The Be All and End All

By Patti Larsen

Susan’s parents have refused to let her out of their sight since her disappearance, making it impossible for her to return to the city. Without Tucker at her side, her cat friend trapped and unable to reach her. She has to sneak away, returning to discover the city she loves is slowly dying! And nothing she does seems to be able to help.

When the truth about the power of the sorceress and her people comes to light, and Tucker’s destiny is revealed from an unexpected place, it’s up to Susan and her faithful friend to break the final spell before their old enemy can steal the last of the city’s magic and destroy everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patti Larsen
• Release date: Jan 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781998948222

Patti Larsen

About me, huh? Well, my official bio reads like this: Patti Larsen is a multiple award-winning author with a passion for the voices in her head. But that sounds so freaking formal, doesn’t it? I’m a storyteller who hears character's demands so loudly I have to write them down. I love the idea of sports even though sports hate me. I’ve dabbled in everything from improv theater to film making and writing TV shows, singing in an all girl band to running my own hair salon.But always, always, writing books calls me home.I’ve had my sights set on world literary domination for a while now. Which means getting my books out there, to you, my darling readers. It’s the coolest thing ever, this job of mine, being able to tell stories I love, only to see them all shiny and happy in your hands... thank you for reading.As for the rest of it, I’m short (permanent), slightly round (changeable) and blonde (for ever and ever). I love to talk one on one about the deepest topics and can’t seem to stop seeing the big picture. I happily live on Prince Edward Island, Canada, home to Anne of Green Gables and the most beautiful red beaches in the world, with my pug overlord and overlady, six lazy cats and Gypsy Vanner gelding, Fynn.

Book preview

The Be All and End All

The Adventures of Susan and Tucker (Three)

Patti Larsen

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2024 by Patti Larsen

Find out more about Patti Larsen at

http://www.pattilarsen.com/

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Chapter One

Susan didn’t mean to drop the plate on the table so loudly or to sigh so heavily as she moped her way to set the third one in place. She caught sight of her parents exchanging a look out of the corner of her eye and did her best to behave.

Thank you for setting the table, Susan, Mom said. Can you please go get the water pitcher from the fridge?

She did as she was asked without a word, head down, sock feet slipping on the wood floor, not looking up to meet their eyes. There was no point. All she would see would be worry and caution and neither of those things helped her even a little bit.

Susan jerked open the fridge door, glaring at the large, glass pitcher, resentment aimed at it though it had done nothing to her. It took two hands for her to lift it out, one foot kicking the door shut with a satisfying thud. Mom and Dad were already seated, whispering to one another, when she returned to the dining room with her burden. They fell silent the moment she appeared, something she was used to now, as much as their secretive talks irritated her.

Any comment she’d made in the last few weeks about such behavior, however, had only ended in silence or excuses or them treating her like she was fragile and about to break, so it wasn’t worth it to mention anymore.

Still, it just wasn’t fair. She hadn’t planned to find a magical city under her house or to stumble into a war between the cats who lived there and the rats who wanted it for their own. She’d been innocently following the butterscotch tabby she’d adopted, thinking he was an ordinary cat, when a rat had bitten her and put her life in danger.

Not any old rat, either, but one with magic, enough that its bite triggered her own power and forced her friend Tucker to bring her to Cat City so that she wasn’t harmed further. That trip, at least, had been carefully controlled by the gatekeepers who halted time (a fact that still fascinated her even if she didn’t know how they did it). She’d been able to help Tucker save his city and the cats from a rat invasion whether they’d wanted her there or not without Mom and Dad being any wiser.

When she’d returned home the first time, all they knew was she’d fallen from the big, old oak tree in the grove in the woods, that was it. Aside from cautioning her not to climb any more trees, they hadn’t seemed all that concerned.

Her second trip to the city, however, hadn’t been so organized. After Tucker finally managed to slip away and return Above to see her, she’d been kidnapped out of her own basement by the very rats they’d fought at the gate. By the time Tucker found out, Susan’s parents had already called the police and were very, very worried. Sure, the gatekeepers had managed to hold time after that, so her next adventure hadn’t seemed to last as long to Mom and Dad as it did to Susan, but the damage had been done.

