"Oh, I know why they'd want me."
I held my breath and waited for her to go on.
"Cabals only hire one witch, see? They'd probably rather not hire any at all, but we've got special skills, so they overlook the whole witch-sorcerer feud just enough to hire one of us. Anyway, they figure, if they have to hire a witch, they want a good one. My mom was real good, but she told them where to stick it. She said they'd come for me, and I wasn't to listen to any of their lies."
"Lies? Was there any lie in particular?"
Savannah shook her head.
I hesitated, then forced myself to press on. "It might be tempting, to be offered a place in a Cabal. Money, power ... they probably have a lot to offer."
"Not to a witch. A Cabal witch is strictly an employee. You get a paycheck, but no perks."
"But what if you did get the perks? What if they offered you more than the standard package?"
"I'm not dumb, Paige. Whatever they offered me, I'd know they were lying. No matter how good a witch I might be, to them, I'm still only a witch."
Such a chillingly accurate answer, so easily given. What was it like, to be so young, and yet so keenly aware of your place in the world?
"It's funny, you know," she continued. "All those times my mom warned me and I barely listened. I thought, 'Why is she telling me this? If they come after me, she'll be here. She'll always be here.' You just figure that. You don't think ... maybe she won't. Did you ever think--with your mom--that something like that could happen? That one day, she'd be there, and then she wouldn't?"
I shook my head.
Savannah continued, "Sometimes ... sometimes I have these dreams. Mom's shaking me and I wake up and I tell her what happened, and she laughs and tells me I was just having a nightmare, and everything's okay, but then I really wake up, and she's not there."
"I've had those."
"Hurts, doesn't it?"
"More than I ever imagined."
We drove a few miles in silence. Then Savannah shifted in her seat and cleared her throat.
"So, are you hiring Lucas?"
I managed a forced laugh. "It's 'Lucas' now?"
"It suits him. So are you hiring him or what?"
My natural inclination, as always, was to give her a simple pat answer, but I'd felt as if in these past few days we'd cracked open the door between us, and I didn't want to slam it shut now. So I told her Cortez's alleged motivation for taking the case, then went a step further and asked her opinion of it.
"Makes sense," she said. "He's right. With the Cabals, either you're for them or against them. Especially if you're a sorcerer. Those lawyers my mom knew, the ones I said might help you, they do the same thing Lucas is doing. They take cases against the Cabals."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"Not really. It's weird that way. If a supernatural goes up against the Cabals, they'll squash him like a bug. But if he's a lawyer whose client went against the Cabals, or a doctor who fixed up a supernatural attacked by the Cabals, they leave him alone. Mom says the Cabals are pretty fair that way. You don't bother them, they don't bother you."
"Well, I didn't bother them, and they sure are bothering me."
"But you're only a witch. Lucas is a sorcerer. Makes a difference, you know. So, are you hiring him?"
"Maybe. Probably." I glanced over at her. "What do you think?"
"I think you should. He seems all right. For a sorcerer."
There were people outside my house. More than a few. When I neared the house, no one turned, probably not recognizing my car--yet. From twenty feet away, I hit the garage door opener and zoomed inside before anyone could stop me. We went in through the little-used door linking the garage to the front hall, avoiding any potential confrontations.
After sending Savannah to bed, I faced down the dreaded answering machine. The display flashed "34." Thirty-four messages? My God, how many did the thing hold?