Free Witch Way Out (Witch Detectives #3) by Eve Paludan, Stuart Sharp

have no need for human names,” Kal snapped back at me.
    The woman, Nea, put a hand on his arm. It seemed to calm him down. “If Ulm wants to talk, we talk. Remember, she has been looking after one of ours.”
    “Siobhan?” I looked at her closely. “You know Siobhan?”
    “That’s the name she’s using above ground?” the female goblin nodded. “We were part of the same clan, Underneath.”
    I didn’t know enough about goblin society to know exactly what that meant. Were they related, or was the similarity of their appearance just coincidence? With goblins, it was impossible to tell.
    “We’ll get to that, Nea. Ms. Chambers?”
    I sat down. After all, I’d come this far. “You wanted to see me?”
    “I wanted to meet you.” Ulm held out one sharp-clawed hand. I forced myself to take it. “You have acquired an impressive reputation, and I felt that there were things we should talk over without risking being seen.”
    “She’s not that impressive,” Kal insisted.
    I couldn’t help laughing. Thankfully, Nea managed to get a grip on the male goblin before he surged forward.
    “You don’t laugh at Ulm!” Kal snarled.
    “Actually,” I said, “I was laughing because it feels like I’ve been in this position before recently. Meeting with three people, one of whom is a little prone to temper tantrums…did you model yourselves on the coven trio deliberately?”
     The leader of the three ignored Kal’s obvious anger at that. “So, you’ve met with them?”
    I nodded.
    “Can I ask you what you talked about?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t think you’d appreciate it if I went and told them about this meeting, so I’m hardly going to tell you about that one.”
    Ulm nodded. “That’s understandable, and what I hoped you might say. You have integrity. Can I make one suggestion, though?”
    “You don’t have to speak to her like that,” Kal insisted. “You’re our leader. You—”
    “Kal.” For a moment, just a moment, I saw the power the lead goblin had. Enough that his obviously firebrand assistant stopped dead.
    “I’m always open to advice,” I said. “Although there’s the obvious question of why you would want to give me any. From what I understand, I’m not exactly the most popular of people with the goblins right now.”
    “What gave you that idea?” Ulm asked. “Because you brought down a few tunnels? Hurt a few fools? You helped to stop a woman who wanted to control us utterly. You freed our people from her as much as the people you rescued. We should thank you for that.”
    I looked around the rest of the table. “Why do I get the feeling that if I walked into the Underneath, not everyone would feel the same way?”
    “Not everyone would,” the goblin leader admitted. “Many would want you dead. Some of our faction feel that you are a puppet of the coven. A tool to oppress us.”
    That made me bridle a little. “I’m no one’s puppet. Least of all, theirs.”
    “I see that.” Ulm looked at me for several seconds, the red of his eyes seeming to wash over me. “Tell me, Elle, why did you kill Victoria?”
    I caught the shift to my first name. “Because she had hurt people I care about. Because she’d murdered people and tricked me. Because she needed to be stopped.”
    “Because it was the right thing to do?”
    I swallowed before I answered. “Yes.”
    “We are trying to do the right thing, too.” The goblin looked around the table. Not looking for permission from the others, but obviously seeking to include them. “The three of us are part of a movement in the goblin world. One that has been gathering momentum for some time now. One that was hijacked by the enchantress you defeated.”
    I thought for a moment, and I almost stood up to leave when I worked out what they meant. “Wait a minute. You’re talking about goblins coming up to reclaim the surface?”
    “That is the way Victoria saw it,” the female goblin, Nea, said. “We don’t.”
    “We are