"I'm here! I'm here!" He held me close, his breath, though so hot against my neck, sent cold shivers all the way to my toes.

"But for how long?"

"Forever?" he said.

"Nothing lasts forever," I laughed.

"Love does."

"You think so? Even after our sun explodes and is reduced to nothing more than stardust wafting in the void of space?"

"This is why I love you," he said. "Even with a pessimistic view like that, you persevere." He captured my mouth with his and kissed me so thoroughly, deeply, deliciously, that I forgot what we were talking about. I forgot that I even existed.

As I cried into Cal's fur, I alternated between telling him how much I missed him and asking him how he found me, but in response, Cal just purred like a jet engine. Vermeil tried to climb into my lap as well. Cal wasn't having it, and our reunion turned into World War III, which I shall henceforth dub 'The Brittlebane Wars.'

So what I'm saying is, my familiar and my favorite cat did not get along.

By "not get along," I mean someone would not make it out of here alive. And that someone was probably me! As if being locked up wasn't bad enough, now I was locked up in the middle of World War III or, as I shall now call it, "The Brittlebane Wars." They seemed jealous of any affection I showed one or the other, like siblings vying for a parent's attention.

I'd always wanted a sibling, but this was making me reconsider.

I needed to find out what happened when Vermeil tried to get the key to Blade's cell in the dungeon, but for now, I had to hug Cal just a little longer.

Vermeil, giving up on a frontal attack, climbed up my back, his little sharp claws digging into my flesh, and dropped straight onto Cal. Cal sprang to action, teeth bared, claws out, hissing like a teapot, then swiped at Vermeil, trying to dislodge him from my lap, and from this mortal coil as well.

Vermeil toppled onto the floor in a somersault, squealing. Then he chomped down on Cal's tail. Cal leaped from my lap, hair standing on end, and pounced, only missing Vermeil by a fraction of an inch.

Then they collided into a ball of fur. Hissing, scratching, squealing. I worked my arms between them. But my goal of separating them only ended up with me getting bitten and scratched.

"Ouch! Hey, stop that, you two!"

They stilled, their little eyes looking up at me in the firelight with what looked like remorse. I laid a hand on each of them, pressing down to keep them from going at it again.

"Sorry, Boss," Vermeil said.

"Why can't you two get along?"

"Because he's a cat, and cats are inherently stupid?" Vermeil said.

"Hiss." Swat went the cat.

"Ouch!" said the rat.

Cal licked his paw with a catlike smirk of satisfaction at Vermeil's suffering.

"Guys, cut it out! This is ridiculous. I need you both. Why do you insist on killing each other?"

Vermeil shrugged his little rat shoulders. "Evolution?"

I shook my head. Was I really talking about evolution with a rat? Sometimes life goes in the most bizarre directions. "Evolution?"

"Cats and rats are natural enemies, ergo, he wants to eat me. Could you be friends with someone who wanted to eat you?"

"Are you kidding? Everyone in this realm wants to eat me. If I excluded people who thought I'd make a good snack from my potential friend list, I'd have no friends."

Cal used the conversation as an opportunity to regain his throne, aka, my lap.

"Remove yourself, feline swine," Vermeil cried.

"I think you're mixing metaphors," I pointed out, as Vermeil charged.

"Hissss," Cal said, swatting Vermeil clear across the room where he tumbled into the bedpost. The bed shook as if appalled by the indignity.

"Squeak."

"Hiss."

Sigh.

"Enough!" I yelled, picking up Cal and carrying him to the bathroom. I would've locked away Vermeil, but I was almost certain he would've escaped through any tiny crack, plus I needed information from him about Blade. I closed the door, but Cal was not amused by his entrapment and made this known with an earsplitting complaint.

"Everything okay in there," Lubris called. "Sounds like a war."

No one could know I was harboring two stowaways. If the queen found out from the eyeball spies on her door, she'd turn my rat and cat into toads or goldfish or teapots. I couldn't risk someone else I cared about being used for the evil queen's dastardly plot. Although it would be nice to have a teapot.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm ... just ... um ... doing yoga."

"Heavens, yoga is violent."

"You have no idea," I said.

"Shhhh!" I hissed through the bathroom door. "It's only for a short while. Calm down!"

The tantrum ceased!

"Thanks," Vermeil said. "My little heart couldn't take much more."

"He wouldn't eat you."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure. Look, did you steal the key to Blade's cell?"

