“I know we’re not exactly friends, but I’m lost. I was just hoping…” I shrugged before dropping my gaze to the floor.
A slip flew out. This one landed on the desk beside me, face up.
I’m sorry, but I can’t speak of it.
“I’m on my own with this? Nothing at all to add?”
No slips. No grinding. My stomach clenched. All I got was silence.
8
Bertha put out a plate of buttered rolls and another platter of brownies on the table. We were like a barely restrained pack of wolves as we all grabbed for our favorite. If the others were freaked out by the color display last night, no one had shown it so far. No one had even brought it up, which was a little strange, but I hadn’t seen a reason to complain.
“Do you have anything booked tomorrow?” I asked Zab right before I ate half my brownie in one bite.
“Not too much. I think I’ve got one client still willing to come in. Word of our lists are spreading, and everyone is afraid to end up on one side or another if they’re in the middle.”
“Not the worst thing ever. I could use some vacation time. Haven’t taken some time off in decades,” Musso said, leaning back with his brownie.
Bibbi reached past me for a roll and then took the seat next to me, and proceeded to not eat the roll. I could feel her attention on me as she broke a tiny piece off and still didn’t eat.
“I wanted to talk to you if you had a second.”
Pre-glowing alley revelation, Bibbi would’ve just spoken. Now she stared at the roll, waiting for an invite.
“We live together,” I said. “You can’t start walking on eggshells around me or it’s going to be hard to coexist. Whatever it is, spit it out.”
That was all it took. She dropped her roll to the table and turned to face me directly. “I’m sorry if I looked at you like you were a freak last night, but that was just sort of surprising. I mean, you, it.” She lifted a finger toward my hair. “You understand, right?”
Everyone else in the room froze. Seemed there was a lot of interest in my reaction.
“It threw me for a bit too,” I said. “Don’t worry. You weren’t thinking anything different than I was.”
There were some definite quiet sighs going on around the room.
“Look, even if you are connected or maybe a little freakish in the magic department, we’re still tight, right?” Bibbi asked, as if I’d be the one kicking her to the curb.
“I’m the weirdo, remember? You’d have to get rid of me. That’s how these things work,” I said.
“I don’t care if you’re a weirdo. Weirdos are much more interesting, in my opinion,” Zab said.
“I already knew she was a freak. You people are a little slow on the uptake,” Oscar added, laughing.
I joined him, never feeling so good to be called a freak. Maybe I was a freak, but no one seemed to care, and that felt better than trying to pretend.
The monkeys walked in, little bags in their hands, and cleared their throats.
“We wanted to let you all know we will be leaving,” Speak No Evil said.
No one spoke.
“If anyone cares, we will be going to Zark’s, where we won’t be artistically censored any longer.” His little chin went up, and the other two followed suit.
No one said anything, and they were clearly waiting for something.
“Good luck to you,” Bibbi said.
“Yes, I’m sorry that we didn’t appreciate your talents,” I added. I would’ve said anything to get them out of here.
“Yes, us too,” Zab said.
“Thank you. Perhaps next time you won’t make the same error.” Speak No Evil nodded, and then the three of them walked out.
Hawk walked in from the office a few minutes later.
“Did you see the monkeys leaving?” Zab asked.
“I paid Zark a lot of coins to take them. They better be leaving.”
“Now it makes sense,” Oscar said as the rest of us nodded.
Hawk tensed where he was standing on the other side of the room. He turned in the direction of the office, and I could nearly feel his hackles rise. Without saying a word, he walked back into the office.
I glanced at Oscar, who was also staring in the direction of the door. He took one look at me, and I could read his expression clearly. No way we were both wrong.
We shot to our feet at the same time.
“And here I thought I’d have a relaxing morning,” Musso said.
“What’s going on?” Zab asked.
Neither Oscar nor I replied. We didn’t have answers or time as we rushed into the office. Chairs skidded and clanged behind us.
Hawk wasn’t alone in the office. A few feet from him stood a…a man? The suit he was wearing was the only normal thing about him. His skin was a deep red and unnaturally smooth. He had horns on his head and hoofed feet. There was only one person I’d seen that looked like him. Mertie.
I groaned softly, my mind shooting to a weird memory of a man, a bucket of black goop from hell, and a warning about keeping the situation under control. The goop hadn’t worked so well, and we certainly hadn’t kept things under control. It might not be what I feared, but it very well could be.
“You know what this is about?” Oscar whispered to me as we hung back a bit from this stranger. I shook my head, not wanting to give the newcomer any ideas if that wasn’t why he was here.
The demon’s eyes shot past Hawk, to me, lingering there.
“What’s your purpose here?” Hawk asked, not looking anywhere but at the demon in front of him. He moved, so that he broke the direct line of vision between the demon and myself.
My heart thudded as I waited to hear what the demon said. There wasn’t a whisper behind me, even though there was a full audience.
“You were warned that if you didn’t get this situation under control, we’d step in. The situation is most certainly not under control.”
“You have no authority here, Xazier.”
