Chapter One Hundred One - Won is Now Once

I closed the jail cell door without a sound, I turned to lean against it and catch my breath.

Only I never made it that far. My lungs curled up at what I saw before me. Another long hallway with doors on either side with tiny square windows inside them.

And peering through the ones on my left and right were two faces I never thought I’d see again: Celeste from Speedy Zone and Aster from Anything Goes.

Their mouths dropped open when they saw me since I clearly shouldn’t be here. My mouth did too, and we just stared at each other, a trio of shocked witches.

Then Aster lifted her hand and pointed to her right, farther down the hallway.

Celeste nodded.

I had no idea what they were telling me and had even less of a reason to trust them, but I started my feet forward anyway. Either Studmuffin was really down here or something else was, just waiting to catch me.

I peered inside every cell, searching. There was Steve, the barista from Perpetual Pours, lying on his side on a cot, fast asleep. Chauffeur Ethen sat on the floor of another cell with his head bowed. Nadine did a double-take from her perch on her cot, and I did a little pageant wave to her as I passed by.

These were all people I’d helped put here. Definitely not some of my biggest fans. The farther I went, the fewer people I recognized. When I went even farther than that, all the cells stood empty.

No Studmuffin in sight yet.

The overhead lights flickered and buzzed. The tile floor rippled slightly under my feet. Either I was hallucinating or someone had put a spell on the last half of this hallway, probably to keep people from venturing this far. Since my brain felt fine other than the sleep deprivation and couple dozen sugar holes, I bet on the latter.

Dust rained down from the ceiling as the entire building shook. I kept on going. Then the floor completely dropped away into nothingness, all except for the one tile I stood on.

Cool spell, but I wasn’t turning back now.

“Open sesame.” I reached into the ether for my broom, positioned myself on it, and chomped down on the end. Then I was off like a rocket.

Swirling wind rushed through the hallway and pushed against me. All the lights blinked out. No worries though. I had the flashlight app on my phone.

The ceiling collapsed and fell into the black hole underneath me. Not a single ceiling piece touched me though. Other than the doors zipping past, it looked as though I were flying into a great big nothing, but it was all an illusion.

I knew this because in the very last jail cell sat something black and white on the cot. Something furry and much too handsome to ever be an illusion.

Grinning like a maniac who was about to be reunited with her familiar, I flipped upside down on my broom to slow myself. Then I did the hokey-pokey and turned myself around so I could peer inside his window.

When he saw me swinging like a pendulum outside, his yellow-green eyes widened.

Mine filled with tears. My key hand trembling, I reached for the lock.

“Studmuffin,” I shouted as the door swung open. “Hop up.”

He jumped down from his cot and strode into the doorway, flicking his gaze to the howling wind and black hole behind me. “You call this a rescue?”

“Yep. I learned dramatic entrances from the best. This is known.”

He sniffed. “So you did. It is quite known.”

His stern professor glare faded as my favorite kitty smile took over his entire face. He crouched low and wiggled his little bottom, preparing for takeoff.

“Wait! Your claws. Put them awa— Owww.”

He did not, in fact, put them away when he leaped onto my belly. His murder mittens punctured right through my coat, sweater, and my I’m Just Here to Establish An Alibi T-shirt. Oh well. I didn’t need that skin anyway, I guess.

“Joanie?” I asked him.

“Joanie,” he grumped with a very cross look on his furry face. “I thought she was Boxy at first, but then she put me in the ether and then this jail cell.”

“Well, she’s currently levitating back there with Travis.”

Studmuffin looked at me with wide eyes. “Summon her, pet. We’ll throw her in the jail cell.”

“No, I never—” I snapped my mouth shut tightly because he already knew my history with summoning spells and blowing up half a city block, nearly taking Sunray’s out with it. How else would we get her in jail cell though? Ask politely? I sure didn’t think so. If I’d learned anything these past several weeks, it was to try, no matter what.

“A witch is still a witch even if they don’t do successful magic,” Studmuffin told me.

Well, I couldn’t argue with that. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Good. I’ll help.” Studmuffin started up his motor. He purred so loudly that the spell bounced out of my throat.

“Summon the woman of whom I think. Do it now, quick as a wink.” I put extra emphasis on now, because last time, I’d read it from my grimoire as won.

Even though I said each word correctly, nothing happened. No explosions either, which was a huge plus.

Studmuffin and I stared at each other. Still, nothing happened.

Then, like a giant thunderclap, the door at the end of the hall crashed open. A shouting, levitating form burst through and rocketed toward us.

Summoning skills achieved! But apparently only while dangling upside down from my broom with the help of my purring familiar on my stomach. Good to know.

I moved out of the way as Joanie flung toward us through the air. But then she stopped so suddenly that she squeaked, hovering in midair. Just as I was about to shove her into the jail cell, I stopped. I had to be sure. I had to know, so I reached out and pinched her nose.

What happened next stained my whole world purple. The color exploded like buckets and buckets of paint everywhere. Carlitta and Carlotta had sure been right about that.

After I wiped my eyes, it wasn’t Joanie hovering in front of me. No, it was Travis. Joanie had used the Perfect Disguise Potion on him!

“Blargh.” Travis wiped his mouth of the purple, looking a little green. “She made me drink that potion and then ran when she figured out what was happening. It was so bad.”

Studmuffin and I locked gazes. He started up his turbo purr once more. I ground my teeth together.

“Summon the real woman of whom I think. Do it now, quick as a wink,” I said, my voice strong and super no-nonsense.

We waited. We waited some more. Then, once again, the door at the end of the hallway crashed open. Joanie flew through it kicking and screaming. When she made it to us, she screeched to a stop next to Travis midair. To be sure, I pinched her nose, and as I did, something turquoise and sparkling around her neck caught my eye. Next to her Coven of the Keeping Hand necklace rested my Duplicitous Dragonfly.

“If you steal from me,” I told her, unclasping my necklace from around her neck, “then I steal from you right back.”

Studmuffin glared at her, and with a loud hiss, he reached out his murder mitten and shoved her hovering form into the jail cell.

I closed and locked the door behind her, and then the three of us traded fist-paw bumps. “Teamwork makes the scream work,” I said with a smile.

“So it does,” Travis agreed. “Well done.”

Since magic didn’t work inside the cell, Joanie was no longer levitating. She turned and peered through the window, her face shocked. Studmuffin and I stared back. I wanted her to know exactly who’d put her in there. As soon as we were gone, I would tell Detective Palmer where she was…in a few days.

Just kidding.

“Are you going to put me down now or…?” Travis pointed to his hovering body.

I didn’t exactly know how, but I sure wasn’t going to tell him that.

“After we get out of this hallway,” I assured him.

Angling my broom toward the exit, I gently floated us back down the hall. I looked around to see if Travis followed, and sure enough, he drifted a few feet behind, as content as a floating vampire can be.

“Oh, this is nice.” Studmuffin folded himself into a kitty loaf on my chest and stared with wide yellow-green eyes at the doors we passed. His purr revved and filled that paw-shaped hole in my heart in the space between beats. “Let’s do this every day.”

“You mean a rescue?” I glanced his way and grinned, trying not to get too distracted and crash us into anything.

“I mean you taking me where I want to go.”

“Okay, Your Highness. Where would you like to go?”

“Home, pet.” He slow-blinked at me, and the smile curling his mouth grew bigger. “I want to go home.”