=::= Tally's PoV =::=

The house was crowded again, but I'd pretty much gotten over my anxiety about that sort of thing. I'd been a foxgirl for two and a half months, and a witch for almost as long. Plus it helped that I already knew everyone here, and they were all witches too.

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in the middle of August, and the Watson family was having a big get-together. My girlfriend's mom said we were having some special guests over for dinner, but so far she hadn't said who they were.

In addition to whoever the mystery guests turned out to be, Beth's big sisters were both here along with their girlfriends. So not counting the unknown guests we already had Ms. Watson, Bethany, Jenny, Sadie, Amanda, Brittany, Ashley, and me here.

There was wine and coolers for the grown-ups and older girls, soda and juice and water for the rest of us. Ms. Watson even put out some bowls of chips and a tray of veggies and dip and stuff.

Sadie put on some music and cranked up the volume, but her mom immediately told her to turn it down. It wasn't *that* kind of party, apparently. And the plan was we'd be ordering in a bunch of Chinese food later. Beth made a show of being grumpy about that because she wanted pizza, but she always wanted pizza so we all expected that. And she liked Chinese food too so her mom and sisters kind of ignored her.

I ended up sitting with her on the sofa, and like usual our tails twisted around onto each other's laps. It felt super nice, like hugging each other with our tails. Plus we could pet and stroke each each other's tail and that felt really good too.

Needless to say the July full moon came and went without Bethany turning herself back to normal. She was still a tiny cute arctic foxgirl, I was still a petite cute silver foxgirl.

One thing that we never did figure out was how come she got smaller when she used the spell. She was originally five-foot-two like me, but as an arctic foxgirl she was about four-foot-eleven. I was pretty sure it made her even cuter, but she wasn't happy about it. She got used to it after a week or two, but it was odd since the spell wasn't supposed to work like that.

"Hey you two," Sadie commented as she sat down on the other end of the sofa next to Beth. As usual she was dressed up nice, in a pretty knee-length skirt and a fashionable blouse. Her make-up was really nice and her long brown hair hung half-way down her back in waves. "How's the magic coming along? You're keeping up with the practicing right?"

I replied with a big grin, "My teleporting is up to fifteen kilos! I'm still practicing every day, I bet I'll be able to teleport myself by this time next month!"

"Same," Beth added. "Me and Tally are in a race to see who can teleport themself first."

Sadie suppressed a giggle as she responded, "You might have an unfair advantage there little sis. Being smol means there's less of you to teleport, you know?"

My girlfriend made a face and her ears angled back to show how she felt about that, but her older sister didn't seem worried.

She reached out and gave Bethany a few pets on the top of her head as she giggled, "Such a cute little fox."

Beth bared her small fangs and warned, "I will bite you, Sadie."

"You'll have to buy me dinner first," the older girl laughed. "Anyways mom said our mystery guests will be here in a few minutes. Any guesses who they are?"

Me and Bethany both shook our heads.

My girlfriend said, "If it was someone from the coven or from her work there wouldn't be all the mystery right? And we don't have any relatives. Well there's the grandparents from out west but they haven't had anything to do with us for about four years right?"

Beth grimaced and cringed as she added, "Oh Goddess I hope it's not them. Mom wouldn't spring them on us would she?"

Sadie's expression got serious and she shook her head, "I'm positive mom wouldn't do that to you Beth. But if it makes you feel any better, if it does turn out to be them I'll get Ash to make a distraction, then I'll teleport you and Tally somewhere else. Then me and Amanda and Jenny would probably give mom hell for doing that. But like I said, she wouldn't do that."

"Ok," Beth sighed. "Thanks Sadie."

I gave my girlfriend's tail some pets and strokes to help her relax, as I leaned closer and whispered "You don't get along with your grandparents?"

She grimaced again and whispered back, "It's another long complicated family thing. The short version is they're homomisic and transmisic and that pretty much gives them a reason to hate all of us."

"Ugh," I made a face as well.

Before either of us could continue with that topic I felt a faint tingle of magic in the air, and we all realized the mystery guests had arrived. And they used magic to get here.

We heard Ms. Watson in the front hall as she greeted the new arrivals, so me and Beth and Sadie all got up to go and see.

As we approached I heard an unfamiliar voice saying, "Thanks again for having us over Maria. You'll be happy to hear things are still going well with our sisters. They're moving ahead with everything we discussed at that meeting last month."

When I got to the living-room door I came to a halt as my eyes widened, until Beth and Sadie nudged me to keep moving. A moment later we were all sort of crowded into the hall for the greetings and introductions, while I just stared quietly.