“The territory of Xest is experiencing unrest that threatens to spill into other realms. We have full authority to come in according to the pact, written and agreed to between the realms.” Xazier held up his hand, and a parchment dropped down. “If happenings in any other realm threaten the peace of a different and separate realm, the threatened realm has full authority to intervene as they see fit.”
“There’s no threat to your realm. This is a power grab, and you know it.”
Hawk continued to argue his point, but I was distracted from him by the low churning of Helen’s gears. A slip shot out of her slot and dropped to the ground. It moved along the floor until it was by my toes.
According to the pact, in order for one realm to assert authority over another realm, a formal warning shall be given first and a full moon cycle shall be allowed to rectify such grievances.
I shoved the note in my pocket and stepped up to the demon, standing shoulder to shoulder with Hawk.
Hawk was giving me the stare that he still thought worked. I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t figured out that it didn’t, but he kept trying. Maybe he’d had such a high success rate with it in the past that he couldn’t wrap his head around it failing. He’d figure it out eventually.
The demon looked intrigued. That wasn’t good either. Didn’t matter. I was all in now. I’d inserted myself. Time to act.
“By the rule of pact, you have to give us a full moon cycle after a formal complaint to rectify that problem before you can assume any authority.”
Hawk looked at me, clearly wondering where this knowledge was coming from. Didn’t matter. Helen knew, and I’d bet my last coin she was right.
“You were warned,” Xazier said.
“By a passing comment? I highly doubt that would hold up,” I scoffed.
The demon went silent. He wasn’t leaving, though. He stood there, staring at me with an intensity that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“I’m correct, am I not?” I aske
d, trying anything to break the strange moment that was dragging out.
He squinted and tilted his head, continuing to look at me. And he kept on looking.
“I might be able to work something out. I’ll need a moment,” he said, and then walked out of the office. Once outside, he began talking to the air.
Hawk dropped his gaze to me, his stare deepening. “I don’t want you involved in this.”
“If I hadn’t gotten involved, you’d still be arguing that they couldn’t take over Xest right now.”
“I’m handling it.”
“I’m helping you handle it.”
“I’m asking you not—”
The door opened, and Xazier walked back into the office and stopped a few feet from us. He took in a deep breath, and steam literally came out of his mouth as he sighed.
He turned to me. “Fine. You can have your month. But if you want to hold us to the letter of the law, it works both ways. We’ll be expecting collateral during this extension.”
“No,” Hawk replied.
I didn’t know what Xazier wanted, but clearly it was going to be a disadvantage for us.
“It’s not up to you, is it?” Xazier asked. “You know the rules. She brought up the clause. She’ll be the one to offer the collateral.”
“What’s the collateral?” I asked.
Xazier smiled. “You. If you fail to get the situation under control in the month given, we get Xest and you.”
Helen was lucky that I didn’t have a hammer right now. I’d be taking a swing at her gears for leading me down this road. What had she been thinking?
“Do you agree?” Xazier asked me.
“Don’t,” Hawk said.
“If I don’t?” I asked, avoiding Hawk’s gaze.
“If you don’t agree, we take Xest tomorrow as planned.”
“I agree.”
I expected a flash of magic but didn’t get one. Wasn’t that what normally happened when you made a deal in Xest? Xazier didn’t seem to notice, so I certainly wasn’t going to bring it up.
“You have one cycle to rectify the problem,” Xazier said.
“One cycle. Not a minute sooner,” Hawk said, his anger clear.
Looked like we’d be brawling again tonight.
“You’ll need to provide updates in the interim. Once a week should be sufficient. If you need to reach me in the meantime, just call my name into the fifth wind. I’ll put you on my contact list.” Xazier walked out. The second he went through the door, he disappeared into thin air.
No one in the room spoke. Hawk didn’t need to say anything. The expression in his eyes said it all before he turned and walked away from me.
That I hadn’t expected. Yelling and fighting? Oh yes.
“I was trying to help,” I yelled at his back.
“You didn’t. You walked into a setup.” He disappeared into the back room, and then the outer door slammed a second later.
Oscar was shaking his head at me. “What the hell is wrong with you? You can barely defend yourself half the time, and now you think you’ve got it all covered? You’re letting that freak stuff go to your head. You’re human like the rest of us, not invincible. You need to think before you talk. Maybe you don’t have all the answers.”
“I didn’t think I did, and what the hell is your issue?”
“You act like it, that’s my issue.” Oscar walked away.
Bertha was trying to smile. It was warm but not encouraging. She clearly thought I’d stepped in it as well.
“I don’t know why they’re giving you such a problem, kid,” Musso said, lifting his stocky shoulders.
The tension began to ease.
Then he continued, “I mean, how are you going to learn if you don’t screw shit up sometimes? You might take a couple of lumps, but you’ll be okay.”
“I’ll fix you a nice dinner and a big breakfast in the morning,” Bertha said, encouraging Musso to head toward the stairs.
What did that mean? Was she trying to feed me my last meals? Did she think I was going to die or something?
