By the time they reached the barrier, every hair on Abby's arms and neck stood on edge. The magick washed over her, scratching her worse than her itchiest lace dress. She scratched and Margo swatted her hand away.

"Don't," she said. "Scratching won't make it stop."

Frustrated, Abby threw her hand down and tried to ignore the itch. Her eyes wandered over the wall of black stone at least twenty feet high and the stone towers that sat nestled behind its protection. The castle was a huge, imposing structure of sharp edges. Twigs snapped in the distance. Abby whirled around toward the sound.

A cart ambled its way toward the castle's back entrance. It was similar to the one she'd rode it though it missed a canopied back. Instead, the bed was draped with a sheet. Whatever laid under it was lumpy. Two Aelurians in armor similar to Petrious and Eligan rode in the front. As the cart drove over the bumpy terrain, a furred hand fell through the cart's slatted sides. Abby yelped and stepped back. The cart pulled to a stop.

Margo grabbed her and pulled her down, hiding her behind some red bushes. She clamped a hand over Abby's mouth. After a few seconds, the guards returned to driving the cart and disappeared down the road. Margo sighed and released Abby.

"What was that?" Abby said. The hand, limp and lifeless, shot back into her mind.

Margo stood. "The cost," she said solemnly. She pursed her lips and said no more on the subject.

Was that what she'd meant when she'd said how frivolous it was to use magick for a party? Because the toll it extracted was someone's life. Shivers ran up and down Abby's spine. The king that sat on the throne, inside these walls was not a good king if he would sacrifice the life of his people for entertainment.

"Well," Margo said, stepping toward the barrier. She turned toward Lucy. He eyed her suspiciously. "Time to pledge your undying love to me."

For the first time in his life, cat or Aelurian, Lucy was struck speechless. He turned toward Sebbi and Abby, jabbing a finger into his ear. "What did Miss Treestump just say?" He pulled the finger out and searched the tip as if looking for a fleck of ear wax or some other rational reason that might explain Margo's words.

Margo thumped her foot against the ground. "Don't call me that. That was a mistake. I overcompensated with too much incidenia root. It made me," she looked at her feet. "Oddly shaped."

"You looked like a knobbly old stump," Lucy said.

"Or a lumpy, old cushion in need of a good fluff," Abby chimed in.

Margo scowled, her whiskers twitching. "I'm a practicing," she began through gritted teeth, hands clenched at her sides, "Wizardess. I'm allowed to make mistakes."

Lucy turned away from the stiff mouse-woman and back to his other companions. "So, did Miss Puffs demand I confess my undying love for her?"

Margo growled. "I—" 

Lucy turned away from the mouse-woman, ignoring her in perfect Lucy fashion, head held high, tail thumping in annoyance, ears laid flat against his skull. All signs a cat gave when you were the most boring thing to them on the planet. Abby had gotten that look twice from the cat himself. She grimaced. Those were dark days indeed.

"Miss Treestump thinks you love her," Sebbi said. "Poor thing's delusional. You don't love anything except your reflection."

Lucy snorted. "I love Abby, too."

Abby blushed at her former cat's straightforward confession. Even if it was familial love, this had been the first time anyone beside her father and Mimi had told her they loved her. Of course, Abby loved him too, Though she would never say so out loud in front of other people, cat people, or fairy-though-not-quite folks.

"That's not what I meant," Margo squeaked, her voice going higher than Abby had ever heard it before. Was Margo embarrassed?

Lucy snapped around and narrowed his eyes. "Then what did you mean, Miss Puffs?"

Margo sighed and started to explain, slowly. "I need you to bond—"

"Still sounds like she wants a love confession out of you," Sebbi interjected.

Margo gritted her teeth together and ignored the eldest of the brothers. "Argh, you ignorant hessren!" She growled. The stone pendant she wore around her neck started to glow. She exhaled slowly and forced herself to smile. The pendant returned to normal. "The barrier's made for those with Moonborn blood. Nobility. Sebbi and Lucy you have noble blood but," she pointed to herself and then Abby, "we don't. If we try to go through the barrier, it'll fry us."

Abby took a few steps to distance herself from the barrier. Margo had conveniently gone and left that little part out about them being fried to death. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Why didn't you say this back at the tavern?"

Margo seemed to shrink under Abby's gaze. "Miss Abby, your Naomi impression is nearly perfect," she said, taking a step back. Abby uncrossed her arms and tried imagining seeing herself from Margo's position. Arms crossed, eyebrows knitted together, lips pursed together, face like a carved potato. An aching pain ran through her as she realized how much like Mimi she must have looked just then. She wondered if, with enough practice, she would be able to lecture the ears off someone as Mimi had. But who would she even lecture? Crum? No, Crum was made for her ivory slippers.

