“This has to be it,” I whisper. “The witch’s lair, and a fire’s going.” Gray clouds wisp from the chimney cowl, curlicuing upward. “She’s probably inside right now. What do we do?”
Morgan pushes a hand through his hair, fingers shaking slightly with nerves. His face is ghosts and shadows, black eyes alert. “We didn’t plan this far ahead, did we?”
The goal has been:Find the Black Bear Witch.But I suspect that, deep down, we didn’t think we would, and that’s why we’re dithering at her doorstep, presumably, with empty heads. Do we just sayHey, found you! Give us some magic, please?
My hand finds Morgan’s, fingers lacing tightly together. He raises his other fist to knock. Even though I can see it connecting with the wood surface, the contact produces no sound. Not athud, not athunk, not athump.
The door swings inward, presenting an empty one-room house with a caved-in floor.
I wrench Morgan back to prevent him from walking right over the threshold and into a pit.
“It’s…” He gazes around in haunted disbelief. “No.With the way we can hardly see the house even when it’s right in front of us, that means it’s magicked, which means ithasto be her lair.”
I give his hand a gentle squeeze. “Maybe she’s moved. Don’t worry, we won’t stop looking.”
We’ve put so much effort into this, and so many wishes and hopes, that even though all we’ve found is a ruin, we can’t bring ourselves to move on yet.
“It smells familiar in here,” he notes. “Like maple syrup.”
I inhale deeply. “Whiskey.”
“I don’t understand where the smoke is coming from if there’s no fireplace.”
“And no doors to suggest bedrooms where a fireplace might be…” I stop, eyes narrowing on the wall opposite us. “That wall is not quite right.” One moment it’s covered in peeling wallpaper, the next it’s brick, and then wood, in such a gradual evolution that I wouldn’t notice it at all if I weren’t staring unblinkingly.
“It’s like there’s something moving in there,” Morgan tells me, “but I can only see it out the corners of my eyes.”
He’s right. The longer we look on, the more it seems there are silhouettes and pockets of light floating about. Morgan points. “Fire!”
“Where?”
His breath releases in a gust. “It’s vanished again.”
I reposition myself, staring ahead but trying to glean what’s happening along the edges. And there it is—a lick of bright, merry light. I face it straight-on, and it’s gone. I think I catch snatches of low music, too—but I can’t keep a lid on any of it, my senses scattering and confused.
“Maybe she still comes by now and then?” Morgan wonders aloud. “Hopefully we can bargain some magic out of her without ending up as bouillon cubes in her next meal.”
“We don’t have proof that she’s a cannibal,” I point outdiplomatically. “I’ma witch, after all, and my delicacy of choice is the nonpareil.”
“Yes, butyoudon’t live in a spooky cabin with invisible fire.”
“You don’t have to rub it in. I’d adore a spooky cabin with invisible fire.”
He smiles warmly, and it sends tingles all over me. But then the happy feelings die when he says, “I think it’s an illusion to scare people off. I’m going in.”
“No!” I seize his shirt. “If it’s not an illusion, you’re going to fall intothat.” I gesture to the caved-in floor. “You could get seriously hurt. Even if I can pull you out, how am I gonna manage to carry you home?”
In a heartbeat, he is intimately close. His breath is a cold plume, his gaze urgent and filled all the way up with an emotion so visceral, it’s as if I can feel whatever it is he’s feeling.
Yearning.
“Risk for reward,” he says evenly. “The Black Bear Witch has to give you magic if you find her lair, in exchange for making you forget where it is and that you ever found it.”
“Only according to the legends,” I remind him. “We don’t know for sure if she’ll give us anything. Or if she’s real. Or if that’s an illusion and not a pit that will kill you.”
His muscles tighten with resolve.
“We’re this close.” His right hand strokes up my cheek, slipping into my hair. Both of our heads tilt, and the world goes soft and sparkling around me. “Maybe I’m wrong. But don’t you want to find out?”