I'd never met her before but I heard enough stories and seen enough pictures to know the catgirl with the lilac-coloured hair and fur was none other than Zoe Zaitsev. Everyone knew she was Cindy's girlfriend. And I knew she used to be part of the coven, and she was the one who taught Sadie and Amanda magic.

Zoe looked about nineteen or twenty, which surprised me. I knew she was about that age three years ago, and it looked like she hadn't grown at all. Meanwhile Sadie and Amanda turned twenty like a week and a half ago, the two of them along with their girlfriends all looked older than Zoe now.

And the girl standing beside Zoe looked sort of familiar as well. She was the same height, both of them were about five-foot-four, just a bit taller than me but still petite. The other girl looked about nineteen, same as Zoe. She had long straight jet-black hair, bright blue eyes, and fair skin. She looked a lot like Nicole, like I could believe she was a cousin or something. Or maybe even Nikki's little sister.

Both the guests were dressed casual, Zoe was in a pair of light blue shorts and a pastel yellow t-shirt. The other girl was wearing dark grey leggings and a loose black tunic-style top. And both of them had sneakers on their feet.

Everyone already knew Zoe, they'd all met her before a bunch of times, so I was the only new person the famous catgirl had never met before. And apparently nobody but Ms. Watson knew who the other girl was.

I was kind of surprised though when the brunette seemed to know me already. She smiled at me, "You must be Tally, it's nice to meet you. I'm Katrina Zaitsev, but please just call me Kat."

"Ok Kat," I replied as we shook hands. "Nice to meet you too..."

My voice trailed off as I noticed the tattoo on her right wrist. Since joining the coven I had a habit of checking people's wrists to see if they had initiation tattoos, and Kat had an obvious one.

It was three black runic letters, and it reminded me of Ashley's protective tattoo. Ash had ACN on her ankle, Kat had KAT on her wrist.

Then I did a double-take as my eyes got wider. I remembered Ashley did her initials because that's what Cindy had, apparently Cindy had CAT on her wrist. And the rune for K was the same as the rune for C. And all that stuff went through my head as I was shaking Katrina's hand.

My eyes widened even more as I stared at her. The mystery brunette's eyes were on mine and it was like she could tell what I was thinking. Her smile became a bit of a smirk as she finally let go of my hand, then she moved on to greet Bethany and the others. I continued to stare while my heart raced almost as fast as my mind. Could it be her? It couldn't. Could it?

Zoe was talking to the four older girls at that point, and I sort of half-heard Zoe explain that she and Kat got married in April.

Then Zoe greeted me as well, and I saw she had a purple paw-print tattoo on her right wrist. It looked a lot like my ankle tattoo, except mine was black. I was still kind of freaked out about Kat, but it was just as amazing to meet Zoe.

After all the introductions were finally over the new guests got some drinks, Kat had a soda while Zoe had water. And everyone crowded into the living-room, with extra chairs dragged over from the dining room and kitchen.

There was some conversation but I only picked up bits and pieces as I continued staring at Kat and Zoe, I couldn't shake the thought that Kat might really be Cindy.

She didn't look anything like the pictures I'd seen. Cindy was younger, shorter, and slimmer. She was blonde, she looked different. Kat looked like our Goddess's Vessel more than anything else, like definitely related to Nicole. But she had that tattoo. And the way she smirked at me after I noticed it left me wondering.

"Ciara and Sid are in town as well," Zoe was telling Ms. Watson. "I don't think you've met Sid yet? I'm pretty sure it's her first trip to Canada. We didn't bring them along tonight since they don't really know anyone here. Ciara might like to see you though Maria? Maybe we could arrange a quieter get-together tomorrow or Monday."

Kat added, "They're over at Niagara Falls for the weekend. We booked them into a hotel with a great view, and they're doing touristy stuff."

My girlfriend's mom smiled, "I'd love to see Ciara again. And it would be nice to meet Sidney as well, after hearing so much about her in your emails."

"Then we'll make some arrangements," Zoe said. "The four of us dropped in at the vineyard on Thursday. We had a nice visit with Sam and Nikki, and we got to meet Fiona and Rebekah. And we wished Samantha a belated happy birthday."

Kat looked at the twins and commented, "That reminds us, belated happy birthday to the two of you as well."

Zoe did the same, she wished the twins a happy birthday, then she and Kat continued their conversation with Ms. Watson.

"So we saw Sam and Nikki on Thursday, then last night Kat and I had dinner with Jessica and Kara," Zoe commented.

I was only half paying attention as I kept staring at Kat, but I heard them say something about reunions and reconciliations, and they said something about maybe being invited to attend the next coven meeting as guests. They also said that things went ok with Jess and Kara, apparently Zoe was worried Kat and Kara wouldn't get along for some reason. Finally Kat and Zoe said they were planning to visit Tanya and Brandi in the next couple days as well.

