Page 96 of Traitor Witch
The fae is going to put two and two together and figure out I'm a Shadow pretty damn quick if I keep talking to this kid.
"Come on, let's get this over with."
When Elsie leads us to a huge wall, straight on the seafront, I get suspicious.
This doesn't look like the home of 'just a friend.' This looks like the home of someone wealthier than the Queen.
It has a garden, for Goddess’s sake, and when Elsie leads us over a wall, I frown.
"This is suspiciously like breaking and entering," I mutter.
"Coop's parents aren't friendly to witches," she whispers back, leading us through rows and rows of ornamental shrubs that have no place in a world struggling for farmland as ours is. "He basically lives in his shed, though."
As she speaks, a cloud of smoke billows out of thewindow of a ramshackle building hidden behind some very tall hedges. This corner of the garden is almost certainly disguised for a reason. There are scorch marks on the walls nearby, and twisted metal contraptions tossed in a heap beside one wall.
The door flies open and out flies a ginger-haired, lanky teenager. His glasses askew and his face covered in soot as he hops in place, trying to put out the fire on his sleeve.
Eventually he gives up, dunking his whole arm in a trough of some foul-smelling water.
"Coop!" Elsie dashes closer and fusses, taking his arm and muttering a prayer to the Sun Goddess until the burned skin is pink and new. "What did you do?"
"I nearly had it!" He pulls his glasses off and tries to clean them with the hem of his shirt before replacing them and scowling at the crack now running through one lens. "Elsie, I was so freaking close..." he trails off, finally catching sight of Kier and I. "Who are these people?"
"This is Nilsa and her male."
I practically sense Kier's smirk at Elsie's assumption and my scowl does nothing to dim it.
"Kier. This is Kier and he'snotmy male."
Cooper, to his credit, immediately gets between Elsie and me, though he lacks any form of intimidating presence and his stance is so bad that a good gust of wind might blow him over.
"The same Nilsa who murdered your High Priestess's daughter?"
"Apparently, she didn't." Elsie lays a single, restraining hand on his arm. "High Priestess Elodie has charged her with taking me away."
"Away?" All of the protectiveness drains out of Cooper, replaced with a horrible, kicked-puppy look that makes it clear he's half in love with Elsie. "Away where? You can't go."He glares at me like it's my fault. "She's one of the few good things about this city."
I shrug. "I didn't ask for this any more than she did."
"The High Priestess wouldn't have sent me without good reason," Elsie says, though her voice is shaky. "I don't want to go, but..."
Cooper's shoulders sag. "But you have to. I get it." He bites his lip. "Just... just wait here, one second!"
He dives back into the shed.
I give Elsie my best unimpressed look.
Her answering puppy-dog eyes have more of an effect on me than I'll ever admit.
"He's my best friend," she pleads.
"Fine."
"You're the best witch-boogeyman ever!"
I'm the boogeyman now? The moment we're alone, I need to make this girl tell meexactlywhat the other Solars have been saying about me.
It takes ten more, mind bogglingly dull minutes before Cooper reappears, brandishing a tiny pendant on a long string. The amulet at the end is comprised of several black metal rings, etched with mage glyphs, which orbit a fragment of glowing crystal. The whole thing stinks of burning. Elsie immediately clasps it around her neck, spouting praise at Cooper before tucking the tiny piece of mage-tech beneath the neckline of her high-necked robe.
