Chapter. 7

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I've finally awoken from the nightmare-hallucination-phantasmagoria—but it can't have been any of those things, because here I am in the King's bed.

The King's bed! I scamper away from him and nearly fall off the mattress, but he doesn't so much as snort.

The King's a heavy sleeper, I notice. A good thing in this situation, not in the case of any potential assassination attempts.

Whatever's happened really happened. I don't know just what this is, or why or how it’s come to pass. But the important thing is that I'm human again—clothes intact, thankfully—and I'm not officially fired. But I might be run out of town in disgrace if anyone finds me here. They'll claim I snuck in, attempting to seduce the King. How would they know that he couldn't be woken up for it if I tried?

I can barely feel relief for my current state, because now I have to get out of my current situation. I have to sneak out of the King's heavily guarded private chambers and back to the servants' quarters without anyone seeing me, and then I can celebrate. I can't wait to finally tell Dinah everything. It's only been a day, but that's longer than I've ever gone without speaking to her. And what a long, long day it's been. I'm never drinking whiskey again.

I wonder if there’s any birthday cake left.

My options are either the door or the window. The door will lead me out to the chambers, then out to the wing, then out to the main part of the castle, where it will be less suspicious for a maid to be wandering about. Unusual at this hour, perhaps, but maybe I couldn't sleep and decided to go for a walk, and wandered up further than intended. I could explain it away easily, and any noble who confronted me would undoubtedly be bored before I finished speaking.

But I'd still have to get past the guards who patrol the King's wing. It's a miracle I didn't run into them on my first night as a cat. For a brief, irrational moment I almost wish I were a cat again, small and silent, capable of sneaking past even the King's most trusted custodians. Then again, if I were a cat again, I wouldn't be able to open the door and sneak out at all.

What if I could switch back and forth at will? Wouldn't that be something?

As long as I can't, it's the window. Out onto the balcony, then across to—no. I must be deranged. Leaping across impossible distances may be nothing for a cat, but I'm a human again. I think. I hope. What if this is another nightmare? What if I'm a cat who thinks I'm a human? What if I've been a cat all along?

No time for that now. If I can just make it to the balcony of one of the sitting rooms, a library, anything, I can sneak out that door without raising too many questions. After all, even maids like to read.

All right. I can do this.

"I can do this," I whisper out loud to myself, as if that will help convince me.

It doesn't, but I have no other options. I open the door to the bedroom, closing it behind me as gently as possible, then move towards the double doors that open out to the King's private balcony. Only when I'm teetering on the edge do I realize that the only reason these giant windows aren't considered a threat to the King is that they're high up enough that no one would risk breaking in through them.

What else am I to do? I take a deep breath, try not to look down, and then—

And then I move as I've never moved before, at least as a human. Swift and light, crossing to the next balcony over as if taking a single step. If there was ever any doubt that I just spent the day as a cat, I can't deny it now.

This isn't the time to consider what that means. I can examine my new cat skills later; I need to use them now. I sneak across the balcony and cross to another, and then another, until I'm far enough away that I can enter through the window of an empty drawing room and hurry out the door without any scandal to accompany me. Still, once inside, I race down, down, down the stairs and back to my old room, which looks exactly as I left it. Oh, worn hemp bedding, how I missed you.

I collapse face down, too exhausted to change or wash my face or go talk to Dinah. I can do it all in the morning. I'll do everything I took for granted in the morning. Stand on two feet. Use my hands to grab things. Eat when I need to. I'll never be ungrateful again.

**

The sun rises, and I rise with it. I stretch out luxuriously, yawn, and immediately choke on my fur.

My...no. No. It can't be.

I'm a cat again.

I scream, and this time it's a human scream. What is going on? I scamper to the door, pawing desperately at the knob, but I can't get out. I can't call for help, not when someone will come in expecting a human and see a cat instead. I remember the tiny cat-sized stake.

"Lurina?"

I freeze. It's Dinah! What do I do? I'm sure she wouldn't turn me in for witchcraft, but who knows who else is on the other side of the door with her?

"Lurina, are you back? Where have you been? We were all so worried—"

The door opens. I hate to do it, but I bolt out before she sees me.