Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(74)
The only friendly face she saw belonged to Jesse, who waved at her from the cereal aisle before being pulled back into a debate between little Trudy and Timmy over the virtues of Cocoa Puffs instead of homemade granola. Otherwise she was either ignored or scowled at.
Soft background music followed her, and the air was scented with the aroma of fresh bread and pungent local cheeses. She’d loved this tiny mom-and-pop store when she’d first gotten to town, finding excuses to come in even when her refrigerator wasn’t playing games. Todd, the proprietor, had gone out of his way to welcome her, and his plump maternal wife June had insisted Baba try a homemade cookie from the bakery counter she manned with the enthusiasm of a woman who lives to feed others.
But once Baba reached the front counter and placed her purchases down by the cash register for the clerk to ring up, Todd came bustling hurriedly out of the back room, his normally friendly face closed and resentful.
“You’re not welcome here,” he said, pushing the teenaged clerk rudely out of the way and scooping Baba’s groceries off of the counter and into the garbage can underneath, as if she had contaminated them beyond saving by her very touch. “You should be ashamed of yourself, coming into a place like this where decent people shop.” His scowl made him look like the monster he obviously thought Baba was. “Children come in here, for god’s sake. Get out. Get out right now and never come back. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of town too. Your type isn’t welcome here.”
Baba could feel her face freeze into a mask of calm indifference. “As you wish,” she said. “I’ll just take my business elsewhere.”
A purplish-red flush spread from collar to bald pate, following the trail of his righteous anger. “No one in this town will serve you,” he hissed. “Everyone knows what you are. Witch.” He hissed the word. “You tricked people into buying your fake sideshow medicines, and then poisoned them with the stuff. And nobody thinks it is a coincidence that all these freaky things have been happening since you got to town. The Franklins who live down the road from me, their cows dried up for no reason. If they can’t sell milk, they’ll lose their house, their land, everything.”
“I didn’t do that,” Baba said softly, knowing he wouldn’t listen. “I wouldn’t do that.”
The once kind man pulled a baseball bat from behind the register, obviously kept there in case of would-be troublemakers. He brandished it in her direction with shaking hands. “Get out of my store!” he shrieked.
Baba walked away and didn’t look back. She’d lost her appetite anyway.
*
BACK AT THE Airstream, there was still pie. Lots and lots of pie.
“Remind me to never ask this damned refrigerator for anything specific again,” she said to Chudo-Yudo. “I’m really not looking forward to spending the whole day watching a kid play with nothing more than a slice of pie in my stomach.”
“That’s the least of your worries,” Chudo-Yudo said, swinging his big head ponderously toward the back of the trailer. “You’ve got a guest.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she moved quickly toward the tiny but sumptuous bedroom. Maybe Liam had . . . but no, it was Koshei who waited for her, looking as handsome and relaxed as ever as he sprawled comfortably on her bed, tasseled pillows propped up behind him in vivid crimson and azure silk. Only someone who knew him as well as she did would have been able to detect the tension in his muscles and the shadows that lurked at the back of his bright blue eyes. Something told her this wasn’t just a social call.
He put down the leather-bound herbal book he’d been thumbing through and said, “About time you got back. The queen is asking for you.” He swung his long legs over the side of the bed and got up, giving her a quick hug before tugging her relentlessly in the direction of the wardrobe that led to the Otherworld.
“I can’t go like this!” Baba protested, gesturing at the simple tee shirt and black leather pants she wore.
Koshei shook his head, looking grim. He did give her a minute to change, turning his back although he’d never done so before.
“The queen isn’t going to care what you’re wearing,” he said when she was ready, glaring at the handle to the closet so it squeaked in protest and opened promptly onto the foggy path to the other side. “The Otherworld is starting to warp. We lost one whole section of the enchanted forest this morning. It was there, then it wasn’t. No one knows what happened to the creatures that were inside at the time.”
He suddenly looked very much like the warrior he was as he added, “The queen wants answers, and she wants them now. This woman Maya is throwing the entire Otherworld out of balance with her mischief and it is starting to show.” He gave Baba a hard look. “If you’re going to find this unauthorized doorway, you’d better do it soon. The Otherworld is running out of time.”
*
WHEN LIAM GOT to the sheriff’s department, hoping to find a way to set up the deputies’ patrols so he would be free to keep an eye on Davy’s parents’ house, he found a summons to an emergency meeting of the county board instead.
Hat literally in hand, he stood in front of a dozen hostile faces and forced himself to stay cool as he listened to Clive Matthews rant on about how Liam had been seen consorting with a known criminal, when he should have been out searching for innocent missing children.