The coven battered against me as I entered the back hall, but I barely felt their desperate cries for answers. Sass stood at the bottom of the stares, his pure misery visible in the way his ears hung sideways, his whiskers drooping to the floor, head down, amber eyes full of tears.

I needed to go to his side, to pick him up and hug him. Cuddle him, maybe? Make him feel better.

Instead, I stepped around him, blocking out the cries ...