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

the other one?”
    Nea answered that one. “We wanted to make sure that Siobhan was okay.”
    That seemed to come too soon after we’d been followed to be a coincidence. “You’ve been following us?” I drew power around me. “I’m warning you, if you try to hurt her—”
    “Why would we want to hurt her?” Nea asked. “Like Ulm said, we’re from the same clan. And that child she’s carrying is—” She stopped as Ulm looked at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to say it. I thought she must know. Surely Siobhan would have heard it?”
    Ulm sighed. “It’s done now. Ms. Chambers, we would never hurt the girl. We would never risk the child she is carrying. Not now that she is living in the up-world.”
    That didn’t seem very likely. “Are you telling me that there’s some kind of hands-off policy on goblins living up here? Because Dougie spent plenty of time up here and look what happened to him.”
    Ulm looked at me blankly. “Dougie?”
    Nea said something that sounded more like she was gargling with gravel.
    “Him, yes. No, it is not like that, Ms. Chambers. The child the girl is carrying…there are those who believe it will be special.”
    “One born in light will lead us to light.” Kal’s voice was almost singsong as he said it. “It’s true. We all know it.”
    “You might,” Nea said.
    Ulm held up his hand again. “The important thing is that enough people take it seriously that the girl would not be harmed. We want her safe, Ms. Chambers. Safe and above ground, of course. Thank you for that.”
    He and the others stood, making as if to leave.
    “Wait,” I said. “That’s it? You’re leaving? You invited me over to a secret meeting just to get a good look at me, ask about my mother and then drop some cryptic nonsense on me about Siobhan?”
    “There are those who would say that is enough,” Ulm replied. He paused for a moment. “There are those who make the mistake of assuming that goblins are everything the tales say. That we do not think. I can assure you, that isn’t the case. We think. I think.” His smile showed the tusks sticking from his mouth. “You have given me a lot to think about, Ms. Chambers.”
     
     
     

     
     
    I couldn’t believe that I was willingly heading back out toward a muddy field, yet that was exactly what I was doing at Rebecca’s request. She’d asked to meet me out at the dig site and, in the absence of any obvious way to refuse so as to preserve my clothes, I had to go. David wasn’t driving me in the Lexus this time, of course.
    No, this time, Niall was giving me a ride over in the Aston Martin, having said something about getting lunch at this little restaurant he knew on the way back. Not that I was fooled by that. If Niall was coming all this way, there was no way it was just about the food. He was obviously worried about Rebecca calling me out into the middle of nowhere like this.
    We pulled up by the dig. I had dressed for it in jeans, a flannel shirt and work boots. Niall still looked his usual elegant self. A part of me was faintly annoyed to see Rebecca already there, dressed more or less the same way I was. I’d been half hoping that she would continue with her usual power dressing, right up to the point where she fell over in the mud.
    “Great,” she said as I got out of the car, “you’re finally here. And…Niall. You brought him, too?”
    “He brought me.” I looked around. The archaeological dig seemed fairly quiet. “Why did you call me out here, Rebecca?”
    She seemed to recover a little composure as she gestured to the dig. “What do you see out there, Elle?”
    “Well, I guess there isn’t much going on…”
    “There isn’t anything going on,” Rebecca insisted.
    I guessed the rest of it rather easily. “You’re saying…”
    “I’m saying that they’ve had to keep the dig shut down while they’re waiting for official word on what happened here. Their health and safety people