The Witch and the Huntsman Read Online Free Page B

in with her. Her name’s Marisa?”
    Blank stare. “Marisa...”
    Damn. Had I ever known her last name? “Marisa, uh, Smith. But sometimes she uses her maiden name, I forget what that is.”
    With icy reluctance, the Slavic ice-queen tapped the keyboard with her perfect blue nails. “No Marisa,” she said.
    “ Did she check out?”
    The girl wasn’t even bothering to be polite now. She heaved a loud sigh and rolled her eyes, but at least she did me the ginormous favor of glancing back at her laptop screen. “No, we have no listing of anyone here for that name in the last month. Sorry.”
    So I’d just come all this way on a wild goose chase for the sake of nothing but a feeling in my gut. Girl, I am really worried about you , I told myself. This witch thing is making you seriously lose it .
    “ No, Allison, you couldn’t be more wrong,” came Millicent’s soft whisper in my thoughts again. “You are always right to follow your feelings, wherever they may lead you. But now they’ve brought you into great danger. There’s a terrible evil in this place, and you must be on your guard night and day.”
    I went and stood over by the rustic gift shop door. “What kind of evil, exactly?” I intoned silently.
    “ Some things must remain veiled and cannot be spoken aloud, dear,” Millicent replied almost fearfully. I was always forgetting the rules that governed psychic communication between this world and the next. Like full disclosure of names that couldn’t be named.
    While our spirits communed in the ether, my earthly gaze accidentally strayed to a folder on the empty gift shop’s checkout counter. A paper printout on top of it said:
     
    POSITION NOW AVAILABLE: SERVER
     
    With our emphasis on excellence, the Regina Jaeger La Chasse Lodge must hire waiters and waitresses on a consistent basis. Primary responsibilities for La Chasse waiter/waitress jobs mirror waitressing positions throughout the hospitality industry, including greeting customers, taking food and drink orders, informing guests about specials and menu items, and catering to patron requests. La Chasse regularly screens for energetic, friendly, motivated, and dedicated individuals during the hiring process. Applicants should possess the ability to work on foot and remain cell phone-free for several hours at a time. La Chasse Lodge server jobs exist only for quality workers 18 and over.
     
    Well, I had nothing else to do for a week—and a temporary gig like this struck me as an easy way to get back some of the money I’d just blown on this dumb trip. After all, I was energetic and friendly, even if I wasn’t motivated or dedicated. And I was certainly over eighteen. Double it, in fact, though nobody here had to know that, right?
    And hadn’t I worked in the service industry back in the day? I had, as a go-go dancer. Hell, I couldn’t think of a more service friendly job than that! And, no, I wasn’t ashamed. I did what I had to do, to get to where I am now. Which was, apparently, out of money and out of luck. Sigh.
    Of course, working here would give me the chance to snoop around to my heart’s content. Lucky me.
    Before I’d even snatched the paper, Millicent’s warnings were ringing in my ears. “No, Allison! Please don’t try to tackle this while Ivy and I are so far away! It’s just too dangerous...”
    “ But you said I should follow my instincts,” I thought-whispered back. “My instincts say this is what I should do. I can’t just leave without knowing what happened to Marisa! You weren’t there—you didn’t hear the terror in her voice. You were lecturing me on the plane about using my gift for selfish things—and going over to the dark side. Well, here’s a chance for me to maybe use it for good. What if Marisa’s still alive and in trouble somewhere?”
    I was pretty sure she wasn’t alive, actually. On the other hand, Millicent should know if the woman was dead, since she was a ghost herself.
    “ Yes, I suppose