The Whimsy Witch Who Wasn't (Tales of Xest Book 1) Page 13

  Jasper shivered, or his body at least appeared to. What was visible didn’t seem to be the same as what might’ve been truly there.

  “So much magic here. So very much.” He closed his eyes and squeezed my hand. His head dropped back as he asked, “Did you test her with a gem? What color did she shine?”

  “Every color. It was like watching a kaleidoscope.”

  Jasper dropped my hand immediately. The amazed and enthralled expression turned to lower brows and an open jaw, a look of horror crossing his face as he eyed me and then Hawk.

  “That’s abhorrent.”

  “I’m aware it’s rare, but I wouldn’t say ‘abhorrent.’” Hawk stepped closer until he was partially in between me and Jasper.

  “No, I’m telling you it is. She is.” Jasper moved to the door and held it wide. “It’s time for you to go.” He left the door open and stepped farther away.

  “No. I need answers. You already accepted the deal.” Hawk stepped closer to him instead of retreating.

  “I’ll keep my sworn secrecy and will decline payment. Now you need to go. I can’t help you,” Jasper said, glancing at Hawk but then training his eyes on me, as if I were the true monster in the room. He took another step back and began chanting in a weird tongue, making signals in front of his chest.

  Hawk stepped closer, hovering over him. “What do you know?”

  “Nothing other than that’s evil and you must leave.” Jasper swallowed as he looked at me.

  “If you say a word to anyone…”

  “I won’t. Under the terms of the oath, you need to leave,” Jasper said, and then launched into his strange chanting, like it would protect him from whatever I was.

  Hawk let out a breath, as if Jasper had just pulled a trump card he couldn’t argue.

  “Come on,” Hawk said to me, motioning to the door. Jasper watched as I moved, afraid I’d lunge for him at the last moment or something.

  “Thanks?” I didn’t mind leaving. I would’ve liked to have left under normal circumstances, though, and not like Jasper was exorcising the devil, which he believed was me.

  We didn’t talk until we were back outside and Hawk stopped me, putting my necklace back over my head. I’d forgotten he had it.

  I tucked it in my shirt, using that as an excuse not to look at him as I said, “He looked at me like I was a serial killer. What’s so bad about a rainbow? You don’t think a rainbow is bad, right? I mean, it’s a rainbow. Rainbows are happy—unicorns and pots of gold and stuff.”

  “I come because Jasper sometimes sees things others don’t. Good and bad are relative, and Jasper isn’t always reliable. I don’t come here for moral advice.”

  And what Jasper saw in me was evil. Echoes of a life I wanted to forget haunted my mind, and words echoed in my ears, in my head, and worse, in my heart. What if it were true? What if Jasper was right? What if everything she ever said was true?

  I began walking back toward the office, leading the way for once. I needed to be alone where I could sort this out or shake it off. Find a neat little place to lock it away and never think about it again.

  I felt his hand on my arm, stopping me. I didn’t fight him, but I didn’t turn back around as I felt him close in.

  “Tippi, you might be many things, but I know evil. You’re not.” His hand was still holding me there.

  I nodded, and neither of us moved for a few seconds.

  “You’re not scared of me, right?”

  When he didn’t answer, I finally looked up at him. “Do I appear to be frightened?” His tone couldn’t have been flatter if I’d pounded it with a mallet for the last hour.

  Relief surged through me. It might’ve been unfounded relief, considering everyone seemed afraid of him. Maybe he was more of a monster than I was. Either way, I’d take what I could get and cling to it. If Hawk didn’t think I was evil, maybe I wasn’t.

  I laughed a little, realizing how badly I’d let that small creature rattle me.

  “You know, I wasn’t thrilled about being a witch. Now that Jasper thinks I’m an evil monster, a witch doesn’t seem so bad.”

  “That does seem to be the way things work,” he said, and then resumed walking.

  Whatever strange connection we had seemed to pass. Except as we walked, and he took the lead, he was back to only about a foot away. Not so bad.

