, we could have been doing that all along.”

I shuddered.“You do… what you… want, but pers…onally I’m nev…er doing… that… again.” I had to take several pauses to suck in deep lungfuls of air before I could even make it through that full sentence.

Luna flicked her white poofy tail.“That bad, huh?”

“Worse,” I said, my teeth chattering violently.

“Well, at least she should leave us alone now,” Luna pointed out, her brows pinching in concern. “But Gracie, will you be okay?”

“I’ll be f-f-f-f-fine,” I managed.

She studied me for a long moment before asking,“Shall I go get the next suspect, dear?”

I nodded dumbly, then opened the door so she could do her thing. Rather than closing it all the way, I left it open a crack so that I could watch for her return.

But Tess the torty saw me and pounced toward the door, shouting something about food she’d been promised.

I slammed it right in her face for the second time in a span of just a few minutes.

I loved Luna and Merlin and had no doubt I’d love their kittens, too—but apparently, I was just not a cat person. At least not when it came to this particular group of cats.

I ignored Tess’s indignant meows and the scratching at the door that followed. That is, until Luna called out, “Gracie, open up, dear!”

I did as told, keeping a watchful eye out for Tess as Luna and a small black cat slipped into the bathroom with me.

“This is Luna,” my cat told me.

I looked from the white cat to the black cat but said nothing.

“Don’t look so shocked,” the black cat said with a grin. “It’s a pretty common name where we’re from.”

Both cats hopped onto the counter, and this time I sank down onto the closed toilet seat—still too wrung out from my encounters with Virginia and Tess to remain standing.

“Well,” the guest stated. “Luna here says you have some questions for me. Ask them.”

“I…” I started, but then my words fell away. My energy was still zapped. Even if I could speak, I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I would have liked. Still, I cleared my throat and tried again. “Did you…?”

“I haven’t got all night,” the black-furred Luna snapped rudely. “Keep me too long, and I’ll miss the food Tess said was coming any minute now.”

“Sorry,” I said, keeping my eyes on the tile floor. “It’s just… I mean, I’m so…”

“You’re feeling out of sorts after what happened with Virginia,” Luna finished for me.

I sighed and nodded.

“Rest up, dear. I can take over the questions this time.”

“Who’s Virginia?” the other Luna asked.

“Never mind about that,” my cat said as she rose to all four feet and began pacing the length of the counter. “What we really need to know is if you know anything about the destruction of our wedding garden.”

“Wedding garden? I’ve never been to a wedding before, so you’re going to have to take this a little slower. What’s a wedding garden?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. A beautiful arrangement of herbs and flowers, and a special arch Gracie put together as a surprise.”

The suspect Luna shook her head.“I still don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry.”

My Luna sighed.“What’s so hard to understand? It’s an arch made out of flowers—wisteria, lilac, roses, chrysanthemum, that kind of thing.”

The black cat blinked slowly but showed no signs of guilt.“No, I didn’t see that. I would have remembered something like that.”

Something niggled at the edge of my brain. Luna was doing a less-than-admirable job playing bad cop. It just wasn’t in her nature. But that’s not what bothered me.

“How did you know what the arch looked like?” I asked.

Luna paused for a moment before explaining,“I’m so sorry, dear. I spied it through the window this morning while you were working on it. I didn’t mean to spoil the surprise, but I was just so curious.”

I nodded.“That’s okay. I’m glad you had a chance to see the arch before it met its untimely end.”

It wasn’t like Luna to spy on me, especially since she hated it whenever Virginia eavesdropped on us. Luna had always loved surprises. Plus she knew she’d be seeing the garden on her big day tomorrow. Why sneak a peek so close to the big reveal?

“If you didn’t do it, then maybe you know who did,” Luna demanded, whipping back to face her suspect.

The other cat shook her head.“I don’t. Sorry.”

“Luna,” I mumbled, casting my eyes toward the ground. “Let her go. She didn’t do it.”

“But we’ve only just begun questioning her, dear.”

“She didn’t do it,” I repeated, strength returning as my mind finally put all the pieces together in the right order. “But I’m pretty sure I know who did.”

11

“You know who did it?” Luna asked with wide eyes once our latest suspect had dismissed herself from the bathroom.

“Yes, I believe I do.” My body still felt weak, my brain jumbled. But I was certain I had this figured out despite these difficulties.

