Page 30 of With the Key in the Office
Fizz waved that away. “Time is rude.”
Ava’s expression stayed neutral, which was how you knew she minded everything. “You took a key that doesn’t belong to you. We’re giving you a chance to tell us why or we take you and pry the story out in a room that has fewer drafts.”
Fizz’s gaze slid toward the far corner as if the room might tell her what to say. When nothing helpful arrived, she switched to honesty. “I was at a tavern on the wrong side of a crossroads disguised as the sister of a powerful witch because I wanted free drinks. I placed the sister’s mole a hair too far to the left. The witch saw me and knew instantly I wasn’t her sister.”
She pushed off the wall and stepped into the weak light. “She demanded a debt. She told me to bring her the key that opens all doors. I laughed because I didn’t think a key like that existed." She showed her palms. Scars traced the heel of one hand where something hot had kissed skin too often. Maybe the key? Because she wasn’t really me?
“She told me where to find the key and that I needed to become you.”
“Why me,” I asked, because the answer mattered for my peace of mind.
Fizz shrugged. “She didn’t say. But she told me where to look and handed me a smuggled draught that made wards tolerate me for six breaths at a time and told me to become Cendolyn Ault. I tried three other skins first. Burned my palms for the trouble. You worked.” She gave me a grin that would have sold rain to a drowning man, then let it drop. “I’m not sentimental about it. I’m practical.”
Ava closed the distance by two steps and stopped. “You have the key,” she said. “Produce it now or we can take you to the Hunter headquarters and find more creative ways to get our answers.”
Fizz drummed her fingers on her jacket seam. “If you take it, I lose my one chip, and I would still owe the witch. That doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. I know it isn’t. Weallknow it isn’t. Forgive me for not throwing a party.”
“You can keep the bargain,” Drew said, “or you can fix the problem.”
She breathed out through her teeth and searched the porch rafters for an answer that wasn’t there. “She knows you’re here,” she said finally. “She probably knows I’m talking to you guys. She’ll kill me if I make her look foolish.”
Jessie’s voice went gentle without losing its edge. “We won’t throw you back to her. We walk in and make her say out loud what she wanted and why. Then we take away the tool she wanted you to steal and cancel your debt.”
Fizz looked at me again as if trying to read whether I had something in me that would break. “You believe that,” she said, not quite a question.
“I do,” I said. “I’m done letting bullies win.”
“Where is the witch?” Ava asked.
“Crossroads tavern up the coast,” Fizz said. “I was supposed to meet her there. She’ll be there, unless she got bored and made a new plot.”
I held Fizz’s gaze. “We can make this right. Just trust us.”
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“Then we move,” Drew said. “Fast and quiet.”
16
CENDI
Fizz pulledout a stone that was similar to the ones the godmothers use when going on assignments. It was blue, smooth, and could fit perfectly into the palm of any hand. Nothing about it on the surface seemed magical, but I knew better.
Ava stared at the stone. “Where did you get a portaling stone?”
Fizz glanced at Ava then the stone. “The witch gave it to me.”
Drew and Ava shared a look that said they were having a telepathic conversation, probably about why the witch might have given such a thing to Fizz. But neither of them shared it with the rest of the group. That was one thing about that, they sometimes seemed to be on a planet all on their own.
Drew motioned to us. “Hold hands so we don’t leave anyone behind.”
We stood in a circle holding hands while Fizz used the stone to portal us to the tavern. For one moment, the cabin was all around us, and then the world began to shift and change, toobright for one moment, then too dark another, before everything righted itself around us once more.
The tavern was two stories tall, but not the least bit impressive. Half the roof had caved in on the kitchen side, leaving a sharp silhouette against a low sky. The sign over the door had lost two letters and now read The Stag and Star in a way that promised both antlers and regrets. A single red bulb glowed in the window and tried to look respectable about it. The air held the sour snap of spilled beer, the scent of old wood, and a thread of ozone that did not belong to the weather.
“Her place,” Fizz said, low and nervously. “She likes a stage and a corner booth. She likes to make people look where she points, then look where she smiles. If you think my kind are tricky, you’ve seen nothing at all. Keep your backs to something solid and don’t take your eye off of her.”
Jessie’s hand brushed mine, not to comfort, just to synchronize. Robbie took the other side and shifted the way he does when someone might decide to misbehave. Ava set her jaw, and Drew rolled his shoulders without saying what he wanted to say about seedy venues.