"I did. So easy. Like stealing a key from a ghost."

"You stole the key from a ghost?"

"Yeah. He had a hard time keeping a grip. Ectoplasm isn't the most adhesive material."

"Then where's the key?"

Vermeil rocked back and forth on his little feet, gazing down at them. "Lost it."

I forced myself to remain calm, but power buzzed in my fingertips. A voice inside my head screamed: Destroy the traitor! Cackle, cackle, cackle! Whoa! What was happening to me?! My heart palpitating like a bag of Jiffy Pop in the microwave, I gripped my hands into fists and silenced the voice. Barely.

"Uh, you okay, Boss?"

"Yeah," I lied. Couldn't have him thinking I almost blasted him into oblivion. Maybe I wasn't used to having a familiar, but this didn't seem a great way to start things off between us. "Can you elaborate on how you lost the key?"

"Sure. I had the key and thought to myself, why not just free Blade myself so the Boss doesn't have to worry about it? Because I wasn't sure where he was, I asked around for directions."

Oh no! A key-toting rat asking directions to Blade's cell could bring unwanted attention. Stay calm, Rowen. "From whom?" I said, so calmly, I impressed myself.

"Brothers. Sisters. Aunts. Uncles. A few distant cousins. We're all related."

"So you only spoke to rats?"

"Other than you, they're the only ones who speak Rat."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Good. Keep going."

"When I got to the cell, there he was, Blade. Practicing sword moves without a sword. I dropped the key and tried to use my years of working in an itinerant mime troupe to communicate with him, but to no avail. He said I was a 'rabbit' or 'rabid' or something like that. When I looked down, the key was gone. Maybe the ghost came back for it? I left the dungeon to give you an update, but next thing I knew, that monster was chasing me, and I had to run for my life. But even if I lost the key, I didn't get eaten. That's good, right?"

I was missing something important about this story. Was it linked somehow to Cal's miraculous arrival? But at this point, my eye sockets were throbbing, and my brain felt like garlic mashed potatoes. I couldn't think straight. If any useful thinking was going to happen, I'd need to sleep first. Something nudged my hand. "You still in there, Boss?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, it's just something niggling at the edges of my consciousness. But I'm not sure what it could be. I'm missing something in the source code."

"Source code?"

"Never mind, I need to sleep."

"Me too. I think I'll go check my cousin's new nest. Made from unicorn hair! Supposed to be very comfortable."

"See you in the morning," I said, as Vermeil scurried into the hole. I opened the bathroom door, and Cal wouldn't look at me. He rolled over, facing the tub. "I'm sorry, buddy," I said. "But no one can know I am harboring a cat from another realm. If you want to stay a cat and not be a teapot, you need to stay invisible."

No response. Of course, what did I expect? A talking cat?

"Fine," I said. "Be that way." I left Cal to sulk and went to the bedroom, where I blew out the candles and climbed between the sheets. Sleep took me into welcome oblivion as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Sometime during the night, I felt a warm, furry body nuzzling up against my back.

Four seconds later, the bed tossed me onto the floor.

Cal screeched but stayed firmly attached to the duvet. Claws are useful. Maybe I should get some!

Okay, maybe I was exaggerating about the four seconds. I'd slept so long and hard my face had become one with the pillow. So, it was "morning" or as morning as things ever get in a perennially moonlit kingdom. Bones aching, I managed to stand, cracked my back, and trudged to the bathroom to do bathroom things. Cal, his tail erect, raced ahead of me, nudged open a window that was cracked open, jumped, and landed soundlessly on the roof.

"Cal! Come back here. You don't know what's out there!"

But he ignored me once again and disappeared behind a turret. Ugh! Cats have way too much pride. No wonder they need nine lives with all the stupid things they do in the name of dignity.

Almost certain Cal wouldn't fall off the roof or be discovered by guards or meet a girl cat and take off into the haunted forest to start a life with her—get married, have kittens, etc., I splashed water on my face, brushed my teeth, and was getting emotionally prepared to drag a brush through my unruly curls when I noticed they were still perfect. At least something about magic had a positive result!

The door knocker clanged with an announcement of breakfast. What good would that do me when I was a prisoner? The heavenly, bacony, eggy smell managed to waft under the door making my stomach gurgle with hunger. "So, Lubris, how do I get my? You going to give me the new password?"

"Good try, my Almost Queen. I'll send it through the food slot."

"Uh, what food slot?"

"This one."

