Page 100 of Cats Never Fly

“Sorry,Mama.”

Shenodded and returned her attention toIsaac, butIexpected she’d corner me about my bad language before the end of the night.Thetips of my ears were already stinging whereIknew she’d pinch them.

“Andwhat aboutNelson?Anyword from him yet?”Ogdenasked.

Hemight not have known the unicorn for long, but my mate foundMorgan’scontinued absence a heavy burden.IfGagehadn’t agreed withNelsonthatOgdenwould slow him down, my dragon would have joined the search efforts.Itwas killing him to be sidelined.

“No.”Gagefrowned. “He’sstill following leads, but this might take some time.”

“Iunderstand.”Ogdenpinched his lips together. “Letme know whenIcan help.”Notif, butwhen.Ididn’t wantOgdenanywhere near the trafficking investigation because what if we hadn’t stopped it all?Whatif getting involved put another target on his back?ButifOgdenneeded to do this,Iwould be at his side, even ifIwas quivering.

Afew minutes later,JakeandAlicecame over, balancing two full trays of drinks.

“Here’sa round for the heroes of the day,” he said as he gave everyone their drink. “Onthe house.”

Thefreaky catPawsjumped into the middle of the table and poked his nose into everyone’s glass to sniff at them.Whenhe realized none of them were for him, he sat down and scowled atJake.Histail swished back and forth.

“Hey, where is mine?”Pawsdemanded.

Jakeignored him as he set my drink in front of me.

Myhand curled around the pocket with the whistle.IsupposedIshould return it toJake, butIstill couldn’t part with it.It’dbroughtOgdeninto my life, andIcouldn’t imagine my life without him now.Iowed everything to those three mangy wolves who’d dropped the whistle on the ground all those months ago.

Ogdenturned to smile at me, as if guessing my thoughts.Andthen he was allIcould see.Itwas as if the entire pub full of people disappeared and it was only the two of us.

“Ilove you, my kitty cat,” he said.

“Ilove you too,Ogden.”

Whenwe kissed,Ididn’t even care about how my brothers were whistling or how my mama was ah-ing or how the whole pub seemed to have stopped what they were doing to watch us.Iwas with my dragon and from here on out,Iwas going to live my eight remaining lives to their fullest.

Epilogue

SIMON

WhenI’ddecided to live my remaining eight lives to their fullest,I’dnever meant for this to happen.Notthat my eight lives meant anything anymore, since apparently whenOgdenandIhad been bound by theEternalMagic, our life spans had merged somehow.Theidea still seemed fantastical, no matter how many people told me otherwise.Andwhat if they were wrong?BecauseIwas sureIfelt the difference whenIlost my one life, even if everyone did their best to convince meIwas mistaken.Theysaid between worrying aboutOgdenand being so badly injured, it’d just felt likeI’dlost one of my nine.

Iwasn’t convinced.

Butit didn’t matter.Aftera lifetime of preserving my lives,Iwasn’t about to become a daredevil overnight just to find out if all those people were telling me the truth.Sohow hadIended up here?

Istared at my beautiful mate.Hisshifted form wasgorgeous.Hislong, lean body shimmered under the fading sunlight.Hissmall but powerful black wings twitched on his back.Thetip of his tail had curled toward me, to nudge me closer to him.

“Comeon,Simonlove,”Ogdencoaxed.Iloved the way his long, forked tongue moved when he said my name, butIdidn’t love what he was trying to talk me into.

“Idon’t know…”Iglanced over my shoulder toward the tree line, which was hard to do with the helmet on my head.IfIshifted and ran,Icould put this off for another night, maybe longer.

“Iwon’t let anything happen to you.YouknowIwon’t.”

Imean,Idid trust him.

He’dbeen horrified to learn about my jump off his rooftop garden the night of the attack.Sincethen, he’d woken up sweaty and panting from nightmares about it on several nights.Theonly thing that calmed him was assuring himIwas still alive and at his side.SoIknew he’d never put me at risk.

Except…

“Whatif someone sees?—”

“Simon,”Ogdeninterrupted me.Hisvibrant blue eyes stared at me untilImet his gaze.