Page 50 of Castings & Curses

“Ah. The demon-cat.”

Natalie snickered. “Only around you. Shelovesme.”

CHAPTER5

“I’ve got a brilliant idea,”Soraya announced out of the blue.

Bygul did not like the sound of that.

To be clear, he never liked any of Soraya’s ideas. Mostly because they tended to end in disaster.

Even the ones that worked out went places they never anticipated and never wanted to go again.

“Maybe we should—” he began.

“You don’t even know what it is,” Soraya said. “It’s genius, I tell you.”

He sighed. “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

“Yay! First thing we have to do is recruit Moonbeam to help.”

Muezza and Tivali both groaned.

“Moonbeam isn’t going to help,” Tivali said. “She’ll just make things worse.”

“We’re lucky she didn’t castrate the wolf,” Muezza grumbled.

“Okay, that’s a little extreme,” Tivali said. “But I agree, we’re lucky the wolf wasn’t injured more than he was.”

“We’re lucky he was wearing jeans,” Bygul said.

“You guys aren’t being fair to Moonbeam,” Soraya said. “Bygul, you’re always telling us to use the earthbound cats because it gets them invested in the match. So let’s do it. We haven’t even approached Moonbeam since dropping her off. Let’s get her involved. Make her feel sorry for the wolf.”

“Sorry? For the wolf? In what world makes you think any cat, let alonethatcat, has empathy?” Bygul shook his head.

If the goddesses could hear Soraya now, they would question whether she was the right cat for this job. After all, an effective matchmaker had to understand her matches, all the way down to their bean-toes.

“It’s all a game to Moonbeam,” Soraya said. “So we present it to her as a game.”

Huh.

That was surprisingly perceptive.

“What kind of game?” Tivali asked suspiciously.

“A matchmaking game, of course!”

* * *

“Well,”Corwin said. “Speaking of your loving furball, she appears to be stalking you.”

“What are you talking about?”

He leaned into her and nodded toward the space under the table.

It was the only warning Natalie had before Moonbeam leapt into her lap and from there onto her shoulder.

Before Natalie could even pet Moonbeam, the cat had snatched her witch’s hat from her head and lunged to the floor. “Hey!”

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