Chapter 4 #3
“Well, I owe her that much for her pumpkins.” He stroked Hades’s head, wondering if Jasper was referring to more than just the lessons.
“Damn right you do. Word is, her pumpkins are a major part of the Halloween festival here.”
“What, really?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve been asking around about last year’s festival to prep for my next article.
She does some amazing things with them since they grow to be huge.
Last year she had a carriage bewitched to roll with pumpkins as the wheels.
The non-magics can never figure out how she does it.
But I know she really wants to make the carriage itself someday out of a pumpkin. ”
God, he really owed Calli for destroying something that mattered this much not just to her, but to the people who attended the festival.
Malcolm eyed the shops on Main Street. Two men were setting up a festival sign that spanned the width of the street.
One man used his wand to guide the rope up the side of the building he was standing beside.
The other used a tall ladder, carrying his end up to a hook on the building on the opposite side of the street.
“What date is the festival?” asked Malcolm.
“October 31st,” Jasper replied with a chuckle as if Malcolm was an idiot.
“Right. That makes sense,” he sighed.
Two weeks. That was all the time he had to figure out how to grow Calli some new prize-winning pumpkins, or find something else to make it up to her. He wanted to do it—he would do it. He just didn’t know how.
* * *
Something tickled Calli’s nose. She rubbed at it and moaned, not wanting to wake up.
She’d been having the most wonderful dream where she was sitting on her porch watching the children trick-or-treat, only this time she wasn’t alone.
Malcolm sat with her on the front porch swing, handing candy out to children as they walked up the steps.
It felt right. No, more than right. It felt real.
But whatever kept tickling her nose was reminding her it was just a dream, and that really started to annoy her. She scratched at her nose again and something soft bumped into her hand. A strange noise like a tiny rumble vibrated against her chest.
Calli’s eyes flew open and stared at two bright yellow-green eyes surrounded by long black fur.
A kitten sat on her chest, purring. It kneaded its little paws on her collarbone as though attempting to make biscuits. It was no bigger than her hand and black as a moonless night.
“Hello,” she greeted. How had a kitten gotten into her home? Perhaps one of the local town cats had a litter nearby?
“Mreow…” The kitten’s high-pitched meow was adorable, but strange. Because on some level she could have sworn it had said hello back.
Calli gently lifted the kitten up so she could sit up in bed and cuddled it against her chest. A sense of connection sprang to life deep inside her, like finding the missing piece of a puzzle that she’d been trying to put together for years.
With a gasp of delight, she lifted the kitten up in the air.
“It’s you!” She squealed. “You’re mine! Aren’t you?”
The kitten continued to purr as little purple sparks shot out of its tail. It wiggled its paws playfully at her.
“You’re mine,” Calli’s eyes filled with tears. “My familiar.” She had waited her whole life for this little creature to come along. She buried her face in the kitten’s angora soft fur.
“You’re mine.” She whispered again, torn between laughter and tears.
A familiar was a manifestation of a witch or warlock’s soul, but they also had their own minds.
They not only offered a way to focus one’s magic, but they were companions and dear friends to their chosen witch or warlock and lived as long as they did.
For most of magical history, those who practiced magic were often lonely, ostracized by human society or even in danger.
A familiar kept a witch or warlock from feeling completely abandoned.
As Calli listened to the kitten’s purr, she knew she would never be alone again.
She kissed the kitten’s pink little nose.
“So, what’s your name?” While some familiars materialized completely clueless about themselves, some had such a strong sense of self that they already had a name.
The kitten mewed softly, the sound filling Calli’s chest with warmth.
“Persephone, huh? I like that.”
The purring grew louder. The kitten rubbed her cheek against Calli’s wrist.
“Are you hungry?” She got out of bed, tucked the kitten against her chest and took her to the kitchen.
She poured some cream into a bowl and set the kitten and the bowl on the floor.
As Persephone lapped up the cream, Calli noticed a folded piece of paper on the counter between two of her pies. She opened the note.
Calli,
Hades and I went to town to find Jasper. Going to see about getting a room at the bed and breakfast. I’ll meet you at your bookstore around noon.
Malcolm
Calli stared at the note. Hades and I… She’d forgotten that Malcolm’s giant schnauzer was named after the God of the underworld.
Her gaze dropped to the kitten on the floor.
The kitten called herself Persephone, the daughter of Demeter who’d married Hades and lived in the underworld with him for half the year.
Then she remembered her grandmother had said familiars chose to appear for their family the first time a witch or warlock found love.
Her legs suddenly turned to jelly. “Oh no. No—no—no,” she said to herself and the kitten on the floor. “Absolutely not.”
Persephone finished licking up the rest of the cream and turned her yellow-green eyes on Calli. She mewed a question.
“No,” Calli said more forcefully. “You’re too young to understand this, but lust and love aren’t the same. I might lust after someone, but that’s not the same as loving someone. You can’t fall in love with someone after just meeting them.”
Persephone seemed unbothered by that statement and began to explore her new home. Calli stood in the kitchen, still trying to process all of this.
Flashes of last night came back to her. Malcolm sitting bare-chested on her couch. How she felt when he’d stepped into her personal space and put his arms around her. How she’d been both excited at being caught in his arms, yet utterly safe. Then he’d kissed her, and oh, the man could kiss.
Get a hold of yourself. This is not the time to be thinking about all that. You have things to do.
Calli went back upstairs and took a quick shower. She found the kitten chasing a small white and black striped lizard around the bedroom. The lizard twitched its blue tail in challenge before it darted around on the rug.
“Don’t hurt him,” Calli said to the cat. “He’s a skink. He’s harmless, and he eats bugs in the house.” She’d never been afraid of lizards and thought this particular kind of skink was cute.
The skink vanished between the baseboards and the wood floor, leaving the kitten to swish the fluffy plume of her tail back and forth.
“Okay, cutie, let’s go.” She picked up the kitten and set her on the bed. Calli changed into her jeans and a cream cable-knit sweater. Then she retrieved Persephone and tucked her into a large tote bag.
“Mreow?” the kitten queried.
“Yes, we’re going into town,” said Calli.
It was odd, but she could feel what her familiar was thinking, almost like words spoken in her head. She had a thousand questions she wanted to ask Sage, who had had a familiar since she was fifteen and definitely had way more experience with having a familiar.
But first, Calli would pop into her bookstore to check on things, then she’d grab coffee with Sage before her meeting with Malcolm at noon.
She hummed as she walked out to her car, still giddy over Persephone’s appearance.
The only damper on her joy was the question still niggling in the back of her mind: why had Persephone finally shown up, and did it have anything to do with the half-warlock who set her garden and rug on fire?
“Maybe grandma was wrong,” she mused as she opened the car door. Persephone meowed again and Calli felt a very strong disagreement in the familiar’s response.
“Well, too bad. Because all I’m going to do is give him a few magic lessons. You can forget your Hallmark movie fantasies.”
Another tiny questioning meow.
“I’ll show you what a movie is later. Right now we have better things to do, fluffball.”
Tiny claws punctured the bookbag and pricked Calli’s arm.
“Ow!” She flinched and the little claws withdrew. Okay, so she didn’t like being called fluffball. Calli was going to have to get used to having a familiar, but her familiar was going to get used to the idea that she and Malcolm weren’t in love.