Witch Way Out (Witch Detectives #3) (14 page)

I thought about that for a few minutes. Why not? Aside from the “tried to kill me” thing, obviously?

I called her. She picked up after a couple of rings. “Elle? What is it?”

“Nothing. Everything, I don’t know. Listen, I know this is going to sound weird, but would you like to go get coffee? I…I could do with someone to talk to.”

Rebecca hesitated for a second or two. “Okay. Not the City Arts Centre.”

I could understand that, so I suggested a different place, over on Canongate. It wasn’t far to walk, but I still arrived after Rebecca, mostly because I took a moment to beckon a couple of laughing tourists back into a quiet corner. I didn’t think that Rebecca would appreciate meeting me with my hunger showing through.

She was sitting at a side table when I arrived, looking out with a clear view of the street, obviously wary. I went in and ordered coffee, sitting down next to her. I could have sat across from her, but that would have left my back to the door. She wasn’t the only one who had learned to be careful.

“So,” she said after a moment of sitting there staring at me, “this is…unexpected.”

“I just needed someone I could talk to.”

“And you picked me? Even though I work for the coven? Even though we didn’t really do this much even before…everything?”

I half stood. “You’re right, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“I didn’t say we couldn’t try it.” Rebecca reached out, touching my arm. I could guess how hard that must have been to do. “Sit down, have coffee. Tell me whatever it is that has you so messed up that you want to talk to
me
.”

I sat down and sipped my coffee. It was decent coffee, but right then, I barely tasted it.

“Maybe it will be easier if I start,” Rebecca said. “I’ve
still
got these three bitches from the coven poking into everything I’ve done since I got to Edinburgh. Half of it, I can’t even remember. Everything that goes wrong, it’s like they’re somehow just
there
, you know?”

I smiled slightly. “Lucille was always good at that.”

“Tell me about it. When I was learning, anything I did wrong, it was like she knew almost before I did it. As for the other two…the battle witch is obviously looking for trouble.”

“Flora does seem a bit quick to lose her temper,” I agreed. “Elizabeth doesn’t seem too bad.”

Rebecca nodded. “She just wants everything to calm down and be normal. The trouble is, if I’m not able to maintain that, then it’s rather obvious what their next move is going to be. What about you? I’m guessing that they’re at least a part of what’s eating at you.”

I nodded.

“Come on, Elle, talk to me.”

To my surprise, I did. I told her about the coven witches and their offer, gave her edited highlights of what the goblins wanted from me, told her about the slew of cases that threatened to overwhelm me. I told her about Siobhan being attacked over some prophecy that was probably nonsense, and about how Niall thought I should just give in and sign the coven’s deal.

“And you don’t want to?” Rebecca asked.

“No. At least, I don’t know. Sorry, I know that’s probably not what you want to hear, given all the pressure on you, too.”

“Maybe if you just tell me why you’re worried about it?” Rebecca suggested. “Why don’t you want to come back in?”

“That’s just it,” I said. “According to this deal, suddenly I’m meant to be back taking orders from you—”

“Assuming I still have a job.”

“—assuming that, this is meant to be about negotiating a kind of peace with the coven, not about doing everything it tells me. Especially not if that’s going to mean I can’t keep looking into what happened to my mother.”

Rebecca froze. “You know more about that?”

There she was, the one person who hadn’t told me to stop looking. The one person who perhaps understood some of what I was going through. My mother had been a mentor to her, after all.

I sighed. “Only a little. I know that she was on a kind of diplomatic mission to the goblins when she died. They said that she was talking about helping bring them out more into the open.”

“That doesn’t sound very likely,” Rebecca said. “I mean, she was the most important witch in in the coven. She of all people would have known that the goblins could never come up again.”

“But she would have wanted to try to improve their living conditions,” I pointed out. “And that isn’t the important point anyway. She was down there when Victoria took her. We know why now.”

“So, you have all of it,” Rebecca pointed out. “You know what happened. Unless you’re planning on tracking down the goblins involved?”

 Was I? I hadn’t thought about it like that. Maybe someone else would have wanted to, but for me, the goblins were tools in Victoria’s hands. That wasn’t the part that mattered.

“It’s not that,” I said. “It’s more like a feeling. Just something that doesn’t seem right. A bit like the archaeological dig and the rest of it.”

“Something doesn’t seem right with that?” Rebecca said. “Elle, I was there when you found the answer. Your boyfriend confirmed that the Wisp was a goblin trick.”

“And the goblins even admitted that it was possible that it might have been some of them,” I agreed, but I still shook my head. “It’s…I don’t know what it is.”

“You know what I think it is?” Rebecca asked. “It’s that you’ve got too much going on at once. It’s got you jumpy, not feeling right. Maybe you just need to let a few things go and relax.”

“Maybe, but what if I’m right?”

Rebecca sighed. “I thought you didn’t want to take responsibility for everything that happened in the city?”

I didn’t, but that wasn’t the point. “It’s not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it? You’ve decided that you have to take responsibility for this, even after you’ve done everything that the job requires you to do. When will this be right, Elle?”

I sighed. “I just want to be sure that I have this right.”

Rebecca nodded. “I know, and believe me, the last thing anyone wants is more trouble with the goblins.”

Maybe
that
was the part that didn’t sit right with me. There seemed to be so many things going on at the moment, and somehow, all of them seemed to keep pointing back toward the goblins.

“There are still too many things that don’t fit,” I said.

“Like what? It all seems to fit quite neatly from where I’m sitting. Or maybe it’s the part where they tried to kill me.”

“That’s just it.” I could feel the shape of something vaguely out there, but I still didn’t have enough of it. “How did I miss something like that the first time I was there? And how did the goblins make the earth mover move magically? How did goblins have that kind of magical strength?”

