Page 89 of The Nowhere Witch
The monkeys broke into theRockytheme as I passed. I gave them a slight nod and then tossed a loose coin from my pocket into their jar.
As I sipped my tea, Zab walked in and dropped down onto the other side of the couch.
“How are you doing?” he asked, smiling. “Been a busy couple of days.”
“You know, I’m doing surprisingly well. Maybe you get used to being almost killed?” I sipped my tea and nibbled on one of the cookies I’d found in the station.
“Couldn’t say.” Zab stuck his bottom lip out slightly. “People don’t typically try to kill me, but please, explain. I’d like to hear this.” He turned slightly, sinking deeper into the couch and giving me his full attention.
“Well, it’s strange. That first time, when the grouslies nearly killed me, I could barely think past the shock of it all. I might’ve tried to act okay, but I was rattled pretty bad.”
He nodded. “I remember. You looked it.”
“Then the dragon incident happened. That was pretty frightening. Thenithad tried to get me to kill myself. Then Raydam, and the giant bat today. I’m starting to get the hang of this almost-getting-killed thing.”
“You’re doing very well at it, that’s for certain.”
“Yeah, I guess it just gets easier. Sure feels like it. I’m a little sore and tired, but there’s none of that leftover shock. It’s more along the lines of: yeah, they want me dead. Now I want them dead, and let’s just get on with things.”
Zab tilted his head back and laughed. “You know, you sound a little like Hawk right now.”
Knowing Hawk, they’d probably tried to kill him way more times than me. It made sense.
Musso walked in, followed by Bibbi.
“You did good today, kid,” he said with a look that was bursting with pride, like I was his daughter.
“Thanks, Musso.”
“Amazing,” Bibbi said, taking the seat beside me. “And your hair is totally rocking.”
“Thanks, Bibbi.” How had I ever disliked this girl?
“There’s the superstar,” Oscar said, walking in. “You killed it today.”
“Thanks, Oscar.”
We spent the next couple of hours rehashing every moment of the day until, one by one, they got up and went home. I didn’t have to go anywhere. I already was home.
But I had another errand that had to be done before I could go to sleep.
I got up to grab my jacket from the front office but paused. Using just enough magic to not set anything else on fire, I lit a candle. I put it on my desk and sat down, looking about the place. Things were going to get rough around here, worse than they’d ever been. I’d felt true evil, and it was coming for me. I couldn’t say I regretted coming back, though, not even for a second. This was where I was supposed to be. I’d spent enough years trying to swim upstream to know when I’d found my place.
A slip shot out of Helen, tumbled in the air, and landed on my desk, face-up.
Hawk wasn’t the back cloud. It was me.
“I should’ve known.” I pocketed the note as I laughed. I wasn’t mad, not even a little. That black cloud had helped me get back here. “It’s okay. It worked out for the best.”
Another slip shot out.
I might’ve had something to do with Braid and Spike abducting you as well.
“Thank you.” I pocketed that one to save as well. When the all-knowing wish machine thought you should be here, it had to be so. “Anything else you want to confess?”
I waited, but there were no more slips or gears.
“I’ll be back. Going to go take a walk around as a formal citizen before I call it a night. See what might be lurking before I hit the hay.”