Julius looked down with a start. Ghost, who’d been dead asleep between them on the couch the last time he’d looked, was now sitting straight up with his paw on Julius’s thigh and his ears pressed flat back against his head.
“What’s it doing?” Justin asked.
“I don’t know,” Julius said, leaning down to look at the spirit on his level. “What is it, Ghost?”
The cat’s eyes narrowed at the Lassie-esque question, and Julius bit his tongue. He was about to try again with something less insulting when the spirit’s voice whispered in his head.
She’s coming home.
The rush of relief that followed those words was so intense, it was almost painful. “Really?” he cried, jumping off the couch.
The spirit blinked at him, which he assumed meant yes.You are to clean out her closet.
Julius’s soaring hopes skidded to a confused halt. “Her closet? Why?”
The spirit looked away, clearly insulted, and Julius scrambled to backtrack. “I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever she needs me to. Is there anything else?”
He certainly hoped there wasn’t, because Ghost was already losing interest, fading into the air like sunlight behind a cloud. A few seconds later, he was gone completely, leaving Julius staring at the now empty cushion beside his brother, who looked appalled.
“Did you just apologize to acat?” he cried. “Because that’s a new low, Julius. Even for you.”
Julius was too excited to be insulted. “Marci’s coming home!”
“I told you it’d work itself out,” Justin said, getting off the couch to follow Julius as he sprinted up the stairs to the second floor. “So where was she?”
“I don’t know yet,” Julius said as he threw open the door to Marci’s room. “But I have to clear out her closet.”
Justin stopped. “Seriously?”
“I wouldn’t make something like that up,” he said, smiling. “But if Ghost told me to do it, I’m guessing it’s important.” And right now, he’d gladly tear down the whole house and rebuild it from scratch if it would bring Marci home even a minute sooner. “Come give me a hand.”
Justin rolled his eyes so high it must have hurt, but eventually he came over, grudgingly helping Julius move the massive collection of clothes, notebooks, and various magical materials out of Marci’s closet to reveal the spellwork hidden underneath.
***
Thirty minutes later, Julius was starting to worry Ghost had played him for a fool.
He and Justin had cleaned Marci’s entire closet, uncovering the intricate circles of spellwork that, in hindsight, Julius should have been expecting from the beginning. But while the magical markings explained the mysterious cleaning spree, it didn’t explain why Marcistillwasn’t back, or why she had yet to answer her phone. Julius had actually given up calling by this point, settling for sitting on the porch like—as Justin repeatedly informed him—a dog waiting for its master. Fortunately, Julius had also given up being insulted. He just wanted Marci to come home so he could stop feeling this way.
“She’s not coming,” Justin said as they crossed the half-hour mark. “Face it. You got stood up via cat.”
Julius was opening his mouth to tell him to shut up when he saw a flash of light in the dark. “Really?” he said instead, breaking into a grin. “Then what’s that?”
Justin’s head snapped around just in time as the car pulled around the corner into their hidden drive. “You got her a pickup?”
“What are you talking about?” Julius said, jumping to his feet to go meet her.
Rather than answer, his brother just pointed at the approaching headlights, and Julius’s hopes began to crumple, because he was right. The car coming down the gravel road was not Marci’s sedan, but a beat up, rust-colored pickup truck that looked like it had been driven straight off a construction site. Likewise, the human sitting in the driver’s seat was most definitelynotMarci. It was an old man wearing a backwards cap, his bearded face blank and bored as he steered his truck toward the house.
“Ooooh,” Justin said, smirking. “I get it now.”
“Get what?” Julius said, his shoulders slumping even further when he spotted the lettering on the truck’s door. “That’s just one of the skyway maintenance contractors. They come in every—”
“Have you completely forgotten how to be a dragon?” Justin growled, cuffing him across the back of the head. “Use your nose, moron.”
Julius didn’t understand, but he did as he was told, sucking in the air through his nose until his breath hitched. Marci’s scent was there! It was faint and buried by smells of cement and oil and dirt, but now that he’d caught it, Julius realized hers was the only fresh human scent in the area. It was coming closer, too, moving with the truck as the vehicle creaked to a stop in front of the house.
It was moments like these when a lifetime spent looking over his shoulder really came in handy. Even though Julius wanted nothing more than to run down and grab her, hugging someone while they were in disguise totally defeated the purpose, and even in his excitement, Julius knew better. He did jump down to get her door, though, holding it open as the old man who smelled like Marci climbed down, did a double-take at Justin, and then hurried up the steps into the house.