The conversation was disrupted when the food arrived, which surprised me as I didn't even notice anyone put in the order. Though I hadn't been paying attention to anyone other than Kat so maybe it wasn't that big a surprise after all.

Ms. Watson and the twins got everything set up like a buffet on the kitchen table, then we all helped ourselves before going to sit down again in the living-room.

The food was nice, everyone got lots to eat and everything. And there were more drinks and stuff, but me and Beth stuck to water, same as Zoe. Jenny and Kat were drinking cola, and everyone else either had wine or a cooler.

After talking with Ms. Watson about coven stuff and the other witches, Kat and Zoe talked to the older girls about college and what sorts of plans they had. Then finally they talked to me and Beth and Jenny, about what we were doing with school and what our plans were.

I stammered a bit as I told them how I'd got really interested in science, and how I wanted to learn more about demi-human biology and the science of how Cindy's spell did the things it did.

Kat seemed pleased with that answer, and she commented how me and Beth and Jenny were the only ones present who'd actually used the spell. She asked Jen why the tall blonde used magic to dye her hair, and Jenny blushed as she explained how it was a thing at school, that almost everyone did something like that when they turned sixteen.

Ms. Watson looked unhappy about it and even Zoe rolled her eyes, but Kat thought it was great. She grinned and said it was awesome that younger people were embracing magic that way, even if all they were doing was something small and cosmetic.

Then the mysterious brunette smiled at me and commented, "You've been staring at me all evening Tally. Is there something you want to say, or something you want to ask me?"

My cheeks went pink and I gulped, "I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to stare. It's just... That tattoo on your wrist? Does it say CAT or KAT?"

As soon as I asked the question everyone else went quiet and most of them were suddenly staring at Kat's wrist. That's when I realized that nobody else had noticed it.

Somehow I was the only one who saw it and recognized it, but now that I mentioned it everyone else could see it too. Ashley was looking especially shocked, her eyes were wide and her mouth slowly dropped open like she knew exactly who's tattoo that was.

Zoe sighed and gave her wife a bit of a look, but Kat ignored her. The brunette gave me a knowing smile and replied, "It could be read either way Tally. C and K share the same glyph, as you know."

"It's CAT," Ashley stated. "You're her, aren't you? Why didn't I recognize the tattoo before? I'd know it anywhere. I'm sure Sadie and Amanda would too, and Ms. Watson. And everyone else who was in the coven back then."

Kat gave the tall brunette an apologetic look, "Sorry Ashley. A bit of magic keeps it obscured so people won't notice it. Every now and then someone sees through the illusion."

Her expression became serious as she looked at Ashley then back to me again. In a quiet voice she stated, "Cindy is gone, I'm sorry. Almost everything she once was remains part of me, and I'm sorry but I'm not going to elaborate on that. My name is Katrina Zaitsev, I'm Zoe's wife, and that's all the world needs to know."

Everyone else in the room was silent as we all stared at her. My heart continued to race as her words sank in. She wasn't Cindy anymore, but she used to be. My hero, the girl who changed the world, was sitting two meters away from me. She shook my hand, and she knew my name.

The silence was broken a few seconds later as Kat shifted her attention to my girlfriend and said, "Bethany I got your email. Sorry I didn't respond earlier, I'm pretty bad at that. My spell didn't backfire, it didn't make you smaller. Arianrhod is responsible for that I'm afraid. Her curse is still in effect, and she gets grumpy when people try and circumvent her judgement."

Suddenly I was staring at Beth, while her eyes widened and her cheeks went bright red. She gulped, "I see. Um, thanks for explaining that."

Kat gave her a sympathetic smile and offered, "If you like I can talk to her? I might be able to convince her to drop the curse."

"No thanks," Beth half-whispered. Her cheeks were still red as she added, "I've got used to it. And um, I already got a bunch of new clothes anyways."

Both my heart and my mind were racing as I looked back and forth between Kat and my girlfriend, as a million more questions appeared in my head.

Kat was acting like she was on a first-name basis with the Goddess, using one of the Goddess's names like she was talking about a friend or relative. And apparently our Goddess cursed my girlfriend for some reason. I remembered hearing Amanda and Brittany also got cursed a while back, but I never found out what that did to any of them.

"Babe," Zoe said to her wife. "Stop talking. I swear ever since you showed off to that reporter last month you've been blabbing secrets everywhere we go."

Kat, my hero, the girl who changed the world, cringed and blushed. "Sorry hon. You know I get carried away."

Zoe smiled, "I sure do."

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