A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book #4)(8)

“Am I under investigation, Detective?” she asked with the barest hint of warning.

“No,” he said quickly. “I don’t think you’ve killed anyone lately.” The words were said with emphasis on the lately part. They both knew Claudia was far from innocent, but there wasn’t much the police could do about that. Once again, plenty of reason for Derek to get the hell away from her as fast as possible, and yet here he was.

“I’m a model citizen.” Claudia leaned back into her seat. “Have you changed your mind about Angela Parker yet?”

“We talked about this,” said Sam.

“We did, but that doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind.”

“We could use someone else on the police who knows the truth.”

“It’s dangerous for her,” said Claudia in a low voice. Then she looked to Derek and met his eyes. “It’s dangerous for this one too, but he doesn’t have a choice.”

“You know how I feel about Sam.”

“Don’t say that like it’s supposed to make me feel better.” For the first time since they walked in, a bit of fire flared behind her eyes. She quickly regained herself and looked to Sam. “I’ve given you time to recover. When are you coming back to work?”

“Work?” Sam blinked in surprise. “I’m not working for you anymore.”

Claudia waved a dismissive hand. “You still need to regain your strength and I am still the most qualified person to train you. You’d be stupid to refuse me.”

Sam wished like hell that weren’t true, but she knew better. Now that she finally had a hold on her powers, she was twenty years behind every other witch she knew. She wanted to be an asset and not a hindrance, so she’d need to learn at an accelerated rate.

So she didn’t say anything. Instead, she looked to Derek and silently encouraged him to get this over with.

“What’s the darkness?” he asked.

Sam was startled by the question. He knew this. “It’s dark magic,” she said. “Pure evil.”

“Yeah, but it’s living, right? It has thoughts. Plans. A little moustache to twist as it thinks about its evil plans? So what is it really?”

“It’s gone,” said Claudia simply. “If that’s all—”

“No, it’s not all. This isn’t just about you. We’re all involved and we all deserve answers. So what the fuck is it?”

Sam held her breath as she waited to see how Claudia would react to Derek’s posturing. Claudia narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. For a few long seconds, they all sat there in silence. Sam didn’t know whether Claudia was debating killing Derek or telling them the truth.

Eventually she said, “If you use that language in front of me again, I’ll rip the skin from your body and make myself a new belt. Now leave.”

Derek didn’t look intimidated at all, which was about a hundred percent less intimidated than he should be. When Claudia made threats, they weren’t idle. She could back up every single syllable.

But Sam couldn’t leave quite yet. “Have you talked to Mom?”

Claudia and Derek remained staring at each other for a moment, in a silent battle of wills, but eventually Claudia moved her attention to Sam. “I haven’t. Things between us are... tense.”

“Well, you need to talk to her. She isn’t handling this well. She said she wants to throw a solstice party tonight. Some way to act cool in front of the families or something.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? We need to appear as strong as possible right now.”

“You didn’t see her,” said Sam. “She’s not right. I’m not sure if it’s just grief or something more. If anyone would know, it would be you.”

Claudia sat up and leaned on the desk. “How exactly was she not like herself?”

Sam was happy Claudia was taking her seriously now, but it would’ve also been nice if this had turned into no big deal.

“Garrett told me to come over because he was worried about her and when I got there, she was acting like it was any other day, and Garrett was basically a zombie. It was eerie.”

“I’ll look into it. Thank you for telling me. We’re done here.” Claudia stood and started for the bookshelf where the entrance to the hidden room was located.

Sam stared in shock before she jumped up. “You’re just going to shut me out? This is my mother. I’m family!”

Claudia stopped and a few beats later, she turned to look at Sam. “I’m not telling you anything because I don’t know anything. The families are here and I need to handle them, handle this, and I don’t have time to deal with your feelings, Samantha. And, in case it missed your notice, I lost someone too. Just because I was the one who got the job done doesn’t mean I’m handling it better. We will talk tomorrow.”

Sam still wasn’t happy about it, but she couldn’t find any words to defend herself or fight with Claudia. It was hard to think of anything to say that could comfort Claudia while at the same time telling her she was full of shit. And then Claudia had disappeared behind the bookshelf, leaving her and Derek alone.

Sam blinked and she looked over at Derek. “I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“Why are you sorry?”