“Do you know why you’re here, Peter?”
Silence. His jaw tightened and I readjusted my approach. I leveled a hard stare at him as Kyla slid into one of the chairs on our side of the table.
“I’m going to offer you a lifeline,” I said. “I think you’re a piece of shit. But you’re a manipulated piece of shit. Tell us everything, and I’ll arrange for you to be taken to the Mage Council under the condition that they don’t hand you over to the High Coven.”
He swallowed. “The Mage Council… will I ever see my mom again?”
“That’s up to them.”
He thought about it for a long moment. Kyla angled her head. “You know what will happen if you’re taken to the coven, Peter,” she said gently. “But the Mage Council rarely kills humans. They may allow you visitation with your mom.”
His eyes gleamed with unshed tears. “She’s dying. This will probably kill her.”
Not if Eldan had anything to do with it. He’d contacted Samael earlier today. Peter’s mom’s cancer wasn’t going away completely, but she was up and walking. She could probably live for another twenty years thanks to the fae healer.
All while her son was locked away.
I sat down next to Kyla and plunked Misty onto the table. “This dagger will glow if you lie. Tell us what happened.”
He shoved his hand through his hair and obviously decided we were his best shot at mercy.
“Caroline caught me. At the hospital. I was just taking something for my mom’s pain.”
Stealingsomething. Even now, he couldn’t admit to it.
“What did she say?”
“She looked so disappointed. We’d become… friends. She asked me what I was thinking. Told me there were good rehab facilities in the Triangle. I guess she thought I was using. I uh, I told her it was for my mom. Caroline said how it wasn’t fair that she had to suffer just ‘cause we had no insurance.”
The bitch had seen the perfect target. “And what did you say?”
“I said itwasn’tfair and we didn’t ask to be poor.” His gaze lifted from where he’d dropped it to the table. “My dad split when I was seven and my mom could only find cleaning jobs. Then she got sick. And she was getting sicker and sicker.”
“So Caroline stepped in and offered to help.”
He nodded. “She told me she had an idea. There was a witch in her coven who was evil. Real evil. She’d convinced all the other witches in her coven that she was good. Caroline was using all her power to keep her from killing. If the witch was dead, Caroline would be able to use her power to help my mom. She said she was good at healing spells.”
I closed my eyes for a long moment. When I opened them, Peter had buried his face in his hands.
“Caroline said the witch I hit was a black witch. That she’d been preying on children. She said no one in her coven would believe her.”
“She lied, Peter. Willow was a good person.” I shook my head at him. “You knew it, deep down. If she’d been preying on children, her coven would’ve taken care of it. And if not, either the Mage Council or the High Coven would’ve stepped in.”
He shook his head, wetness gleaming in his eyes. “She said the witch was too powerful. Powerful enough that no one could stop her.”
“No one except a human with a van? If she was that powerful, she would’ve sensed you coming. You would’ve crashed into her ward.”
Realization was dawning. Tears slipped down his cheeks, but I didn’t have it in me to feel sorry for him. Mostly, I felt sorry for his mom.
We worked on him for another hour, but he couldn’t give me anything else. We’d taken his phone, but Caroline had probably used a burner.
“Witchling?”
“Yes?”
“My people spotted the witch. She is attempting to flee.”
I scowled. Of course she was. She knew Kyla and I weren’t parked outside the hotel, and something had tipped her off.
