Page 34 of Monster's Pet

“It makes sense.”

“It does.”

“I bet she ate the locking magic on your door, and that’s how she got out,” I added.

Aiden rolled his eyes. “Ugh, you’re probably right. How do we keep her away from the professors if we can’t keep her locked in my room?”

“We’ll just have to check in on her in between classes, and bring her more food.”

We slipped into the kitchen, avoiding the cleaners as we headed for the back door.

“Does she even eat food?” I wondered aloud. “Or rather, does sheneedfood?”

Aiden scratched Moonbeam under her chin and she started purring. “I think the food is needed for nutrients, but the magic is needed to help her mature.”

“So, both,” I muttered, holding the kitchen door open for Aiden. “I think we should ask Rhiannon if we can graduate her to solid food. She’s getting so big so quickly.”

“No licking,” Aiden said firmly to the kitten. “We’ll get you an amulet or something to snack on.”

“How about the magic generators?” I suggested. I still had a few of them in my purse, so I pulled one out and manufactured a string to attach to it.

The night was dark, with only a sliver of a new moon visible in the sky high over the academy’s rooftop. A brisk winter breeze blew, ruffling Aiden’s hair and blowing mine into my face as weboth shivered. The forest groaned like a living creature, as if it was hungry and way past its mealtime.

“Perfect,” Aiden said, taking the device and holding it so it dangled in front of Moonbeam’s face. Her eyes tracked the swinging pendulum for a moment before one paw darted out and grabbed it, her claws snagging the string. She sniffed at it delicately, twisting her head around to get every angle. “Are you going to taste it or what?” Aiden asked her, amused.

Her little pink tongue flicked out, and she chirped. Then she rolled onto her back in Aiden’s arms, holding the ball between both paws as she lapped at it, like a baby with a bottle.

“I think she likes it,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s good news. We can hide some around your room for her to find. Should keep her occupied. I wonder if Rhiannon knows how to make them so we can make more.”

Aiden glanced up at me, his eyes twinkling. “As if you haven’t analyzed them already so that you can reverse-engineer them!”

My jaw dropped. “Hey! I haven’t had time to do that yet! I’ve been a bit busy, helping Professor Akhtar with the whole ley lines vanishing mystery.” We entered the edge of the forest, and I cast a night-sight spell on my eyes, not wanting to trip over anything.

“I know, babe. If Rhiannon doesn’t know, why don’t you ask Professor Reynolds to go over it in class?”

“You don’t think he’d suspect that we’re up to something?” I bit my lip worriedly.

“Why would he? His favorite student asks him how to analyze a spell, one that she’d used in Care of Magical Creatures? I think he’d be happy to teach the class how to work backward from a physical object that had been spelled.”

“These devices are supposed to decompose, right?” I said. “Can we reinforce these so that they last a little longer and then we could reuse them?”

“‘Decompose’ means they’re probably plants. We can ask Hazel to make more,” Aiden said.

“Hazel for the ball itself, Professor Reynolds to teach us what the spell is,” I listed on my fingers. “And then we need to engineer some tricky animal games so she doesn’t eat them all at once.”

“But not too tricky,” Aiden cautioned. “We don’t want her to get bored and leave again.”

“I think we need to get all our friends in on this,” I said. “It’s going to be a lot of work. I don’t want her to overeat magic and grow too big. She’s hard enough to hide atthissize! What’s going to happen once she grows wings?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure that your grandfather would like to have a manducare on his property.”

When I frowned and opened my mouth to protest, Aiden shook his head.

“I don’t mean because she’s dangerous. I mean because she’ll eat all the spells on Doyle Manor.”

I chuckled. “Okay, yeah, that could be bad.” I ducked under a low hanging tree branch. “So how long do we have to wait in here before we can slip back into the castle?”

“I was thinking that we should go back to the scene of the crime and see if we missed any clues,” Aiden said. “Can you find your way?”

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