The Witch's Key

Episode 7: More To It Than That

Blythe Greer scared the crap out of me. I'd never seen her smile. Not once the entire time I'd known her.

Even her ravens all seemed to have hard expressions when they delivered notes from her.

I'd grown to fear the sight of her, even as a child, because whenever she appeared in person, it was almost always to deliver bad news or to reprimand my parents in some way.

I needed to tread carefully here.

"I haven't done anything to interfere directly in any investigation into the missing girls," I said.

"Missing girls?" Martin asked. "How on earth did you get tangled up in that mess?"

I sighed. At least Ms. Greer hadn't been here long enough to explain everything to Martin.

"It's all anyone is talking about at school," I said. I looked Ms. Greer directly in the eyes. "The school the Council insisted I attend, by the way."

She had literally no expression. Unless "harsh" was an expression.

"The girl who was taken today was my friend," I said.

I didn't offer anything else, because frankly, I didn't know how much the Council knew. The fact that they knew anything kind of gave me the willies, because I hadn't really done anything beyond the locating spell. I had no idea they were watching me this closely.

"I've done nothing wrong," I said.

"Where were you just now?" Ms. Greer asked. "At school like you were supposed to be?"

I shifted my weight and adjusted the bag on my shoulder. "I was visiting another friend I'd made at school the past couple days."

I glanced at Uncle Martin, hoping maybe his expression would give me some clue as to what kind of trouble I was in here. Truth be told, I really hadn't done anything illegal. Not yet, anyway.

I had used my magic a few times, but I hadn't done anything that uninitiated witches aren't sanctioned to do. Why, exactly, was Ms. Greer here in Newcastle?

"See, she was just visiting a friend," Uncle Martin said. "I told you she's done nothing wrong. A mirror spell is not a punishable offense if no one sees it. Why are you here, Ms. Greer? Let's get down to it. I'm too old to play games, especially where my ward is concerned."

Blythe Greer kept her eyes on mine for a long, silent moment. It was enough to make my hands sweat and my mouth go dry, but I at least managed to keep my knees from knocking together. Audibly, anyway.

"Put your bag down and sit," Ms. Greer said, motioning to the dusty couch in the formal sitting room no one ever used.

I glanced at Martin, and he nodded slightly.

"You may go," she said to Martin, not even bothering to look at him.

His mouth opened for a moment, and I thought he was going to tell her to stuff it at first. After a few seconds, though, he excused himself and walked away.

Crap. Now, I really was on my own.

I did as Ms. Greer asked and set my bag down on the floor next to the couch. I dusted off a small section of the velvet surface and sat down, coughing as a cloud of dust surrounded me. Man, when was the last time anyone actually sat on this thing? 1902?

If I ever did hope to have friends who came to visit and hang out the way we'd done at Peyton's, we were going to need to make some serious changes around here.

Maybe Peyton's parents would be so grateful once I helped save her life that they'd come to our house and redecorate the entire place for free. All new furniture and paint. Give the old place a facelift.