Page 51 of Castings & Curses

Moonbeam bolted for the door.

It was truly unfortunate that one of the chameleons opened the door at that very moment, allowing Moonbeam to drag her prize out of the diner.

Natalie bolted from her chair and raced after the cat.

Corwin shook his head in dismay.

He should probably be following his mate right now, but the thought of being roped into chasing after a cat to recover that ridiculous witch’s hat just made him cringe.

He’d never hear the end of it.

A wolf chasing after a cat like some commondog.

It was enough to keep him seated for several moments longer, but eventually, with a frustrated growl, he lunged to his feet and stalked out of the diner, a roar of laughter following in his wake.

It didn’t take him long to track down his mate.

She was across the street in the town square, trying to coax the cat down from a tree she’d somehow managed to climbwiththat stupid witch’s hat.

Moonbeam now sat high above their heads, staring down at them,smirking.

She had her paws on top of the hat and didn’t appear inclined to move.

“She’ll come down eventually,” Corwin told Natalie. “Come on. If we ignore her, she’ll probably come down faster.”

Natalie gasped. “I can’t just leave her. She could fall from the tree or get hit by a car. Anything could happen!”

“I thought cats always landed on their feet,” Corwin said.

“Propaganda,” Natalie scoffed. “If she falls from that height, landing on her feet will not save her.”

He sighed. “Well, I’m not climbing the tree, I can tell you that right now.”

Natalie glared at him. “Nobody asked you to.”

With that, she set her staff against the trunk of the tree and began to climb.

“Now I’ve seen everything,” Sal said with a laugh.

Great.

The entire damn diner had come out to watch.

“Corwin Anthony O’Neill!” His mother’s voice cut through the crowd, causing Corwin to cringe.

Seriously?

Was it too much to ask that his mothernotbe around every time he screwed things up?

“You’re not seriously making your mate climb that tree, are you?”

Corwin hadn’t taken his eyes off his mate, who was pretty high in the tree at this point, so he saw the way she jerked at his mother’s admonishment, causing leaves to fall from the branches all around her.

If he wasn’t so worried about his mate, Corwin would probably be strangling his mother right about now.

* * *

“Well,that didn’t exactly go as planned,” Soraya said.

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