Harold’s chubby cheeks bounced as he hovered in the air before us. “All I wanted was to see you one last time,” he confessed. “To tell you I love you, and I’m sorry I wasn’t around.”
Kelley let out a little laugh and swiped at her freely flowing tears.“You didn’t know about me. Not until the end.”
I turned and saw Drake watching the scene unfold in awe. He and Kelley could both clearly see Harold, but no longer could they see Virginia. All this ghost business was terribly confusing. I doubted if I’d ever learn the exact rules that governed how they interacted with the world of the living.
“I should have spent more time with you once I did know, but I was scared I’d disappoint you. I thought we’d have more time.”
Kelley choked on another sob but was all smiles now.“Me, too. But maybe now that you’re back, we can—?”
Harold’s light dimmed, and she stopped short. “No. I can’t stay. I will watch out for you, but it will be from the other side.”
“Why won’t you stay here with me?” If Kelley had possessed a ghostly light, I expect it would have faded then, too.
“Because my business is completed.” Harold spoke matter-of-factly, but I could see how much it pained him to deny his daughter’s wishes. He had changed so much since just last night. Not only was he speaking full sentences, but he was remembering. Emoting. “You now know how much I love you and wish things could have been different. I’ve seen you again, and I’ve given Gracie my warning.”
“Um, speaking of that,” I interjected, raising one index finger to draw everyone’s attention. “Virginia’s bound now. She can’t hurt us. Thank you for the warning. It helped, I think.”
Harold raised his disconnected hands and steepled them in front of his face. His brow furrowed as he drifted toward the ceiling and looked down on both Kelley and me.“No, my message was not about her, but another. One who still lives,” he said at last, using the same strange voice as he had when first delivering this warning. “The seeds that were sown will soon bear dangerous fruits.”
Kelley gasped, but little could surprise me at the moment.
“Yeah, can you give me more specific details? Like who, what, when, why? Any of that would help.”
Harold dropped his hands and returned to my eye level. His blue had become pale and much more transparent than before.“I’ve already said more than I should. The dead aren’t supposed to interfere with the living. And also I don’t remember enough to say.”
He shifted his gaze back toward Kelley.“Stay well, my dear. I’ll see you on the other side one day. Not too soon, though, okay?”
Kelley stretched her fingers out and touched her father’s ghostly hand.
He bobbed for a moment before fading from view.
“That was so cool,” Drake said from his spot on the couch.
Kelley stumbled over to join him.“I can’t believe that was my dad.”
“He seems like a pretty decent guy,” Drake enthused. “I take back every bad thing I ever said about him.”
While those two kept each other company, I snuck into my bedroom and motioned for the cats to join me. Once we were all inside, I gently closed the door behind us.
“What do we do now?” I whispered to them in a sudden burst of desperation. “They both know about magic. Does that mean I’m going to prison?”
Merlin chuckled in delight.“The thing about that is…”
“We found a loophole,” Luna exclaimed with a rumbling purr.
I looked from one cat to the other. Both seemed pleased as punch.“What are you guys talking about? What loophole?”
“Well, technically Virginia is the one who revealed magic to them both. Not you,” Merlin shared with pride.
“And I only spoke to Drake after she’d shown the true nature of her powers,” Luna added. “Which means you won’t be punished.”
I was so relieved, I could almost feel the heavy emotional burden as it lifted from my shoulders.
“Neither of us will,” Luna said with a Cheshire grin.
I let out a slow, long exhale. Ah, it felt so good.“Awesome. Well done. But what do we do now?”
“Gracie, we have a plan,” Merlin promised, then motioned for me to lean closer so he could share all the details.
28
As it turned out, the cats really had thought of everything. While neither of them had ever possessed the magic to alter memories—that was an illusion witch specialty—Luna was able to successfully guide Merlin in brewing a powerful sleep potion.
They prepared it in gas form so it would be far easier to administer to our subjects. And once Drake and Kelley were out cold, Merlin teleported the lot of us back to Kelley’s new house.
Virginia’s old furniture hadn’t been cleared out yet, so we moved both of our sleeping beauties to the floral-print couch. I took extra care to position them snuggled together with Drake’s head in Kelley’s lap. Just in case that helped to get him thinking about her as a potential girlfriend.
Our primary hope, though, was that they’d wake up in the morning and believe everything that had occurred was nothing more than a crazy dream, one they’d somehow managed to create and move through concurrently.
I, of course, would deny any involvement in their ghostly adventures. While I hated gaslighting my friends, it really was for their protection—and sanity.
It would have been nice to have human friends with whom I could share my magical comings and goings, but it would be selfish of me to expose them to any long-term risks that came with knowing. Without any witches to claim and protect them, they would be on their own and, thus, in grave peril. At least that’s what the cats told me.
Anyway, Kelley and Drake both had enough to keep them busy with how popular the newly improved Harold’s House of Coffee had already proven to be.
The day after our great nocturnal adventures, Kelley was scheduled for another double shift with the new hires set to help during the morning rush and me and Drake to join her later in the morning. Yeah, she’d definitely have to expand the staff again soon, but I trusted her intuition when it came to knowing when to act.
And when I arrived to start work, I found Drake had already beaten me to it—something that had literally never happened before. I also found that he was holding hands with Kelley while she rang up a customer and one of the new staff members worked the espresso machine.
“Good morning!” I cried joyfully once they’d finished tending to the customer. “I got a great night’s sleep and am ready for whatever today throws at us.”
Okay, so maybe I was selling the ruse a little too hard, but they didn’t know that. I’d taken great care with my eye makeup that morning to ensure not even the faintest of dark circles graced my visage. And now I would be chipper and upbeat for the entirety of my shift, no matter how much I wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep it off.
Drake yawned openly, refusing to let go of Kelley’s hand. “What’s so good about it?”
I nodded toward Kelley.“It seems like something’s good. Or at least something’s different.”
They both blushed, and frankly, it was adorable.
Kelley motioned for me to come closer.
“We spent the night together last night. I don’t remember him coming over, but when I woke up, there he was.” She smiled as Drake pressed a kiss to her cheek. They’d really gone from zero to sixty in hardly any time at all.
“I don’t remember, either,” he said, “but that’s not so unusual. I forget stuff I should know all the time and know stuff I shouldn’t.”
Kelley dropped her voice to a husky whisper.“The weirdest part, though, is that we both had the craziest dream. The same dream!”
“Really?” I squeaked, doing my best to imitate surprise.
“You were there, too,” Drake pointed out as if he expected me to remember. “Did you by chance dream about ghosts and magic talking cats last night?”