“No,” she told me with a beastly growl. “You started this, and you’ll be the one to finish it.”
The broom dropped, and I lurched forward. No sooner had I been freed than one of my wooden dining chairs slammed
into me from behind. I fell into a sitting position and then the broom pressed me against the chair, securing me in place.
“Please…” I cried actual tears now. “I never asked to become Merlin’s familiar. I never asked for any of this.”
“You’re coming with me,” Luna said, then blinked once, twice…
And we were back at her cottage. “Are you going to kill me now?”
“Where’s the journal?” Luna hissed, ignoring my desperate question.
“Under the c-c-couch,” I sputtered, seeing no point in lying now.
The thin cat ran beneath the couch, then came out with the notebook gripped between her jaws.
I remained stuck in the chair, only able to watch as she levitated the book to the coffee table and flipped through its pages.
Apparently having found what she was looking for, she smiled, blinked, and took us into her rear garden. Then she approached an old stone wall, dragging me along with her magic.
“What are you doing?” I ground out.
“That doesn’t concern you.” Luna hopped onto my lap and pawed at my pants, picking something up and dropping it into the well.
Then she ran back and chomped at my hair, ran back to the well, and spit inside.
“Is that your cauldron?” I guessed.
“Ah, so he has taught you something, at least. Not enough to keep you from playing right into my paw, though.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“Good, then your boss won’t see it coming, either.”
“What are you plotting?”
“Nothing that concerns you. I’m just setting things right,” she said, walking through her garden and plucking various leaves and petals to drop into the well.
I watched her work for at least twenty minutes, but nothing I said could convince her to tell me anything more. Sometime later, a shimmering emerald puff rose from the well and Luna laughed girlishly rather than wickedly.
“Purrfect,” she exclaimed. “Now return home and mix this in your master’s water dish.” She pushed an empty plastic bottle into the well with her paw. And when she brought it back up with her magic, it held a small amount of liquid. No more than half an inch deep.
“I won’t do it,” I said, struggling against the broom and chair once more.
Luna laughed again as the broom snapped away and the chair crumbled into a pile of sawdust. “Funny thing is, you don’t have a choice. And you won’t be able to warn him, either. It’s brewed right into the spell.”
“That’s why you took my hair,” I realized.
“Yes. And his. It’s lucky for me he sheds so much and can’t resist a warm lap, eh?”
“I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t get away with it.”
“I already have,” Luna said with a smirk.
She blinked once, twice…
And I was back home with the water bottle clutched firmly in my hand. Before I could stop myself, I poured its contents into Merlin’s bowl. As soon as I did, the plastic container dissolved into thin air and completely disappeared.