Page 68 of The Most Wanted Witch

Hawk’s voice was deep and rough, and somehow reminded me a little of how he’d sounded the other night. There was never a good time to think about that, but this moment was definitely wrong. Very, very wrong.

I kicked Marvin’s chair again, pulling his attention to me. “We’ve got an angel and a demon breathing down our necks, ready to take over. You think you’re going to get to keep your little labor camp here if they step in? You won’t. And you know why? I’m going to be the first person pointing at this place and telling them to dismantle it stone by stone. If you know something, you better spill it now, because youwillbe going down with the rest of us if they take over.”

He slumped back, almost as if he’d realized he’d lost a war he’d just discovered he was in. “So the rumors are true?”

“Yes,” Hawk said.

Marvin’s shoulders fell and he looked like he’d just aged a decade. “There’s a hill, but I don’t know what it is. I stumbled upon it and realized something was different.”

“Keep going,” I said.

“I used to buy furs from Bautere and some of his people. Everyone knows they have the best pelts. Sometimes I’d bring another witch or warlock with me to help carry them back. I noticed that the Whimsys I brought with me on these trips seemed to live a bit longer, but only if we went one particular route, by this hill area.” He shrugged. “So, I started only going that way, and maybe I bought more furs than I used to. I didn’t realize there was a problem until things started to get weird in the unsettled lands. I still don’t know if it had anything to do with me, but I stopped then and there.”

He slumped in his chair, looking as if he had no fight left in him at all.

I might never get a better chance to ask.

“Did you know Jossi Tudor? She was a Whimsy witch here. Did you bring her to this place?” I asked. It would tie it all together. Had she somehow gotten this magic and then passed it on to me?

His head jerked back as he stared at me for a second. “No. I never took her there. I found her too irritating to be around. Why? Who’s she to you?” Marvin took a hard look at me as if trying to connect this with the present.

“No one,” Hawk said, stopping me from answering.

If Marvin believed Hawk or not, he didn’t have any desire to fight. “That’s all I ever did, and I stopped before things got crazy.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you stopped the very second,” I added.

Hawk stood and nodded to the door.

I stayed put as he made his way out and then stopped, waiting for me.

I looked at Marvin and then back at Hawk before joining him outside the office.

“That’s it? We’re leaving him?” I asked, as he took another few steps away.

“Yes.” He kept walking.

After a few seconds of debating, I followed him.

I waited until we were away from the building before I said, “As far as an interrogation goes, that sucked.”

“He was telling the truth.”

“So? I think he deserved a few punches anyway.” I might have to consider trading Hawk in for Bibbi.

“I’d rather leave him alive in case we need him for something later.” He kept walking.

Alive? I hadn’t planned on killing the guy. Only rough him up a bit.

“Well? What do you think? Any thoughts on our next move? Because that didn’t seem to help matters.” I hoped he had something, because I had zero ideas of where to go from here.

“Other than I think there’s a connection? No. But maybe we should at least confirm thereisa connection with the hill.”

“Bibbi style? We bring the stone to there?” I pulled my jacket closer as the few people out and about crossed the street a few blocks away. The buffer zone had definitely grown in the last month.

“Yes. We bring the stone to the hill as soon as I get it back,” Hawk said.

Back from where? Did he really need to lend it out? Did he not know it was sort of important?

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