Armed and ready, I grasped the doorknob and turned.
Mrrowwl?
“Jasper,” I hissed, my legs quaking. “That was not nice!”
The damn cat walked away. My terrycloth-clad butt hit the tile floor. I leaned against the toilet and fanned my face. Jasper returned, dropped my cell phone between the doorway and my bare legs, and meowed again.
A text from Thatcher winked at me.
“Mom. Please feed Jasper. Shama said he eats anything.”
This was my life now. Defending myself with nothing more than a toilet plunger from hungry magical cats. I stumbled a bit coming to stand, towel dried my hair, and held the damp mess on top of my head with a thick elastic. I’d brush it out later.
Jasper was waiting by the front door, flicking his tail.
“Do you want to go out?” I asked. The feline was acting very doglike, and I wasn’t about to assume the creature didn’t understand what I was saying.
I opened the door. The cat stepped outside, stopped, and meowed again. He turned his head and glared. His next meow sounded more like a question than an order.
“Do you want me to come out with you?”
His body language said yes. My brain supplied, Idiot. I followed his fluffy butt and upraised tail down the steps, turning to round the corner, all along the side of the house to my garden area. Jasper walked to the base of the crabapple tree and pawed at the bark.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Do you need a lift?”
Wrong thing to say. Jasper crouched, leapt, landed on a branch above my head, and jumped down. When he lifted a front paw to his mouth and started to lick, I’d had enough.
“Jasper, what do you want?” I asked, plopping next to him.
Leaning my weight against the tree, I found the sky through the meshwork of branches and little globes of fruit. The annual Perseid meteor shower was due tonight or tomorrow.
“Tanner probably loves the Perseids,” I said to my feline companion, reaching to pet his fur.
A shift in the air pressure preceded a voice coming from behind me. “Who doesn’t love a good meteor shower? Or any other kind of sparkly— Whoops, hello, kitty!”
I screamed and dragged Jasper into my lap. He unsheathed sharp claws from all four of his paws and dug into my thighs. The terrycloth provided no barrier to a coon cat on the defensive.
“I’m sorry. So, so sorry,” the male voice coming out of nowhere continued. “This is not how I pictured our first meeting. Not. At. All.”
A figure swept around from my side and crouched in front of me. The entirety of his cloak arrived a split second after. He pushed a generous hood away from his pale face and bald head and smiled. Sort of. The shape he was making with his mouth could read as a grimace as easily as something smile-adjacent.
I patted the ground for the handle of the toilet plunger. Taking comfort in the thickness of the dowel, I almost copied Jasper and hissed when I spoke.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, unable to stop the question from blurting out of my mouth. My curiosity, stunned from the shock of the man’s arrival, shriveled and landed belly-up. I was done with being blindsided by Magicals and their predilection for dramatic arrivals and departures. “And what do you want?”
“I’m Alabastair,” he said, extending his arm. His skintight black shirt had a hole at the end of the sleeve for his thumb. Circling his thumb was a wide metal band, inscribed with markings. “Alabastair Nekrosine, and I will be your portal host this evening.” He rolled his eyes and made a self-deprecating face. “Well, tomorrow too, and any other time during the next three months until you’re ready to travel by yourself.”
Alabastair’s jocular tone prevented me spitting out more swears, but so help me, Goddess… In a flash, it dawned on me this was the “interesting” Portal Keeper Kaz and Wes had mentioned. My fingers thanked me for loosening my grip on the dowel.
“I must have texted the wrong number.” His facial features melted into contrite. “I am so sorry if this is a surprise.”
I took in a long breath through my nose and tried to pry Jasper’s claws from my leg. One of the front panels of my robe was shredded. “Is there a reason why you’ve shown up at my house, at night? In a cape?”
He nodded. “I always wear a cape when I’m on a job. Earlier today, I received an assignment to escort you to a portal located on the property of Meribah Flechette once it was dark.”
“I can tell right now that is a flat-out hell no, Alabastair.” Only a sick and twisted mind would think that my presence at my ex-mother-in-law’s estate was a positive. “Who sent you here in the first place?”
“I…” Alabastair looked confused. He patted the front of his shirt then consulted the smartwatch strapped over his sleeve. “Maritza Brodeur, the necromancer, and her brother, Malvyn. The sorcerer? Do you not know them? Professor Brodeur is overseeing my apprenticeship. Portal Resurrection and Maintenance is my subspecialty.” He leaned to one side then the other, appraising the tree behind me. “Correction: one of my subspecialties. The tree you’re sitting under was once a mini-hub. Four portals are accessible from this very spot, but they’ve been neglected, and a neglected portal is a—”
“Alabastair,” I said, holding up my palm. Thank Goddess not everything the necromancer was saying sounded completely out of left field. “Back up. I know this tree is special, but I am tired. I am wearing a bathrobe, my hair is wet, and this beast of a feline is cutting off circulation to my legs. Would you like to come inside? Maybe join me for a cup of tea, allow me to check your references?”
He shook his head. “Time is of the essence, Ms. Jones. The sooner you get dressed, the sooner we can go.”
I sighed. Lifted my eyes to the heavens and made a silent
