Page 60 of Demon and the Raven

“Ghost, who lived behind us, and Dragon, who lived on the other side. Mrs. James and Mr. Diaz have been looking for them, but they can’t find them. And Mom said they should have kept them in the house, like we keep Doug, who gets to watch the squirrels from the kitchen window, but I still feel bad that they can’t find them.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“There are lots of cat posters at the vet. I saw them when we had to take Doug to get his shots. A lot of people can’t find their cats.”

Which was another tidbit of information. Dead bees. Missing cats. An eviscerated nymph and a murdered witch. A pattern was emerging, but I didn’t know what it meant.

When I looked back at Toby, his expression told me something had occurred to him even before he opened his mouth. “How come you never have to take Argos to the vet?”

What to say. “Argos would be mad if I tried to put him in a cat carrier.” Which was absolutely true.

“Sometimes Argos visits me at night, Uncle Xan. I think you should keep him home until everyone finds their cats.”

“I think that’s a really good idea,” I agreed, glancing over at the black cat sunning himself near us in the grass.

Once the shape of the crown was finished, I had Toby decorate it as JJ moved into my lap and went from dozing to sleeping.

“What’s up with this person? Why is JJ tired?”

“JJ was at a sleepover last night but had super bad nightmares. Mom had to go get ’em and bring ’em home at, like, two o’clock in the morning.”

“It’s not like JJ to have nightmares.”

“It was super dumb. They told me when they got home.”

“Tell me.”

Toby rolled his eyes. “JJ was at Timmy Reed’s house last night, and the house is by that part of the graveyard in the back, you know, the old part.”

“The old part,” I repeated because yes, I knew it well. I used to walk through it all the time on my rambling strolls all over Osprey when I was younger. “I do.”

“Well, JJ kept having a nightmare about being chased by animals like lions and wolves, and the last time they woke up, they said they looked out the window and there were two big toads out by where all the…what do you call them?”

“Crypts.”

“Yeah. JJ said there were humongous toads out there, and they thought they were gonna come by the window, and JJ didn’t want them looking in.”

“That actually sounds really scary,” I told Toby.

“Toads?” he asked, making a face. “Uncle Xan, toads aren’t scary.”

“They would be if they were huge.”

He shook his head like I was nuts. “JJ said they thought there were people in the graveyard, though, because they could see lights moving all around.”

“You know the cemetery tours have been going for a while now.”

“Yeah. They go until Halloween. I told JJ that when they got home, that they shouldn’t have been scared, but they didn’t care. They were just super happy to be back in their bed.”

“Well, JJ is only five.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s really small.”

After a moment, I said, “Sorry you won’t get to play with the drone.”

“That’s okay.” He shrugged. “Like I said, I’m saving up my allowance. I bet I’ll have one before Christmas.”

“I bet you do too.”