out from underneath the chair, her gut churning when she saw a white, fluffy tail twitching from underneath Felicity’s arms.
Fluff had some magical power that drained Pandora’s energy. She certainly didn’t want that to happen now. She needed her energy to get away, not to mention that she somehow had to get to the box on the desk and open the lid without anyone seeing—a task that seemed impossible given all the people who were pressed into the small room.
Maybe they should leave and try again another time? But with both Danforth and Felicity here, there might not be another time. Luckily, the humans were too busy arguing to pay attention to much else.
“You don’t need to see what’s in it. And Danforth, those papers still don’t prove a thing.” Striker stood in between everyone else and the box as if he was protecting it. Was he? Pandora wondered, because Striker seemed to be spending an awful lot of time in this police station when he had his own police station in the next county.
She remembered how Hester’s ghost had been pleading with him to protect the box. At the time, Pandora didn’t think he was taking the plea seriously. He seemed more concerned with making sure Willa didn’t notice that he was talking to spirits. Maybe he had given it more weight than Pandora had thought. Maybe he’d had another chat with Hester and was watching over the box, making sure it didn’t get into the wrong hands. But did Striker even know whose hands were the wrong ones?
Pandora wondered if she should back off and let Striker handle it, as Otis had suggested. No. She couldn’t trust that he would take it seriously enough.
The humans kept talking but Pandora ignored their noise and focused on the silver box. She had to get a peek in that box without being seen.
She signaled Inkspot and they inched their way closer. They darted from under the chair and slid underneath Gus' desk, keeping close to the back where they would be in the shadows.
Unfortunately, their movements caught the attention of Fluff. They watched in horror as his furry, white head stretched down from Felicity’s arms. He peered at them with his eerie, orange eyes.
“Hiss!” Fluff’s evil glare froze Pandora in her tracks.
“Meowl!” Inkspot lashed out at Fluff with his oversized paw.
“Merrrl!” Fluff scrambled out of Felicity’s arms, leaping under the desk. Pandora panicked. Fluff’s magic was strong. He could zap their energy in an instant and the whole mission would have been for nothing.
“I’ll occupy his attention, you look in the box!” Inkspot darted out from underneath Gus' desk. He leaped up onto her bookcase, running along the edge and spilling half a dozen books out onto the floor. Fluff followed him, spilling even more books. The humans all turned in that direction, taking their eyes away from the box on the corner of the desk.
Pandora took advantage of the pandemonium to sneak up on the edge of the desk. She crept over to the silver box and lifted the lid just enough to see inside.
Nestled in dark purple velvet was a glass vial. The silver stopper was shaped like the head of a newt, its body and tail wrapped around the thin glass which held a thick, silvery blue liquid that shimmered like moonlight. Celestrium lily extract.
“You!” Pandora jerked her head toward the sound of Gus' voice just in time to see Gus reaching for her. She pulled her paw back from the box. The lid snapped shut. She lurched away from Gus. Her back legs scrambled across the desk, spewing a stack of papers in the air. Gus stopped her pursuit of Pandora and grappled at the whirlwind of paper.
Pandora leaped onto the back of Gus' old, wooden chair with enough force to knock it over. On her way down with the chair, she locked eyes with Inkspot, who was busy trying to avoid Striker’s grasp. Pandora jerked her chin toward the hall in a signal to make their escape.
Striker stumbled forward and knocked over a table. Gus was still busy
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