Page 88 of The Nowhere Witch

I closed my eyes for a second, trying to keep myself together. He’d shown. He hadn’t hung me out to dry.

“We’ll need to count them again,” Ringlet said.

“Might take a while,” Hawk said.

“And why is that Mr. Hawk?” Lead Hag asked.

“Quite a few more have shown.”

“How many are there?” Tall Hag asked, as if outraged.

“Might be easier to come see for yourself,” Hawk said. The hags ran out the door.

“Ye of little faith,” Hawk whispered as I came close.

“Past tends to be future,” I shot back, right before I walked outside. It was the last thing I was capable of saying, because in front of me was a crowd so big, it had to be half of Xest. Probably exactly half. It was every patron I’d ever waited on. Every client I’d made a deal with. It was every person who’d ever nodded at me as I passed them on the street. Even the witch who had the ghost who’d gotten me picked up on a bounty was here. They’d all come to be character witnesses.

“I told you he was coming,” Oscar said as he walked over to me. “Hey, I thought you didn’t cry?”

“I’m not crying.” My eyes might’ve been watering, but if none of the tears escaped, it didn’t happen.

“Getting a little too close for my tastes,” he said, making a show of taking a large step away from me, smiling as he did.

The hags were looking about the place, talking to themselves and looking like they wanted to strangle someone.

Lead Hag turned to me. “We’ll count the witnesses, but this doesn’t mean you will be allowed to stay, considering the other situations we’ve been hearing about.”

“We know what happened in the Unsettled Lands,” Ringlet said.

I was getting tossed out. It was a setup. They were kicking me to the curb, back to Rest. They’d never intended to let me stay.

Hawk stepped forward. “There’s a lot of people who are interested in hearing the outcome of this particular case from theirelectedimmigration officials. When was the next election, by the way? Because I looked it up, and from what I saw, we’re about a thousand years overdue.”

The hags turned to each other, and even though I couldn’t hear them, there was a lot of pointing, and it looked like they were yelling at each other.

Hawk walked up to them.

“I’d like a minute alone with you.”

They stopped arguing and looked at him, then each other, as if debating if it was a good idea. Finally, Lead Hag gave a nod, and the three hags walked into the cottage with him.

Oscar walked over. “Don’t worry. He’s got ways to fix things. He’ll handle it.”

Zab stepped over to my other side. “He does.”

The hags and Hawk walked back out of the cottage.

The Lead Hag stepped in front. “Tippi, the Whimsy witch who wasn’t, also known as the Nowhere witch, is now an official resident of Xest, until the time of an unfortunate death or death by depletion of magic. Our ruling is final.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, her and the cottage were gone.

A roar went through the crowd, as if they were as happy as I was. I looked around at the smiling and laughing faces and realized they were feeling some of the things bubbling inside me. And not just Zab and Musso, but all of them. Every time I’d gone up to someone and asked if they’d be a reference, something in me had knotted up; I’d feel like I was weighing them down with my issues.

Scanning the crowd now, that wasn’t the case. They’d wanted to be here for me.

34

I walked downstairs, heading to the back room to get a tea, even though the Sweet Shop was still probably open at this time.