"One last question," I said. "Do you know anything about the Ring of Everlasting Night?"
Carlitta and Carlotta gasped. All the cats on the tops of their cages hunched their kitty shoulders low and hissed. The lights in the store flickered.
"We don't talk about that in here," Carlotta whispered.
"What? Why?"
"Come on, Teacup." Carlitta took my hand and led me toward the front counter's register. Then we went behind the front counter through the red curtain to the back room.
Alarms blared inside my head. Warning whistles picked up the melody until there was a full-blown cautionary orchestra swirling through my mind. This couldn't be good, whatever we were doing, or could it?