The Witches (Book #1)

𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔅𝔦𝔱 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶𝔬𝔫𝔢

Double Update!

☽🔮🃏🌕🕸✨🍃🕯🧿🌙🍄☾

Line dancing, costume parties, and public speaking are at the top of my slow-death-through-embarrassment list. My clothes are spread out on every available piece of furniture in my room. I so wish I didn't have to go to this thing.

"Suzy! Door!" yells Yoomi from downstairs.

I glance at my phone. It's 8:17 p.m. Could Sehun be that early? I scoop up some clothes and shove them back into Bona's armoire in a messy pile. "Coming!"

I make it down the first couple of stairs before I stop dead in my tracks. Yoomi's talking to Seulgi in the foyer.

"Hey," I say, and they look up.

"I didn't know you girls were going to a theme party," Yoomi says in a friendly tone as I make my way down the rest of the stairs.

That's because we haven't spoken a word to each other since last night. I shrug.

"I might have something in my closet for you," Yoomi says. This is a perfect example of our current relationship. Fight, and then ignore the fact that the fight ever happened.

"I'll be fine."

"Let me know if you change your mind," she says, and clicks down the hall.

Seulgi is wearing a flattering black Victorian dress with a full skirt and a high neck. Her hair is fashioned in an elaborate version of her ballerina bun.

"Whoa. You look awesome." There's no way I'm going to be able to match that.

"Thanks." She smiles.

"I was just getting ready. You want to come up?" She obviously came for some specific reason, and I don't want Yoomi overhearing whatever that reason is. She already thinks I'm unstable; all I need is for her to hear I'm inadvertently practicing witchcraft.

"Sure. This is a beautiful old hanok. I always wondered what it looked like inside."

We walk up the stairs together. "I spent about three days getting lost in it."

"I can imagine." She takes note of the dimly lit sconces in the hallway.

"Here we are," I say, opening the door to my room.

"It's like stepping back in time." She repeats my exact thoughts when I saw this place.

"So what's up? I know you didn't just happen to be in the neighborhood."

"No, I didn't." She looks down at the antique silk purse at her side and pulls out an envelope. "This is a letter from your grandmother to mine. I found it when I was helping my mother go through some old boxes this summer. It talks about the mysterious deaths."

"So you did know about them?" I was right in the garden. There was definitely something they knew and didn't tell me.

"Sort of. To be honest, I thought your grandmother was, well, unbalanced. It was my grandmother's response that worried me. It was shoved into the same envelop. She never sent it.

"Okay," I say, unsure.

"Sooji, how did you know other lineages saw blurred faces?"

"Is that what that letter says? The one from your grandmother?"

"Yes. I showed it to Wendy, and she agreed that there might be something to it. Then you come into school saying that other lineages saw blurred faces."