And Ellie made a mental note to catch Prospero up on a few pop-culture references when they weren’t midcrisis, but then they were suddenly standing outside a very modest cabin in the village.
“Please do not provoke the chief witch,” Prospero murmured as she held Ellie briefly.
Ellie looked at a small cottage. Whitewashed exterior, thatched roof. The tiny house reminded her of the ones she’d once seen in Ireland or Scotland.
Prospero wrapped a firm arm around Ellie’s middle. “He’s dangerous.”
“So are we.” Ellie closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against Prospero shoulder briefly while the hornets in her stomach from teleporting settled. Then she stepped back and said, “But I will attempt manners. For now.”
“Thank you.” Prospero rapped on the door, and it swung open soquickly that it seemed as if the hob on the other side had been waiting for their knock.
“C.W. is coming,” the wizened hob pronounced. He wandered off, trailing a knitted scarf in a clash of colors.
“C.W.?” Ellie asked quietly.
“Chief Witch.”
Ellie nodded. She didn’t recall being here before, but she should’ve been. Her wife regularly had business with the chief witch. They were surrounded by the scent of peat fire, but it brought no memories of being here previously.
They waited in the kitchen until they were more or less greeted by an irate old witch.
“Took you long enough,” he muttered, glaring at Prospero. “Just the three of them to retrieve: Allan, Aggie, and that young ’un, Jennifer. I expect you’ll fetch them.”
“Walt—”
“I handled Jaysen. He’ll likely be siphoned.” Walt stayed in the doorway, barely glancing at them. “You need to retrieve the others. Mae will fix Scylla. That one can work miracles.” He shook his head; the edge of a smile touched his lips for a flicker and was gone. “For now, I have Scylla’s bunch working on repairs. How is she?”
“Bullet’s out, but…” Prospero shrugged. “Mae wasn’t sure.”
“Oh, for the love of Fergus!” Walt threw up one hand dramatically. His other tugged on his beard as if it were a comfort object. “Guns and fallen barriers and missing witches. Someone else needs to be chief witch. Scylla’d be damn good at it. You would, too, but you have too many infernal enemies, girl.”
Prospero tensed.
Ellie resisted the urge to defend her. Instead, she stared at him. “Right, well, hand-waving and drama aside…”
“Whatdid you say?” Walt leveled a glare at Ellie that was impressively intimidating.
“Everyone here knows guns are stupid, right?” Ellie looked at Prospero and then back at the chief witch. “What are you doing other than leaving all the actualworkto my wife? Ordering people to do what they’re already doing?”
Prospero visibly winced.
“Put a leash on her, Lady Prospero,” Walt said in a low voice.
Ellie idly took his knitting and started transforming it into shackles. “Try it. Please. Try forcing me to do anything. I am only in this world forher.”
“We cannot find the others until they use magic,” Prospero said, stepping in between them. “This is no different from a new remedial witch. Until there is magic used or leaked…”
Walt looked suddenly old. “This is the problem with not being a villain, a killer, a despot, any of that. Good people try to live by their ideals, and sometimes that means we just wait.”
“Fuck that,” Ellie said.
Walt leveled a steely look at her. “Ah, to be so young and stupid…”
Ellie flashed her teeth at him in a feral scowl. “We don’t need tojust wait.Prospero has already got Lord Scylla to the doctor, and she brought back the first of the escapees. I can work on fixing the barrier. Maybe interrogate the one who was brought here.…”
Prospero said nothing as she glanced back over her shoulder at Ellie quizzically.
“Interrogate?” Walt echoed.
