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

red tape, I guess she had a right to snap. “The coven is the power that matters when it comes to supernaturals. The tolerance directive…” She stopped herself, as though realizing where she was. I really had made her frightened of me. “I need to know what happened, Elle.”
    I shrugged. “He was winding up with some kind of spell to hit Siobhan.”
    “What kind of spell?”
    “How should I know? Nothing good, if he was using it as an attack. I didn’t want to wait until he’d hit her with it to find out. So, I stepped in and ate the power he was using.”
    Rebecca swallowed. I could feel the tension under that carefully controlled surface. I’d done the same thing to her once, dragging her power out through the smallest of wounds. I’d had to fight to keep from doing more.
    “You fed on him.”
    I looked her in the eye. “I did what I needed to do to stop him from using magic against us.”
    “Really? That’s the only reason you did it?”
    “That’s it, Rebecca. All of it. You can believe me or not. I don’t care much either way, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t be here to listen to my side of things if you’d already made up your mind.”
    She sat there, her hands clasped around the warmth of the mug of tea Fergie had handed her. I could feel the shifting emotions as she thought it through; the worry and the doubt, mixed in with a few fragments of old friendliness.
    “Shall I just come out and say it?” I asked. “You’re worried that I might be turning into a killer. Into… her . You’re wondering if you need to send people after me.”
    Rebecca shook her head so fast I was surprised that it didn’t give her whiplash. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”
    Perhaps it was because she was too frightened. Maybe. Frightened people did stupid things.
    Rebecca pinched the bridge of her nose. “Why do you always have to make everything so difficult, Elle? I’ve got enough problems with the coven trio as it is, wandering around asking questions, judging whether I’m doing my job well enough, without adding all this to the problem. What am I meant to say to them when they ask what happened and what I’m doing about it?”
    “Tell them the truth,” I suggested. “It’s not like they don’t know I was there. Flora met me in the lobby.”
    “Great.” That was practically a groan. “So, they’re looking everywhere . What were you even doing in the Archive, Elle? And taking a goblin along?”
    I walked over to stand beside her, closer than was comfortable. “I was looking for information on your case. Siobhan was helping me. Why, do you have a problem with her helping?”
    Rebecca looked over to the goblin girl. “No, but there are plenty who might. With everything that happened before…people are worried.”
    Witches were worried, at least. Worried, presumably, that not all of those who had been in on Victoria’s scheme to take back the up-world were in on it only because she’d controlled them.
    “We were trying to pin down whether there was any way it could have been a natural side effect,” I said. “Siobhan helped with the research.”
    “Could it?” Rebecca seemed to brighten a little at the prospect of everything being neatly resolved.
    I looked over at Siobhan, who shook her head.
    “I didn’t find anything,” she assured me.
    “But you have the situation contained?” Rebecca asked.
    I nodded. “I’ve planted doubts with the people on the site. I’m still trying to work out what actually happened though, and until I do that, I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again. There isn’t enough evidence so far.”
    “Keep looking. You’ll find something eventually.” Rebecca sighed. “In the meantime, I’ve got to go and try to make sure that what happened at the Archive doesn’t come back to bite either of us. This is my job on the line, Elle.”
    She walked out without saying anything else.
    Siobhan watched her go. “Well, wasn’t she unpleasant?”
    I shook my