Susan smothered a deep sigh, her favorite expression of disappointment these days, though she’d learned to be careful where she did it so they wouldn’t immediately ask if she was all right in those hurt and anxious voices they used around her. She was growing very tired of being treated like a baby, even though she understood why they were concerned.

And they didn’t even know what really happened. If they did, they’d never let her out of their sight ever again.

Susan set the pitcher on the table beside Dad and slipped into her chair, knowing she was scowling but unable to stop herself. As hard as she tried, as much as she understood why they were so concerned and protective, it was becoming almost impossible for her to keep her frustration to herself.

Thank you, honey, Mom said in a fake, bright voice. Susan didn’t respond, accepting a dollop of mashed potatoes when her mother held out the loaded spoon toward her. She wasn’t really very hungry, but refusing to eat had only meant her parents insisted she see a doctor and that wasn’t helping matters. She shifted in her seat, trying to appear interested in dinner while her mind twisted and turned and her need to return to Cat City only made focus all the more impossible.

She’d promised she’d go back. That was three whole weeks ago. The cats needed her, needed her human magic. In saving them from the Rat King, she’d broken the spell that protected them from understanding that the city itself was in danger of harming them. The Great Book of Sorcery waited for her to read it, to tell them what to do next. They’d spent centuries thinking the sorceress who created them, and the city had abandoned them. Except, now Susan was positive that the humans hadn’t gone anywhere but were trapped somewhere and needed her help as much as the cats had.

Not being able to return and do what she said she’d do was the worst kind of torture she could ever imagine, and it was only getting worse as the days ticked by, not better. Which wasn’t helping because Mom and Dad needed to think she was all right when she wasn’t, just not for the reason they thought.

The whole thing made Susan want to scream.

Honey, Dad said, hesitant enough she stiffened, looking up when she realized she’d wandered off to the city in her head again. Mom and I wanted to talk to you about something.

Susan’s misery settled around her. These talks had been happening a lot, only adding to her frustration. It was hard because Susan felt terrible for worrying her parents, but talking was doing nothing. The more they said, the less she listened. She wished she could just come out and tell them everything! But not only had she promised the cats she would never reveal their secrets, Susan knew speaking up to try to make her parents understand was a terrible idea.

They were already concerned. If she told them what happened, they’d think she had lost her marbles. They’d lock her away forever, she was sure of it. And what if by some miracle they did believe her? They would never let her put herself in danger again. There was just no way for her to win.

But the worst part of all of this wasn’t Mom and Dad or being trapped, though that was bad enough. The absolutely wretched part was the fact that Tucker had vanished, her cat friend no longer visiting her since her first night back three weeks ago. She had no idea where he’d gone or why, so her fear for his safety made things so much harder. Was he in trouble? Had something happened to the city? Had she failed them after all?

The possibility that Cat City was already gone or her cat friends lost forever had her twisting and turning at night, unable to sleep. She had no way of finding out the truth one way or the other, either. While she and Tucker had learned they could finally communicate Above, the magic she held strong enough now that they could speak telepathically outside the city, it only worked when he was here. The moment he’d gone back Below, Susan lost touch with him, and she hadn’t been able to reach him since.

There were enough desperate moments when she’d tried to sneak away in the middle of the night, only to be caught by Mom or Dad, that she was no longer allowed to play outside alone. And the path to the underground through the basement? It had been a last resort, because it would mean she’d be outside the city walls, on the rat side of the gate. She might have taken their magic thanks to the ghost of the Abyssinian former councilor, Khai, but she had no doubt the rats lingered in that place and while they might not have been dangerous the way they used to be, ordinary now instead of magical, the idea of facing all of those squeaking, squealing and furry creatures by herself made her squirm in disgust.

At least she wasn’t having nightmares about them anymore, but mostly because she was having so much trouble sleeping that she barely rested anyway.

Desperate times meant desperate measures, however. Just a week ago she’d finally managed to sneak the key to the door Mom had locked after the exterminators left, not sure