I turned toward the cabin, then back to her in a frantic pantomime. “Is this not my cabin?” I gave a half-hearted laugh and tugged on the neckline of my T-shirt. “Silly me, I must’ve gotten turned around on my way to get water.”
Sabine’s smile widened. “Why don’t you try telling me the truth?”
I placed a hand on my chest in mock offense. “I am telling the truth.”
“Why are you trying to break into the head counselor’s cabin, Gwen?” she asked, and the sound of my name on her lips made my stomach flip.
I stubbornly crossed my arms. “I told you. I got lost.”
“This friend thing won’t work if you’re going to lie to me. Tell me why you’re really here.” I was about to say more when Sabine’s eyes flickered like a cat’s at night, and I gasped, the sudden shift in her countenance so stark that it made my heart race. “Or I can make you tell me.”
10
Sabine
Okay, maybe it was unfair of me to use my charm to make Gwen think I was a human lie detector, but the shocked look on her face was just too good. This little newcomer was trouble, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. That was all. No other reason. Definitely not the thrill of her pinking cheeks, her ragged breaths, or her parted lips.Nope.
Gwen threw her arms up in the air. “Fine. I was trying to borrow back my phone that youstolefrom me.” She pointed at me accusatorially, as if her presence here were my fault. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “No need to mind-ninja me, Sabine,” she said. “That’s the truth.”
“I can’t mind-ninja you,” I admitted. “I can make my eyes flash silver for a second though. It was a charm we all learned in middle school when our musical one year wasCats.”
It took a second for her brain to catch up to what I was saying. “You know, just when I thought you couldn’t say anything more bizarre to me, you go and say that.”
I laughed lightly and pushed off the tree. “What can I say? Witch life is bizarre.”
Gwen pouted as I climbed the steps toward her. “Are you going to rat me out to Dagmar?”
“No,” I replied, pointing to Hera in the trees. “But she definitely is.”
Gwen groaned. “Please tell me that is not a shapeshifting human-owl hybrid.”
“No, she’s fully an owl,” I said. “A witch’s familiar. Dagmar can read her mind, though, and Hera is completely loyal to her.”
Gwen looked up at the owl and clasped her hands together. “There’s no way I could possibly bribe you to not tell her about this, could I?” she begged.
I laughed. “You could try giving her a mouse.”
“Where would I find an—ah!” Gwen leaped backward as I offered her a dead field mouse. “Was that thing just in your pocket?”
“I found it by the tool shed. I was going to use it for a healing spell, but you can have it if you want.”
“Keep your dead mouse,” she said, shaking out her hands like I’d just done the creepiest thing imaginable.
With a shrug, I shoved the mouse back into my pocket. “You’ll get used to it.”
“People keep saying that. But I don’t believe any of you.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I urged, nodding toward the path back to camp. “Hera might take pity on us yet. We didn’t actually go into Dagmar’s cabin after all.”
“I hope so,” Gwen grumbled. “I still don’t understand why I just can’t have my phone.”
“What do you need it for?”
“Emergencies.”
I crossed my arms. “What emergencies?”
“What if I were injured?”