“It was Tess, wasn’t it?” Luna hissed. “I always knew that one was up to no good. She’s a bit of a bully, if you ask me.”

I chewed on my lip for a moment before responding,“Let me walk you through the timeline of events.”

She plopped her rear down onto the counter and nodded thoughtfully.“I’m listening.”

I was still a bit light-headed, but I stood anyway, taking care to keep one hand pressed into the wall for support.“I finished the arch just before the guests arrived through the cauldron at dusk. So we know it wasn’t destroyed before then.”

Luna nodded.“Yes, agreed.”

I thought back, reconstructing the order of events that evening—both so that I could lay it all out for Luna and so that I could make absolutely certain of my hunch before sharing it with her. “Once everyone was here, we went inside, and I served supper. There was a period of about ten minutes while I cleaned up and the guests had free roam of the house and yard.”

Luna wrapped her tail around her feet.“So you think someone did it then?”

“No, because I would have noticed when I went around the house to throw away the mess.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” She flicked her tail, then wrapped it around her body the opposite way from before. “What happened next?”

“Next we played the toilet paper wedding game. That went on for a long time, because some of the teams kept requesting more time. I even had to run out to buy more toilet paper so everyone could finish.”

“Yes, I remember that. How could I forget? Everyone was making such a fuss. Sasha was very upset that we changed the original rules of the game. Do you think she acted out in retaliation?”

I shook my head and swooned slightly to the side from the dizziness.“No,” I said, straightening myself back to a full standing position. “It wasn’t Sasha, but our culprit did choose that time to act.”

Luna leaned forward as if confiding a secret, then whispered,“What time?”

“The time when I was away on a toilet paper run.”

She tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes for a moment.“Hmmm, I did notice a few of the members of Sasha’s team grew bored since they’d already finished their gown. They could have easily slipped away unnoticed while everyone was distracted.”

There. Now she was getting it.“Yes, that was the perfect time to slip away unnoticed. I agree.”

“So who did it, then?” Luna asked, shifting her weight from paw to paw.

“I’ll get to the who, but first the why.”

“Do go on, dear. You have me quite curious.”

“Someone didn’t want this wedding to happen, and destroying the arch seemed like the surest way to make that happen—or rather not happen,” I revealed.

“You’re confusing me a bit with the way you’re wording this, but I think I follow. Go on.”

“Our vandal didn’t want this wedding to happen, and from what I understand, more than one cat fits that particular bill. Some were jealous like Tess. Others thought you were settling for someone beneath you.”

Luna’s mouth fell open, but she said nothing.

“Sorry. I overheard a conversation when taking out the trash, and for what it’s worth, I absolutely do not agree. Our vandal, though—the cat who did this—she didn’t fall into either of these two camps. She did want to stop the wedding from happening, though, and that was because she regretted inviting so many cats who didn’t support her marriage and weren’t happy for her.”

I stopped a moment to let the weight of my words sink in and then asked,“Is that why you did it, Luna? Is that why you destroyed your own wedding garden?”

“How did you find out?” she squeaked, lowering herself to a defensive hunched position.

“It was the chrysanthemums,” I said, telling her exactly where she’d gone wrong.

But Luna didn’t get it. She tilted her head to the side and studied me carefully. “What do you mean, dear?”

I sighed.“When you were describing the arch to the other Luna, you mentioned chrysanthemums as part of the arrangement, then said you had taken a peek in the morning. But I only added chrysanthemums at the very last minute when Mr. Fluffikins showed up and demanded it.”

Now she got it. Luna sniffled and hung her head in shame.“I’m sorry I lied. And I’m sorry I destroyed the beautiful gift you made for me.”

I moved away from the wall and came to stand beside Luna at the counter, running my fingers through her soft white fur.“I’m not mad, but I am worried about you. Your wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, but clearly something is very wrong here.”

Luna stared up at me with glistening blue eyes, her mouth drawn in a deep frown.“I just couldn’t go through with it. I love Merlin, and I am committed to him for the rest of our lives. But I can’t go through with the wedding, not with the way everyone was saying such awful things about him.”

“That makes total sense, but why did you have to destroy the arch? Couldn’t you have just told everyone the wedding was canceled?”

“I didn’t know how else to get everyone to leave and go away. At least not without inviting years of gossip. You know how cats talk. So taking out the arch seemed like the easiest way to call off the wedding. I should have been braver, Gracie. I should have just come right out and said what I was feeling, but I didn’t want to give them even more terrible things to say about me and Merlin.”

