1 Witchy Business (8 page)

“No,” Rebecca said, with a look that shut me down cold. “I wasn’t the one flirting with him, anyway.”

“I was not flirting with him,” I insisted. “He’s attractive, sure, but he’s creepy. Not my type. Are you sure that there’s nothing—”

“Leave it, Elle. Just…leave it.”

I put a hand on her shoulder and massaged it gently. Rebecca was so tense that she actually flinched. I pulled my hand away as if burned.

“Believe me, Rebecca. I am not interested in Evert. He’s not my type. Just being around him makes me feel…dirty. And I don’t identify with that feeling often enough to know whether I even like it or not. I’m kind of a good witch, if you get my drift.”

She flinched again. “I was like you once,” Rebecca said. “A good little witch. Saving the underdog. Spreading daisies in my wake. Waiting to fall in love.” She left it there.

I didn’t. “It’s obvious that there’s something bothering you, Rebecca. Something beyond what you said in there. I just want to help.”

Rebecca smiled tightly. “I know. I can’t explain it all. All I can say is that you should try spending a couple of days stuck in the same place as Evert.”

I suspected that would depend a little on the circumstances. A nice hotel, for example, with him spread out on the bed…no, I had to get a grip. I suspected the only way I would ever be alone in a hotel room with Evert was with him as my captor. I had always loathed those romance novels where the heroine is kidnapped and falls in love with her annoying, domineering captor. In my mind, that made the heroine TSTL or
too stupid to live
. Books like that…well, I usually ended up throwing them across the room. Did I want to be stuck in a hotel room with Evert as my captor? No, I did not.

“You still haven’t told me the problem with Niall Sampson,” I pointed out, determined to give it one last try. “He’s…nice. And he bakes.”

“Bakes?” Rebecca shook her head like she didn’t want to get into that. “Just do what we asked, okay? Keep us updated on anything you find out. That’s your part of this. Leave the rest to me and Evert, okay?”

I sighed. “I don’t understand all of this drama. And I don’t think I want to. This warlock isn’t good for you, Rebecca.”

“I told you it wasn’t like that,” Rebecca said, in a tone that made me get out of there before she changed her mind and dropped something really awful on me…
like a house.

Over the next couple of days, I set to work. This mostly meant paperwork. Despite Rebecca’s insistence that I should be careful, the truth was that ninety percent of my job didn’t involve any kind of risk at all, except possibly the risk of dying from terminal boredom as I waded through printouts of sales of art, specifications for the security systems found in Niall Sampson’s home, and copies of the police statements taken from his staff. Most of the time, thoroughness was what got results in investigations like this, not running around having adventures. Besides, it was one part of my job that meant I was never going to go beyond the boundaries my instructors in magic had taught me.

“Don’t let yourself get too emotional, Elle. An enchantress must be in control of herself at all times.”

“Steer clear of strong sources of emotion. Remember that safety comes first.”

“Plan ahead. Your gift can be useful, but it can also be a curse.”

The words came back to me easily, even after all this time. Maybe it was just the number of times they’d said them, or maybe it was just the inevitable mental wandering that came with wading through so much paperwork at a stretch. Okay, maybe I needed a couple of small adventures.

I got out my cell phone and texted Siobhan. Two minutes later, I was on my way to meet her in the middle of Holyrood Park. The park was always one of my favorite spots in the city, a scheduled ancient monument where I could practically feel the history pouring off the Iron Age hill fort at its heart. I forced myself to walk past it, heading up to one of the vantage points that offered a view out over the city. From there, I could see the modern surfaces of the Scottish Parliament, the stone edifice of the castle…even the crowds of tourists flocking along the old cobbles of the main streets.

My contact was waiting for me, wearing a hooded top with the hood pulled up over her face. Goblins, even part goblins, didn’t like daylight much. There was another hooded figure not far away, hunched over against the sun.

“Siobhan,” I said, “I thought we agreed that just the two of us would meet.”

She pulled back her hood, risking the evening light and revealing an eighteen-year-old face that wasn’t what most people would have expected. People often assumed goblins were going to be short and green, when in fact, the term just meant any of the lesser fey who were generally inimical to humans. Or simply stole from them, in Siobhan’s case, dipping nimble fingers into pockets where she could.

Siobhan wasn’t ugly. She just looked…different. Her eyes didn’t match—one was a deep green, the other was a silvery blue. Her hair was bone-white, and her otherwise quite pretty features were marked by small patches of scales like a lizard’s. To most people, they might have seemed like some kind of skin disease, but in the evening light, they shone in iridescent colors.

“Dougie wanted to come with me,” she said. “I didn’t want to ditch him when he wanted to come to the surface with me. He doesn’t get out much.”

I grinned. “Except for your little adventures.”

