me. She might think my kidnapper had forced me to write it, but it was better than my blank page. Maybe if I added just a touch more?
To make it up to you, I’ll do as many séances as you want when I return.
I read it over again. At least that last bit sounded like me, but maybe…
“Don’t overthink it,” Zab said, taking the note I’d signed. He put it in the envelope I’d already addressed and tucked it into his pocket, before grabbing his jacket.
“What do I do about the return address?” I asked, putting on my jacket as well.
“No need for that. Come on. Let’s get this off.”
I followed him out of the shop. “What about postage?”
“What’s postage?”
“It’s what we pay to have someone send our letter.”
“Oh, we don’t have that here,” he said, weaving through people who seemed to be paying more attention to me than normal. That didn’t matter soon, as the building and people spread out farther and small houses popped up.
“Where do we mail this? We’re leaving the town?” Town wasn’t that big, so it wasn’t that hard to leave. “Why isn’t the post office in town?”
“There is no post office. There’s only a mailbox, and it’s not in town. It’s on the outskirts.”
We continued to walk for another ten minutes until we came to a field. In the middle of it was a blue mailbox, or what used to be blue. Now it was more rust than paint. The snow around it was unmarked by footprints.
He held the letter out to me.
I took it and paused. “Just put it in there?”
“Yes.” He waited.
“But it doesn’t look like anyone comes to collect the mail from here.”
“Because no one has mailed anything recently. Not too many of us have anyone in Rest to write letters to.”
I looked at the mailbox again. I wasn’t getting Loris a note any other way, and it was already written. Not much point in holding on to it, even if it didn’t make it to her.
“Go ahead. Put it in. They’ll collect it.” Zab pointed at the box.
The handle took some effort, a cloud of dust and rust puffing as it was forced open. The letter slid inside.
“That’s it?” Maybe there was some magical spell that might help things along?
“Yep. Come on, let’s get back. You’re freezing, and a nice spot of tea will help that.” He nodded back toward the direction of the office.
Giving the mailbox one last glance, I followed him. As soon as I did, there was the sound of crunching snow under someone else’s feet, and it was coming from behind us. I turned, trying to locate the person, but saw nothing. But the crunching continued.
Off to the right, a shadow appeared on the snow as tracks pressed it down. More shadows appeared as the sound grew closer. The tracks became clearer as they walked toward the mailbox and then stopped.
The bottom of the box swung open and my single letter dropped onto the ground. It was lifted, as if by air. It then descended a few inches before it disappeared again, right around the height where a sack might be. The crunching of snow underfoot began again as the steps retreated off in the direction they’d come.
“Someone took my letter,” I said to Zab, who’d stopped a few feet ahead of me, waiting.
“Yeah, I told you they would,” he said, waving me along.
“This isn’t working,” I said. After mailing the letter to Loris earlier, I’d been a little more optimistic tonight. That had quickly come to an end.
Both couches were turned on their sides, so I dropped to the ground, perching my elbow on my knee and running my hand through my hair. We’d been at it for four hours, and it showed. There wasn’t a piece of furniture still standing, and I felt like I’d been drawn and quartered. Failing at magic was very tiring.
“At least you got that right,” Hawk said where he was leaning on an overturned couch, sipping a drink. I wasn’t sure what he’d poured, but it didn’t smell or look like coffee.
I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or just honest. It was the only thing I’d gotten right. It was as if my magic did the opposite of what I wanted. At one point, I’d even tried to tell it to do the opposite of what I wanted. It still hadn’t worked.
Footsteps sounded from the office, which had been closed up long ago.
“I asked Oscar