Witch Way Out (Witch Detectives #3) (18 page)

“I’ve got this. Make sure Siobhan’s okay.”

“That’s arrogant,” Nea said. “You think I can’t kill you?”

“I think you still haven’t told me why you killed Ulm. How long have you been working for the coven, Nea?”

She shook her head, moving so that she could keep both Niall and me in her field of vision. She obviously didn’t trust that Niall wouldn’t come at her from the blind side. Well, she, of all people, would know all about that.

“Not for them,” she insisted. “With them.”

“Is that what they told you? That you were equal partners?” I laughed deliberately. “I can tell you that the coven doesn’t think like that, Nea. I believed them for years.”

“And they contained you, because you were dangerous. Ulm needed to be contained. He was too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous to them,” I said, because that part was easy to see. Ulm had been a leader with real potential to bring the goblins out into the open. He hadn’t been like Kal, all bluster and sudden violence. He’d worked toward what he wanted slowly, carefully and consistently. He’d
thought.

“Too dangerous for all of us,” Nea shot back. “You’ve seen how people can be with what they don’t understand. What do you think would happen if we came out into the open? The coven would never allow it, and even if they did, ordinary humans would be too terrified of us. It would be war. It would be a disaster for our people. We’re better off in the dark.”

“So, you murdered him.” This time, I moved before she did, hitting her with magic, blasting her back as she started to lift her knives for another pass at me.

Nea fell over my sofa, rolling back to her feet as I came at her. She didn’t quite get the first knife up in time and my foot slammed into her hand, sending the blade spinning away into the corner of the room. The other sliced across my forearm as I tried to follow up with a punch, and Nea’s mouth opened wide in a hiss as she leapt at me.

I jumped back, waiting. Watching. “You murdered him, Nea.”

“It’s your fault as much as mine,” Nea snapped back. “Alone, Ulm was a threat, but he couldn’t do much. You’re the one who made him too dangerous. First, you killed Victoria, and yes, she needed killing. Then, though, you had to wander around, looking like you were going to take her place.”

“I’m never going to be
her
.”

Nea laughed. “Oh no, you’re going to be so much worse than her. Because you’re Annette Chambers’ daughter, people might actually listen to you.”

“Did you have anything to do with her death?” I asked. “What were you doing while Victoria was in charge, Nea?”

Nea smiled. “The same thing my coven partner and I always do. We kept things running smoothly.”

Her coven partner. I’d suspected that part, but it was nice to have it confirmed. This wasn’t about the whole coven. It was something much smaller than that, but in some ways, far more insidious. Little cliques manipulating things. Controlling things. How much had they controlled?

“So, you told Victoria my mother was coming.”

Nea shrugged. “The question is, why did she decide to go Underneath at all?”

She left that hanging. The answer was obvious. Someone had talked her into it. Nea’s coven partner, whoever it was.

“Who is it, Nea? Who knows? How many people are we talking about?”

Nea smiled and shook her head, starting to edge around me. “So, where do we go from here? Are you going to kill me now, Elle? Are you going to prove that you’re like Victoria after all?”

I sighed. “Give it up, Nea. Drop the knife and I won’t kill you.”

“Just hand me over to the others? Or the coven maybe? That’s a death sentence either way. Perhaps I’d rather go out like this.”

“Like what?” I demanded. “Talking endlessly?”

“Doing what I have to do. However long that takes.”

However long…damn it, she was just trying to stall, hoping that Siobhan would bleed out.

“You bitch!”

Nea shook her head. “At least I care about something enough to do what I need to do.”

Unlike me? If she really thought that, then she’d made at least one mistake. There were some things, some people, I would do anything to protect.

“You get one more chance, Nea,” I warned her, moving to block the door. “Just one. You aren’t getting out of this room. Even if you somehow go through me, do you think Niall won’t kill you for it?”

“Of course, he will, he loves you. Which is why he’ll do
this
.”

She went for me faster than anything she’d done before, and I saw Niall start to react. I braced myself for the rush, knowing that however fast Nea was, I was faster. She wasn’t getting past me.

Only she wasn’t trying to get past me. As I braced to stop her, as Niall instinctively rose from Siobhan’s side to try to block her, Nea changed direction and threw herself straight at Siobhan. She lunged past Niall, throwing herself full length, driving the knife she held into the goblin girl’s chest to the hilt. Siobhan gasped and Nea looked around triumphantly, coming up to her knees.

I hit her with so much magic that it tore her away from Siobhan and slammed her into the wall, hard enough that I heard bones breaking. She groaned and half rose, so I hit her again, this time with my fist, putting everything I had into it. She slumped and didn’t rise.

I rushed to Siobhan’s side, kneeling there and putting an arm around her. I reached out for the knife automatically, but Niall’s hand closed over mine.

“If you pull it out, she will die. Her and the baby both.”

“Do you know anything about healing?” I asked Niall.

He shook his head. “I know enough about first aid to slow the blood loss, but I don’t have the magic, Elle. You healed me when I had no life left in me. Can’t you…”

“I don’t know.” I’d breathed life back into Niall when he’d given me all the energy he had, but that was all it had taken. I’d healed my own injuries quickly before, but that was my far more than human body doing its own thing. Siobhan wasn’t a creature of emotional energy like I was. I needed healing spells I didn’t have.
Powerful healing spells
. That, or so much power that it didn’t make a difference.

I put my hand to Siobhan’s throat, trying to feel for a pulse. It was there, just, but it was weak, fluttering and fast.

Niall put a hand on my shoulder. “If you are going to do something, you need to do it now.”

“I don’t know if I have enough power,” I said.

“Then get the power.” Niall looked across at Nea pointedly.

Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting? That I should simply rip away Nea’s life like it was nothing? Like it didn’t matter that I would be killing her to do it? Because I had no doubt that in the state my magic had left her in, Nea wouldn’t survive the process. Maybe she didn’t deserve to.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“If you don’t, you know what will happen.”

I knew, but I hadn’t killed anyone with my powers before. I’d killed with magic. I’d dropped a whole cave ceiling on Niall’s ex. But I’d never drained anyone. I’d only recently come around to the idea of people as food at all. Killing someone, draining them dry, felt like just another step along a path I didn’t want to walk along.

“Victoria would never have done it,” Niall said. Of course, he knew what had me so scared.

“She wouldn’t have drained someone dry?”

Niall shook his head, holding me tight. “She wouldn’t have done it to save someone. She wouldn’t understand why anyone would want to. She wouldn’t see the value in one young goblin girl. Or if she did, it would have been about the child and the prophecy. She would never have taken her in like this. She would never have given Siobhan the daylight.”

I found myself thinking back to what I’d felt in bed with Niall. The whole city around me. That feeling of connection. But I didn’t need that to remind me of how close I was to Siobhan. She was my friend. She had been my friend for years. She had helped me, lived with me and saved my life. I’d told her that I would help to keep her safe. She was mine to protect.

Whatever that took.

But there were still things I needed to know. I moved over to Nea, pinning her and then slapping her awake. As she came around, I forced her to look at me.

“Who was your coven contact?” I asked. “Who did this? Who betrayed my mother?”

Nea shook her head.

“Who?” I demanded, and in her half-unconscious state, the goblin couldn’t do anything to keep out the emotion I pushed into her. “Tell me.”

“And then you’ll let me live?”

It was too late for that. Far too late. It had been too late the moment she had stabbed Siobhan. Maybe even before that.

“Tell me!” This time, there was no resisting the energy I put into her.

“You know who!” Nea insisted, her back arching with the strain of not simply giving me a name.

She was right. I did. I’d wanted to hear it for myself, but I knew. I’d wanted proof, but truthfully, what would I do with it? Would the coven believe me if I told them? Of course, they wouldn’t. They would sweep it under the carpet, the way they had so many times before.

“Elle,” Niall called over from beside Siobhan. “If you are going to do this, you need to do it now.”

I nodded. Nea looked up at me, understanding.

“No, please…”

I swallowed, reaching down for her.

“Now, Elle,” Niall said. “There is no more time.”

I reached down around to the back of her head where she’d struck the wall. I could feel the blood there. More importantly, I could feel the less physical break, the one that left a gap in her body’s energetic defenses. I reached out with my power, pushing it into that gap, finding the life beyond it.

I found that, and I drained it. I killed her. There was no other way to put it. I knew what I was doing and I did it anyway. I knelt there and I devoured everything that made the goblin who she was. I took the energy of her life, every last drop. I pulled it down into me, and I watched as the light passed out of her eyes.

I moved over to Siobhan. I could feel that there was still something there inside her. Some spark of her. Yet, from the outside, she looked so still and broken that it was hard to believe that she was alive at all. I reached down for her, pouring all the energy I had into healing magic, trying to picture Siobhan as whole, trying to make the reality match the image I had.

I could feel the power as it flowed into her. I could feel it and I tried to transmute it, whispering the words to those healing spells I knew. I reached down for the knife stuck into her, closing my hand around the hilt and taking a breath as I prepared to do what I knew I had to. In one smooth motion, I pulled the knife free.

Blood pumped from the wound and I covered it with my hands. I poured in magic, transmuting every scrap of power I could find to turn it into healing energy. I kept going until I couldn’t keep going any longer, just pouring in the life I’d taken from Nea. Finally, I pulled back, looking at Siobhan, trying to judge if I’d had an effect. Had I done enough to save her? There was still so much blood on her. She was so still.

Then Siobhan gasped, her eyes flickering open. I wrapped my arms around her.

“You’re all right, Siobhan. You’re safe.”

“Not yet,” Niall said. “There are still things we need to do. People have attacked us. I cannot let that stand.
I will not
.”

“Niall?” I stood up with him.

“We know the coven is behind this. We know
who
the goblin meant. At least, we know which member of the coven has spent her life attacking you. Lying to you. You have been merciful with her, and she has just kept going. Or do you think Rebecca didn’t know about this? It’s time to change that.”

He ran from the room before I could stop him.

“Niall, wait! That isn’t what she…”

He was gone though, probably already racing for his Aston Martin. I looked over to Siobhan. She waved me away.

“I’m fine,” she assured me. “I feel fine. Go. Go and stop him.”

I went.
I ran.

I ran after Niall, but he was already gone by the time I reached the door. His Aston Martin was gone, too, away into the Edinburgh evening. I knew where he was going, and what he would do when he got there. He would do what he thought he needed to do to protect me. What he thought I would never be ready to do myself.

He was going to kill Rebecca.

Fair enough, it was something I’d wanted to do a couple of times myself, and I wasn’t exactly happy with her right then, because she’d obviously helped to get me into this mess, but I still wasn’t going to let Niall kill her.

I called her. If this had been a movie, I would have no doubt gotten her voicemail to ratchet up the tension. Instead, Rebecca picked up almost immediately.

“Hi, Elle. Can I call you back? I’m kind of in the middle of—”

“You’re trying to deal with a sudden surge in violence from the goblins, right? That doesn’t matter. Niall is coming to kill you, Rebecca.”

“What?” She paused. “I think I must have misheard you, Elle, because I thought you just said that—”

“Niall is coming to kill you,” I repeated. “He thinks that you’re behind everything that’s happening at the moment. The goblins…you are facing problems with the goblins, right?”