Page 65 of The Nowhere Witch

I walked over to the other couch and sat, leaning back the way he was. “Fine. Then we sit and wait.”

An hour in and I was already second-guessing my vow to wait him out. Why wasn’t I telling him? Oh, yeah, I was making a point. At least he was miserable too. I could tell by the way he was getting up for yet another cup of coffee.

“I could force you to tell me,” he said, displaying the second chink in his armor, a weakness I’d suspected but was now sure of.

Oh, he was cracking.

“Why does it matter? It’s my knee.”

“You work in my office, sleep in my building—that makes you untouchable. If I have to interrogate every single person that lives in Xest to find out how these accidents are happening, I will.”

Suddenly my armor had a chink as well. An image of him going building to building, questioning everyone as if I couldn’t take care of myself? It was too much. They’d think I was weak. It would set my reputation back for a decade. Right now, I was the Nowhere witch. What would I be after that? I hadn’t thought there was something worse than Whimsy witch, and I’d been wrong then. Would he really take it that far? The two of us had crossed many lines, but this one was different. This could destroy my reputation.

“You’d make people think I can’t take care of myself?”

With a glance at my knee, he said, “Clearly you can’t.”

“Nobody did this to me, or no one around here.”

“Then who?”

“Tell me why you deserve to know anything that happens with me. Answer that and I’ll answer you.”

“Because whether you believe it or not, I give a fuck if you’re getting hurt.”

Damn this man. The way he said it, the heat in his eyes, it was hard not to believe him. There was also the problem that it was very possible he would go to every person in Xest. He’d won—again—and, if possible, I was even angrier about this than everything else, because it came down to the same problem I always had with him.

“I’m getting hurt practicing how to protect myself. There you go. There’s the sordid truth. Are you happy? It’s not a marauding gang of haters. That’s all you’re going to get, and it’s more than you deserve.”

“Why didn’t you come to me for help?”

“Because I didn’t want to. You don’t help. You force me into doing what you think is best. You don’t consider what I want, what I think is best for me. WhywouldI come to you?”

I got up and walked to the door, shaking by the time I got there.

“You’ve got your answer, now let me out,” I said, pounding a fist on the cinder blocks. Then the wall was gone. I didn’t know if he’d done it or if I’d managed, but I wasn’t going to stick around long enough to ask.

26

Gregor walked into the office with two cocoas. The looks he got from everyone there, you would’ve thought he was in a clown outfit.

He nodded to the rest of the room as he made his way to my desk. “I was in the area, so I figured you might want a cocoa. I brought a second for…” He glanced around, looking at the floor.

“Dusty?” He’d brought the dust bunny cocoa? Okay, the kiss hadn’t been good. Still, how did you toss someone who’d bring your pet cocoa?

“Yeah.” He placed both cups in front of me. “You around later?” he asked quietly, his eyes shooting around to the audience we had.

Even the monkeys were watching. It was like these savages never saw someone get asked on a date before.

Zab shot me a look, as if I needed a reminder that I had to practice wards tonight. All I thought about were charms, wards, notions, defense, and references.

“I’ve got some things I need to do with Zab, but maybe tomorrow?”

“Sounds good,” Gregor said. Zab, Musso, and Bibbi tried not to stare at him as he left, but they didn’t do a great job of it.

Bibbi was chewing on the end of her pencil, staring at me.

“So, you think that’s what I should be shooting for?” she asked. “Like, that’s a good pick?”

---