The Witches (Book #1)

𝔚𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔢 . . . ?

The mention of the police tenses me even more. Could Soojung somehow be behind them coming after me? Seulgi did say her family was well connected.

"This is one of those things you just need to trust me on," I say, and I can tell that Sehun wants to argue.

"Dear, let's go to the kitchen and discuss what you need," Mrs. Oh says.

"Clever woman," says Joohyuk.

I nod, grateful for Mrs. Oh's support, and follow her down the hallway toward the kitchen. To my surprise, Sehun comes as well.

"I swear I'm not on something," I say under my breath to Sehun as we walk.

The beginning of a smile tugs at his lips. "Debatable."

"Are you sure you want to know all of this? It'll sound wacky."

"I saw you float midair. If I can handle that, I don't think a spell is gonna make me faint." His voice is moving back its usual playfulness.

"Fine, but this is difficult enough for me to accept. If you laugh, I will knock you out."

Sehun smiles. "I'm counting on it."

We walk into the kitchen, and Mrs. Oh clears some counter space. "Tell us your plan, Sooji."

Joohyuk paces, deep in thought.

I sit down at the island, and Sehun sits next to me. "The only way I think I can stop the deaths is to find this crow woman and expose what she's doing. I'm pretty sure she's setting me up to take the fall for all the weird things that happened recently, and if I'm not careful, the deaths will get pinned on me, too." Soojung's no help, either.

I put down the spell book and can tell Sehun's impressed by it. It is kinda beautiful. I flip through the pages, looking for a location spell. When I land on one, Joohyuk reads over my shoulder. He grabs a basket from the counter and blinks out.

"So what's the reason this crow woman's out to get you?" At least Sehun isn't making fun of me, even if his tone is doubtful.

"There's a lot of bad blood between her and the Baes. I think she's enjoying branding me as a witch, and will try to hang me for it. Metaphorically, or whatever."

"Suzy, you're in my kitchen with a spell book doing spells with my mother. Is there a different definition of a witch I don't know about?"

I open my mouth and close it again.

Mrs. Oh looks at the location spell. Her face  is serious. "Your grandmother was searching for information about the curse before she died. She talked to me about it constantly. I even helped her do research."

I knew Mrs. Oh helped her. I figured it was one of the reasons she wasn't pressing me for details.

"One of the things she was most interested in was the location of the hangings, which Sehun tells me you've already sorted out," Mrs. Oh continues.

So this is what they were discussing today. In my halmeoni's last journal entry it said she found the address to the house in the woods and planned to go visit it. But since she didn't write any more, I figured she never did.

"We actually got the idea from her journal."

"Yes, well. One evening, Dalmi came to my house ranting. She always had some odd ideas, but I never saw her this worked up. She kept calling your father, insisting she saw the crow woman, and that your family was in danger. She was so frantic that I could barely understand her. I thought she was unwell. I desperately tried to calm her."

"She went to the house in the woods, didn't she?" The hairs on my neck stand up.

"She died that night, Sooji." Mrs. Oh pauses. "I was fearful when you started asking me about the curse. You sounded so much like Dalmi. I had no idea you and Sehun had found her research and went to that house. Even I couldn't find it. I wish." She's too full of emotion to continue.