Witch Way Out (Witch Detectives #3) (3 page)

“Yes, it is. Goodbye, Fergie. And don’t forget to apologize to Siobhan!”

He’d hung up by that point. Probably because he didn’t want to hear it. The coven thought that I wanted to be some kind of leader in the city? I couldn’t even control my own office. I had a love-struck werewolf solicitor, a pregnant goblin ex-thief who probably wasn’t always so ex, Niall’s PA dropping by for sex with Fergie and a client load that was starting to spiral now that we were beginning to make a name for ourselves…

And Niall, of course. Always Niall. Who somehow managed to make my life complicated in all the right ways. I found him on one of the upper floors of the City Art Centre, looking at some of the more recent acquisitions. Not the ones he’d donated, but new works by a young artist.

“Thinking of making an investment?” I guessed.

Niall turned with a smile. He would have felt me coming across the room, the way I felt him. “Perhaps. The artist is very good, and I do have some space in my personal gallery. How did things go downstairs?”

“They went well.”

I moved closer to him and he put an arm around me. “Then why do you feel so nervous about it all, Elle?”

Why
did
I feel it? I could feel that Niall was just as tightly wound as I was over all this, but at least some of that was concern over me.

“It’s just going a little quick,” I said. “It’s all getting bigger than I expected. I went in there expecting some vague talk about trying to get along and how they’d like me to call off Fergie, and instead, they’re proposing some kind of treaty.”

“That is excellent news, Elle.” I could feel the sense of relief coming off Niall.

“Is it? Why does everything have to be so formal?”

Niall smiled, taking my hand and kissing it. “Because formality limits the room for misunderstanding. It also makes things official.”

“Official with whom?” I pointed out. “It isn’t exactly like Fergie could take them to court if they broke their end of the deal.”

“Sometimes, it is the symbolism of these things that matters.” Niall led me over to the next artwork, which was so abstract that it was hard to see much in it. “It is not the fact of the thing, but what people see there.”

That wasn’t exactly comforting. “What will they see there if this is all about me claiming Edinburgh as my territory? After everything that happened with Victoria?”

Victoria, who had been driven down into the tunnels beneath Edinburgh, where the goblins lived. Who had wanted to come out with them and reclaim the surface with her as their ruler. As the ruler of everyone who came close to her.

Niall held me at arm’s length, looking me straight in the eye. “You are not Victoria.”

I shook my head. “I know.”

I wasn’t sure if I believed it, though. I’d spent some of the past few months doing as much research as I could on Victoria. Partly, I’d been doing that because Niall didn’t seem convinced that even dropping a roof on her would be enough to get rid of her for certain, but mostly, it was because of the name I’d found in her dungeons. My mother’s name.

“I asked them about my mother,” I said. “I asked them, and they didn’t know anything.”

Niall shrugged. “Maybe that is a good thing.”

“A good thing that I didn’t find out more about my mother and what was going on?” I couldn’t believe that. “After all the work I’ve put in?”

“Maybe because of all that work, Elle,” Niall said softly. “If there were anything there to find, wouldn’t you have found it by now? How much time is your research taking up now?”

“Not much,” I lied. I knew Niall worried about me. That was okay. Sometimes I worried about me, too. “There’s more.”

Niall raised an eyebrow. “With the coven? I’m sure there is.”

I took a breath. This was going to be the hard part. “The three witches I met today are staying in the city while we negotiate. They said they wanted to look around for a couple of weeks.”

Niall was quiet then. I could practically see him thinking that through. I could feel the swirl of emotions running through him as he did it. “That will make things…complicated. Complicated and potentially dangerous.”

Both of which meant that it was a really bad moment for Rebecca to hurry into the gallery at something just short of a run. Niall reacted instantly, whirling and grabbing for the emotion in the room, moving toward Rebecca faster than anyone had a right to, pushing fear in front of him like a weapon.

Of course, Rebecca reacted. How could she not? I heard her starting to whisper the words to a spell, which meant that Niall started forward in an effort to grab her, which meant—

“Stop it, both of you.” I pushed myself between them on instinct, knowing that Niall wouldn’t go through me to get to Rebecca. Guessing that Rebecca wasn’t about to hurt me either. After all, I hadn’t sensed any violence in her as she’d rushed into the room. Just a little more urgency than was really safe.

Of course, if I had sensed it, that meant that Niall probably had, too. Meaning that this little display was more because he could than because he believed it to be truly necessary. What was it? Him sending some kind of message to the coven? That was one thing with Niall: nothing he did was ever simple. Of course, he was happy with the complications of some kind of treaty negotiation. He’d been playing that kind of game for decades.

“Niall, Rebecca isn’t here to hurt me,” I said.

Niall gave another of those elegantly eloquent shrugs of his. “Unlike the last time we met.”

“The last time we met,” Rebecca countered, “you nearly killed my people.”

“I believe they were there to kill me at the time, weren’t they?”

I knew enough not to let it go any further. “Seriously, both of you stop this. You both know how fragile things are between us and the coven right now.”

I felt Niall’s small surge of satisfaction.

