Gobbelino London & a Melee of Mages by Kim M. Watt

Author:Kim M. Watt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838326562
Publisher: Kim M. Watt

13

AN IMPROMPTU SLEEPOVER

Callum came back to the car clutching a packet of cigarettes, some nondescript tins of sardines, and a small bag of cat biscuits.

“Any custard?” I asked him as he got in.

“No,” he said, opening the cat biscuits.

“I promised her custard,” I said, nodding at the big she-cat. She narrowed her eyes in a manner that suggested she had thoughts regarding exactly how much my word was worth.

“There might be some at home,” he said, giving her an apologetic look. She didn’t respond, so he just set the bag of biscuits in the footwell. Tristan immediately jumped down and stuck his head in it, and Astrid checked her front paws as if she thought the car seat might have made them dirty. Which was fair enough, really.

“What now?” she asked. “How’re we getting everyone else out?”

“Speaking as a tactical expert,” Tristan started, a bit indistinctly around the biscuits, and Pru hissed at him. “What? I am!”

“Yeah, your help was invaluable,” I said.

“And what did you contribute? A useless snake?”

Green Snake lifted his head rather haughtily and glared at the ginger tom.

“He was pretty helpful, actually,” Callum said. “He was waiting for me when I got back tonight, and he showed me the shed.”

“Which I’m sure you’d never have found on your own,” I said. “You know, it being so small and un-obvious. That snake led me into the house and got me nabbed. So, you know. That’s how helpful he is.”

Green Snake turned his glare on me. I tried not to look at his fangs.

“So that’s what happened to you,” Callum said. “I thought the dog might’ve trapped you somewhere.” He scritched the top of my head, and I resisted the urge to arch into his hand in front of Pru.

“Why did you go into the house?”

“I was just trying to get them to grab the dog, and hopefully think it was barking at me and not realise you were out there. But that woman insisted I come inside while they calmed the dog down, and I figured it might give you time to escape. I didn’t recognise any of them from Headingley, so I thought it’d be okay.”

“The dog was less an issue than the snake, in the end,” I said, and Green Snake hissed.

“I thought your capture was all part of your plan,” Tristan said, crumbs in his whiskers. “Wasn’t that what you said?”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

“For half of us.”

I growled, and Pru said, “Back to what Astrid said – what’s the actual plan now?”

“Well.” Callum opened the new packet of cigarettes and plucked one out. “We can’t go straight back – they’ll be waiting for us. We’ll figure it out, though. I don’t suppose you saw any sign of the magician?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Just a bunch of pretty cut-rate necromancers. But he’s got to be involved. They don’t have enough power for what they’re doing.”

“We don’t actually know what they’re doing,” Astrid pointed out. “So far we have some charms and catching sacks, but not much else.

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