The Witches (Book #1)

𝔄 ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔴 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔑𝔬𝔬𝔰𝔢

"Did you see someone?" Joohyuk asks. He's almost frantic.

"No, but I heard a woman crying."

He blinks out. I still think Sehun's story is bull, but there might be some piece of truth in it. Like the birds piece. Birds, feathers, crows. It doesn't take a genius to put these things together. Thinking about Sehun hurts more than I thought it would. I can't believe he would talk to the Lineages about me. I bet they had a good laugh about how he fooled me into thinking he liked me.

I flip through the pages of a book without reading it. My eyes well up, and I push my feelings away, hiding them with all the others that I can't deal with right now. Sehun's not the first friend who's turned on me, and I'm sure he won't be the last. This is exactly why I don't let people near me.

This dimly lit room that seemed sort of old-world romantic when Joohyuk was in it suddenly feels isolated and devoid of oxygen. I prop open the wooden door to get some air, and there's a freshmen from my school in the book aisle. He eyes me curiously. I return to the round table to pack my things up.

"Bae?" he says.

"Huh?" My heart beats a little faster.

"I saw your speech today." He leans against the doorway. He isn't particularly tall, but he's stocky and takes up most of the entrance.

"Okay." I eye the space between him and the doorway, trying to decide whether or not I could squeeze past him if he turns out to be a creep.

"I know all about your family."

"Great." I'm not sure if he's making fun of me or trying to talk to me.

"Can I take a picture of you?" he asks, pulling out his phone.

"Seriously? No, go be a creep somewhere else." I hate people to stop hating me, not treat me like a sideshow.

"Kimchi," he says. Only before I say "What?" that little punk flashes his phone light in my face and takes the worst picture ever. Then he runs down the aisle, laughing.

"I will break that phone!" I yell after him as the white-haired librarian comes around the corner. I'm developing a phobia about that library.

"Keep your voice down," she says. "Five minutes until closing." Then she peers at me in a you-know-what-you-did way and walks off.

I grab my shoulder bag and head toward the stairs. Why did that boy take a picture of me? Is this a sign that people might not hate me, or does that just mean they're finding new ways to torment me.

As I exit the library, I fold my arms against the cold night air.

"More spells," says Joohyuk, blinking in.

"What?"

"The house . . ." He looks more agitated than when he left. "There are stones by the windows and doors bound with string and sealed with black wax. I do not know the exact meaning, and I do not dare cross the barrier."

I try to remember if I saw that, but in all likelihood I wouldn't have noticed. "But you're already dead. What's the worst that can happen?"

His look tells me I don't know the half of it. "I need to talk to you. Important conversations are not intended for the street."

I smile at his formality. "There's a garden right over there." I point toward the Ropes Hotel, where I met the Lineages.

"Yes, that will do." He walks at such a fast pace that I almost have to run to keep up. I've never seen him like this.

I follow him under the trellis and into the labyrinth of flowers. Even in the dark, this place feels alive. The Gothic tower looms over us in the moonlight. He winds along the dirt paths to a bench under a canopy of vines. I sit before he asks me to. He sits next to me.