Page 42 of The Nowhere Witch

He tried to crawl a few steps away from me, but I followed him. “Nothing. Just that you were very strong and very important. That I should drop you off somewhere in the vicinity of the Sweet Shop before cutting you loose.”

That made zero sense, and yet I didn’t think he was lying. Braid and Spike were grunt workers. I’d met enough of them at this point to tell. They took orders. They didn’t mastermind anything.

“And then what? Someone was going to kill me there?”

“I don’t know. I was supposed to just leave you there.” He moved back and then fell on his ass.

I pointed my finger at him, jabbing it at the air like I could actually do something on purpose. “Don’t lie to me. What else? There had to be something else.”

“That’s it. I swear!” He put hands together in front of me. “Please, I was just doing a job. I can find the note and show you if you don’t kill me.” He sniffed suspiciously.

He was telling the truth, or something close, even if it did make zero sense. Whoever had hired him had clearly put the fear of God into him.

“Fine. I believe you, but if I ever find out you lied to me…”

“You won’t.” He got back on his knees and then fell backward again in his need to scramble away from me, crawling a few feet before getting to his feet. He kept his eyes on me as he circled until he got far enough away to start running again.

If possible, this place just got stranger. I made my way back toward Zab’s with no more information than before. Why would someone grab me and drop me off in the middle of the road, right near the Sweet Shop, of all places? An area where I might have some allies? Were they hoping another herd of grouslies would get me?

Zab was standing on his stoop with the two abandoned cocoas. “Have some pressing business?”

“Something like that. Can you heat those up? I always boil them over when I try.”

“Already done,” he said, handing me back a toasty cup as we walked inside his place.

I tossed my jacket on his couch. “I just saw Braid and Spike. I was trying to get answers about who hired them to bring me back here.”

“And?”

“Clueless, as expected. Said they got an envelope with cash and instructions not to hurt me and to drop me off near the Sweet Shop.” I sipped my cocoa as his face skewed, probably a mirror image of mine a few minutes ago.

He put his cocoa down as he stared at me, as if I’d have more answers.

When there was no more information forthcoming, he said, “But that makes no sense.”

“I know. If it was a setup of some sort to try to sabotage me, why stress that I shouldn’t be hurt? Why drop me so close to here and possible allies?”

He took another couple of sips of cocoa before he said, “It almost sounds as if this was someone trying to help you,” shaking his head.

“Why not come forward after I’m here?”

He was shaking his head still. Then he squinted and leaned close to my hair.

“What? Is there a bug or something?” I asked, running a hand through my locks.

“No. You’re turning, is all,” he said, as if I’d have a clue what he was talking about.

“Are you saying I have a grey hair?”

“Looks like a pink one and a turquoise not far from it. Interesting.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t wait for him to explain and went to his bathroom, leaning in close to the mirror. He was right. I had weird colors growing in my hair. “What is this? Is it a curse or something?” I asked Zab, who’d followed me in and was looking for more strands of oddness in the back of my head.

“No more a curse than mine. Just happens with some people. Although typically when it happens, it’s one color. I guess your magic shines a multitude. Never seen that before.”

“You mean you don’t dye the tips of your hair blue?”

He laughed. “That would be way too much work. It’s just the color it grows, sometimes brighter or paler depending on how much magic I’ve been using.”

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