In the last excerpt from Phoenix Inheritance, I left Charlie and Renee in trouble in the last teaser and now here comes a cat, doing what cats do. 🙂
The book is available at Amazon on the link above, at , and at iBooks. I also have a Goodreads giveaway running.
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“You okay?” she asked Charlie.
“Scared.” His teeth chattered. “I didn’t go higher. I’m sorry.”
“You went plenty high. Not your fault the tree didn’t cooperate.”
Her back set against the tree, she wondered how long before their perch gave way from
the weight of the snow collecting on its leaves. Seconds, minutes, hours? She really did need Captain Marvel right now. Damn.
She swatted around the flakes that had gathered on her face and eyelashes and tried to stare up into the storm. She caught a glimpse of her scarf, hanging from what was left of the tree branch. She glanced down at her wrist. It was still attached. It must have ripped apart.
“Ma, the kitty’s here,” Charlie said.
“What?”
“Look!” He pointed and she heard a meow above them.
I could kill you, cat, she thought.
The cat meowed again.
“He’s worried about me,” Charlie said.
The cat did sound scared. Join the club, furball.
“He says he could have gone to a warm spot, but he likes me. He says I need a cuddle.”
To her disbelieving eyes, the cat picked his way down the slope, through the branches, leaves and snow, and jumped onto Charlie’s chest.
Oh, great, she thought. Now I’m not just trapped out here in the storm with my son, now I have to deal with a stray cat on top of us. Wonder of wonders, the cat started purring and settled down against Charlie.
“I guess he does like you,” Renee said. “But be careful and don’t move around too much.”
“He’ll be calm. He likes me, likes me better than other people he knows.”
“He sure seems to like you.” The cat was distracting Charlie from their situation, so that was good, so long as it didn’t scratch or claw at them.
“Ma? We’re stuck, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, we’re stuck. For now. But I’m catching my breath and then we’ll try something else.”
“You’ll get us out. I know you will. Even if he says you can’t.”
“Who says I can’t?”
“Odin. The cat.”
Great. She was being doubted by a cat. Not just a cat, the cat who’d caused this problem in the first place. No, wait. Charlie was probably the one who was scared and doubting her and pretending it was the cat.