Elina

She had a way with words.

A tongue like a sword.

But I don't think she just talked with Julia. Any professional witch hunter, male or female, would know how to resist the words of a witch. Elina must've done something.

But what? I had to find out.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Elina leaned back into her chair, her smiling eyes resting lazily on me. She crossed her legs and rested her hands on them. Like a queen.

"Your sister," she said.

"??"

"In exchange for telling you what I did with Julia, I want to meet your sister. Yulia Udell."

When you don't know what to say, it's better to say nothing. And that's exactly what I did.

Elina said, "You seem surprised."

I took a breath. I asked, "Why would you want to see Yulia?"

"Most men become witch hunters because they hate witches. Some kind of grudge they can't let go. But you are different. You risk your life because someone you care about needs the money." She smiled. A smile I couldn't quite describe. A mix of kindness and madness. "And I want to meet the kind of person who can drive a man this far."

I was difficult for me to read her intentions. Her demands seemed random. Her words playful and dangerous at the same time.

I said, "If you know that much, then you should know that I can never let you meet her."

"Hmmm..."

Elina closed her eyes. Her silver hair changed back to chestnut brown and when she opened her eyes, they had changed to human form. Like a normal townsgirl. The kind of girl any man would find endearing. Dangerously so.

"Does this solve the problem?" she asked.

"Your appearance isn't the problem."

"Then what?"

"How do I know you won't kill her to extract revenge on me?"

A moment of thought. She scratched her chin. The handcuffs clinked. "You don't. You'll have to trust me."

"The day I trust a witch is the day I die."

She sighed. She shook her head and muttered something under her breath.

She said, "Why don't you sit down? The rain won't stop for a while."

The rain was pouring at full force. Like the sky was trying to drown the world. Create entire oceans.

I pulled up a chair and sat down next to Elina. One step away. She had her hands on her lap, her eyes gazing into the rain, thoughtful, contemplating. She kept her towns girl appearance.

Which was bad news for me. It was troublesome for witches to keep up a human appearance. Which meant she had something planned. A scheme that would benefit from a human appearance.

Syrus and Julia were gone. I was the only one left. The only target.

"Yes."

"Then I'll tell you."

"Without asking for anything in return?"

"See it as a down payment in good faith."

"A down payment for meeting Yulia?"

"A down payment for your trust."

I said nothing.

Elina started talking. "The magic Syrus smelled in here wasn't mine. It was Julia's."

That information hit me in the stomach. Off guard. I breathed hard.

Elina continued. "Witches have good instincts, you know? And Julia immediately sensed that I wasn't a human girl. She knew something was off. And after you and her husband started talking, she sensed that I wasn't an ordinary witch."

"Then what did you do after we stepped outside?"

Elina shrugged. "These handcuffs seal off my magic, remember? I just talked to her a little. Told her that I knew that she was a witch pretending to be a witch hunter. Asked her if she could lie to her husband until she died. Threatened to tell Syrus her secret. And she was terrified. So I got her to tell me what information she had gathered from the Church of Deliverance."

"And what did she tell you?"

Elina turned to me, her eyes smiling. "That isn't part of my down payment."

I looked at her. I laughed. So this was her scheme. Give me a little information, but leave out the most important part.

But there was something else. Something in the way she spoke, the way she looked at me.

I sensed a lie. A part of the story that strayed from the truth.

Which part did she lie about?

But there was another question that was even more important.