AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now this was a big revelation, far too big for me to understand pre-coffee.
Merlin hopped up on the counter and studied my face. “In fact, it seems you’ve already collected some,” he said.
“What?” I croaked, lifting my fingers to my face.
My cat smirked. “Your eyes.”
“What about my eyes?”
“Stop panicking and go have a look.”
I marched toward the bathroom and flicked on the light. Instead of my usual dark brown, my eyes now appeared a deep forest green.
“Green!” I shouted, unable to believe the image that floated right before me. “Why are my eyes green?”
“Well, that’s easy,” Merlin said, appearing in the hall outside the bathroom. “Eyes are the window to the soul. Green is the color of magic. Now you are magic, thus your soul is tinted green.”
“You said I wasn’t magical,” I argued hopelessly. It was really hard to trust everything he said when so much of it seemed contradictory.
Merlin yawned and stretched out in a yoga-like pose. “You’re not magical. You are magic. It’s a su
btle distinction, but you’ll get it eventually,” he assured me.
Either Merlin had faith in me or was too stubborn to admit he’d been wrong in choosing me as his familiar. And at that precise moment in time, I really didn’t care to know which.
Ugh. Why was this my life?
16
I still hoped to speak with Merlin about Luna, but my magic bindings shut me down every single time I even thought about it too hard.
To avoid wasting time completely, I decided to ask him about something much safer—the open murder investigation.
“Merlin?” I asked as my second cuppa brewed. “Can you use your magic to find out who killed Harold?”
He thought about this for a moment as he shifted to follow the sunbeam that had slowly begun to migrate across the living room. “Possibly. But I would need to see his corpse to do so.”
I shuddered. “Let’s make breaking into the morgue our backup plan,” I suggested, wrapping my arms around my torso to hug myself.
“Suit yourself,” Merlin responded, then closed his eyes and purred. “If you do end up needing me, you know where to find me.”
Yes, I did. For right now, at least. His constant coming and going hadn’t bothered me much before. But now? Now every time we were apart presented another opportunity for one of us to be kidnapped.
Oh, if only I could warn him.
I knew he had just recently been made a full witch—something he said only happened when a cat officially took on a familiar. But still it seemed his casual attitude could be putting us both in danger. I, of course, was even newer to the whole magical powers thing, which meant he had no reason to listen to me if I asked for better protection.
And seeing as I couldn’t come right out and explain why I needed that protection, we were both stuck.
I sighed and added some milk to my new cup of coffee and stirred while I mentally sorted through what I already knew about my late boss’s death. It would be easier to focus on my magical problems if I got my more mundane ones out of the way.
Of course, I hadn’t ever conversed with Harold outside of work, and it was perfectly probable that some scandal in his personal life had led to his forced demise. Given my butt was on the line here, though, it made sense to at least consider the clues I’d picked up.
First, there was the fact that his long-lost daughter Kelley had recently reappeared in his life. And that Kelley’s mother had tried to prevent this reunion. Kelley was also present when Harold took his last breath, but she was too obviously distraught to even be considered a suspect.
Drake had been there, too. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen him since. Was it possible he hated our boss so much that he’d slipped him some poison?
I’d definitely have to look into that later.
