“She’s going after the actual killer, the person who absorbed the town magic. She wants it for herself by any means possible. We need to get to him before Melony does.”
“To who?” I demanded, stomping my foot. The more Fluffikins explained, the less I understood. “Who are we rushing off to save now?”
“The person who killed Lila Haberdash. Barnes.”
My mind kind of exploded then. Fluffikins had ordered Parker to kill Mrs. Haberdash? I really wanted to know the why, but I also believed Fluffikins when he said our time was running out.
I still had to ask. “Parker killed her? Why? Why would he do that?” My voice trembled as I tested these words aloud.
“Because it’s what Lila wanted,” he admitted. His chest heaved with the weight of this revelation, making the little white patch bob within the mass of black fur.
I raised an eyebrow at him. I believed what he was telling me, but that didn’t mean I understood. A part of me doubted I’d ever fully understand, no matter how many questions I asked. “She wanted someone to murder her?”
“Yes, and she trusted us to get it done right.” He hopped off the couch and landed by my feet.
“None of this makes any sense!”
Fluffikins stared up at me with bright golden eyes that seemed to see right through me. “Can you please just trust me on this? We’ve lost too much time already. Do you want to save Barnes or not?”
I’d seen the look in Melony’s eyes as she first questioned Greta and me and then charged out of the house with that enchanted hat. She was out for blood. Parker’s blood.
And I also knew deep in my gut that Parker was an okay guy. He’d been kind to me and seemed earnest in wanting to help me. Even if he’d been the one to get me mixed up in this whole magical business—which I still did not appreciate, by the way—it didn’t mean he deserved to die for it.
“But how can I help? I’m just a human,” I mumbled, feeling so useless in that moment.
Fluffikins’s eyes twinkled. “Ah, but you have magic now. What do you say? Join the good guys?”
Well, what choice did I have now? The stakes felt much higher now that someone I knew and liked was in jeopardy. I sighed and nodded. “If you’re sure you need me and that you’ll keep me safe, then I’m in.”
“Great. We’ve already wasted more time than I’d prefer, but luckily Melony is a low level witch. She’ll have needed to travel by the traditional means, so we still have time to beat her to our destination. Follow me.” The cat ran to the door and let himself outside.
I followed after, wondering if I was crazy for agreeing to help with what little information I’d been given.
“Now grab my tail,” Fluffikins shouted into the still morning sky.
I crouched down, closed my eyes, and clenched that tail like my life depended on it. The soft fluffy appendage turned hard in my grip and then it started to grow. When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer holding onto a tail but rather a broomstick, and I was no longer standing in my front yard.
I was flying.
18
The speeding wind whipped the bottoms of my pajama pants against my ankles—or rather it was the speeding me on top of the broom that I’d somehow managed to conjure from my talking feline escort’s tail.
Fluffikins flew effortlessly at my side. He looked as if he were suspended mid-leap as he zipped through the air like a bullet.
So there we were, racing against time to save a killer from being killed, because apparently he’d killed for the right reasons while his would-be killer wanted to kill him for the wrong reasons.
Yeah, I was confused, too.
I was also more than a little upset that I’d ended up wearing my frumpy PJs for this momentous encounter. I didn’t have much time to worry about either of these things, though, because Fluffikins and I arrived at our destination a couple short minutes after we’d departed.
I recognized the office complex from my visits the day before. This seemed like a good place to start, but would Parker even be there? He’d told me he had a regular policeman’s job, too, which meant he probably didn’t spend all day waiting around Paranormal HQ just in case the boss cat needed him.
Heck, for all I knew, Melony might have found him already.
Mr. Fluffikins muttered something under his breath, and the glass-topped conference room opened up like a blossoming flower. Pink glittering magic swirled about us as the building sucked us in like a Venus flytrap.
My broom disappeared and I lurched toward the floor. But then the pink stuff caught me and guided me gently into one of the many executive chairs that lined the table. This felt similar to the sensation I’d experienced in Mrs. Haberdash’s house, like I was floating in a bath of perfectly temperate water. The pink pulsed gently, calming and comforting me, providing a featherlight massage.