  “So where does that leave us now?” I asked.

  “No better and no worse.”

  He might have felt no worse, but I wasn’t going to shake off that meeting as easily. Jasper, the one who saw things, saw evil. The one Hawk thought might have answers feared to be near me. Maybe I wasn’t evil but my magic was? That was why, no matter what I did, I ended up destroying things when we practiced.

  Maybe she’d known my magic was evil all along. They say no one knows you like your parents. That was why she went through such lengths to block what I was.

  Did I tell him that my magic might be bad? Then what? Convince him so entirely of my evil nature that he tried to kill me? We might be on the same side right now, but only a fool would trust that it would always be that way.

  I continued to walk until we were just a few paces from the office when Hawk stopped again.

  “Tippi, don’t let what Jasper said get into your head.”

  “Sure. No problem.”

  From his expression, I was certain my newfound skill at lying had disappeared.

  20

  The office was closed for the day. No one was around. This was it. This was the time. Maybe if I had someone else to run the idea by, they’d tell me not to do it but I couldn’t talk to Zab. He was too close to Hawk. Belinda hated me. Musso seemed the type that would kill me himself if he thought something was wrong with me. There was only one person I could turn to here—Rabbit. And she was the one I was doing this for, so that wasn’t an option.

  I looked at the newsflash papers sitting on the counter. In the last few days, I’d seen Zab, Belinda, and Musso all use them to summon someone who could do a specific job. It hadn’t been a big deal.

  Well, I needed something, so I was going to send a newsflash. I was magical, and even though my magic might be temperamental, chaotic—evil—it seemed I had a lot of it, and this was very simple. And Zab had mentioned in passing that no one ignored a newsflash memo from the broker. No one.

  I was going to do this. I had to do this. If I didn’t get Rabbit out of there, at least for a little while, she’d die. She was not dying. Not on my watch.

  I grabbed a piece of paper from the ones they used, the ones I’d picked up, and jotted down my info, just like they had numerous times. The only thing I didn’t do was add a name to the bottom, as they usually did. But what if that had to be there? Like the postal service and a return address thing? Maybe it wouldn’t send without one?

  To sign or not to sign? What to sign? If I used my name, they might laugh it off. I couldn’t do Hawk’s. I wasn’t willing to push it that far. I wanted them to assume it came from him, but forging his signature? No, that was way over the line. But a “representative of the broker” was accurate. It would have to be good enough.

  I held it up and examined it for problems. It looked pretty good to me, not that I’d know an issue if I saw it. I folded the paper, folded it again, then again, the way I’d seen the others do. I walked to the front door and peeked through the glass for pedestrian traffic. As soon as the street had a lag, I swung the door open fast.

  “Carry my message,” I said, tossing the note in the air.

  The thing burst into an eagle that nearly spanned the width of the street. It was so big that I ducked. Then a loud pop, followed by a flash. Well, I’d done something, all right.

  A man had just turned the corner, and he was staring right at me. Dammit.

  I didn’t wave or acknowledge the attention. I swung the door shut with nothing left to do but wait to see if Rabbit would arrive.

  The first person who showed five minutes later was the last person I wanted t
o see right now.

  Hawk stormed inside the office, and it was immediately clear that he already knew something by the way he stalked over to me.

  “What did you do? It’s Offday. Can I not leave you here alone one day of the week?”

  Oh no. This was not good. Not good at all. I might’ve fessed up to what I’d done, but I wasn’t sure what that was yet. It wasn’t as if my magic was predictable. I was better off waiting to see what he told me I’d done. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad?

  “I didn’t even leave the building.” Technically, I hadn’t. I’d leaned out of it, but my feet had remained squarely within the threshold.

  I edged toward the front door, in case running was going to be needed. I tried to go around him, but he blocked my path.

  “You might not have left the building, but you did set off a newsflash from here,” he said.

