Page 88 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

I scanned the area to suss if we had any company and I didn’t pick up on anyone, so I dropped the cloak.

The air felt hot and dry against my skin, in my throat, and with each breath dehydrating my lungs—not to be melodramatic, but okay, melodrama seemed apropos in the situation.

I turned left, lifting my hand to shield my eyes like a visor, and then I turned to the right, doing the exact same thing. Nope. No clue where we were. I had no clue which way to start walking. I basically had no clue about anything. I hated feeling clueless. But Connor needed me and Shafira relied on me to getus moving, so I did a quick eeny, meeny, miny, moe and started walking with Shafira next to me.

When a weird creature crossed our path, a very marsupial-esque creature, I sort of started thinking I knew where we’d landed.

“I think we’re in Australia,” I said, breaking the everlasting silence we’d found for ourselves, given we didn’t have water and at least for me, my mouth had gone dry several miles ago.

“Australia is…interesting,” she replied.

“To say the least.”

I heard it, but I never said it. Who’d said it? I whipped my head around and out of nowhere, Mr. Pooches pranced over to sit in front of Shafira and me, blocking our path forward.

“Please tell me you’re seeing this,” I said to Shafira.

“The black cat blocking our way—yes. I see it, but I’m having a hard time believing it.”

“It took me time to find you,” said Mr. Pooches, causing me to blanch.

“Please tell me you heard that, too,” I begged.

“Oh, I heard it. Do you know this cat?”

“Yeah, this is Mr. Pooches. I told you about him visiting in my dream.”

“So, wait—you have a familiar? You never said you had a familiar. This is incredible. Not many witches are gifted companions.”

“Uh… he’s my pretty kitty. I found him wandering around outside my house looking for food. He’snota familiar.”

“I’m a talking cat who showed up to help you. You’ve officially lost this argument,” Mr. Pooches said.

And he was right. I’d officially lost this argument. But I’d always thought of them as myths. I bent down to give him scratches under his chin. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked him and he glared at me the way he always did. “You know I wasn’traised in the life. How would I have known? How did you find me? Who sent you to me?”

“Your grandmother time-jumped with me not long after she escaped with you and your brother, but your foster family called animal control when I kept coming around. I had to lie low until it was safe to join you. Then it took me a hot minute to locate you.”

“My grandmother sent you to me?”

Mr. Pooches nodded. I still felt like I was being pranked, but I went with it because what other choice did I have?

My new friend introduced herself. “I am Shafira.”

He smiled, eying her up and down, andew—not cool.

“Donotmack on my friend,” I demanded.

“I’m a cat. It’s not like I can act on anything. But she’s beautiful.”

Shafira’s cheeks pinked. “Thank you.”

I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Okay, people. Eyes on me. We need to find help because Connor needs us. There’s no saving the world without him.”

“Every party has a pooper,” he whined.

Really?

“Once I honed in on your location, I went scouting. We aren’t far from the Western Australian coven.” Mr. Pooches for the win!

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