The Witches (Book #1)

ℭ𝔬𝔪𝔪𝔬𝔫 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔘𝔫𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔱𝔥

Mr. Wang gets in his car, parked on the sidewalk near my gate. He doesn't see me in the dark and pulls away from the curb by the time I get to the driveway.

I run for my house, anger propelling me forward. "Yoomi!' I yell as I open the door, but there is no need. She is standing fifteen feet away from me at the small table covered in mail. "What was Mr. Wang doing here?"

"He was helping to fix the window."

"In my bedroom?" I ask, getting louder.

"Yes."

"How did that happen? That is not okay." My world is spinning out of control.

She stiffens. "I met him at the hardware store, and he brought over his repair guy. Really, Suzy, I don't appreciate being grilled on this subject."

I narrow my eyes. "My dad is in the hospital."

She puts down the mail. "I know exactly where your father is. Don't you dare ever make an insinuation like that again."

I march straight to my room and slam the door. I glare at the new glass in my window and pace around in circles.

"Ghost?" I say out loud. "Hello? Where are you?"

Silence.

"Go ahead. Ignore me. I'll just go straight downstairs and destroy that painting of Bona."

I head for my door, but before I get there, he blocks my path. I almost walk smack into him. His hands wrap around my arms. He squeezes so hard it hurts.

"The arrogance." His gray eyes fix on mine. "Summoning me like a dog." His accent's more pronounced when he's annoyed.

"I don't care if you don't like me," I say. "I don't like you, either."

"Keep my sister's name off your lips."

I lift my chin and use the voice my dad uses when doing business with difficult people. "I want to make a deal with you." He relaxes his grip a little, and I can tell I've surprised him. "Help me figure out if I'm cursed and how to break it, and I'll leave this house."

He lets go of me. "I have no reason to trust you."

"Then we're even."

"I could make you leave without the bargain."

"Yeah, but I could do a lot of damage before I go. There's all kinds of stuff around here covered in Siberian Chrysanthemum."

There is a long pause. "Yes."

I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. "Good. Where do we start?"

"That is not something I know."

"But you've been around since the three hundreds, watching people. You have to know something."

"I have not been in Manyeo since the late sixteen hundreds."

"At all?"

"No."

"Where were you?"

"Other places."

Could he be more vague? "Why?"

"That is my business."

"Okay, fine. What do you know about my family?"

"Very little. I know that Bae Ilsung was well respected in the seventeenth century and quite influential in Suwoon, that his son Bae Changbin followed in his footsteps, and that his tenth or eleventh great-granddaughter, Bae Sooji, is common."

"Did you just call me common?"

"I believe I did."

I clench my teeth. "You're a jackass."

"Common and uncouth."

"I wasn't born in the sixteen hundreds! Girls curse. Get used to it."

"I would rather not."

I grab my head in frustration. "Fine. Don't. Let's go to my grandmother's secret study and I'll show you what I found."

"The study is mine. I designed it."

"I don't care whose study it is. Just meet me there."

He disappears. I kick my boots off to avoid making noise in the hallways and close my door gently behind me. I hope he's not a figment of my imagination. Who in their right mind would create an imaginary person who insults them?

There's no sign of Yoomi as I creep through the hallways and enter the library, but I don't turn on the lights, just to be safe. I navigate the tables and books with the light from my phone. I run my fingers along the arch of the brick fireplace and pull the hook.

The door pops open, and a soft glow illuminates the end of the hallway. Great. The ghost took the lantern. It must be convenient to disappear from one place and appear in another.

When I reach the top of the stairs, he's standing in the middle of the room on a faded rug. For a second, I realize how out of place I am compared to him. These antiques match him, make him more attractive and proud than he already is.

"What's your name? I can't keep calling you dark-haired dude in my head."

He frowns. "I would rather you did not call me that, as well. My name is Nam Joohyuk."

Odd name, but it suits him. I walk to my grandmother's desk and sit down, thumbing through her journal.

"Here." I show him the entry referencing the curse, and he moves close to me.

While he reads, I sift through papers for the deaths of the descendants my grandmother mapped out. I don't have to look far; the folder rests on the top of a nearby pile.

There are fifty or so pages of death statistics in the folder. I flip through and find that she circled three years in red. And in those years, all the descendants she was tracking died in a very short time frame. My stomach drops. This doesn't bode well for my dad. I shake my head and try to concentrate on the numbers. I don't understand the pattern, but I can see there is one.

Joohyuk hands me the journal. "An old woman's diary does not constitute evidence of a curse."

If didn't want to figure this out so badly, I would tell him what he could do with his comment. "Look, this is where she mapped out the deaths of the lineages. It includes all the main families involved with the Witch Trials." I hand him the folder. "My life is falling apart, and if my halmeoni's right and it's because of some stupid curse, then I want to know."

He takes the death records.

"I know this whole thing sounds ridiculous," I say. "No one knows that more than me. I don't even believe in ghosts. Manyeo has warped my mind."

"Spirits," he replies.

"What?"

"We are called spirits. 'Ghost' is a vulgar term."

"Well, pardonnez-moi." I can't help myself.

He raises an eyebrow. "This will take careful consideration. The records are incomplete in recent years. I will amend them."

"Great." Before the word leaves my mouth, he's gone.

I sit back in my grandmother's chair and push my hair away from my face. I hope I didn't just make a very stupid deal.