  I dodged right, and he followed. I dodged left, and he caught me about the waist, hoisted me onto the nearby table, and then kept me there with a hand on either side.

  “What did you do?” he asked.

  He was leaning over me, but instead of being intimidated, I felt my stomach getting all squirrely, and my eyes kept going to his lips, as I wondered what it would be like if he kissed me. I’d had a few kisses in my life. None were that good. I’d lost my virginity to a boy that I hadn’t liked very much in an effort to get the deed done. I’d never gotten flutters like I did with Hawk.

  He was making me so nervous that it was worse than if he was threatening me with violence. Maybe he was threatening me with violence and I hadn’t noticed it?

  I looked to the floor and kept my gaze there so I’d stop looking at his face, my skin burning, afraid he’d read these thoughts too. I had no business being curious about him in that way. None. Now I needed to convince my libido of that as well.

  “Tippi, what did you do?” He lifted my chin, making it impossible to look anywhere else.

  I shrugged. “I mean, I might’ve sent some correspondence.” This way, as I blushed, which I feared from the heat might’ve been happening, he’d think it was from guilt. That was much better than the truth.

  “Correspondence that went off in the middle of the center, demanding Rabbit’s immediate presence in the shop or else?” he asked.

  I licked my lips as I thought about how to answer that. When I’d scribbled my message, I didn’t think everyone would hear it. That wasn’t the way it typically worked, from my understanding. I thought it would appear in Marvin’s office and prompt him to send Rabbit here.

  Now Hawk was staring at my lips, probably because I was biting the lower one as I tried to figure out what to say.

  “I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a thing.” My skin was flushed even worse, and this time it was definitely from some measure of guilt.

  His hand grazed my leg. Did he know we were touching? I wished I wasn’t so aware. Made it damned hard to concentrate on my latest screw-up.

  “You don’t understand. I was in a shop off the center when it went off. Word is going to spread that it wasn’t me who set it. No one else that works here is strong enough to send out a newsflash that large. You didn’t just send a message that you wanted Rabbit to come. You sent a message to everyone in Xest that you have massive amounts of power. The ramifications of what you did are going to be widespread. It’s going to have implications even after you return to Rest.”

  His arms were outstretched on either side of me as he dipped his head.

  “It can’t be that bad, right?” I said, resisting the urge to run my fingers through his hair. I still wasn’t sure what had gone so wrong for him to look this frustrated, but I had to grip the wood of the table to stop from touching him.

  “It’s done. We’ll handle the ramifications.” He straightened and then stepped away from me. He ran his hands through his hair as he came to terms with my latest screw-up.

  It was probably a little late to ask now, but his words were really sinking in. I crossed my ankles, swinging them to and fro. The deeper his words sank, the faster my legs swung. “What kind of ramifications are we talking about, exactly?”

  “Hard to say, but you’re not going to be able to go back to Salem. You’ll have to go somewhere else. Too many people are catching on to what you might be. A Whimsy witch disappearing wouldn’t cause much notice. After the shop incidents, it was bad, but nothing concrete. Now, you might as well have sent out a memo to everyone in Xest stating you’re anything but a Whimsy witch. They’ll never leave you alone.”

  My swinging legs came to a complete halt as I gripped the table so hard that it should’ve splintered. “I can’t go back to Salem?”

  “You’ll have to go somewhere no one knows about.”

  “I don’t understand. Who would bother me? I have zero idea what I’m doing. Everything I touch goes wrong.”

  There was almost a look of pity on his face at my ignorance. “You were dragged here when they thought you could do almost nothing. You think now that they know you have real power, they’ll let you go?”

  “You mean Marvin?”

  “No. Marvin is nothing. There are others I’m worried about—but you’ll find out soon enough.”

  “You mean that Raydam person?” I jumped off the table. This was definitely a standing conversation. From the sounds of it, it might even progress into a pacing one. Hopefully we wouldn’t get as far as a “screaming and running for my life” talk, but it was within the realm of what I was hearing.

