“Just waking up, no doubt. Remember, we cats tend to keep evening hours,” Luna reminded me, and of course she was right.
“Follow me,” Merlin commanded, and Luna and I both fell into step beside him. He led us to what appeared to be a covered wagon, although it had nothing hooked up to pull it.
“We need a reading,” Merlin shouted from outside.
A moment later, a flame point Siamese popped its head out from the wagon. Its eyes grew wide as it caught sight of Merlin. “And what will you be offering in trade?”
“Anything but lightning,” Merlin responded, standing tall as he waited.
“How about a rainstorm?” the Siamese asked greedily.
“Done,” Merlin answered with a nod.
“Excellent. Now let’s see what we have here.”
Luna guided me toward the wagon. “Go on, sit down.”
“But doesn’t Merlin have to pay first?” I whispered to her.
“They have a spoken contract bound by magic,” she explained. “Don’t worry, everything will be taken care of.”
“Is this going to hurt?” I asked the flame point who’d popped up beside me on the bench seat.
He scoffed. “I’m insulted. What kind of blood witch do you take me for?”
I fell silent, preferring not to discuss how badly Dash had hurt me when she took my blood. The Siamese blood witch moved to my lap, then held his paw to my neck. I felt nothing, but when he pulled away, blood tipped each of his claws, shimmering in the night sky.
He stared down at his paw with wide eyes. “Well, I’ll be.”
“What? What is it?” Merlin demanded, sounding even more nervous than I felt.
“This is your familiar?” the blood witch asked, glancing from his paw to me and then back again.
“Yes, she is. Is everything okay?”
“More than okay!” the Siamese crooned, as if hysterically happy. “Her blood is especially powerful. She’s a descendant of the original dutiful familiar.”
“Arthur?” Luna asked with a gasp.
“King Arthur, the Great Merlin’s true companion,” the Siamese verified.
“And you’re descended from Merlin?” I asked him, recalling the story he’d told me when we first spoke.
My cat nodded but continued to stare blankly ahead.
“What does this mean?” I asked weakly, still unsure of how to take the news.
“It means that you have the most powerful bond of any witch and familiar living today,” Luna supplied in a hushed whisper.
“No wonder we bonded so fast,” Merlin murmured.
“We already knew about the bond,” I pointed out.
“Yes,” the Siamese said. “But keep it a carefully guarded secret, for there will be many who wish to separate you.”
I nodded dumbly, terrified of what I’d just learned.
Dash already knew…