Page 84 of Monster's Pet

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smudge of manducare on Grandfather’s tablet arrive at the center. “They’re here,” I muttered. Then I turned to Paige. “You need to change that spell. It’s supercharged already, all you have to do is drop the cage and let the lines loose. The manducare will take care of the rest.”

“Are you sure?” Professor Dunlop said, putting one hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sure. The manducare need the boost of energy from the ley lines to get through that barrier surrounding the giant. He’s had months to perfect it.”

“I have.” The giant grinned again, making me shudder. “There’s no way that little kitten will be able to absorb enough energy to breach it.”

A yowl echoed down the passageway, followed by a thrumming like a thousand drumbeats.

“Paige,now!” I shouted.

“Shields up, everyone!” Paige called, and suddenly the air was filled with crackling magic.

I could see sparks as the cage fell apart and the ley lines had nothing containing it.

I bit my lip nervously. What if it didn’t work?

An explosion of fur and feathers erupted from the mouth of the passage, an enormous manducare appearing. It unfurled its wings and leapt off the ledge, circling around the giant’s head.

“I think it can sense the barrier,” I said, awed.

Another manducare followed the first one, and another, and another, until I could barely see the roof of the cavern thanks to all the wings.

The passageway was still thundering, though, and I wondered what else had traveled with the manducare.

Some other type of magical creature, perhaps?

Instead, following behind the adults were handfuls of kittens, from barely fledglings to no bigger than Moonbeam. They lined up at the edge, their mouths open and snapping at the air.

“What are they doing?” Lilia asked.

“They’re eating,” Rhiannon replied. “Look at their throats working! They’re guzzling down the magic in the air.”

“And they’re growing,” Bruce observed.

Sure enough, the kittens were now nearing full size, their wings erupting from their shoulders as if they had just been tucked away for safety’s sake. They leapt after their adults, the air thick with them.

“I need to check on Moonbeam,” I said to Grandfather, once I had recovered from the unexpected display.

He nodded. “Be careful.”

“No kidding,” I muttered. I decided to stay close to the wall and use the wild power around me to build a staircase down to the ground. With a gradual slope, I only had to run a few feet to reach Aiden and Moonbeam.

“She’s not moving,” Aiden whispered to me, his cheeks streaked with tears. “Come on, baby. You can eat from me. Get some of your strength back.”

I crouched next to him and put one hand on her chest. A tiny electric shock jumped from my fingertips to her heart, trying to restart it.

Rhiannon joined me. “Her body needs to be healed first. It’s gone through a lot of trauma.”

I nodded. “I’m not sure how to do that.”

“Give me a moment,” Rhiannon said, sitting cross-legged on the ground. She closed her eyes and took deep, even breaths. “I’m going to need you to feed me some of the power around us. Just a little.”

“That, I can do.” I joined her on the dirt floor and focused on pulling a thin thread of power from the wild ley lines. My hair ruffled around my face from the maelstrom of wing-flapping going on behind me. I pulled it back and twisted it into a ponytail and then put my hand on Rhiannon’s knee, letting the power filter through my body into hers.

“Aiden, hold Moonbeam still. Let her suckle on your finger, if you’re all right with that. She can’t eat the raw power in the air right now,” Rhiannon said dreamily, almost as if she were in a trance. Her hands were moving fluidly through the air, weaving slowly back and forth like she was making an invisible blanket.

I cast the spell that let me see the inside of animals and watched the result of her weaving in Moonbeam’s muscles and bone. The bruises faded, the muscles rewove together, and the bones became whole again. It took a long time before the kitten twitched her tail and latched onto Aiden’s finger.

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