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He smirked. “Frey and Dahlia are quite pleased with my tail size, thank you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I mean your dog, however.”
I blinked and glanced at Angel, who sat calmly in front of me. “What about her?”
Before Fen could respond, Tuggy jumped up on the couch and padded over to Diego, rubbing her head affectionately against his. Fen took a step closer to her, his eyes hopeful, but the feline turned and hissed at him.
His shoulders drooped. Pity flitted through me. He always tried so hard to get those cats to like him.
Then Angel went up to Tuggy, who began grooming the canine’s head.
Fen threw his arms out. “What the hell?”
The room erupted with laughter.
“No, seriously, what the hell is that dog of yours?” he demanded. “She shows no fear of magic, and rushed to you when you had your meltdown instead of running away from the damage your magic caused. On top of that, I can’t get in eyesight of those miniature beasts because they get all moody. But they want to be friendly with your dog? I don’t think so.”
Aya calmed herself. “I can assure you, Fen, Angel is one-hundred percent dog.”
He gestured to the animals, who were now playing.
Aya turned her attention to me. “You know how we talked about the possibility of you using your magic passively?”
I nodded, not sure where she was going with this.
“I believe you weren’t only channeling that into others to heal. You’ve been slowly making Angel into a familiar, which means the girls don’t see her as a canine anymore.”
A… familiar?I didn’t quite know what that meant. I knew fictional stories, but I wasn’t sure which ones were accurate or not. And my past-self memories had heard of them, but never learned about them, it seemed.
“What does that mean?” Diego asked for me.
“Familiars are beings that magic has converted to assist a magic-wielder. The most common stories are of witches and their animal familiars. Those combos were the most common, though not the only ones. And familiar can, though rare, be non-animals, like people or fae.”
I tapped my chin. “What does it mean for me and Angel, though?”
“Animal familiars become more intelligent the longer they’re exposed to the magic within them. And they live as long as their magic masters.”
My eyes widened. “Angel will… live as long as I do?”
“If you complete the familiar conversion, yes.”
I was a Valkyrie now. That made me immortal. Angel could live as long as I did.I won’t ever have to say goodbye to her.
“Wait, is that what Buggy and Tuggy are?”
Aya smirked. “You’re the first to finally guess it correctly. They were ordinary cats until I made them my familiars.”
Tyr gave her a long look. “Really? You made it seem like they were something more than just familiars.”
Aya wagged a finger. “No, everyone assumed they were. I just never corrected you because it was more fun.”
She cocked her head when she glanced my way. “What’s wrong, Astrid?”
A thought had come to me. My memories knew Buggy and Tuggy’s real names, and something about Tuggy sparked the wheels in my head. I made a face suddenly. “Aw, Aya, I just realized the innuendo that is Tuggy’s name. How could you do that to her?”
The room filled with laughter. Aya winked. “Because it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.”
