by Molly Fitz
The crowd roared with laughter but, despite their glee, I could tell my cat was hurting. Badly.
“Don’t listen to them,” I pleaded, pushing myself to my feet so I could go to him.
He flinched at my touch, then bounded out of reach. “Don’t,” Octo-Cat said sadly, refusing to look at me.
“Always with the dramatics,” Peter said, stalking in on all fours to join us inside the fishbowl. He waved one arm in a circle and the glass turned into a shiny opaque surface, cutting off both the sights and sounds from outside.
“We’re alone now,” Peter confirmed, sitting down on his haunches. His great tongue lolled from the side of his open maw in clear anticipation.
“It would be easier for me to talk to you if you were human,” I said, clenching my eyes shut tight as I turned away. A part of me still didn’t want to believe that any of this was happening.
“Have it your way,” Peter said coldly.
When I opened my eyes again, both he and Moss had returned to their human forms while Octo-Cat remained turned away and sulking in his corner.
“Now are you going to cooperate or what?” Moss asked, his green eyes taking in my every move.
“Or would you rather do this the hard way?” Peter asked. Apparently, we’d returned to their previous good cop, bad cop routine. But I wouldn’t be fooled this time. Moss had already admitted that neither of them was good, and thus it stood to reason that neither of them would help us out of the kindness of their hearts. They wanted something, and I just hoped it wouldn’t be too high a price to pay.
I bit down hard on my lip as I watched them watch me. And then I couldn’t take the studied silence any longer. A million questions weighed on the tip of my tongue, and I let the first few spill out into the open air. “What do you want from me? And if you’re not the good guys, then who are you? Are you going to let us go?”
Peter puckered his lips unattractively and made a condescending tutting noise. “So many questions when you won’t even answer our one simple request.”
“Cooperate,” Octo-Cat murmured from across the room. He had his forehead pressed to the wall as if that was the only way he could remain upright. I’d never seen him like this. Not even close. At this point, I knew I needed to do or say whatever it took to get us out of here, to get him help.
“Fine,” I answered, keeping my gaze on that poor forlorn tabby to remind myself why I was suddenly so willing to assist my enemy. “What do you need from me?”
“Money,” Peter said with a smirk. “Lots of it.”
I faltered at this. After all this hocus pocus nonsense, were they really only after my money? “I-I don’t have much at present, but if you’ll allow me to make monthly payments, I can—”
“Not from you,” Moss amended. “But rather by way of you.”
That’s when all the pieces began clicking into place. Finally, I could see the picture for what it was. “The robberies downtown,” I murmured, unsurprised that this gang would stoop so low but somewhat disappointed in myself for not figuring it out sooner.
Peter licked his chops even though he was still in human form. “The first several were easy, but the jewelry store has a magic-sensing alarm.”
“That’s why you couldn’t get in the other night,” I said. And that’s why we’d seen those dogs running back and forth through town during our stakeout. All of it, everything fit together so neatly, and Moss had just delivered the tidying bow.
“Hey, try not to judge us too harshly,” the cat shifter said with wide eyes. “It was invisible, so we didn’t know it was there until it was too late.”
Oh, I was judging them all right, just not for this reason. “How did you get into the other stores?” I asked, emboldened by the thrill of this new information.
“Glamor,” Moss said simply as if this one word answered every question. I thought I recalled reading about glamor in one of the fairy books I’d enjoyed as a kid, but that was back when I hadn’t known that magic could be real, that it could also be dangerous.
It explained so much now that I thought about it, though. How the dingy basement had transformed into our current surroundings, how Peter had tampered with my mind on more than one occasion. Was that how they changed into their animal forms as well?
I wanted to know more, but more than that, I just wanted to be free.
“I don’t see how I can help,” I said, raising my fingers to my mouth and chomping at the nails to offer myself some sort of small comfort.
“Well, that part’s easy,” Moss said, stretching from side to side. “We have the code for the human alarm, and you’re not magic so you won’t trigger the magical one.”
“Won’t they catch me on the security camera, though?” I wondered aloud.
Moss shook his head. “Not if you send in the cat.”
“I don’t want to steal,” I argued. Couldn’t they see that I was a good person? That, despite the fact that I may have once absorbed some magical resonance, I was nothing like either of them?
That was when Peter snapped at me, lunging closer. “Do you want to live?”
If Moss hadn’t caught his arm and pulled him back, I have no doubt he’d have attacked me.
“Just do it, Angela,” Octo-Cat mumbled into the wall. “It’s too late for me, but you can still save yourself.”
Oh. My heart broke for him all over again. He was right. I needed to stop dawdling. I could still save us both—and I would.
“When?” I asked, licking my lips.
A giant smile slithered across Moss’s freckled face. “Tonight.”
“And then you’ll let us go?” I asked, watching him closely for any sign that he might be lying.
“Yeah, you’re really of no use to us beyond this one thing,” Moss said with a quick, reassuring nod.
“But if we run into another magical alarm, we just may call on you again,” Peter added afterward.
