Pet Psychic Mysteries Boxset Books 5-8 (Magic Market Mysteries Book 2) by Erin Johnson (reading diary .TXT) 📗

I chuckled, but he continued to stare at me expectantly.

“Oh—you’re serious.”

“As a clam.” He flashed his eyes. “You can translate, right?”

Wiley stood nearby, with the odd monster pet, Cat, perched on his shoulders. Cat, pug eyes bulging, whipped his head from Iggy to Daisy, back and forth. Then he smiled, a sharp-toothed grin, and the strange flood of voices sounded in my head.

Daisy jerked her head up at Cat and whined, ears pinned back, tail tucked. What is that thing?! Why is it—

The dog froze, staring straight into Cat’s eyes as lights flashed across their depths. Stiff-legged, Daisy marched over to the pile of wood, picked up a small stick as drool poured from her mouth, and marched back, her eyes glazed as though hypnotized. We all watched, spellbound. She returned and held the stick out to Iggy.

Cat chittered and clapped its little raccoon hands together, then batted its eyes at Iggy.

“Oh, uh—” Iggy’s flames dimmed, and he crept to the back of the lantern. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”

The princess hauled the lantern up to her face and hissed, “Take the stick, Iggy.”

“I’m too creeped out to eat.”

The princess plastered on a smile and nodded at Cat but said between her teeth. “Yeah, but that was him being helpful. What if you offend him?”

Iggy moaned like he was going to be sick. He crawled forward and extended a fiery arm, grimacing at Cat. “Oh, Cat… you shouldn’t have.” His flames licked at the stick as he took it gingerly from Daisy. He made a show of gnawing on it. “Mm, yum.”

Cat clapped and chittered again.

Maple gushed over him. “Aw—Cat, that was so thoughtful.” She scratched his head, and the lights stopped flashing in his eyes as the whispers stopped.

The princess and her flame exchanged horrified looks, and Daisy blinked and shook.

She whined. I had the strangest dream…

I waved her over and whined. Not a dream, Days—maybe let’s not play with the creepy monster.

She flattened her ears and scampered over to hide behind Peter.

31

Inspiration

I bit my lip and tried to get us back on course. “Now that we’re curing the shifters and should have some witnesses against Ludolf…”

Carthamus Cook looked my way. “I for one will be happy to do anything I can to put that despicable man behind bars where he belongs.” He shook his head, a fire in his eyes. “The coward.”

The prince nodded at him, then at me. “We have a few others cured already—they’ve all vowed to make a case against Ludolf Caterwaul.”

I blew out a gust of air. “Good—that’s good.” My mind slid into lawyer mode. We’d have a strong case—many credible witnesses, plus the prince and princess themselves and the royal healers to testify that they’d all been shifters trapped in animal form. We finally had the proof we needed that directly tied Ludolf to some major crimes. Now we just needed the man himself.

I lifted a palm. “Ludolf could easily slip off the island and disappear—escaping justice forever.”

Carthamus, still sitting nearby on his stool, shook his head. “We can’t let him get away.” He held a steaming cup of tea, while one of the healers poured out several more cups from a silver teapot.

“Agreed.” I shrugged. “So how do we trap him?”

Maple looked up from scratching Cat’s head. “Could you find him down in the sewers and arrest him down there?”

Will and I exchanged doubtful looks. I shook my head. “Honestly, it’s a maze down there, and I don’t know it well.”

Peter cleared his throat. “Even if we did have a thorough understanding of the tunnel system, we’d need quite the police force to get through Ludolf’s guards, as I understand.” He shook his head. “It’d be a bloodbath.”

Maple whimpered, and her boyfriend, Wiley, squeezed her to his side. Their odd little pet leaned down from his shoulder and patted the blond’s head with his little raccoon hands. I shivered.

“Maybe we could trick him into coming out somehow?”

Will snorted. “Good luck, sister. What possible reason would we give to lure Ludolf out of there?”

Prince Harry nodded. “I imagine he’ll be on high alert after his failed attack on Sam and highly suspicious of any attempts to get him to leave his hideout.”

I nodded. “Yeah, good point. He sends his cronies to do just about everything for him anyway. I’m sure he’s going to be more inclined to do that than ever.”

“Ooh!” Heidi, the sloth still on her hip, grinned. “Jolene—he went to that party, remember, at the sanctuary? Would he come out for something like that?”

Will stroked his beard. “Maybe we could stage something that would tempt him.” He turned to the healer, who offered him a cup of steaming tea. “This has milk in it? And two lumps of sugar?”

She grinned. “Yes—your usual.”

Will nodded primly and took the tiny porcelain cup in his enormous paws of hands. I shot him a flat look. “They’re healers, not your personal waitstaff.”

Will looked down at me over the rim of his cup. “Who says they can’t be both?”

I shook my head at him but grinned.

“Ludolf might be more easily tempted to come out for a big event like that—but again, he’s going to be suspicious. And we’d need to plan some sort of party and include other corrupt cronies that Ludolf wants to rub elbows with. And the longer we wait and the more people we involve, the greater the chance that someone tells him what we’re up to and he bolts.”

“I like it, I like it.” The little flame bobbed his fiery head. “So we can’t nab him in the sewers, and we also can’t nab him out of the sewers. So many good options; let’s keep it going.”

The princess shot him a flat look, then smiled and thanked the smocked and gloved healer who handed her a cup of tea.

Prince Harry lifted a palm. “Horace said that he and Ludolf had crossed paths before—maybe he