Page 85 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

Joe said, “The familiar, whose name, if it has one, I don’t know, came to Molly, like familiars do, to help her with magic.She was a real witch, a powerful one, and they worked together. For years. And this familiar took human form, eventually, and it fell in love with her. And she with it. And, Percy…” Joe looked across at him with a sympathy that inexplicably put him on his guard. “They were so in love. Like we’re in love. And when the witch hunters came for her, she locked her familiar away. She locked it away to protect it, in the basement, with magic of her own, and she went to meet her fate. Alone. But they were so intertwined by then. They’d shared everything, and what they did to her, her familiar felt it too. All of it. All of it from the torture, to her death, to her being trapped in that skull. They were only a short walk apart for hundreds of years, both of them imprisoned. In love. And despite its magic, because she’d bound it, to keep it safe, it couldn’t do a thing to help her.”

Percy wet his dry mouth with a sip of wine, then stated, “Well, that’s fucking miserable. No wonder it was such a prick.”

“Yeah, it really was,” Joe muttered, with another glance at the quiet cat. “But that’s also why it let us go. Sort of.”

“Sort of?” asked Percy.

Joe coloured with a mixture of guilt and embarrassment, but trudged on. “We presented the second opportunity in hundreds of years that the familiar ever had for escape. Cleo was the first, but it sacrificed that chance for Molly. It gave her Cleo’s body. It expected her to free it. But when Molly got strong enough, she left her familiar. After all they’d been through, she abandoned it there in the basement. And then when we came…” Joe watched Percy’s face, his eyes dimming as images of that afternoon closed in on him. “Percy, I’m sorry I put you through all that?—”

“You should be,” Leo snapped.

“I am,” Joe said softly. “Genuinely. I was trying to help.”

Leo, nowhere close to accepting any apology from Joe, said, “It was fucking stupid.”

“Leo.” Percy’s reprimand was quiet but firm. Leo sipped his coke and withdrew into angry silence.

“I know it seems stupid,” said Joe, trying to catch Leo’s averted gaze. “And I’m trying to apologise. It was a thing I did, thinking it was a ghost, thinking we had it under control. And had I known how out of hand things would get, I might not have done that. But even with that in mind, I believe, in hindsight, I did the right thing.”

A loud tsk rolled off Leo’s tongue, and Joe said, “I trusted you to handle it, Percy. And I know that was a lot to put on you, but I also believe, if it was anyone else but me, you’d agree it was right to try to help those girls.”

Percy, easily convinced by the altruism he’d come to see at part and parcel of a life with Joe, cracked an adoring smile. “It was a good and noble thing to do.”

Leo refused to make further sound or acknowledgement, as disgusted as he was, so Joe said, “I want to say thank you. To all of you. I know you went through a lot.” Meeting Althea’s eyes, “I never would have let you get involved like this if I could have stopped it.”

“I know,” she said. Adding, with a pointed look at Leo, “It wasn’t all bad.”

He allowed a light blush in response.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Percy said. “It’s done. It’s over. We made it out unscathed. And by the sounds of it, you have some information that could help us locate this familiar.”

“Mew,” said the little kitten, with a piercing glance at Joe.

“I do,” said Joe, returning her stare. “And I’m going to tell you. Now.”

The kitten dropped its paws from the table and started a soft padding up Percy’s stomach. “She’s lovely, isn’t she?” he said. “Do you think they’ll really mind if I put her on my shoulder? She seems to like it there.”

“I think they’ll mind,” said Althea.

Percy glanced around the restaurant, and seeing no eyes on them, lifted her to his cheek for a cuddle. She licked him, and he marvelled, “It was love at first sight, Moxie and I. I’ve never fallen so fast. No offence, Handsome.”

Joe glowered at Percy and his cat. “None taken.”

“Marvellous little thing.” He rolled her onto her back and rubbed her tummy. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was saying—” Joe attempted.

“See how she doesn’t use her claws?” Indeed, the cat had Percy’s hand wrapped in its front paws, back legs kicking his palm playfully, teeth so soft on his hand it was barely a tickle.

“I was saying—” Joe tried.

“She’s awesome, Percy,” Leo put in. “A much better sidekick, if you ask me.”

“I was saying—” Joe endeavoured.

“She’s got such a mischievous look about her, but she’s just so cute,” Althea fawned.

“I was saying—” Joe repeated.

---