“Hello?”
“Hi, Lady Hallowell?” the woman at the other end said. “This is Investigator Ruiz from the Assembly’s Justice Division. We spoke a few days ago.”
The tension in me relaxed but only a little. “I remember,” I said. “I told you everything I could then.”
“I’m sure you did. But there’s another matter I need to discuss with you. Have you had any contact with a witch by the name of Thalia Ainsworth?”
My back went rigid all over again. Thalia had never said it in so many words, but from her anxiety at the thought of being tracked here and the precautions she’d taken, I could be pretty sure she didn’t want anyone knowing where she’d gone. I couldn’t promise I could protect her if the Assembly and her husband knew she was here.
I hadn’t told any outright lies to Ruiz last time, but if that was what I had to do now, so be it.
“Ainsworth?” I said. “No. I don’t think I’ve ever met her. Why?”
There was a skeptical note in Ruiz’s voice. “I gather she left her house rather suddenly… Her husband says she’s been having some episodes of confusion—he’s worried about her and wants her home. I only wondered since you have been collecting stray witches lately.”
“Well, if she does show up here, I’ll be sure to let you know,” I said.
“Uh huh.” She wasn’t even trying to hide her skepticism now. “Lady Hallowell… I do want to help, you know.”
I swallowed hard.I believe you, I thought.I just don’t believe youcan.
“I’ve seen things, heard things,” she went on in my brief hesitation. “I know not to trust the official take on everything. Iaskedto be assigned to your case because I feel there’s more here we need to understand. If you have another side to the story—toanystory—I’ll listen and give it due consideration.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, but she’d sounded sincere enough that I had to add, “and I appreciate that.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else you can tell me?”
My hand tightened around the phone. “I’m trying,” I said. “If I’ve got a story I can properly tell, you’ll be the first one I call.”
“All right. I can’t ask for much more than that. You’ve got my card. Stay well and may your spark glow brightly, Lady Hallowell.”
It was an old formal farewell, the kind recorded in witching fairy tales, not really used much these days. Hearing it, I really wished I could have told her something more.
When I hung up, the soft clearing of a throat behind me made me jerk around. Thalia was standing in the doorway to the bedroom she’d been hiding away in for most of the last two days.
I took her in with a whisper of relief, seeing the steadiness of her stance. For the first time since she’d arrived, there was an energy in her eyes that fit the forty-something years old she was, not the aged weariness she’d shown before. I’d been starting to worry that our newest arrival might have had her nerves permanently fractured.
“Hi,” I said. “How are you? Did you want me to bring up some breakfast—or to come down?”
Those questions seemed to slide right by her. “That was the Assembly,” she said, nodding to the phone I’d just lowered.
I tucked it into my pocket. “It’s no problem. No one’s realized you’re here.”
“You lied to them for me.”
The words held more weight than I would have expected. I paused. “I did. I thought that’s what you’d want me to do.”
“It is. But I—” Her mouth twitched. I couldn’t tell if it was moving toward a smile or a frown. “I wouldn’t have asked that of you. They could arrest you just for that if they find out. You hardly know me.”
Was that all she was worried about? “It’s nothing,” I said. “Really. You came here because you thought it’d be a safe place, and that’s what I’m trying to make it, as much as I can.”
She studied me. “Why?” she asked simply.
It took me a moment to find an answer that felt true enough. “I wish I’d had someone in the witching community I could turn to when I needed them,” I said. “Everyone should have that. At least I can give it to other people, so they can feel a little less scared than I did.” My stomach twisted even without thinking too hard about all the trouble I’d been through with no one who fully understood to turn to.
Something about the answer must have sat right with Thalia, because her grip on the doorframe eased. She tipped her head toward her bedroom. “Come in? I feel there’s more we should talk about.”
Inside the bedroom, she sank onto the edge of the bed, and I sat on the stool at the cherry-wood vanity.