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

interested in a better life for our people,” Ulm explained. “And yes, that better life includes being able to come up into the sun. Perhaps in secret at first, but then, eventually, openly.”
    “Why not come out openly now?” Kal asked.
    Nea shook her head. “Kal, we’ve had that argument.”
    “And we should not be having it again in front of Ms. Chambers,” Ulm put in. He smiled over at me. “I know that what I have just said must come as a shock. Please remember that I am not talking about us pouring out of the tunnels tomorrow, or the day after, or a year from now. This is a dream for us, and we have learned to be patient.”
    I couldn’t help looking at Kal. “Some of you have, at least.”
    I hadn’t expected this when I’d agreed to come here. I hadn’t known what to expect. There were still things I didn’t understand.
    “Why tell me this?” I asked. “After I stopped Victoria, why come out and tell me something like this?” I held up my hands to forestall the obvious objection. “I know. I know you say that you’re not planning the same things she was, but you have to realize that I’d be suspicious.”
    “Of course, you would,” Ulm said. “And that is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. If you had heard this from one of the coven, or found it out by chance, wouldn’t you have been more suspicious?”
    “And my opinion matters to you that much?” That seemed hard to believe. Whatever else was true, I was just one insurance claims investigator in a large city.
    “You are a power in this city.” The goblin spread his hands. “More powerful than perhaps you give yourself credit for. Your opinion matters, although I will admit that there are a couple of other reasons that I wanted to talk to you.”
    Of course there were. Nothing around my life was ever likely to be simple.
    “What are the reasons?”
    “First, there is the question of your mother.”
    This time, I did stand up. “What about my mother?”
    “Sit down, and I will tell you.”
    I wanted to make him tell me regardless, but I doubted that would go down well. I sat back down instead. “You have one minute to get my attention.”
    “I won’t need it,” Ulm assured me. “I spoke to your mother on a number of occasions. She was interested in the plight of my people, locked away, almost prisoners. She wanted to find ways to help us, although we argued over the details.”
    He said it like it was no big deal that my mother had been Underneath to see him. Like it was no big deal that one of the most respected witches in the coven had been talking to a goblin who seemed determined to bring his people back to the surface.
    “She didn’t want you to come out into the open?” I guessed.
    “She perhaps felt it would be too difficult to achieve, that her coven was not ready to permit it. I pointed out to her that freedom should not be something that has to be permitted. Although, in truth, that was always a general point. The real sticking point came when I asked her to teach my people more about magic.”
    My breath caught slightly as he said that. Some goblins, some supernatural creatures of every stripe, had always had access to a little natural magic, more innate powers than anything. Yet, never more than that. The superiority of witches was almost entirely down to that fact. A fact they worked hard to maintain. Just look at how they’d reacted to me.
    “It is not something you need to worry about now,” Ulm said. “I know it is a lot to take in. I merely wished to meet with you and work out where you stood. Not even that. I wanted to see what kind of person you were. There are wheels in motion, Elle, and I wished to make sure that you were not one of them.”
    “And am I?”
    He shrugged. “It is hard to be certain of anything these days.”
    “Okay, what’s the second reason?”
    “I’m sorry?”
    “You said there were two reasons you wanted to see me. You’ve told me about my mother, so what’s