While she tried her best not to die.
“Yeah, well, probably best to hurry anyway.”
“You’re right. So let’s hear some other ideas.”
“The other ideas depend on something pretty weird.”
“Like what?”
He raised an eyebrow. But this one wasn’t incredulous. It was worried.
And it was right to be too.
Because the answer was this:
“On you still having that rusted-out old Chevy in your yard.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Cassie felt a little better once they were outside. The cool evening air helped. As did the need for vigilance. Because she had kind of thought the Jerks were no longer a concern, considering how fast they’d run and how far Seth said they had gone. And how powerful she knew she could be. But when they got to the edge of the woods, there it was. A little present from them, torn apart and shoved on a stake.
Like a warning.
“They know they can’t hurt us, so they’re being gross assholes instead,” Seth said, when he saw it. Though she could tell by his tone that it was a little more than that. So she stayed on guard, and he stayed on guard, and they got to his place in one piece.
Then it was just a matter of coating that dilapidated old car with flying potion.
Or so it seemed to her. But as she started in on it, Seth definitely had some concerns. “You know, there’s a hole in the floor on the driver’s side,” he said as he peered in through the grimy window. Though from what she could see, it really wasn’t that bad.
As long as she kept her feet on the pedals, she’d probably not even notice it.
The family of raccoons living in the back seat, however, would be a little harder to ignore. As would the roof that peeled up just a little bit when Seth tested it. And the door on the passenger side that didn’t completely close.
“You’re just gonna have to make sure your seatbelt is fastened,” she said as he shooed the critters away. But unfortunately the seatbeltdidn’t seem to be working either. It came away in her hands when she gave it an experimental tug, and then it just disintegrated into plasticky crumbles. She was forced to add, “Or make sure you hold on super tight.”
But Seth wasn’t listening.
He was too busy trying to wrestle a raccoon off his face. A big, pale-gray one, with a super-fat little butt, and a high-pitched chitter that sounded like words. That really,reallysounded like words. In fact, it sounded so much like words that for a moment she simply stood there, unable to believe her ears.
“Holy crap, I can understand what it’s saying,” she said, in a hushed whisper.
Because dear god, she could. It was telling Seth off, quite clearly.
Bad hoo man,it squeaked, as it grabbed tufts of his hair in its tiny fists, and used them like a ladder. It clambered over his head, until most of its butt was in his face. Then it settled there, like it had found a particularly nice perch. And whenever Seth tried to protest, it fought him off. It slapped him, with those tiny, weirdly human hands.
While she watched, with what felt like love hearts for eyes.
In fact she knew they were, because Seth did not seem impressed.
“Cassie, no. No. Not a raccoon. Or at least notthisraccoon,” he huffed out around a mouthful of fur. And just as she started to ask him what he meant, she remembered something from the guidebook.Witches gain a familiar when the familiar speaks to them.
Though she couldn’t quite credit it.
Or at least not until the raccoon chittered to her, while trying to squirm away from Seth’s big hands.My one, help me, it said. As in,You are my witch, and so you should do this for me. And it was the damnedest thing, because she found she actually wanted to. More than anything, she wanted to. “I don’t think I have a choice. I think he’s chosen me,” she said, wonderingly.
Much to Seth’s disgruntlement.
“But he’s trying to eat my face.”
