Page 7 of The Most Wanted Witch

“Bibbi, you don’t have to raise your hand,” Hawk said.

Bibbi smiled as she slowly lowered it. “How are we supposed to fight something when we don’t know what it is? We don’t know what to target. We can’t even locate it to try to burn it and find out if it likes fire, or try to drown it to discover if it breathes in water. I mean, we can’t even see it. We need to change up our game plan before no one even shows up for meetings anymore and we’re a scattered group essentially fighting on our own.” She scanned the room, looking at the few of us left.

And I’d thought Bibbi was going to be useless other than moral support, which was good in its own way. Who knew she’d be so brilliant at bringing our failures to the forefront?

“We all know that, Bibbi,” Hawk said, crossing his arms. “Was there something else?”

“Well, yes. I have an idea.” She was beginning to wring her hands, and then she got to her feet, as if she couldn’t stay seated any longer.

“What is it, Bibbi? We all want to hear,” I said. What a bald-faced lie that was. The mental groans that were surely echoing throughout the room were nearly deafening my senses. Still, if Hawk was going to make us do this weekly, when I could’ve already been doing my rounds, then why should I be the only tortured soul?

Bibbi shot me a co-conspirator smile. We’d come a long way since I’d first seen her stealing my job. Now I viewed her as a helpful replacement, when we had work, anyway. That had dropped off significantly with contractors not wanting to leave their house or declare a side, which working with us was viewed as doing.

Bibbi kept her attention on me. “Hawk has one of those stones, right? A testing stone? The kind that flashes colors and such?”

Hawk’s glare spiked a few degrees hotter as he stared in my direction. There was the slightest shake of his head. Clearly, he wanted me to say no. But why in the world would I do that? He had one, and if she had a good idea, we should hear her out.

“He does,” I said, pretending I’d missed the message. If he wanted help, he had to take everyone’s ideas seriously. He couldn’t rule every move of the group, no matter how much he wanted.

“Is there any correlation between colors and magic?” she asked.

I turned to Hawk. His glare looked no friendlier than it had a second ago. “Is there?”

His jaw shifted. “It’s not an exact science, but there’s a correlation between brightness and strength. Sometimes colors indicate certain things as well.”

“Why don’t we see if we can bring the stone closer to where it’s present and see what happens?” Bibbi said, near bouncing.

Hawk cleared his throat. “Because we can’t pin it down, remember?”

Bibbi didn’t lose any of her bounce. “We know it’s connected to the grouslies somehow, and we also know how they like to attack lone people. If they’re connected to it, they might show something. We could lay a trap and use them.”

I nodded in Bibbi’s direction. “It’s more than we know now. I think it’s worth a try. If we can lure it in, we might be able to find out something.” Hawk wanted a contribution. I was contributing. He couldn’t dictate how I contributed.

“How do we lay a trap for them?” Oscar asked, someone else finally speaking. It was as if the rest of the room sensed the war brewing between Hawk and me and hadn’t wanted to declare themselves on our personal lists ofForandAgainst.

“I’d do it, but they won’t come near me.” I wasn’t sure how many of us were aware of that, but it had started to feel like I was lugging around a sled of boulders behind me. Now that I’d put it out there, I’d finally be able to park the sled. It wasn’t like people didn’t suspect I was different. It shouldn’t come as a surprise.

From the swivel of heads, maybe more surprising than I’d guessed? I’d imagined Hawk had told some of them. Did the man confide in no one? Stupid question.

Even in this weird world, I was top of the heap. But there was only a two-second glitch before the awkwardness was broken by Bibbi. “And I thought I just envied your clothes. That’ssocool.”

“What happened since the last time they attacked you?” Zab asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe they decided they didn’t like how I tasted.” The grouslies definitely remembered me, but it wasn’t my taste that bothered them. That wouldn’t make them take off if I got too close, but I’d shared enough awkward truths for now. “Point is, I can’t be bait.”

“I’ll do it,” Bibbi said without a second of hesitation. “I’ll be the bait.”

The room went silent.

“Um, oh,” Bertha said. “That would be…”

Nice? Clearly it wouldn’t be. Not at all.

I sat up. Fun and games had officially ended. “Maybe someone else—”

“Why someone else? You don’t think I can handle it? I can handle it.” All her bounce was instantly gone, as if I’d popped a smiley balloon and it was just a sad, saggy piece of yellow flop.

I looked over at Hawk, wondering why he wasn’t stepping up. Why didn’t he offer to do it? He couldn’t let Bibbi be the bait when he was so much more equipped to handle that kind of situation.

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