A pang of guilt shot through her chest. Crum's frantic fists pounding the patio door. His petrified face. She'd left him. Please, she thought. Please let Crum be alive. I need him to be alive. 

Margo straightened herself back out as Abby lost the 'old Mimi magick' and continued to explain herself. "I didn't mention it because I didn't think it would be a big deal. It's just blood bonding."

"You didn't think something called blood bonding would be a big deal?" Lucy said. "Oh, Puffs." He shook his head.

Margo bounded over to him and swatted at his side. "Stop that."

Lucy grinned as he looked down at the poor pouting mouse-girl. "Or what? You'll turn me into a toad."

Cheeks puffed, she nodded furiously. "Just you wait."

Sebbi looked at the barrier and the cavalcade of carts that passed through the castle's main gate one after another. "So what even is blood-bonding?"

Margo's face lit up. "It's a magickal process where a person is taken under another person's protection. Their blood is promised to protect the other person." She turned toward Abby. "It's almost like a hemma wedding," she added.

Abby gulped. Marriage? No grown-ups were here looking grossly at her and Crum and yet marriage was still being brought up. She couldn't escape it no matter where she went.

"So what?" Lucy said, "I bond with you and Abby and somehow my blood protects both of you from turning into human crisps?"

Margo scrunched her face. "Sort of, though, since there's two of you with noble blood and two of us who don't--" her voice trailed off as she looked toward Sebbi.

He extended his claws. "I'm not bonding with you. I'm already more involved with you than I want to be."

Margo stuck out her tongue. "Then Abby. Bond with her and Lucy'll bond with me." She looked pleadingly at the brothers. Sebbi scratched the back of his head.

Lucy sighed and shrug. "We don't have a choice, do we?"

"Not really."

Abby stood there frozen, the word marriage echoing through her head. Margo strode up beside her. "Don't worry Abby, it doesn't require actual blood, just something representative of your bond."

Sebbi walked toward Abby and placed a hand on her head. She looked up at him and suppressed the urge to squirm and flee his touch. "Will her ribbon work?" he asked.

Margo grinned. "Yes."

"And what of us?" Lucy said. With lightning speed, Margo was foraging through her pockets. She pulled out her coin purse, three pieces of string, a gold bar, her necklace--which she placed gently in her other pocket--a second gold bar and a piece of cheesecloth. "This will work," she said removing the cloth. In her palm sat a small piece of cheese.

Lucy rolled his eyes. "Cheese. I should have known."

Margo grinned. "Not just any cheese, my favorite. Groat's milk from Kindlewood Farms."

Abby perked up. "Kindlewood? In Mirea?"

Margo nodded. "Yessir. For creatures so abysmal at magick, you hemma sure know your way around some curds and whey."

"So what do we do? Say some weird words?"

This suggestion seemed to anger Margo, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out another piece of cheese. "That's absurd," she said and then she looked at the cheese, a little bit of drool dribbling down her chin and plopped it into her mouth. Then, the world grew still.

Margo's eyes began to glow, her colors growing brighter and bleeding into one another. The air about them warmed and swirled, leaves dancing in time to a melody none of them could hear. The ground trembled. Within seconds, something happened. Abby felt as though a blanket had been draped over her shoulders, and then images flickered in front of her eyes. Black fur, gold eyes, wet, whispered words, Mimi, herself, blood dripping off her cheek. She had a snake wriggling in front of her, leaves being blown about by the wind. She was high up, and then she was low, twigs scratching at her belly. Then, the haze parted and she was back in front of the castle.

"What was that?"

"The bond," Margo said as her colored drained back to normal. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her stone necklace and grimaced. Abby could swear it looked a little less green. Margo returned it to her pocket and with a mischievous grin asked, "What did you see?"

Abby looked at Sebbi. "Me, Mimi, leaves, bugs."

Margo laughed. "Sebbi's memories. Sometimes that happens. He probably saw some of yours." Abby blushed that horrible shade of tomato red as she thought about what Sebbi could have seen.

He grimaced. "Sorry to disappoint, but I didn't see anything. I just felt weird, warm."

Margo nodded. "Yeah, that'll happen to. I saw a lot of you, Miss Abby. Lucy must love you lots."

Lucy, who'd stayed silent until then, finally perked up. "I do. She's my family," he said. He looked nervously at Margo.

She returned his gaze and shrugged. "What?"

