Клеа Саймон - An Incantation Of Cats

More squawking, and Becca put the phone on the table.

“Hang on,” she said. “Okay, I’ve put you on speaker so I can look it up. Yup, this looks right.”

“What? Becca, what’s going on?” The voice of the other coven member was tinny but recognizable. “You have an aconite plant there? With your cats?”

“No.” Becca shook her head, although the other witch couldn’t see her. “I mean, I have a cutting, but it’s all wrapped up. I wanted to make sure it was from Gaia’s plant.”

“Wait, Gaia, who was having an affair with Frank? Asafetida Gaia? She has aconite, the real thing? Do the police know? Because aconite poisoning can look like a heart attack.”

“I gathered that already.” Becca’s voice dropped. “I also think it might be what made her so sick. I don’t know if you heard—she’s in the hospital.”

“She’s—” Ande caught herself. “Becca, this sounds bad. You don’t think it was some murder-suicide pact, do you?”

“I don’t think so.” Becca bit her lip, deep in thought. “Though someone told me that Gaia knew Frank had a heart condition. A ‘bad ticker.’ Only Gaia’s plant was stolen. That’s the one that I have a clipping from.”

“Wait, I’m missing something.” Ande’s confusion came through loud and clear. “Back up. You have a cutting, but you got it from a plant that was stolen?”

“Yeah, it’s a longish story, Ande. Gaia said Elizabeth Sherman, you know, Margaret Cross’s sister, took the plant from her after telling her how dangerous it was. But Elizabeth said she didn’t, even though I found it at Charm and Cherish, in the back room, and—”

“Hold on.” Clara could almost see the taller witch holding up a long, slim hand to stop Becca from going further. “You went into the back room? I thought the store was closed.”

“It is.” Becca lowered her eyes even as she worked to keep the embarrassment from her voice. “But, Ande, I had a tip. And, well, this is what I do now. I investigate.”

“You got a tip ?” Clara’s ears pricked up. The other witch sounded suitably disturbed. “Becca, why aren’t you taking this to the police? This is serious.”

The calico breathed a sigh of relief at this good common sense, but Becca was shaking her head. “I can’t, exactly,” she told her friend. “I mean, Tiger pointed out that it could make it look like I’m involved. You know?”

“Tiger?” Ande might not have been able to see the slight flush that crept over her cheeks, but she must have heard something in her tone. “I don’t think I’ve heard about any Tiger.”

“Oh, Tiger? He’s, uh, he’s Gaia’s ex. He’s been helping. Well, kind of…” There was no hiding the stammer now.

“Becca.” Ande cut her off. “I don’t need any special powers to know that something else is going on here.”

“It’s not…it’s not what it seems.” Becca rallied to complete the sentence. “They’re broken up, but he still cares about her. She told me that herself.”

“Uh-huh.” Ande’s voice dripped with skepticism. “And he’s telling you all of this and not her, why?”

“Because.” Becca was firm. “He doesn’t want to talk with her. He feels he needs to keep his distance and not, you know, give her false hope.”

“Well, then, that makes things easy for you.” Clara looked up as Becca drew a breath. “I didn’t mean like that, Becca. Though, if they really aren’t together, well, why not? But what I meant was kind of the opposite. I may be wrong, but it sounds like this guy is getting your head in a muddle.”

Clara looked at her person, but Becca didn’t respond and Ande kept talking.

“Okay, I don’t like any of this, but you want my advice, right? I say you should go to the cops. But if you’re not ready to do that, and you want to know more about this plant and the sisters Gaia used to work for, then why don’t you ask Gaia? She doesn’t have to know her ex-boyfriend was involved. Does she?”

Chapter 35

“I don’t like it. But I never liked any of this.” Laurel was grooming as Becca hurried to get dressed the next morning. Much to the sealpoint’s dismay, Tiger hadn’t called, and Becca had spent the evening online. Her one call in the morning had been to the hospital to ask about visiting hours. “I blame that girl, with her fake hair and all those piercings. That girl is a liar.”

“If someone wasn’t such a stickler for the rules…” Harriet fixed Clara with her yellow eyes. For once, Clara felt she couldn’t meet her gaze.

“I know,” the multicolored cat acknowledged, dipping her head. She had already let her fluffy oldest sister finish her breakfast, the uncertainty of the day having chipped away at the plump calico’s own appetite. “But we have to be extra careful,” she murmured to her sisters in her own defense. “ Becca suspects something, I know it.”

“Well, of course. Because you let yourself be seen by that Elizabeth woman.” Laurel wasn’t letting this drop. But Clara didn’t hear her. She was already shimmying through the door to follow Becca as her person hurried down to the street.

That didn’t mean the calico wasn’t mulling over what her sisters had said as her person set out at a brisk pace, her hat jammed down over her brown curls. Laurel’s claim that Clara herself was responsible for the cats almost being revealed struck particularly close to home, she thought as she trotted down the sidewalk, careful to stay shaded in the early morning sun. Clara still couldn’t forget how the store owner’s older sister had looked at her—had addressed her—although Clara had thought she was being so careful, and she replayed the scene again and again as Becca made her way swiftly through the morning commuters. Clara had to dart to keep up, but the questions kept resurfacing, distracting the little cat as she ran. Had she let something slip in her concern for Becca? Was Becca beginning to suspect that her three cats were more than ordinary house pets? If their person kept up with her research, she was sure to uncover more about the long interaction between the women of her line and the cats who loved them.

That history, Clara knew, was why the rules had been initiated. Centuries may be long to humans, but to cats, who pass along memories from generation to generation, they were only a swish of the tail. And Clara knew as well as her sisters that when humans had last found out that their cats had the powers to protect and serve them, well, that had ended badly for both the pets and their people. Those bad old days were why the cats had the rules that now governed Clara’s family.

But was it time for them to change? As Clara followed Becca back to the hospital, she thought about the coven that her person had joined so openly. Witchcraft was no longer forbidden, and while it seemed in some ways like magic had become devalued, it also appeared that any actual danger in practicing the old ways was past. Clara had always been so careful in how she observed the law, even taking on her sisters. Only now that she thought about it, about Elizabeth seeing her and how much easier it would make things for Becca if she could do the same, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Would it really be that awful if Becca knew what her feline family could do for her and how much the three of them really loved her?

That is, assuming they did.

“ I’m pretty sure Laurel and Harriet love Becca. They have to…” Clara barely voiced the thought. After all, Laurel had come to Becca’s aid. Or was that only because Clara had called her? And surely Harriet had grown fond of the curly-haired young woman who had proved so reliable with the treats. “Just because they complain…”