Page 10 of The Most Wanted Witch

“Go.”

I put my hands on my hips as I eyed him. “You’re not going to try to come?”

“No.” He turned and walked back to Oscar. “Come on. Let’s get going. We’ll go out the back.”

Hawk was already out of the room as Oscar unfolded himself from the chair and followed.

“Where are you two going?” I asked. What was more important than harassing me?

“Nowhere,” Oscar said, laughing.

My crew, the gang I was stuck with and would probably die with, were a bunch of assholes.

I zipped my coat up until it swallowed the bottom half of my face and pulled my hat out of my pocket. That ate up everything north of my eyeballs, so there was only enough space to breathe and see. It was as covert as I could get.

It was a great meeting place because it obscured its inhabitants completely. It was a horrible meeting place if someone else happened to schedule a clandestine meeting at the same time or happened to be watching.

“You’re late.” Mertie was leaning on the trunk, smoking a cigarette.

“You said a quarter past moonrise. That’s not a precise time.”

“And what’s with the weird getup?” Her cigarette made rings of smoke as she motioned to my apparel.

“I was trying to be discreet, per request.”

“That’s not discreet. You look like a weirdo about to rob something.”

I quickly remembered how she’d never seemed to have any friends at the wish factory.

“What did you want? You’ve been avoiding me for months, and now I have to sneak around in the middle of the night.”

“You do realize you’re the most wanted witch in Xest? Of course I’m not going to talk to you in public. It could ruin my entire setup.”

The most wanted witch.She made it sound like my face was plastered on the side of buildings with the most unflattering picture they could find, and a reward posted below it. The situation wasn’tthatbad. It wasn’t like I didn’t see the list of people on the other side of our crusade, but they weren’t againstme. They didn’t like our side as a whole. There was also a long list of undecideds. Mertie didn’t know if maybe they secretly agreed with us, and therefore me.

“There are people that like me too.” There was no reason to make it sound quite so negative. The term “most wanted” might’ve gotten a bad rap from the police, but it could’ve been most wanted in a positive light, like most wanted gift of the year.

“Fine. You’resoloved.” She took another drag and exhaled on a groan. She blew out a cloud of smoke that would’ve made a city’s smog jealous, flinging ashes all about as she did.

The way she said it made it hard to argue the point without sounding like a narcissist. Must she always be so unpleasant? I used to think it was a demon thing, but I was beginning to believe it was a Mertie thing.

“Look, I’m here. What did you want to talk about?” I asked in the most civil tone I could muster, which was pretty decent, because I wanted this conversation done and over with.

“Just so you know, the people whodon’tlove you are having dreams of killing you.”

That was what I got for being civil. Her personality was allergic to polite discourse.

“Thank you for beating that to death. I appreciate it. Now, what did you want? It’s freezing out, and I’ve got a warm bed waiting.”

“Considering a lot of important people think you’re the key to saving this world, you’re not being very impressive right now. I justtoldyou why I called you here. They’re all having dreams of killing you. Like synced-up dreams of murder, almost like they’re being brainwashed or goaded by something dark and evil. That’s a problem for you.”

She gave me jazz hands, as if I needed the ta-da moment emphasized for my feeble mind to grasp the problem.

She could save the flourishes. It was sinking in just fine, like an iron tack hammered into my skull. They were having dreams of killing me, all together, a horde of them.

“How do you know? Are you having them too?” I took a harder look at the messenger, retreating a step. I was still underneath the canopy of the tree, but barely.

The proximity was suddenly a bit suffocating. Why had I insisted Hawk not come? Oh yeah, because I was tough and could handle my own business, and, most of all, I was pissed at him for thinking he knew best all the time.

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