Page 2 of Waltzing With Witches

Lou lets out a beleaguered sigh and pushes her half-eaten cheeseburger away. Normally she’s jovial, fun-loving, and—dare I say—mischievous, but she doesn’t look it now. In fact, I haven’t seen her look this serious since our parents’ funeral seven months ago.

Shepherd tosses a fry across the table. It hits Lou square in the forehead and slips down her nose onto her plate.

“Cheer up, buttercup,” he says with a smirk. He’s taken to making up all sorts of humanish sayings.

Thea chuckles. Wren holds back a grin. Lou sputters but grabs a handful of fries and throws them back at him.

With practiced precision, he jerks around with his mouth open, catching most of them like a dog and beaming at her. His tail is going to start wagging in a sec, I just know it.

“Nothing to say, really,” she begins. “If I don’t seem surprised by this place being a hidden monster town, it’s because I’ve been to a haven before.”

We’ve guessed as much in the week since Lou arrived. The way she was unafraid of Shepherd and others. The way she says “godsdamn” with the extra ‘s’ like the monsters do.

Wren reaches up and yanks on Lou’s golden-red braid. “‘Fess up, bitch! You’re being obtuse as hell, and we need deets. Specifically—what haven have you been to and why? How’d you find out it existed? And did you always know we were witches? Are you a witch? Was our mom a witch?”

We all pause as Wren’s string of questions sinks in. Even Shepherd seems to be holding his breath as Lou considers her response.

She nips at her pink lower lip, but as she opens her mouth to speak, a figure slinks up the aisle to the table. He grabs a chair and flops down into it, folding pale blue arms over the back as he leans in conspiratorially. Bright blue eyes flash, his hair waving above his head like a wreath of blue flame.

He grabs a fry off Wren’s plate and shoves it in his mouth. “Are we about to hear the wild and wonderful tale of Louanna and how she came to know about the haven system?”

Lou rolls her eyes, but pink dusts her cheeks. “Hello, Dirk, and yes. I was about to share the story with my family.” She gestures at us as if he’s not part of that group, and not welcome, but he simply grabs another fry off Wren’s plate and tosses it in his mouth with a wink.

“Ferget I’m even here, my beauty,” he chirps. “Consider me a fly on the wall, if yeh will.” He glances over at me. “That’s a human saying, is it not? Later, one of yeh can explain to me why yeh’ve got flies on yer walls.”

Lou purses her lips and narrows her eyes at the big sylph, hesitating for a moment. Silence stretches long, but when it’s clear Dirk has no plans to leave, she peers around the table, tucking her sweater around her torso.

“The girls will tell you I was always witchy, even when we were kids. I was always interested in the supernatural. I always believed there was more to the world than what we could see. I consider myself a witch, although not in the way of actual witches in havens.”

When the table remains silent, Lou continues, “Two human world years ago, I was driving home from work, and I hit something with my car. I assumed it was a dog or cat, but when I got out, it was a person. He was a gnome.”

“And yeh didn’t kill him?” Dirk’s voice is soft, almost careful, his ice-chip eyes focused with hard intensity on Lou.

She shakes her head. “I wasn’t going very fast. I think it’s more like he ran into me. He was running from something else. There were noises that night, like wolves.”

“Thralls,” Shepherd snarls. “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt, Lou.”

She nods slowly, gnawing again at her lip. “Anyways, I leaped out of the car and scooped him up—at first I thought he was a child. It was dark, and he was small, but I wasn’t terribly far from a hospital. By the time I got there, he came to and explained what he was and how he was trying to get home to a hidden world called a haven. He begged me to take him there instead of the hospital.”

I’m fucking gobsmacked. “How come you never told us any of this, Lou?”

Betrayal sinks in good and hard. Of the three of us triplets, I’m the closest to Lou. I think she saw how Wren was closest to our mother, and Thea became a detective and worked with our father, following in his footsteps. I was always the odd triplet out, except for with Lou.

She must see the hurt in my eyes, because her gaze softens. “I couldn’t tell you, honey. Gerald asked me not to tell anyone in order to protect the haven’s safety. It’s in the middle of the city. I couldn’t betray his trust.”

My mouth falls open. “There’s a fucking haven in the middle of New York City, and you didn’t tell us?” I look around Thea to Shepherd, who’s slowly nodding. “Dude,” I bark. “You know we’re from the city. You never thought to mention this?”

He shrugs. “To be honest, it didn’t occur to me. Rainbow’s gorgeous but it’s wildly different from Ever.” He grins. “Plus, I was very consumed with courting Thea. I spent days with my nose in recipe books. Days, I tell ya!”

I snort and look back at Lou in disbelief. “Let me get really clear. There’s a hidden monster town called Rainbow, and it’s in the city where we’re from, and you never mentioned it because the gnome who you hit with your car told you not to? Do I have that right?”

Lou’s voice is sorrowful. “Don’t be mad, Mor. Please?”

Dirk speaks up before I get a chance to answer, “Good on yeh, keeping their secret. Most wouldn’t have.”

Lou cuts him a curious look. “I’ve always had an affinity for protecting things; it seems hardwired into me. It’s why I’m so protective with the girls. But I’ve spent haven years in Rainbow, getting to know the monsters there and learning how havens work.”

Years. She’s spent fucking years in havens and never told us.

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