The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) Dani Swanson (reading women .txt) 📖

“What’s the plan now?” Agatha asked Thea, clearly the group had been waiting for her direction. Thea looked up to meet her eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘the plan’?” Thea questioned her, making air quotes with her fingers, and giving Agatha an annoyed look.

“Yeah, what are we doing?” Agatha asked her. She looked at Thea with wide eyes as she waited for an answer. Everyone else looked back and forth between the two, awkwardly, not wanting to make eye contact with either one of them.

“I am going to go find the Grimalkin… and you are going to go about your life.” Thea responded, with a death stare. The others in the group fidgeted in their seats and poked at their lunches. Robin started to cough as she choked on her fizzy drink.

“Sorry,” Robin said as she cleared her throat. “We’re all coming with you Thea. You’re not strong enough to do anything on your own yet. You need to let go of your anger with Agatha. She was only-”

“She was only trying to give me to a psychotic witch-imp to be turned into life size doll. I owe her nothing and I don’t want to be associated with her! I should have left her on the front lawn when Sorgin tried to eat her!” Thea quickly shot Agatha a look down to the end of the table that would have frozen anyone in their tracks. “I need to finish what I started, and try to remember the passion that started this quest. You guys all remember your childhood, and your families. I don’t.” She was becoming agitated with this conversation, and the expression on her face was more than enough to show the drive burning behind her eyes. If Thea had been able to walk on her own, she would have stormed off.

“Thea, without you, none of us would be able to leave this house and we would still be sitting up in that room, staring off in a timeless daze.” Dean reached out a hand and touched her arm as he spoke. “You have saved me, twice, and I am going to be there to help you in every way I can. Robin and Charles are in the same boat….and if Agatha didn’t bring you here, none of that may have happened. It’s like you say…. there’re two sides to each story, right?” Charles was nodding his head in agreement to what Dean was saying, as he looked down at the drink in his hand. Robin was watching Agatha with sorrow in her eyes.

“We’re all going with you,” Charles added to the conversation with authority in his voice. “There is no reason to fight it.”

Thea let out a sigh, she just nodded her head, as she pushed her food around with her fork. “Fine.” was all she offered as an answer. She slid her plate away from her on the table and used all her arm strength to push herself up to a standing position, to leave the room. “I need to rest. I’m leaving tomorrow, with or without all of you.” She went back to her room leaning on Dean’s arm, with her little fluffy cat in tow. She could hear the muffled conversation of the group back at the table, but didn’t care about what they were saying. All she wanted to do was be done with all of this.

The next morning, Thea and Fig got out of bed before the sun was up. Charles had breakfast waiting on the table for her, just like he had back when Sorgin was in control. She sat at the table and ate the cheese and fruit that he had left for her, and a short stack of pancakes with boysenberry syrup.

“Well Fig, I think it’s time to go hunting. Are you ready?” The cat got up and walked over to the door and started to scratch at the wood. Thea smiled and collected her things as she readied herself for the next chapter of her adventure.

She made her way towards the front door, but stopped when she reached the bottom step. Charles, Dean, and the twins were sitting in front of the door with their things packed. The girls had their bags full of herbs and a couple of books, while Charles was sharpening a massive sword and Dean was twirling the top of an axe onto a fresh handle. Fig trotted over to the group and joined them in the huddle on the floor.

“Are you ready?” Robin asked Thea, in a chipper tone to her voice. Thea looked back at the group in shock. She just shook her head in disbelief as she led the group outside. “You didn’t think you were going to leave us behind, did you?”

But she had thought that the others were bluffing, and she was going to leave them behind. She couldn’t wrap her head around all of the support that they were offering her. Why would they want to help her when so far she had only caused death and destruction at every turn?

“The gnomes said they will feed the witches and take care of the few creatures that have stuck around. We cleared out the majority of the food that would keep while we traveled.” Agatha told Thea. “So where would you like to start?”

“We should go out back and track the Grimalkin’s path from the barn, as that was the last place that we know her whereabouts,” Charles suggested.

“That makes sense,” agreed Thea, she walked around the side of the chateau. “Let’s get going.”

The group said goodbye to Boog and gave him all of the keys to the chateau, with instructions to keep the witches locked up, and to feed the few creatures and critters that were still on site. He was happy to be in charge of the large building. He kept referring to himself as the