The Witch's Key

Episode 18: Who To Trust

I started to protest again, but even the act of opening my mouth to speak made me yawn again. Everyone at the table laughed, which then set me off, too.

"Okay. I admit it," I said. "I'm tired. I'll head up."

Besides, that bath I thought of earlier was calling me.

"Sleep well, dear girl," Martin said. "We will see you in the morning."

"Sweet dreams," Gianna said.

"No nightmares about bunnies," Gowan said, winking.

I shuddered. "Let's hope not," I said. "I'm never going to forgive you for that, you know."

Martin tilted his head. "What's this about bunnies?"

I patted Gowan on the shoulder. "I'll let you tell him about what you did to me this afternoon."

As I left the kitchen and headed back to my room, laughter from the kitchen echoed throughout the entire first floor of the house.

When I'd first arrived here, it had felt so dark and lonely. Martin had done what he could to make me comfortable, but I had never really thought of this place as home until tonight.

I was halfway up the stairs and already dreaming of the bath when my phone vibrated in my pocket. There were only a handful of people who even had this number, and I smiled when Kai's name came up on the caller ID.

"Hey," I said. "Did you just get off work?"

I honestly had no idea what time it was, but there was no going back out to the clearing tonight.

"Not quite," he said, his voice low. "I decided to stay until closing. There's a lot of chatter going on in the cafe today about Julie Peterson's disappearance and the cops being at her house and all. I wanted to stay and listen, and I'm glad I did."

"Why?" I asked, sitting down on the steps.

"Because guess who just walked in with a few of her friends?"

My eyes widened. "Not Olive?"

"Yes, Olive," he said. "And she's talking about the house and her mom. I think maybe you should come down here. Maybe if we both talk to her, we can find out where her mom might have gone."

"So, she just never came home?" I asked. "I thought maybe she was the one who called the cops."

"People here are saying it was a neighbor," he said. "The parents of the girl who went missing before. LaTasha. The rumor is that they saw a strange van in the driveway and heard some terrible noises coming from the house."

I closed my eyes. That poor family. They'd already gone through so much.

"So, Bates must have gotten out of there just in the nick of time before getting caught," I said.

"Yeah, but the police are searching for him. You better hope they didn't bring his van to Martin's house," Kai said.

"They wouldn't be that stupid," I said, realizing now that I hadn't seen Bates at all since I got home.

Darius had been relatively quiet at dinner, too.

I would have to find out in the morning how his questioning had gone and where in the world they were hiding Bates, but for now, I needed to get over to Sir Bean.

"Can you come?" Kai asked. "Or are you still training?"

I groaned. I had a lot to tell him about the training.

"Nah. We just got done with dinner, and I was about to go pass out in a bathtub full of chamomile," I said. "I guess that's just going to have to wait, though."