“Gracie, this isyour day. You get to decide who’s there and who’s not.”

She frowned and whispered,“But nobody can return to Nocturna until nightfall tomorrow.”

The circumstances were certainly less than ideal, but that didn’t mean they were impossible.

“Luna, I have an idea if you’re willing to trust me.”

“Oh, Gracie. I should have trusted you from the start. I’m so, so sorry,” she cried.

“Don’t worry about that, but listen up. We have to act fast if we’re going to make this work…”

12

“Did you get it?” I asked Mr. Fluffikins about twenty minutes after my conversation with Luna in the bathroom. I’d quickly clued both him and Merlin in on the plan while Luna kept the guests distracted and happy. We’d now been waiting for the black cat to return for at least ten minutes nowand were eager to put our new wedding plan into action.

“Yes, I secured the goods,” Fluffikins said with a slight nod. “Now where shall I take them?”

I sank into a crouch, keeping my voice low in case any of our guests from Nocturna were watching from nearby.“Go get a human—any human, most of the cats in there won’t know the difference—and then move forward with the rest of the plan as slowly as you possibly can. That will make them angry, but at least it will keep them distracted. Oh, but first, please put up a barrier in the backyard.”

“All right, I’ll handle it from here,” Fluffikins said, then disappeared in a pink, glittery poof.

A few minutes later, he was back with several brown paper grocery bags filled with canned cat food and a pink-haired woman to assist.“This is Tawny,” he said.

I gave her a friendly wave.“Hi, Tawny. Thanks for coming by on such short notice.”

“It’s no problem,” she said before picking up the bags and following Mr. Fluffikins inside.

I turned to Luna who was sitting in the grass at my feet.“Are you ready?”

“Ready.” She rose to her feet and stretched.

“Wait,” I said softly. “Before we go back, I have something for you.”

I crossed to the side of the house to retrieve my latest handicraft.“It’s not much, but I was able to salvage a few of the flowers from your arch, and I made this.”

“Oh, Gracie,” Luna whispered as I set the small crown of flowers on top of her head. “It’s perfect.”

“Shall we?” I said, trying not to cry over how beautiful my cat looked in that moment. The colorful crown of flowers contrasted her pure white fur beautifully, giving her a classic bridal look.

“We shall,” Luna answered and allowed me to pick her up and cradle her in my arms.

Carrying her, I walked around the house and into the backyard where Merlin sat waiting amidst a kaleidoscope of floating dewdrops.

Both Luna and I gasped as we took in the magnificent scene.

“My rainbow magic got better with how much Mr. Fluffikins made me use it tonight,” he explained with a half smile. “Now I hardly have to think about it at all to keep the magic going.”

When I set Luna on the ground beside him, Merlin’s smile widened to such an extent that he looked almost comical, like a silly cartoon character with exaggerated proportions. I half-expected his heart to thump right out of his chest or his eyes to pop out of his head.

“Dearly beloved…” I began, choosing to act as both the officiant and the one who was giving Luna away in our private mini wedding. I’d already modified the ceremony to exclude rings. Now, as I delivered my lines, I also chose to get rid of that part that allowed anyone to reject to the union, because when I looked at these two crazy cats, it was plain to see just how much they loved one another, how they truly belonged together.

“I promise to love you for all my nine lives,” Merlin said now, reciting the vows he’d written ahead of time. “We may have been born to magic, but I never knew true magic until I found you. You give me the strength and courage I need to get through whatever life throws at us—and life suredoes seem to like to throw a lot our way. Luna, I love you with everything that I am, and I’ll keep telling you until my very last breath. I’m so excited to be your mate for life.”

Luna sniffled while I began to openly sob. Who would have ever thought that my cats would be the ones to teach me the true meaning of love? Definitely not me.

“Merlin, dear,” Luna said softly as she rubbed her nose against his cheek. “I love you so much that sometimes I can’t even believe it. It’s just one of those things that is always there, a thing you don’t stop to think about until the moment you realize that, without it, you would ceaseto exist. You keep my heart beating, loving, believing. And even if no one else understands, I know it with every fiber of my being. We weren’t just made for each other. We are a part of each other. Two halves of a whole. I promise to always be yours. No matter what or who tries to get in our way. Merlin, without you, I’m not me. We belong to each other. Always. Forever. And completely. I love you so much.”