“Which is exactly what you were trying to show me, just then?” I guessed. Classic Niall, of course, setting up a near-conflict with Rebecca rather than simply explaining.

Niall smiled. “I wanted you to understand the stakes.”

“Well, I understand them now, and frankly, I already got them. I almost had the same thing happen between me and a battle witch in the café.”

Niall looked at me. “You didn’t tell me that part.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.” I turned to Rebecca and tried to defuse things with a smile. “What’s so important that it has you running after me, Rebecca?”

“I…”

“How about if we leave Niall here for a moment?” I hooked my arm through hers as she struggled to regain her composure and led her off to the other end of the gallery. It was the least Niall deserved for playing a game like that with us, though I was sure he would find a way to make it up to me later. He always did.

A little further away from Niall, and Rebecca seemed to be back to something approaching her old self.

“Thank you for that,” she said. I could still feel the nervousness coming off her in waves, though.

“What is it, Rebecca?”

It was weird feeling her like this. For as long as I could remember, she’d been the strong one. The together one. And, of course, on a couple of occasions, the ruthless one. Had the times I’d lashed out and poured fear into her done something to change that? Certainly, she didn’t seem anywhere near as confident around me as she had. Maybe that was even a good thing.

“It’s nothing. The coven members being here, that’s all.”

“I’d have thought we should be the ones worried by that,” I pointed out. “Especially with them sticking around.”

Rebecca’s lips pursed slightly. “Are you kidding? They’re making a treaty with
you
. I’m the one they’ll have their eyes on. Do you think it’s a coincidence that it’s three of them?”

I didn’t understand what Rebecca was saying for a moment. Then it clicked. “A
triumvirate
.”

“Exactly. Old, young, middle. The classic combination.” Rebecca didn’t say it the way everyone really said it. After all, calling her employers maiden, mother, and crone probably wouldn’t do a lot to help her keep her job. Although it sounded like not a lot would. “It’s the combination they send out when they want to assess an area. To make a judgment. They’ve already told me that my handling of matters here is under review.”

I nodded.

 “Between you, the kidnapping of the minor talents, that brawl at the castle and the threat under the city I didn’t see, I’ll be lucky to keep my job.”

The strangest part was that I
could
still feel a little sympathy for her. After all, a lot of the time, Rebecca was just someone trying to do her best.

“That’s hard, Rebecca,” I said. “Are you about to ask me to say something, though?”

“What?” She seemed genuinely surprised that I’d even suggested it. “No, it’s nothing like that. All that…that’s my problem. I just wanted to know if you might be prepared to do a job for the coven.”

I was sure a lot of people would have laughed in her face right then and pointed out that attempts to kill them didn’t make for a good working relationship, but I made an effort. “What kind of job?”

“We’ve had something happen that you might be able to help with. An accident. At least, we think it was an accident.” Rebecca shook her head. “The trouble is, it’s so obviously supernatural in origin…”

In other words, exactly the kind of thing that I had done for the coven before I found out what I was. I used to spend practically my whole working life going along to situations in my capacity as an insurance claims investigator, finding out what happened, but mostly just making sure that the human world didn’t find out more than it needed to. I had been good at it, too.

“You must have people that you can use for this?” I suggested.

Rebecca shrugged. “Not as many as you might think. When we had you around, why would we need someone else? I could do it, but with the councilors here and everything that’s been going on lately, I just don’t have enough time. And, well…”

And she was trying to extend an olive branch. I got that part without having to be told. The only question was whether I wanted to reach out and take it. I was surprised to find that I did. I missed working with Rebecca. I missed being her friend. It didn’t mean I was about to start trusting her, but rebuilding had to start somewhere, right?

I sighed. “Okay, send me over the details. But there’s a price.”

“Not your usual fee?”

“Information.”

Rebecca took a small step back from me. “I’m not going to do anything to betray the coven, Elle. Don’t even ask.”

I shook my head. “I’m not. It’s just, if you hear anything about my mother or the way she died, you tell me. That’s it. That’s my price.”

Rebecca didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but I could feel the grief in her. I knew she had respected and cared about my mother almost as much as I had. She had even volunteered to watch me because of that respect. “All right. I’ll send you the details for the case when I get back to the office.”

I nodded and she left. That was where we were right then. Not even saying goodbye properly, but maybe, just maybe, helping one another out. I went over to Niall, who was still staring at one of the new pieces as though considering where it would hang in his house.

“It looks like I’ll be doing a job for Rebecca,” I said.

“Good.”

“Good? I was expecting you to argue.”

Niall’s smile took on a note I couldn’t quite catch. “Would you like me to? No, I think that someone is being clever, giving you a chance to build bridges with the coven. Plus, it will give you a magical case to think about that doesn’t have anything to do with your mother.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Something to distract you.”

I thought about the price I’d just requested from Rebecca. “Yes, maybe. Although I bet if you tried, you could find plenty of other ways to distract me.”

“Oh, undoubtedly.”

“Maybe in the stationery cupboard at the office?”

“Why there?”

I kissed him lightly. “Maybe I’m just feeling a little left out.”