A CURSE exploded out of Flavian, and he stumbled back a step. His heel caught in the hem of the skirt he’d forgotten about, and he lost his balance, landing hard on his backside on a bench he hadn’t realized was behind him. He swore again, a long string of vehement words that he finished with a rather pathetic “ow.”
Then he remembered the cat.
It was still sitting there, watching him, big head tilted to the side. The cat looked… amused. Could a cat be amused? He looked closer. Yes, there was definitely amusement in the cat’s gold eyes. Gold eyes that looked a lot like Ezekiel’s. And the expression in them… that looked a lot like Ezekiel too, when he looked at Flavian with indulgent amusement.
He struggled to push himself up straighter on the bench. “Ezekiel?”
The cat nodded its—his—hea
