Claws (9780545469678) by Rachel Mike; Grinti Grinti

you’re done cleaning,” he said.
    Emma pursed her lips. “Oh, yeah? What’re you going to be doing?”
    â€œSleeping,” Jack said. “And once I’m done sleeping, I’m going to teach you cat magic.”

CRAG FACT OF THE DAY:
    â€œCrags are usually blamed for the appearance of magic forests, but even crags don’t know why the forests suddenly spring up the way they do. Of course, some of them might know, and just aren’t telling.”
    CragWiki.org

    â€œW hy do you have to teach me in the forest?” Emma asked.
    They stood in Emma’s backyard. She craned her neck, trying to see past the trees. Even in the middle of the day the forest was dim, the trees and bushes pressed close together. She couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of her. Anything could be hiding out there. There didn’t seem to be any paths, either, no way of knowing which way to go. It wasn’t like the park her family visited when they went camping, which was tended by rangers and had signs everywhere to guide you. “Can’t you just teach me here? Or inside the trailer?”
    â€œI could. But I won’t. It wouldn’t be right.” Jack paced impatiently. “The forest is a place of magic, which might make this easier. The trailer park has crags in it, but it was still made by humans. Anyway, you’re a Pride-Heart, you shouldn’t be afraid of anything. Do you want to learn cat magic or not?”
    Somehow Emma didn’t think that Jack would care that she’d promised her parents she wouldn’t go into the forest.
I shouldn’t care, either. I’m a Pride-Heart now. I bet Cricket wasn’t ever afraid of going into the forest.
She took a deep breath and forced herself forward, following Jack. He crawled under the fence. She climbed over it and hesitated a moment in front of the first tree, reaching out and running her fingers over the bark. It felt like a normal tree, nothing magical about it. She pushed aside the branches and stepped past it.
    â€œThere, I’m in the forest,” Emma said, glancing behind her to check she was still in sight of the trailer. “Nothing to it, just a bunch of trees. Now will you teach me?”
    â€œWell, I suppose this is better than nothing,” Jack said. He jumped onto a nearby tree and clawed his way up to the first branch, seven or eight feet off the ground. Then he sat and looked down at her. “Lesson one. Cat magic isn’t a trick. It’s not just making people think you look different or making them love you. That’s faerie magic. Cats only care about real things, and we don’t care who loves us.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with faerie magic?” Emma asked. “At least no one ever calls them crags, even if they are. They’re beautiful and rich and they live in fancy apartments in New Downtown. I mean, I’ve never seen one or anything, but illustrations of them are always all over the newspapers and Helena’s magazines. If that’s a trick, I wouldn’t mind —”
    â€œNo.” Jack sniffed disdainfully. “Faeries can make some people see what they want. Don’t you ever wonder why there are no photos of them? They make themselves look beautiful, sound beautiful, smell beautiful. It’s magic, that’s why they can’t be photographed. So of course humans fall in love with them. That’s why they live in the city while all the other crags live here.”
    â€œDoes faerie magic just work on humans?” Emma asked.
    â€œOh, it works on other creatures, too, but not in the same way. Dwarves see them as humans with gold or silver hair and skin that glitters like precious stones. A harpy would just see a human, but wouldn’t think they were beautiful, because harpies don’t think anything is beautiful. And trolls, well, it’s hard to tell what they’re ever thinking. Look at it this way. You could use