The Witch's Key

Episode 6: So Many Questions

Luckily, Martin hadn't heard me come in, and so far as I could tell, he hadn't heard me leave, either. I would likely have some major explaining to do if he found out I'd skipped school, but for now, I had my mind on more important things.

I kept my eye on the compass in my hand as I followed its directions. A magical compass guided by a location spell worked much like a modern-day GPS system. It would lead you to where you wanted to go, turn by turn. That way, you didn't end up trying to swim across a lake to reach your destination.

What it didn't tell you was how far away your target was from your current location. I didn't have a car, or even a bike, so I really hoped Kai was somewhere close and that he hadn't just used whatever crazy superspeed powers he seemed to have to teleport to school from Mars or something.

If he was even a couple miles away, it was going to take me forever to get to him.

Especially in this heat.

It was still pretty early in the morning by the time I started walking, but it was probably eighty-five degrees already. By noon, it would be over ninety.

I walked faster, turning west on Broad Street and then making a right turn onto Sanders. About ten minutes later, I was walking down East Hathaway when the needle on the compass started spinning again. At first, I worried maybe it had broken from the spell, but then, just like before, it suddenly clicked into place.

The needle now pointed directly to my left, and when I turned my body in that direction, I realized I was standing right in front of a small blue house with a well-maintained lawn and a bed of pansies out front. Frilly lace curtains framed a bay window in front of the house, and a pink butterfly windcatcher attached to a pole in the yard waved in the breeze.

I raised an eyebrow.

Was this where Kai lived?

Maybe he lived with his grandmother or something. This was definitely not what I was expecting.

I walked up the sidewalk, my heart beating faster with each step. Would he even open the door? He was not going to be happy to see me, and I hadn't even really thought about what I would do once I actually found him.

What was my plan?

Seriously, I'd just walked for twenty minutes and hadn't thought through a plan? What kind of natural-born Slayer was I?

I took a deep breath and stepped onto the porch of the blue house, but before I could knock, the white door swung open.

Kai towered in the doorway, shaking his head.

"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you?"

"Peyton is gone," I said. "Did you take her?"

I suddenly realized that deep down, I already knew he didn't. If I'd really believed he was capable of that, I never would have come here alone. I might be naive, but I wasn't stupid.

He studied my face, and I forced myself to meet his eyes without fear.

"Why did you come here?" he asked. "I thought I was clear about my feelings on this. Besides, you know Peyton isn't here."

"I'm here because I need your help," I said. "You can't really expect me to stay out of it after this, can you? Besides, if you don't invite me in, I'm just going to stand on your front porch for the rest of the day singing show tunes. That might get some of your neighbors asking questions you don't want to answer."

He barely held back a smile before bowing his head and opening the door in a grand, sweeping gesture. "Mi casa es su casa," he said. "Come on in."

My jaw tensed as I crossed the threshold of his house. I never really thought of myself as a stupid person, but yeah, this was probably really dumb. No one knew where I was right now, and if I'd misjudged him, I would be the sixth missing girl in this town.