The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 1) by L. Jagi Lamplighter Page B

and are popular with flyers. Masters of rat familiars can find their way out of mazes. Owls grant gifts over the night, and toads give an affinity with the earth and elements, which is why they are popular with alchemists. Each familiar has a gift to give. May the gods smile upon each of you, so that you each find that your familiar’s gift complements your own.
    “This ceremony provides other benefits as well. I shall leave you to find them out for yourselves. Line up. When I call your name, take your familiar and walk through the ivory arch. When you reach the far side, you will be bonded.”
    With so many animals, Rachel was amazed that no dogs chased the rabbits and no cats chased the birds. Most were well-behaved, though someone’s ferret did chase someone else’s tiny fennel fox. Of course, familiars were much more intelligent than the mundane animals they resembled, which was what made it possible to incorporate them into the society of the Wise.
    Rachel stood in line with Siggy, the princess, Salome, and Valerie, who was snapping pictures of everything. Between the supernaturally beautiful princess, the famous boy, and the dragon, they were the center of a great deal of attention. The group of them all had their familiars now. Lucky was wrapped around Sigfried. Valerie was accompanied by Payback, who had a yellow bandana tied around her furry neck. A giant python slithered over Salome’s shoulders and around her arms, giving the boys something to pretend to stare at as they checked out its mistress.
    Princess Nastasia explained with a gracious air that—while she had considered the three traditional familiars, devils, dingoes, and roos—she had gone instead with the Tasmanian tiger, an animal extinct in the mundane world, but still very much alive in Magical Australia. The downside was, however, that because she did not know anyone else who had chosen a Tasmanian tigers as a familiar, she did not know what its associated gift might be. Rachel found the creature terribly interesting. It looked like a cross between a tiger and a wolf. It even had a marsupial pouch, one of only two animals, the princess explained, where even the male has a pouch.
    Rachel herself held her black and white cat very tightly, lest he squirm out of her arms and vanish into the underbrush. Mistletoe was a rangy cat with huge jowls, a battered ear, and scars from many a catfight. The other students looked calm and expectant. Rachel was not so sanguine. Mistletoe’s mother had been Moonbeam, the worthy companion of her beloved grandfather and a descendant of a long line of famous familiars. Many of Moonbeam’s children had gone on to be outstanding in their own right. Rachel’s father and her sisters and brother all had offspring of her grandfather’s cat.
    When it had been Rachel’s turn to pick, she had fallen in love with the little black and white kitten that was the feistiest of the litter. He showed such spirit and curiosity. He immediately won her heart. When the time came to test for supernatural aptitude, little Mistletoe failed all the tests. Grandfather declared him a sport, a throwback with no magical talent. He and her parents urged her to pick a different kitten, but Rachel would not abandon the little fellow. She was sure he would improve with time.
    Only, he had not.
    Three times in the last week she had dreamt a nightmare where, upon reaching the ivory arch, Mistletoe bolted, leaving her standing by herself, humiliated in front of her entire class—the children she was going to be living with every day for the next eight years. With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she wished she had accepted her father’s last-minute offer to buy her a different familiar.
    To take her mind off her fears, she glanced around, pausing briefly on each student’s face and filing it away in the well-ordered library that was her mind. The crowd was international. Rachel picked out American, Irish, French, Spanish, Egyptian,