Raven kicked herself—well, she tried; it wasn’t easy to kick yourself when traveling by broomstick. For their great spell the Diberi needed a hundred live cats, Effie’s consciousness and the blood of a pure maiden. Raven suddenly had a horrible idea of who the pure maiden was going to be. She pushed the broomstick harder, over the roof of the Old Rectory and the large park behind the Mrs. Joyful School. She landed and folded up her broomstick as quickly as she could and put it in her school bag.

She knocked on the door of the Bottle house. Both Marcel and Hazel Bottle were at home today. Marcel didn’t start his yoga teaching until the evening on a Monday and Hazel was working in her yurt at the bottom of the garden. Marcel opened the door.

“Raven,” he said, surprised. “Aren’t you meant to be at school, or university, or whatever it is you’re doing this week?”

“Is Lexy here?” said Raven.

“No,” said Marcel. “I thought she was with you. Aren’t you all sleeping over at the university tonight?”

“No,” said Raven. “We’re not. We heard that Lexy was ill. We haven’t seen her for days.”

“Well she hasn’t been quite herself lately, but she’s not ill. She was certainly well enough to go with JP this morning to—”

“Wait, you let her go with Jupiter Peacock? Are you mad?”

“Raven, I don’t think you should speak to me like—”

Buttons the kitten had realized that there was a witch in the house. Before anyone knew what was happening, he’d used his little claws to climb up Raven’s leg and torso and now sat on her shoulder, speaking urgently into her ear.

“Buttons!” said Marcel. “Get down! You can’t just climb up on anyone who—”

He moved to take the kitten from Raven’s shoulder, but she held up her hand to stop him. Marcel had never seen a witch and an animal in communication before. It was the strangest thing. He realized he was powerless to stop them. And he started to worry. Raven was usually so polite and placid. What on earth was going on?

“I see,” Raven was saying to Buttons in Kitten language. “No, that must have been dreadful. And they really didn’t notice?” She sighed. “Yes, he’s been very clever. It’ll all be okay now.”

“What’s going on?” said Marcel.

“I suppose you didn’t realize that Jupiter Peacock has been abusing Lexy the whole time he’s been in your house?” said Raven.

“What?!” All the color drained from Marcel’s face. “Lexy? JP? No. Oh my God.”

Hazel Bottle came in from the garden, looking pleased with herself. One of her inventions was actually going right for a change. All she needed was a nice strong cup of—

“What’s going on here?” she asked.