Молли Фитц - Dog-Eared Delinquent

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.