Page 8 of Catastrophe

“But the shadow magic in this realm will have returned to Ombra,” I continued. “Witches can no longer create familiars?”

“That’s what I believe. Yes.” She grimaced, and we both looked at Clawdia.

She is one of the last familiars in the human realm.

“But it might not be enough for the shadow realm to fully heal?” I asked. “You believe the shadow people will come here to kill the familiars?”

“Who’s to know?” She shrugged, but her eyes were hard and wary. “But I’d rather be prepared than not.”

I nodded my understanding. My experience with the shadows had taught me they acted first and asked questions later. I dreaded to think what they’d do if they thought familiars were keeping magic from their realm.

“Why do you think she’s still a cat?” I asked Elizabeth as I patted Clawdia’s soft head.

“She would be dead if her bond with her witch snapped,” Elizabeth replied confidently, “so perhaps it is a trauma response. She’s not sick or dying, so it may take a little while for her power to come back.”

Clawdia meowed, and we looked over to see her tapping at a silver square. Elizabeth huffed out a laugh as she walked over, opened the square, and pressed a button that lit up a screen.

I squatted to get a closer look as Clawdia began pressing buttons and making words on the bright screen, and after a while of her tapping, a complete paragraph was visible.

It read: “Karin drugged me because she wanted to kill Charlie and make me her familiar. I think she drained him of his magic using the wards. She was using them to get more power. Maybe he died but then his dragon took over?”

“Karin attacked Charlie?” Elizabeth asked. “Killed him?”

Clawdia nodded.

Elizabeth swallowed audibly, and her eyes widened. She muttered, “Even if that is true, it still doesn’t change that he is a danger to us all.”

Clawdia’s eyes narrowed, and her body dropped into a low crouch, her ears flat to her head. I caught her as she launched herself off the table to attack Elizabeth and held her tightly against my body so she couldn’t squirm. She tried to nibble at my neck, however.

“I suggest you stop making comments like that. We are going to find him and help him. He is not a danger, nor should he be dead.” I flashed my fangs, and Clawdia’s nibbling turned to long licks with a prickly tongue as she purred. Elizabeth gritted her teeth but nodded once. With a more diplomatic tone, I asked, “Do you have any idea where he might have gone when he flew off?”

“There are many islands around here,” she replied in a sullen mumble that made me grit my teeth. “He could have flown to any number of them.”

“His wings are new, so I don’t imagine he went too far before he had to rest.” I placed Clawdia back on the bed and gave her a warning look, which she willfully avoided before returning to groom herself.

“I will help you look for him. He’s my blood,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll be able to use it to find him.”

I assessed her. She wanted to help find Charlie because she believed she would be the only one able to kill him if he was the great evil she feared, but using her was also the quickest way to reach him. “How much time will that take?”

“I need to rest before I attempt the spell.” She sat in her chair, her eyes heavily blinking, and silence descended until she asked, “What about the other witches? The council? It hasn’t escaped my notice that you are missing your titan.”

It pained me to say it. “We don’t know where they are. Until we have more information on how to find them, getting Charlie back is our priority.”

Clawdia headbutted my arm, and I offered her a reassuring stroke. She probably felt even worse than I did about it, since choosing to find Charlie first was like picking her heart before her soul. But it was the right decision.

Elizabeth pursed her lips and asked hesitantly, “What happens when we find Charlie?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “We try to get him to turn back. If he doesn’t listen to us, drakorians are easily bribed.”

But above all, we don’t allow his birth mother to murder him.

We left Elizabeth to rest and staggered toward the cabin Clawdia had shared with Zaide and Charlie, the exhaustion setting in. I couldn’t believe how much had changed since we were there just yesterday, and as I looked around the living space and watched the sky darken outside the window, I tried to be thankful that at least I was no longer possessed and fighting my own body.

Clawdia purred as she settled on to the sofa, and I frowned at her. “You’re going to sleep there?”

She opened one eye. She didn’t have a voice, but her expressions spoke volumes.

“You should at least clean up first. You’re filthy, and your fur is matting,” I told her.

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