Which probably mostly consisted of relieving tourists of their valuables. Honestly though, if that was the worst Siobhan ever did, she was still a long way ahead of most goblins.

“I can’t just bear sitting around watching the underside of grass growing. It’s boring down in the volcano.”

Sometimes, it was hard to remember that Edinburgh sat on a dead volcano. It was harder still to think about some of the creatures that had found ways to live down there.

“What do you want?” Siobhan asked. “You said it was important.”

“Information on a stolen art piece.”

“And the money?”

I had that ready, and handed her a small envelope of cash. She snatched it from my fingers and weighed it in her hands. “More than last time. Thanks!”

“What do you spend all that on?” I asked. Because there probably wasn’t a lot to buy down in the dark.

Siobhan shrugged. “Bottles of sunblock. It adds up. What’s the background on the stolen art?”

“An M.C. Escher woodcut block of the letter A. It was taken from a house not far from here.” Actually, I stopped at that. Had I deliberately picked a meeting place so close?

“It’s a carving of the letter A? Just that? For real?”

“Yeah. It’s a pretty elaborate carving, though. If you hear anything, I might be willing to buy it back. Failing that, I’ll pay for information. Do you know anything, Siobhan?”

She shook her head. “No, that sounds pretty specialized, too.”

“You’re sure you don’t know anything?”

“She said it, didn’t she?” The other goblin was male, and under his hood I could see he probably wasn’t much older than her. Boyfriend? Brother? Did it matter? He started forward, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe we should just see how much more cash you’ve got on you. Give me your cell phone.”

“Siobhan,” I said. “Call off your sidekick.”

“It’s not her you have to worry about. It’s me.” He pulled back a hand, as if he was going to hit me.

As the hand closed into a fist that came fast toward my face, I instinctively lashed out, taking the sudden fear I felt in that moment and shoving it back into him. It wasn’t something I liked to do, it certainly wasn’t something my tutors would have approved of, but I knew it would work better on this jerk than any good feelings might have.

Dougie cried out in surprise and cringed just long enough for me to bring my knee up sharply into his groin and then sweep his feet out from under him. As he started to crumble, I twisted his arm, taking it almost, almost to the point of breaking before letting go. Without the element of surprise, I could never have done it all, but surprise is nine-tenths of self-defense. The other tenth is persuading the other person they don’t want to keep fighting.

Another burst of fear shoved into the prone goblin did that.

“Don’t hurt me anymore!” Dougie said, sniveling.

“You shouldn’t have brought him here with you, Siobhan,” I said. “If you can’t control your pets, they belong on a leash.”

She shook her head, looking almost as frightened as he did. And sorrowful. “I didn’t know he was going to try to mug you. I’m so sorry. Are you…are you going to take your money back?”

“No,” I said. “I still need the information. And you didn’t do anything wrong. But, if you want my advice, you’d be better off ditching this one, Siobhan. There’s a coven hunter in town and he would love to have a goblin boy for an appetizer. If you’re with him…”

She drew in her breath sharply and I knew that she’d got the message. I didn’t mention that Evert was busy with other things. It would have spoiled the effect.

She gave Dougie a halfhearted kick. “I told you she was my friend, Dougie! She’s always been nice to me. Always!”

Dougie jumped up and started walking away. She looked longingly after him, with regret and shame, too.

 “Leave him, Siobhan,” I said again. “Even if this hunter doesn’t come for him, another will. Attacking people in broad daylight?”

“He’s…I…”

I sighed, because I could feel the complex mess of feelings coming off the goblin girl, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them. “Do what you want, Siobhan.”

I left it at that, heading back through the park before Dougie decided to get over his fear. I walked away quickly, trying not to run. I could feel the aftermath of even a short fight like that coming down on me as I walked back, the natural climb down of adrenaline soon replaced by all the emotions that came in the wake of its passing. All the what-ifs. What if things had gone differently? What if Siobhan’s boyfriend had brought a weapon?

I needed to get a grip. I’d already slipped enough, shoving fear emotions into Dougie. I controlled my emotions. They didn’t control me. And just to prove it, I wouldn’t be slinking back home to feel sorry for myself and eat ice cream out of the carton. I had a job to do, and since I was practically at Niall’s house, I might as well do it.

Kelly the housekeeper let me in. Apparently, she’d had orders to do just that, and to help me in any way she could. This turned out to be through the medium of coffee, mostly, while I stared at the blank space where the Escher woodcut block had been, paced the length of the room and checked the security arrangements, making mental notes as I went.

“Have you worked for Mr. Sampson very long?” I asked her.

“About a year now. He’s a very good employer.”

Well, she wasn’t about to say anything else, was she? In any case, what did I want her to say? The answer to that was obvious. I wanted some kind of clue as to what Rebecca and Evert were doing out there. It wasn’t the only reason I was there, I did want to find out how someone could have broken in, but it was a part of it.