  “He’s only the beginning of the problems you stirred up with your latest decision.”

  There was a flash of movement right before Rabbit came charging into the office. She had a bag slung over her shoulder and a big smile on her face. At least with her, I’d done the right thing, hopefully.

  She dropped her bag and hugged me. That was a big thing from someone from Xest who didn’t touch. Then she turned to Hawk, arms outstretched. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  He took a step back before she could get her arms around him. “Don’t thank me. I did nothing.”

  “You called for me?” she asked, the smile starting to fall as panic replaced it.

  “I called for you,” I said, smiling and nodding, trying to convince her that everything was still good. She was not going back. The damage was done now, but it would not be for nothing.

  She paused for a moment, squinting slightly. “You did that?”

  I nodded, feeling suddenly self-conscious.

  “How?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but you’re here, and that’s all that matters, right?”

  It didn’t take more than another second for her to snap back to normal. She wrapped her arms around me again as I wondered what I was going to have to do, if there was anything I could do, that would persuade Hawk to let her stay. She wouldn’t be going back, no matter what I had to do.

  I looked over Rabbit’s shoulder to Hawk, who stood behind her.

  Please, I mouthed. I’d start off nice, but I wasn’t afraid to dig in if needed.

  He didn’t move an inch. It was long enough to feel steel harden my spine. He couldn’t make her leave. I’d walk out right beside her and we’d see what happened. This was my line in the sand, or snow, as that was all that was available here.

  Rabbit backed up a bit, looking at both of us and sensing the mounting tension in the room.

  Hawk had said everyone had a price. I’d found mine. He wanted to keep torturing me every night with failure? Wanted my full cooperation? This was what I needed. “Our discussion the other night? This is my price.”

  He crossed his arms, measuring me. “I already paid yours,” he said.

  “Are you sure about that?” We both knew he hadn’t, not really. I’d been biding my time, waiting for an out. I had a feeling that when the truth of what he really wanted from me came to light, there might need to be further negotiations. If he was smart, which I knew he was, he’d take this deal now.

  He dipped
his chin, staring me dead in the eye for a few tense seconds.

  “Give her the room to the right of yours,” he said.

  “There’s a room beside mine?”

  “There is now.” He nodded in Rabbit’s direction. “Get her settled, but be ready in a half-hour. We’ve got work to do.”

  I grabbed Rabbit’s hand and dragged her after me before he changed his mind.

  21

  Rabbit ran a hand along the wall as she followed me up the stairs.

  “I can’t believe you’re really living here.”

  “You are too now, so don’t sound so in awe.” Coming from the factory and barracks, it was a step up, until she met Belinda. Rabbit might rethink her opinion after that.

  “I am living here,” she said, as if she couldn’t quite believe it.

  I glanced over my shoulder, smiling. “Still a lot of awe. Trust me, it’s not all good.”

  “Yeah, I live in the broker building. No big deal,” she said, swallowing back any awe she might’ve wanted to inject.

  We made it to the platform outside my door, and there were now two doors. He’d said the room to the right, so my bedroom door had shifted left somehow. By the time I was used to this place, I was going to be gone.

  Her room was exactly half the size my room was, or used to be, probably. It had the same setup, bed, and fireplace. She’d even gotten a bathroom that looked like it would’ve backed up to mine. I guessed even magic tried to use the easiest plumbing accommodation.

  She walked in, and then spun around, taking in every little detail. “This is amazing. Is he really going to let me stay?”

  I grabbed her half-empty bag and tossed it on the chest of drawers.

  “He’s going to let you stay. He wouldn’t say it if he didn’t mean it.” I sat down on her bed as she touched everything in the bedroom, from the chest, to the walls, to the window. I bounced a little. The mattress felt exactly like mine.

  “So what do you do here all day? Is there a job for me?”

  I ran down the details of my normal day, including the practice for something yet to be determined.