A metal hatch appeared at the bottom of the door. It opened, my tray slid through. Aha! I could fit through the opening! But before I could lower myself and crawl through, the hatch closed and the slot disappeared. Along with my chances of escape!

Being a prisoner really wasn't my thing.

I set the tray on my vanity, and Cal appeared at my side, like magic. So, no cat marriage, I guess. The call of breakfast was strong in this one. I set today's Daily Mirror aside and dug into my feast—poached eggs over asparagus, bacon, and toasted English muffins with a perfect Hollandaise, crunchy hash browns, and a bowl of berries — Cal set about twirling around my legs that universal feline plea for food. That's the good thing with cats: when you are a potential food source, all is forgiven.

"Do I smell Hollandaise?" Vermeil said, poking his head through the hole. I grabbed Cal before he could breakfast on my familiar.

"If you both promise to leave one another alone, I will share my food. Do we have a deal?"

"Yeah, Boss."

"Cal?" I said, frowning at him.

He sat as still as a statue, eyes focused on my tray.

"Excellent!"

I gave them equal bits of my breakfast and unfolded the Daily Mirror.

Today's headline read:

"Coronation Looms! Brittlebane Castle Prepares to Host Foreign Dignitaries"

Invitations to dignitaries from the realms have been sent via dragonmail, and the castle shall prepare by creating a new wing on the north side near the fire swamp. Avoid the area if you don't want to be turned into a swamp creature or, worse, trapped inside new walls as they manifest.

"Do I have to meet dignitaries?" I whined.

"Yes," the newspaper replied.

"Are they hot?"

"The dragons are."

Great! A newspaper that takes everything literally!

The words on the page blurred and shifted until a new headline manifested:

"This just in! Garden Witch Vera Vineman Latest in String of Disappearances!"

But that headline disappeared and now read:

"Queen Decrees Everything Fine"

"Must be nice to alter your press coverage by decree!" I grumped to the newspaper.

That headline also changed. New headline:

"Insolent Heir Continues Lessons While Under House Arrest"

Future heir, Rowen Grimshaw, having destroyed Her Majesty's Spa, has been relegated to the confines of her room for the protection of Brittlebane Castle and its residents. Be assured, this is a temporary situation and soon her magic will be under control. In the meantime, instructors will report to her room in the tower and continue her training to prepare for the coronation in three weeks' time.

Today's lesson is - Evil Queen Etiquette and Protocol/Public Image, Dressing for Intimidation, and Ballroom Dance.

"Nope. No way. I do not dance!" I said.

"Not yet," the newspaper replied.

"Not ever."

"We shall see," said the newspaper, and a cartoon of me being twirled on a dance floor by a horrible beast with extensive canines wearing a tuxedo, dropped into the space below the article.

At least The Daily Mirror had a sense of humor.

I'd just finished my potatoes when the door knocker clanged.

"Your first instructor has arrived," Lubris announced.

Yay, ballroom dancing and etiquette! I'd almost prefer yoga! I lured Cal into the bathroom with some leftover egg whites and locked him in. And speaking of being locked in, I had an idea!

"Pssst, Vermeil?" I whispered.

"Yes, Boss?"

"Do you think you could go into the entry hall without being detected and listen for the new password to my room?"

"Sure thing, Boss!"

"Come right back, though. I'll need you for lessons."

"I will return post haste. And I'll stay hidden just inside the hole in the wall. That'll be close enough for me to assist you in your magic."

"Perfect!" Having a rat as a familiar was great! Small spies were useful, easy to transport, and no problem feeding since they love garbage. Trying to care for a mermaid or a unicorn would take much more effort.

I could barely suppress a smile. Soon I would know the password, and I'd be able to escape! But when I opened the door, my smile faded, for there stood my least favorite fairy in all the realms. I assumed. I hadn't met any others, but they couldn't be worse. Right?

"Hello, Tyra. Kill any puppies lately?" I snapped.

"Not yet, but there's still time!" she said brightly.

Do you guys ever have the experience where your best friends don't like each other due to jealousy or the fact that one has better hair? Poor Ro. Will Cal and Vermeil learn to get along or will someone end up dead?

The next chapter is going to be very fun where we're going to go quickly through Ro's lessons in a montage. I was going to put it at the end of this chapter, but I wanted to give her training a little more attention and not rush through. It's going to be a blast, though!

Any guesses about upcoming twists? Suggestions? Thoughts? 

Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and voting!