"Margo," he began. "I saw things--"

The mouse woman laughed. "Probably lots of cheese," she said. The smile faded from her face. "Right?" There was a sudden edge to her voice and Abby couldn't figure out why it was there.

Lucy nodded. "Yeah. Puffs loves her cheese."

Ignoring Lucy's use of her banned nickname, Margo bounded over to the barrier. "Well, let's see if this worked."

She walked toward the barrier and as her body crossed over to the other side, she was engulfed in a golden light. The whiskers on her face fell off in little bits of light, and the golden shimmer to skin dulled. Once through, Margo smiled. "It works!" she called. Her fingers grazed her face where her whiskers had been and she frowned. "Your turn, your Highnesses!"

Lucy and Sebbi gave each other a glance before following Margo's lead and walking through the barrier. As they came in contact with the barrier, their fur peeled away from their body as if strips of cloth, turning to light and then falling to the ground. Their ears bend inward and melted into manes of black hair that trailed down thick, muscular backs. Their claws turned to hands and feet and their tails fell away, petals of light falling to the ground before disappearing.

Abby stood with her mouth agape. On the other side of the barrier were her cats, naked and pale and suddenly, very human.

Margo waved at Abby. "See? It worked!"

Abby did see. She saw too much. Naked! the girl's mind screamed. Turn away now, idiot girl! Make your legs work!

Amid her frozen panic, Abby found the idea of turning, of walking in the opposite direction, the most impossible thing to do. Oh, dung beetles! How had she managed before to walk, to run?

"Love," Lucy called. "Something the matter?"

Margo nudged him and pointed toward the tunic in his hands. "You're a little too naked for her now. Maybe it's time you both put on pants."

After a few moments of shuffling fabric, Margo yelled to Abby that it was clear. Trusting the maid, Abby looked up and saw three normal humans standing on the other side of the barrier. A less fairy version of Margo and Sebbi and Lucy. They stood on human legs, struggling to balance without their tails. Their teetering reminded Abby of a strong-willed newborn determined to take his first steps. Lucy stared at his newly human fingers, strands of white hair falling in front of his golden eyes. He was faring better than Sebbi at standing, managing to hold himself a little straighter. His shoulders were a little broader, his middle a tiny bit thicker.

Sebbi, on the other hand, was angered by how hard he was finding it standing without a tail. He glared at his legs as if doing so for long enough would steady him. Hair fell in front of his eyes but through the cascade of black, Abby could make out the glint of a very pretty set of golden brown eyes. A smattering of freckles decorated Sebbi's skin along his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. Abby chuckled. He had the blood of the moon running through his veins, and here he was carrying the stars on his face.

They both wore the clothes Margo had bought for them. Lucy in a white tunic, grey trousers, and the heavy navy tweed coat Sebbi had thrown into the cart. He looked regal, as if no matter what form he took, his royal blood still shone through. Sebbi wore a black tunic and black trousers, the outfit a little too big for his frame. He lacked the confidence of his brother and because of this, he looked a little wilder. It suited him.

"Come along, Miss Abby," Margo called, waving her arm at Abby. "Before the Wanesguard."

Abby shuddered at the mention of the guard. Would horned helms and black armor find her in these woods? Would she be met with the same red eyes and the end of a sword? Not wanting to find out if all Waneguard were like Petrious and Eligan, Abby took a breath, steeled herself for the worse to come and strode through the barrier. She felt the magick, it ran the length of her, poking and prodding, but it was over just as quick as it came and she was through, safe and sound, no charred flesh or crisped edges.

Lucy was the first to excitedly greet her. "Love? Can you believe it? Look," he held his hands out in front of her face. "If the rest of me is as handsome as my hands, I feel bad for everyone else."

Abby chuckled and then, she made her face go hard. She couldn't resist. "But what if your hands are the most handsome things about you? And the rest of you is," she paused here and enjoyed how Lucy's face fell with uncertainty, "As Margo says, 'ugly as moldy cheese?'"

Lucy frowned. "But that's not true, is it?" He grabbed Abby's shoulders and shook her with a gentle panic. "Is it?"

Abby laughed. "No," she said. "I'm kidding. I'm sure you're just as handsome as you think you are."

Lucy's features relaxed but then grew taut. "Hey," he said. "That last line wasn't very comforting." 

Abbernathy Fun Fact 8:  Lucy always rebuked Sebbi for treating Abby so poorly. He's a good cat. He also was the star of Abby's Doll Theater where he was Beven, the Great Cat Actor,  winner of three Peony awards for his work in "Love After Midnight."  His latest film was,"Samurai Disco,"  a swirling tale of dangerous of love and betrayal.