Beast had been through the entire room, all the nooks and crannies and hidden openings, including two I hadn’t known about. Beast tightened her muscles and leaped, landing on top of Leo’s desk, her nose against the desktop.
Ugly dog. Good nose,she thought. It sounded unenthusiastic, half-hearted.
Your dog-nose genes found something?
Beast kept ugly dog nose. Magic is hiding in desk. Space small as pocket.
She dropped off the table desk to the floor and padded to the door. She bumped it with her nose three times and stepped back. The door opened. Beast stared at Wrassler. Predator eyes.
Stop that,I demanded.
Wrassler likes to play,Beast thought back.
No,I thought at her.
Beast sniffed, turned, padded back to the table desk, and leaped on top. Wrassler followed, standing in the end of the short hallway. Beast tapped three times on the spot on the desk where she had smelled magic. Tapped again three times. When Wrassler said nothing, Beast chuffed, stared at the spot, and tapped again. It was cat talk forThere’s something here.
“Something’s there? Hidden in the desk? Or do you just want me to get down on my knee so you can pounce on me?”
Beast dropped elegantly to the floor and stuck her nose on the table lip, right where she had been tapping, and sniffed. Wrassler walked over and pressed his thigh against Beast to move her. He bent and stared at the damp nose print, running his hand over the desk, feeling for cracks, tapping on the top, the lip, the apron, and the underside for hollow sounds. When he stood, he was frowning and pulledhis cell phone. Bruiser answered. “Consort, please come to the queen’s office. Her cat has found something.”
Queen’s office?Oh. Right. Leo’s office would now be mine. Except... maybe not.
“On the way.”
Wrassler retreated to the doorway, and Beast continued sniffing on the floorboards, where she found two more hidden spaces. There was no magic scent there, but she was curious. She was always curious. She was a cat. Bruiser arrived. His butt looked amazing, and the black clothes made his dark beard and hair look even darker.He looks scrumptious.
Bruiser is best mate,Beast thought back.
“Jane?” Bruiser asked me.
Beast nodded.
“You found something?”
I/we tapped the desk in the correct spot again.
“Hidden inside?” he asked, his hands mimicking Wrassler’s hands as he searched it.
I/we nodded.
“It sounds hollow, Consort,” Wrassler said, “but I don’t feel any buttons, springs, levers, or anything else that might allow it to open.”
“Me neither. Jane. Does it smell like magic?”
Nod.
“Like Leo?”
Beast thought. And gave a small nod.
“So Leo hid something magical in here. How did you know to come look?”
Beast and I stared at Bruiser, our shoulders high, head lowered. A predator stare.
“Something happened.”
Nod.
