Okay.
Auntie Zee was the cat.
Was that really any more odd than any of the other magic she’d seen?
Yes. It is. A lot odder.“Auntie Zee?” Calisa said, squatting in front of the cat. “Is it really you? Um, meow once for yes, twice for no?”
The cat began to lick her paw.
“That’s her,” Thomas said. “She takes that form to recover her strength—it’s what enables her to heal and recharge—but she must have been too worn out to change back. She warned me once that could happen, if she overextended herself. One of the reasons I needed to find the remedy.” He knelt beside her and lifted the medicine to her face. “I found it, Zee. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring it to you earlier. But I found it.”
She lowered her paw and licked the medicine from the dropper.
Calisa leaned against Jack and whispered, “Did you know?”
“Not a clue,” Jack said, also in a whisper. His eyes were round, and his jaw dropped as they both gawked at his dad and the cat. “Though, in retrospect, I can’t remember ever seeing Portia and Auntie Zee in the same room together, but I thought that was just the cat being a cat.”
She could understand that.
“In my defense,” Jack said, “it is a far better disguise than Clark Kent as Superman.”
Also, agreed.
She stared at the cat, wondering if Portia was about to shape-shift into Auntie Zee like some bad CGI effect. She felt another laugh tickle at her lips. It was too absurd, too unbelievable. Just too much. Other realms, a pet dragon, a moving statue, a sea witch, and now this? “Where do her clothes go when she transforms?”
Jack’s eyes widened, and then he spun around quickly to stare at the bookshelves. The library ladder scooted closer, as if hoping he’d climb it. He pretended to study the book spines.
Calisa was about to ask another question when the cat’s fur rippled. It looked as if water were moving beneath her skin. The air around her shimmered, and suddenly it didn’t seem so funny anymore. This was happening. It wasn’t a joke or a trick; it was magic. And it was right here in front of her. She felt her heart thump faster, and she gulped oxygen as if there weren’t enough left. She clung to Jack’s arm as her knees wobbled again.
Rising, Thomas moved to beside the statue and took Evela’s motionless stone hand. He watched silently.
And the catunfolded.
It reminded Calisa of origami in reverse—white fur unfurled, flat as a cloak, and the cat’s face lengthened and paled and then stretched again. The cat’s body blurred, a column of fuzzy white, and then the white faded away.
A moment later, Auntie Zee was slumped across the window seat, crumpled within a paisley housedress with white buttons. Her white hair was awry, like untamed fur, and her eyes were closed, near buried within the folds of her wrinkles.
Kneeling, Thomas touched her hand. “Zee.”
She was breathing, shallowly, but Calisa could see her chest rise and fall. Unable to stop staring, Calisa elbowed Jack. “You can turn around.”
Jack turned. “Auntie Zee!”
Her eyelids flashed open. “Much too loud.”
“Sorry,” Jack whispered.
“How do you feel?” Thomas asked gently.
“Thomas. You’re home.” She reached up toward his face and then stopped an inch from his cheek. “Unless this is a dream.” She pinched the wiggly skin on her upper arm. “Not a dream.” She tried to push herself up to a more seated position, and her arms wobbled, her elbows caved, and she flopped backward.
Gently, Thomas helped her sit. He plumped pillows behindher.
The library ladder shifted back and forth as if it wanted to help. “Calm yourself,” she told it. It subsided, slightly vibrating. “Explain,” Auntie Zee ordered Thomas when she wascomfortable, with several pillows propping her up. “I lost you. Yet you’re here.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Thomas said. “It was an accident. Shortly after I arrived in the other realm, I suffered a fall—there are cliffs, and it was raining. I was knocked unconscious, in the cold rain. It took days for the villagers to nurse me back to health. By then, the portal had closed—”
“Yes, yes, but you found the remedy, and you made it back,” Auntie Zee interrupted. “How?”