I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted. “I don’t want to be at your beck and call.”
“Do you want everyone to know your crazy little secret?” Peter asked, cracking his knuckles so that I would look at his strong fists.
I bit my lip to keep from speaking. I had wanted to keep my ability a secret, but now it felt like the lesser of two evils. If the only thing Peter had over me was threatening to tell, then maybe I should just tell everyone myself.
“Fine,” I said through clenched teeth as I motioned toward Octo-Cat. “I’ll do it, but first he and I need some time alone.”
“So you can plan your escape? No way.” Peter transformed back into the dog and bared his teeth at me.
Moss put his hand on top of the pit bull’s head. “You go. I’ll stay and supervise.”
Peter continued to growl, and Moss smacked him upside the head. “They may not be magic, but they’re still cat people. It’s best I handle this. Now get.”
Peter whimpered as he shuffled away with his tail tucked between his legs. I would have laughed at the sight if I hadn’t still been so scared.
“I don’t get it,” I said to Moss, once the opaque glass closed again. “If you hate each other so much, then why do you work together?”
He sighed as if he didn’t like it much more than I did. “It’s part of the truce that the council enacted many years ago.”
“Who is this council you keep talking about?”
“The court that governs the magic world,” he answered, unbothered by all my questions now that I’d agreed to help carry out their robbery and Peter had left us on our own.
“The good guys?” I asked hopefully.
Moss nodded. “Yes, the good guys. Bad guys, too, though. In our world, they work together.”
I shook my head, unable to understand. “But that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe not to you, but if the magical world is to survive, we need perfect balance in all we do. The good with the bad. The light with the dark. The fact with the fiction.”
“The cat with the dog?�
� I asked, cracking a smile.
“Indeed,” Moss confirmed solemnly.
I thought this over, and it did seem to make sense, even though Moss and Peter’s world obviously worked differently from the one I knew. “Could you maybe give us a few moments to talk this out?”
We both watched Octo-Cat who still had his forehead pressed against the cold wood of the wall.
“He needs me,” I explained, keeping my eyes trained on my depressed feline companion the entire time. “And he also needs a pep talk if you want him to have any part of this.”
Moss situated himself in the other corner of the room, then looked to the side and mumbled over his shoulder, “Go ahead.”
I walked over to Octo-Cat and sat down beside him. “Rough day, huh?”
He let out one sarcastic laugh, then quickly fell silent again.
“They don’t know you, Octavius. Not like I do.” I begged him to understand, to not let them break him. He’d been through so much before—too much for this to be the thing that finally brought him down.
“They said I’m ordinary,” he choked out.
“They’re wrong,” I said firmly, stroking my hand across his fur.
“They can do such amazing things, things I never even dreamt of before,” he explained, still unwilling to meet my eyes.
“But you can do pretty amazing things yourself. And without any magic to push you over the top.”
Finally, he turned toward me so that his cheek rested against the wall. “Are you saying their magic is a cheat?”
“Yes,” I said with a huge smile. I loved when he helped to fill in the blanks for me. I could convince Octo-Cat of anything just so long as I appealed to his special brand of cat logic. I bobbed my head in continued agreement. “Definitely.”
He sniffed and cautioned a glance toward Moss. “If they’re cheating, then they have to be disqualified.”
“You’re right,” I said. I wasn’t sure what game we were talking about but figured it must be the competition for best cat in the room or something. “They should totally be disqualified.”
At last, a small smile played across his lips. “And if they’re disqualified, then I’m the winner by default.”
“The best cat in the entire world!” I said without missing a beat.
He stood and pushed himself away from the wall. “Okay, Angela. I’m on board.”
We locked eyes and smiled at each other—partners, friends, and now co-criminals, it seemed. “Let’s do this,” we said in unison.
Chapter Seventeen
We were held in the fishbowl for a couple more hours while everyone waited for peak criminal hours to approach. Nan must have been going crazy with worry. I could only hope we’d be back to her soon.
First, we just had to commit one teensy, little burglary, then Octo-Cat and I would be home free. Once Octo-Cat was feeling like himself again and ready to help, Peter walked us through what he expected of us, step by excruciating step.
Apparently, this plan had been in the works for quite some time. It made me wonder if Peter would have abducted us, had we not followed him downtown to begin with.
The burglary would go down like this…
I’d enter through the back door with the key they’d filched and had copied earlier that week. Next, I’d deactivate the alarm with the code they’d give me, then open the door for Octo-Cat who would slip in and begin knocking all the jewelry from the cases out onto the floor.
When he gave his signal, I would rush in wearing a crazy green bodysuit that covered everything, including my face, and Octo-Cat would stand guard while I shoved our bounty into the oversized purse the good folks at the lair had provided me with.
Once I returned to the street, one of them would use their glamor to hide me from view—apparently that was easier to do with me already wearing a walking green screen get-up—and we’d all run back toward our underground hiding spot. As soon as Moss and Peter confirmed that I’d completed the job to their satisfaction, they’d wipe our memories and release us back to our ordinary, everyday lives.
