My imagination invokes a smoky snapshot of Morgan in bed, a woman’s figure on top of him. My blood heats.
Before I can think, I burst through the door.
My eyes connect with a pair of round golden ones, a few feet above. An animal with yellowish-orange-colored fur, a scarred face, and a split in its curly tail is tightroping across the curved shower rod. This gingersnappus is much larger than Snapdragon, as well as the newspaper cat. He’s gotten into his fair share of scraps.
“I call this one Forte,” Morgan reports weakly, “because he’s the exact same color as my cousin’s Kia Forte. And he’s the worst roommate I’ve ever had.”
I take another step toward it, and the king-size gingersnappus balloons into a massive orange shape that falls to the floor with a painfully loud racket.
“It’s a…”
Grand piano, lodged sideways in the tiny bathroom, wider than the doorframe. It’s chipped his pedestal sink.
I test the piano’s weight. “How do you move him? Why do you keep him in the bathroom?”
“Remember what I just said about him crushing me in bed?”
“Morgan, you’ve got to get this thing out of your house.”
He pretends not to have heard me. “Forte is…not right. He only eats salt. He really hates songs by Men Without Hats—the band, not just regular men in hats. I don’t yet know his feelings on regular men in regular hats. He’s destroyed my shower curtains. I love him with my whole heart, and as you can see, he reallyisa gingersnappus. Which means that, in the name of scientific discovery, you cannot be mad at me.”
“Who said I was mad?” I whip out a notebook and fish a pen from my hair. “Fascinating! What sort of noises does he make when he’s in cat form? Only salt, you say? Snapdragon won’t stop eating butter cookies, so I’d like to get one of those blue Royal Dansk tins over here and check if that’s a trait of gingersnappuses or if Snapdragon is merely a pig.” When Morgan doesn’t respond, I glance up at him. His mouth is turned down at the corners. “What?”
“My feelings are hurt, that’s what.”
Oh no. What have I unknowingly done to offend this time? “What did I do?”
He folds his arms over his chest. Sniffs, looking resolutely away from me. “If you’re not going to be upset with me, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“You make no sense at all, Morgan.” I stow my notes back in my pocket, annoyed. There’s still so much I want to learn about Forte! But I can’t very well pick up a piano and haul it across the street. “I’m going, then. Call me once you’ve stopped being like this.”
He mashes his face into his forearm, making “aghughh” noises. “I meant what I said, you know,” he says at length, muffled.
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. I’m leaving.”
And here comes the seasickness. Every time I think I’ve found my footing with him, he pitches the ship and there I go, flying. Why am I wasting my time with a person who makes me feel this way? I should be keeping my eyes peeled for a man who exudes Steady and Reliable. Someone whose footsteps are visible to me before he even takes them, who will behave as I anticipate and not tell me to leave his apartment for bewildering reasons.
“By the way,” I add, knowing this will kick him where it counts, “your socks don’t match.”
The last I see of Morgan, he’s staring down at his feet, murmuring, “Ohdear.”
Twenty-Five
While the leaves of peppermint are beneficial in healing work and amplifying psychic powers, beware this herb’s jealous tendencies. When not employed as the primary ingredient, it will sour the whole spell out of spite. DO NOT COMBINE WITH CATNIP.
Spells, Charms, and Rituals,
Tempest Family Grimoire
The animal slinksout of the brush where it’s built a den, and—not even putting down my binoculars lest I lose sight of it—I begin scribbling details in my notebook. I’m crouched about forty-five yards away, and this is the closest I’ve managed to get to the paranimal in two weeks. It’s been a stimulating study.
Tinnitan Fox
Solitary, keen hearing. Mundane disguise: presumably the red fox, as they share several features, and red foxes are common local animals.
Like a Tibetan fox, but its eyes are farther apart, close to its ears. Lots of long fur around the throat like a Shakespearean ruff. Will induce tinnitus in humans whospot them. Maybe to aid in faster getaway, as human will become distracted. Prey: unknown.
Sunlight glitters over its muzzle, and I nearly gasp but thankfully catch myself. It would surely hear me and dart away.Whitish iridescent scales cover its muzzle, I write.Some scales fleck the eyes and mouth. They blend into fur.Hopefully this is legible—I’m not looking at the paper. These days I’ve got perpetual circles imprinted around my eyes from cramming binoculars up to them all the time.