“They’re getting stronger,” Rebecca said. “If all of this shows anything, it’s that. All the things going on in the city. It’s all the same.”

All the same. Goblins, everywhere I looked. All my cases: goblins. The archaeological dig: goblins. My mother’s death: apparently goblins. Then there were the ones I’d seen following Siobhan, the ones who had spent so much effort trying to search me out.

“The thing I don’t get is why,” I said.

Rebecca shrugged. “Goblins like to cause trouble if they can.”

“Maybe.” It certainly fit with what I’d seen of Dougie, but as explanations went, it didn’t seem like enough. “But if so, why now?”

“Maybe it has something to do with you getting rid of that enchantress, Victoria,” Rebecca suggested. “If she’s not controlling them anymore…she
isn’t
controlling them anymore, is she?”

I shook my head. That one was long gone. “She’s dead, Rebecca.”

“As long as you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

Rebecca nodded. There was a brief moment of silence. She smiled. “I guess neither of us is very good at small talk. I guess it’s what comes of not having much of a social life.”

I shrugged. “I’ve been working on acquiring one.”

“How’s that going?”

“I can walk into a club now and not go crazy.”

Rebecca winced slightly. “That’s good, and I’m sorry.”

Sorry for lying to me about that for years. Sorry for pretending to be my friend when she’d actually been keeping an eye on me for the coven. The word wasn’t enough, I wasn’t sure that it would ever be enough, but somehow it didn’t hurt quite so much anymore. Maybe because I knew I could go into a club and enjoy myself. I could ride the music like a wave. I smiled at that thought, and then sent a flicker of power out to call over a waiter and order more coffee.

“You’ve been…different since you met Niall,” Rebecca said.

I glanced at the waiter I’d just called over to me. “Well, yes, obviously.”

Before, I’d been a weak shadow of a witch, not as powerful as the least of true witches. Now, I was an enchantress, able to do more with emotions than I could have believed possible. I was also able to do things with magic if I got enough emotion surrounding me.

“I don’t mean all that,” Rebecca said. “I mean…you’re more confident somehow. Happier. More together. You don’t just sit in your place watching
Bewitched
DVDs anymore.”

“I still do plenty of that,” I assured her. “It’s just that now I do it because I want to, not because it’s the only option available to me.”

“So, how are things with Niall?” Rebecca asked. “Is everything I’ve heard about enchanters true?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me what I think you’re asking me?”

Rebecca smiled. “Like I said, neither one of us is all that good at girl talk. I thought I’d make an effort.”

“Things with Niall are…complicated. I don’t think he knows how to
do
simple.”

“Neither do you,” Rebecca pointed out. She sighed. “What are you going to do about this agreement with the coven? Since they haven’t fired me yet, I should probably advise you to take any offer that the coven has decided to make.”

“And what do you really think?” I asked.

“I think you’re capable of making up your own mind, Elle,” she said. “If you don’t like what’s on the table, have that werewolf of yours make a counteroffer.”

She had a point with that, and Fergie would probably be happy drafting it for me.

“Elle, do you mind a piece of advice?”

“I might not take it.”

“Go home. Make things up to Niall. Watch your DVDs. You’ve solved the cases in front of you, you’ve found out enough about your mother’s murder, and…and even as I say this, I can see that it’s not having any real effect, is it?”

I stood. “Sorry. It was nice getting to talk to you like this, though, Rebecca.”

I was surprised to find that I meant it.

“It’s not as impressive as the last two,” Ryan, the student digger, said as I got out of my car at the dig site. He had a point. My car wasn’t as impressive as any of Niall’s cars, but it was mine, and it meant that I didn’t have to worry about explaining what I was doing.

Right then, I wasn’t entirely sure that I knew what I was doing, only that this felt like the heart of it. This was the first place I’d been called in, back when all this started. This was the place Rebecca had sent me to, back before all the other cases started pouring in. This was also the investigation that
felt
the most wrong. It felt like there was something obvious I was missing.

That was why I’d come back to the dig. Why I clambered over the fence at the side and ignored Professor Muir’s look of exasperation as I came closer.

“Ms. Chambers. What are you doing back here? I was under the impression that your investigation was complete?”

“I’m not here to try to stop your dig again, Professor,” I assured him. “I just need to make sure that I covered everything. Is it all right if I take a walk around? I’ll try not to get in the way.”

He probably wouldn’t have agreed if I hadn’t chosen that moment to use my talents.

As it was, he gave me a stern look, but nodded. “Very well, but do try not to disturb my diggers.”

That was probably the best I was going to get. I set off around the dig, trying to think, trying to work out just what it was about all this that had me thinking it was so off.

I saw Nina working away at a tray full of finds. She was small and fragile looking, especially with the bandage that was still wrapped around her head. She looked up as I walked over to her, frowning slightly.

“You’re…”

“Elle Chambers. We spoke briefly while you were in the hospital.”

She nodded, and I noticed that she did that gingerly. I could feel some of her discomfort, although maybe a large part of that was down to having me there.

“I remember,” she said. “I still don’t remember much about what happened, I’m afraid.”

“That’s fine,” I said.

“Really? I thought you’d want to know. The others who came to talk to me seemed to hope that I’d remember more.”

“The others?” Now she’d caught my interest. “What others, Nina?”

She looked around, as though afraid that someone might be listening in. “The…from the coven.”

“You mean Lucille, Flora and Elizabeth?” I asked.

Nina looked almost shocked that I’d used their first names as casually as that. But then, she was a very minor witch. Maybe only a little stronger than I had thought I was back before I’d realized what I was. For her to receive a visit from three heavyweight coven representatives like that was probably almost more than she could handle.