Nico could have died.
But that wasn't the worst part. Elise didn't talk to her parents these days. Leaving the Wallace Grove coven had been more than a little traumatic. No one had wanted to let her go. But leaving had been the only thing she wanted.
With her parents and their coven, everything had a price. And it was never paid in money.
"Was I still going to be a member of this coven after you rescued me?" she asked, voice straining. Because she knew that would have been her parents' demand—send Elise back to them, so she could never be out of their control again.
"You will always be a member of this coven," Briana assured her, reaching across the table to touch Elise's hand, "no matter where you are."
It was reassuring. And also not. Because Elise could read the subtext, but she had to let it drop.
Nothing had happened. She wasn't being forced back to her parents' coven. Everything was okay, and there was no reason to worry about it. For now.
"I think the scabies plan is still a go," Delainey said. She was sketching in a notepad, and the symbols she was drawing up definitely looked itchy. "I've been looking up some really nasty curses, and we can hex them. Those bastards deserve it for holding you hostage. For kidnapping you and whatever shit they did to you."
"I want to make them pay. I want to make them bleed," Serena added. She yanked Delainey's notebook towards herself and grabbed a pen, adding another design, which made Delainey bounce with excitement.
"No!" Elise said, waving her arms around. "No, no, no. Remember, they don't know that I'm a witch!"
Except for Nico, but she wasn't going to tell them that part. And Nico wasn't going to tell anyone about her. So in all practicality, she was telling the truth. Mostly.
"I managed to keep that a secret," she reminded them. "So let's prevent a war right now. We do not have the resources to fight them. And they didn't hurt me, okay?" She held up her arms and rolled up her sleeves, showing she was free of bruises. "We don't need to make this a thing."
"They held you captive," said Aya. She set her mug down with a sharp clink. She was usually so calm, but Elise could hear anger in her voice. "Why don't you want to get back at them for that?"
Elise couldn't think about Nico's kisses or the way he held her. She couldn't think about the way they'd held hands in the truck this morning.
This was going nowhere, and if she let her sisters keep talking, they were going to hype themselves up into a war party, and Elise wouldn't be able to stop them.
"Have you heard from the zoo?" she asked, desperate to change the subject. "It sucks that I'm probably fired. Do they want to arrest me?" As she asked the question, her voice shook, and she realized she actually was worried about that. Darn it.
"Why would they want to arrest you?" Delainey asked. She finally looked up from her evil-villain sketches.
"You were the one who got kidnapped." That was from Briana, who was frowning.
"Because the werewolf broke in and stole a bunch of drugs," Elise reminded them, "and my badge was the last one that was scanned. It doesn't look good."
Aya grinned and waggled her eyebrows. "We got your back, you know us. We told your boss that you have the flu and that we sent you out of town on Thursday night to go stay with your parents while you recover. And we told them your badge got stolen. Plus, Delainey and Serena did a little breaking and entering themselves and found your phone … and corrupted the surveillance video after we got a good look at it."
"It took a little convincing." Serena waggled her fingers, and sparks of magic flew off of them. "But they believed the story."
Briana added practically, "We told them they could talk to our lawyer if they had any more questions."
"A lawyer?" Elise sputtered. "That makes me sound guilty as hell."
"It may make you sound guilty," said Briana with a shrug, "but sounding guilty and being guilty are two very different things. You still have your job, and you can have your life back. We'll put this whole werewolf kidnapping thing behind us. But if you want revenge, just say the word and Delainey will do her thing with the scabies and the lice."
"Please don't," Elise emphasized with a violent shake of her head. "I promise I will tell you if I want you to do that."
Aya took pity on her finally. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "I think this calls for some celebratory Chinese food."
"Hell yeah," said Delainey. She slammed her notebook closed.
But Elise shook her head. She stood, pushing her chair back. "I'm just really tired right now, you guys," she said. "I'm going to go and take a shower and just try and get my head around this whole thing, okay?"
Her sisters seemed reluctant to let her go, but they weren't about to hold her captive after the whole ordeal she'd just been through. Elise made her way up the creaky stairs to her bedroom.
She was tempted to fling herself on the bed and curl up under the covers, but she knew if she did that, Aya would be upstairs in no time and bugging her for more information. Aya was better than the best interrogator that the CIA could offer. She had a way of getting information out of people that didn't need magic or torture or anything except a plate of cookies and a willing ear.
