The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Author:Victoria Schwab
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: 2011-08-22T01:08:03+00:00

COLE PULLS ME BACK into the shadow of the grove just as Otto and Bo climb into sight on the moonlit moor. They’re by the shed; my uncle hoists his gun and disappears around the corner of the slanting structure while Bo limps back and forth, hands in his pockets, and looks out at the moor. Otto appears again from the other side of the shed, and I can hear his muttered curses from here.

“Where is he?” My uncle’s voice rumbles down the hill toward us.

“Are you sure he’s here?” asks Bo, toeing a patch of dirt with his boot. He gestures to the sprawling countryside. “Come on, Otto. Let’s head back,” he says, yawning. “I haven’t seen my bed in days.”

“He’s got to be here. I know they’re hiding him.” He sounds tense, tired. “Dammit.” He looks out past the shed at the night-soaked world. I can imagine him squinting, hoping something comes to life.

“I thought you said we were doing this in the morning, anyway. Now you’re pulling me out here in the middle of the night.”

“I changed my mind. I thought we’d have a better shot now. Before the village is up.”

He means before I’m up, before I can get here to warn Cole. He knows. Or at least suspects.

Behind Otto, Bo sighs and pulls a few things from his pockets. He strides over to the shed and kneels as best he can with his bad leg, dropping a small object to the ground. Then he shoves a swatch of cloth beneath the edge of one of the rotting boards of the shed, when my uncle finally turns and notices him.

“What are you doing?”

“Speeding things up,” says Bo, kicking some dirt over the piece of cloth. “What’s your plan? Pull up a chair and wait for the boy to show? Or wait around for the sisters to find you and throw you in the hearth?”

I swear beneath my breath as I realize what’s going on. He’s planting evidence.

“I don’t like this at all, Bo,” my uncle says, his tone a mixture of shock and anger.

“Look, Otto, something has to be done.” Bo brings a hand down hard on my uncle’s shoulder. “We know it’s him. This way we can help the others realize it too.”

“The Council put you up to this, didn’t they?”

Bo pauses, seems to weigh his words. “Master Eli says it’s for the best.”

“He told you and not me?”

A grim smile creeps over Bo’s face. “You’ve been preoccupied. But this needs to be taken care of.”

“And what about the children?” growls Otto. “How does this get us any closer to finding them?”

“Once we have the stranger,” he says, gesturing back toward the shed, “we can get him to tell us where they are. Until then…”

My uncle’s shoulders have crept up to his ears. I’m leaning forward, hoping he’ll say, No, enough, this is wrong.

But he doesn’t.

He just runs his fingers through his hair, tugs his beard, and follows Bo down the hill. I shrink back against Cole.

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