Page 25 of The Nowhere Witch

They stared. I pointed to the door.

“Yes. Go,” Lead Hag said.

Zab stopped pacing when I opened the door. He waited until I got to him before he said softly, “How’d it go? Couldn’t be too bad, since you’re still here.”

A swish of wind blew my hair forward as the building disappeared.

“Not as bad as I feared, but not great. I need fifty witches or warlocks to vouch for my character. I need to keep a job, a place to live…” That was all doable. It was the last bit.

“That’s not so bad. I mean, fifty people isn’t a drop in the bucket, but I think between just the people I know, it can be accomplished.”

He was already mouthing names and counting in his head when I said, “Oh, yeah, I have to pass their magic test.”

Zab swallowed, and there was no quick “it’ll be okay” forthcoming this time, because we both knew it might not be.

Finally, with a shrug, he gave it his best try. “It’s not like you don’t have plenty of magic to work with.”

“We both know it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. It does whatever it wants most of the time.” I looked around, making sure the building hadn’t popped back up. It was still gone, but I nodded toward the road, hoping he’d take the hint that we needed to be farther away before continuing our discussion. Those old hags looked crafty.

“My couch hugged me and wouldn’t let go for an hour yesterday. I’m not sure how this test is going to go, but if it were for couches? That would be a fail. And forget heat. It was a sauna at my place. I nearly killed myself from heatstroke. The monkeys were even losing some of their glaze. Even when I do good things, it’s because my magic decides it wants to. I have zero control over any of it.”

“Then you practice. I’ll help you. You can do this. You can because you have to. I might not be as strong as you are, but I’m very technical. I can teach you. I’m positive.” He nodded as we walked.

“Hawk couldn’t teach me.”

“Hawk is more of an instinctive magic wielder. For this, I’m definitely better. You can do this. You can. This is going to happen.” The more he talked, the more he tried to convince us both that it would work out, the worse I felt.

11

“There’s no way he did that,” the girl in the blue cap said.

“I’m telling you, it happened,” the guy with flame-red hair replied.

“Old wives’ tale, if you ask me. There’s no way a Middling could get good enough at defense to fend off a Maker. No way in hell,” Blue Cap said, shaking her head.

I’d been half listening to them for the past fifteen minutes, simply because they’d been sitting at the bar in close proximity. Now? I was a hundred percent invested.

I grabbed my rag and started polishing the taps that were a little bit closer to the duo.

“He did,” Flame Red insisted.

“Then tell me how that’s possible.”

Flame Red glanced around, and I gave them my back as if I weren’t listening to a thing they said.

In a softer tone, Flame Red continued, “He went up into Razor Hills and called on Bautere.”

Blue Cap threw a hand up. “That’s insane. They’re more likely to kill you than help you.”

“I’m not sayingI’ddo it, but that’s the story. He went up there with an offering, and it taught him. If you have some serious magic coming after you, you do desperate things.”

I knew they weren’t talking about me, but it sure felt like that last sentence was directed right at me. Try having half of Xest coming for you. I didn’t know who this witch or warlock was, but I understood completely.

Bautere. I’d have to remember that.

Gregor walked over and leaned by the area I was cleaning. “Hey, you want to grab a cocoa after work?”

Was he asking me out? Or was this a friendly outing? Dating right now was nearly out of the question with the amount of problems I had going on. It would be like taking someone on a stroll over quicksand just to have some company.

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