This, of course, was provided that everything went perfectly.
And also that Peter wouldn’t trick me into helping him again in the future. And, well, I trusted him just about as far as I could throw him.
Oh, how I hated everything about this night.
Mr. Gable, the old man who owned the jewelry store, had always been kind to me whenever I’d passed him on the street. He’d even helped to pick out the heart-shaped locket my parents had purchased as a gift for my eighteenth birthday. Whether or not he had the right kind of insurance to deal with getting robbed blind, he still didn’t deserve for this to happen.
No one did.
Now, obviously, Mr. Gable had to be magical, too. Otherwise he wouldn’t have known to add a magic-seeking alarm to his store’s security system. And that made me wonder… could he transform into an animal, too? Use glamor to hide both thoughts and things?
The old shopkeeper had been a part of this town for as long as I could remember, and it unnerved me to think that magic had always been so close by without me ever even suspecting it. So, was he one of the good guys or the bad guys? And did it even matter which side he ascribed to if the two opposing teams always worked together anyway?
I felt so lost in this strange, new world.
I really just wanted to get back to my normal life as soon as possible.
By the time, Moss returned to let us out of the fishbowl, I was ready to do whatever they said if it meant freeing ourselves faster. Octo-Cat was in a better mood now and actually seemed a bit excited about the mission that we’d been forced into carrying out.
“I’ve always suspected they call it cat burglary for a reason,” he quipped as Moss joined up with Peter, and together they escorted us toward the jewelry shop.
I wanted to run but knew it would be useless. We didn’t have a level playing field here, and the only way I could emerge safely from this situation was to do exactly as I had been told.
“Are you ready?” Moss asked, tightening his hold on my arm as we peered around the corner. “You understand the plan?”
Peter gripped my other arm just as tightly. I would definitely have bruises the next morning, provided it ever came. “If you try any funny stuff, we’ll know. And I promise that I will personally make your life a living hell after that.”
I nodded glumly. “Understood.” I did not doubt the sincerity of that particular statement. Peter had been gunning for me ever since that first awkward morning in the office. Probably even before then, too.
“The cat stays with us until you’ve deactivated the normie alarm,” Moss said. “Got it?”
Octo-Cat struggled underneath Moss’s arm but had no words of encouragement to offer me as I readied myself for action.
“Yes, I’ve got it,” I said with an angry stare.
Finally, both Moss and Peter let me go and shoved me down the alley.
The little metal key burned in my palm, the only witness to my sad fall from grace. These people had hurt me and my cat. They’d hurt others, and still they weren’t finished. They’d probably never be finished.
Was it really worth continuing that chain of destruction and greed?
And what if I did everything they said but they kept us prisoner, anyway?
Anything was possible, I supposed. Nothing was guaranteed in life, especially when working hand-in-hand with such unsavory characters. Still, I had to at least try to get myself home in one piece. After all, it wasn’t just me they held captive. Octo-Cat was firmly in their clutches as well, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to take four more lifetimes of being told he was nothing special.
I’d reached the door now. This was really happening, and it was happening now. The key slipped seamlessly into the lock, and I sucked in a deep breath as I twisted the knob open. Inside the doorway, the alarm sounded with a warning chirp. I had ten seconds to punch in the correct code, just as Peter had instructed.
I closed my eyes and saw the numbers appear before me. Feeling my way around the pad, I found the first number and pressed it inward.
With another deep breath, I punched the second digit. I opened my eyes again. I could do this. I was doing this. Doing something bad didn’t make me a bad person, not when I’d been threatened and tricked into helping commit this crime.
I was halfway through my first task. Just two more buttons and only a handful of seconds left.
By the time I pressed the third button, my hairline had moistened with sweat. My breathing slowed not because I was calm, but because every single inhalation became more and more difficult to take. My head spun and vision blurred as I regarded the keypad before me.
Only one more digit, then this—or at least this part—would be over.
I raised my index finger, trying not to focus on the way it shook as I moved it toward the array of buttons.
I closed my eyes and pressed it down hard…
On the panic button.
An ear-piercing siren sounded overhead, but I made no effort to get away. Let them find me here.
A voice sounded over the speakers, but I was too clammed up to say anything. I only hoped that Moss and Peter hadn’t punished Octo-Cat for my insubordination, that he still believed in himself enough to fight back.
It only took minutes for a battle-ready Officer Bouchard to arrive on the scene. When he saw me waiting with my hands held in the sky, he took a step back in surprise. “Angie. What are you doing here? Did you see who broke in?”
I nodded stoically. “Yes, me.”
“You?” He stopped to scratch his head and wrinkled his nose. “That’s not possible.”
“I willfully entered with this key.” I tossed the illegal copy his way.
He pulled it closer with his foot but didn’t bend down to pick it up. “Then why did you hit the panic alarm?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I sobbed. “They threatened me and my cat.”
“I figured it was something like that,” Officer Bouchard said, worry lining his brow. “Put your hands down. I’m not going to arrest you.”