Zab and Bibbi walked over, standing on either side of me. I ran my hands over my face and then through my hair, so they probably thought I didn’t see the look they shot each other. I had. Oh yes, I wasn’t just going to die. I’d do it in hell. What was that old saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I’d always thought that was just a saying. No one warned me it was literal.
“I’m sure it’ll work out,” Bibbi said.
She was officially the worst liar in Xest.
“Yeah, I’m sure this will work out,” Zab said. “Just because we haven’t been able to fix anything for months doesn’t mean a miracle can’t happen.”
They all thought I was a goner.
No one banged on my door for dinner. How was that possible? I could hear the chattering in the back room, but it died quickly as I walked in and everyone made a point of not looking at me, but not not looking at me either.
“So like I was saying, it should be a slow day tomorrow,” Zab said, as if that had been the conversation going on before I walked in.
“The tea tastes a little funny today, right?” Bibbi said.
“It does taste odd,” Musso agreed. “Did you notice the clouds today? I think we’re going to have a few more inches of snow by morning.”
Bertha agreed and then chimed in about a new spell for knitting she’d read about. The conversation went in circles like this, while everyone tried to avoid talking about my issue. The space between sentences lengthened and they couldn’t think up one more mundane thing to discuss. Then the topping on the cake finally arrived with Hawk, who wasn’t acknowledging me at all. He walked into the room as if I wasn’t there, not a glance, a nod, nothing.
The tension was suffocating to all in the room, and one by one, they found an excuse to leave. I wasn’t leaving. I still didn’t think I’d done anything wrong.
I curled up on the couch, the idea of sleep so far away that I might not see it for days.
It’s not that bad. What else was I supposed to do? Did I really have a choice? No. I didn’t, and of course now he’s all bent out of shape because whenever there is no choice he seems to get mad.
I jumped as Oscar dropped onto the couch beside me.
“You know, you have a really strange way of getting messed up in every possible predicament there is.” He smiled right before he sipped his tea.
He wasn’t screaming at me, but clearly Hawk wasn’t the only angry one here. I’d done the right thing to help save Xest and now everyone either thought I was insane or a dead woman walking.
“Um, thanks?”
“Sure, let’s pretend that was a compliment.” He continued to sip on his tea.
“What is your problem?” I gave him all of two seconds before I continued. “The way I see it, I was doing the right thing. I was saving your asses for a month. I can’t imagine what Hawk’s issue is with it, or yours. It makes no sense. You people should be happy.”
“Yeah, can’t imagine why we’d be pissed off,” Oscar said. “Not like I didn’t have to work at getting your ass a job and making sure no one killed you or threw you out of Xest. I did a lot of work so you could just toss it all away.”
I sat up straighter. “I’m not tossing it away. I’m trying to repay the favor.”
“It’s not repaying the favor when you might be the only way we can get rid of what’s ruining Xest.” He put his drink down and turned so he was sitting sideways on the couch, facing me. He didn’t speak for a few seconds. “Don’t you get it? You’re the only thing it’s afraid of, and there’s got to be a reason. If you’re gone, we’re sunk. How is that a favor?”
I knew some people might’ve viewed me as the key to the solution, but Oscar? “I’m not the key. I’m a stopgap. I know me, and I don’t have what it takes to stop whatever that thing is.”
“Then you better figure out how to get whatever it takes, because you’re all we’ve got.”
&n
bsp; 9
My back slammed into the snow.
Bautere hovered over me. “Why did you want to practice if this is what you’re going to do?”
“I thought it would be a good idea.”
“Go home. It’s getting late, and I’m tired of knocking you on your ass.” Bautere walked away, leaving me in the field alone.
I’d left a note that I would be gone. After, I’d walked Xest several times, hunting for grouslies. I’d come here, thinking I could work out the aggravation. The only thing I’d accomplished was being cold, tired, and now bruised as I got up and headed home—but I had one stop left.
I took the long way to the rusty mailbox and dug out the letter that was bent and wrinkled from being in my pocket all day.
I didn’t have an address, only a name: Xest Immigration.
I’d have to deal with those three unpleasant hags again, but they’d have answers. Hawk had made one very good point: we knew I was linked to Dread. If we traced back my origins, we might find Dread’s as well. There was only one place to start—my mother. She’d come from Xest, and they were the best source of information.
Zab was going to have to lend me his cauldron again. If I brewed them up something nice, things would go easier.
The sky was dark when I returned to the broker building. Getting back after dinner hadn’t been an accident. I swung by the back room, hoping there might be some leftovers, and found a plate waiting for me.
It was still hot, as Bertha’s food always was. She had a spell to keep everything at the perfect temperature. It had been handed down from generations in her family, and no one else knew how to do it. She said she’d only give it out on her deathbed. Yes, there might be other spells that would heat food, but not keep it just as moist as if it had just left the oven. The woman was a near genius with anything culinary.
I carried my plate up to my room to find a note stuck on my door.
The Most Wanted Witch: Tales of Xest Page 5
