Page 17 of The Most Wanted Witch

“I wanted to talk to you if you had a second.”

Pre-glowing alley revelation, Bibbi would’ve just spoken. Now she stared at the roll, waiting for an invite.

“We live together,” I said. “You can’t start walking on eggshells around me or it’s going to be hard to coexist. Whatever it is, spit it out.”

That was all it took. She dropped her roll to the table and turned to face me directly. “I’m sorry if I looked at you like you were a freak last night, but that was just sort of surprising. I mean, you, it.” She lifted a finger toward my hair. “You understand, right?”

Everyone else in the room froze. Seemed there was a lot of interest in my reaction.

“It threw me for a bit too,” I said. “Don’t worry. You weren’t thinking anything different than I was.”

There were some definite quiet sighs going on around the room.

“Look, even if you are connected or maybe a little freakish in the magic department, we’re still tight, right?” Bibbi asked, as if I’d be the one kicking her to the curb.

“I’m the weirdo, remember? You’d have to get rid of me. That’s how these things work,” I said.

“I don’t care if you’re a weirdo. Weirdos are much more interesting, in my opinion,” Zab said.

“I already knew she was a freak. You people are a little slow on the uptake,” Oscar added, laughing.

I joined him, never feeling so good to be called a freak. Maybe I was a freak, but no one seemed to care, and that felt better than trying to pretend.

The monkeys walked in, little bags in their hands, and cleared their throats.

“We wanted to let you all know we will be leaving,” Speak No Evil said.

No one spoke.

“If anyone cares, we will be going to Zark’s, where we won’t be artistically censored any longer.” His little chin went up, and the other two followed suit.

No one said anything, and they were clearly waiting for something.

“Good luck to you,” Bibbi said.

“Yes, I’m sorry that we didn’t appreciate your talents,” I added. I would’ve said anything to get them out of here.

“Yes, us too,” Zab said.

“Thank you. Perhaps next time you won’t make the same error.” Speak No Evil nodded, and then the three of them walked out.

Hawk walked in from the office a few minutes later.

“Did you see the monkeys leaving?” Zab asked.

“I paid Zark a lot of coins to take them. They better be leaving.”

“Now it makes sense,” Oscar said as the rest of us nodded.

Hawk tensed where he was standing on the other side of the room. He turned in the direction of the office, and I could nearly feel his hackles rise. Without saying a word, he walked back into the office.

I glanced at Oscar, who was also staring in the direction of the door. He took one look at me, and I could read his expression clearly. No way we werebothwrong.

We shot to our feet at the same time.

“And here I thought I’d have a relaxing morning,” Musso said.

“What’s going on?” Zab asked.

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