Nick would have preferred to keep arguing with Lacey over what the hell happened instead of facing the witches, and not just because he didn’t like witches. He needed Lacey to figure out how much she’d be selling herself short by remaining in the city as the queen. She deserved a much wider world, and instead she voluntarily chained herself to her mother’s past and gave up on all the adventures she might have had. The only end for a hyena queen was death; there was no retirement. And Lacey wasn’t going to save everyone in the pack. She couldn’t. Some of them would kill her to save themselves, and that was just how it was.

But she went silent as soon as the witch spoke, and Nick had to clench his jaw from yelling at the witches to give them a second to sort through things. Estelle stood there, eyebrows arched, with her hands folded into the sleeves of the long, billowy coat she wore. Nick inclined his head to them, acknowledging their power, even though he heard his neck creak with the effort. “Thank you for coming. Hopefully we can get this resolved quickly.”

“And you’ll never have to see us again?” She smiled, her oddly ageless face unmoving except for her mouth. “Such a pity, Nick. Introduce us to your friend.”

He didn’t want to, and neither did the wolf. Nick felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up as he gestured at Lacey. “Lacey Szdoka, queen of the hyenas. Meet Estelle, head witch of the local coven.”

“The only coven,” Estelle said, moving to shake Lacey’s hand. “But that’s a minor detail.”

“Major enough for you to bring it up,” Nick said. “There aren’t many witches left, from what I’ve found, so it’s good luck that you’ve been able to survive.”

“Good luck?” One of the other witches, a younger version of Estelle, raised her eyebrows. “Hardly. It’s because we don’t mix with anyone else. None of the fae know we’re here, and we’ve never worked with the animals. Except you.”

From the way her nose wrinkled, Nick suspected she would have preferred rolling around in garbage to working with him again. But for the time being, he needed them more than they needed him. The tables might turn eventually, but now was not that time. “I understand. The rest of the shifters in the city will not be made aware of your existence, or the exact nature of your... assistance.”

“Good,” Estelle said.

Lacey remained oddly tense next to him, though none of it showed in her voice when she finally spoke. “What should I call you?”

“I am Estelle,” Estelle said. She tilted her head slightly to the right to indicate the other witch who’d spoken. “My cousin, Hera.” Another slight head tilt, that time to the left. “And my niece, Deirdre.”

The hyena queen nodded to them, clearly at a loss for words, and Nick decided to step in. He folded his arms over his chest, not liking being in the middle of a graveyard under the moonlight. Too many horror movies started that way, particularly when throwing in witches and werewolves. “Let’s get down to business, then, since I don’t think any of us care to stand out here longer than necessary.”

Estelle’s dark eyebrow arched. “By all means.”

Nick’s skin crawled. He tried not to look at the cousin or the niece, since they were even younger and even more disconcerting for having rank and power disproportionate to their age. “A colleague is stuck in the Betwixt. We need to get him out. He’s there with a turned human. Leave the human there or kill him, and get our colleague out. That’s it.”

None of them blinked. Finally, Estelle said, “Who is it, the colleague?”

He’d rather hoped they wouldn’t ask. They had every right to refuse, since their relationship with the fae was strained at best and downright murderous at worst. “Here, he calls himself Smith. There... he is the ErlKing.”

All three witches took a step back, and Lacey tensed next to him. Nick tried not to react or immediately beg for their help. He didn’t know any other way to get Smith back.

Estelle shook her head. “You are out of your mind, Nikolai. We do not mess with the ErlKing or his disputes. We do not wish to draw the evil eye to us any more than we already have.”

“You wouldn’t be messing anything up for Smith,” Lacey said. “You’d be freeing him from where he’s been stuck the last few months. He would owe you a debt.”

Estelle’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the hyena, and Nick’s wolf grew restless. He didn’t like her being the focus of the witches’ attention. But the head witch drummed her fingers against her arm as she watched Lacey. “Interesting.”

The silence stretched. The youngest witch, the one called Deirdre, didn’t look convinced. “How did he get stuck in the Betwixt? It seems like the ErlKing above all others would know how to navigate his way out of trouble in that realm.”

Another question Nick didn’t want to answer. He took a deep breath, ready with a lie or two, when Lacey answered for him. “A djinn trapped him and the other man there. The other man, Ray, has one wish left, then the djinn can be freed.”

“A djinn,” Estelle said, and her tone turned caustic as she looked at Nick. “And when were you planning to tell us this?”

“Soon,” Nick said. He fought the urge to give Lacey a dirty look. She didn’t act like someone who wanted to get things done; if she was serious about freeing the djinn, it was usually better to not admit to things that would send the witches running for the hills.

“Not soon enough,” Hera said, shaking her head, and she took a step back. “The coven will not take on both the ErlKing and a djinn. Good luck to you, Nikolai.”

Estelle also retreated. Only the young one, Deirdre, remained as the other two began to walk away. After a long time, as Nick ground his teeth to fight the urge to chase them all down, the witch spoke. “We should do it.”

Estelle half-turned, a hint of irritation around her eyes. “It’s too dangerous.”

“That’s why we have magic,” she said. Deirdre’s green eyes remained serenely focused on Lacey, and Nick watched the calculations go on in the younger woman’s head. “And remember—the ErlKing in our debt, Nikolai in our debt, the hyenas in our debt, perhaps even a djinn in our debt… The list goes on. It seems to be a great deal of advantage to hold for later, no?”

Which was what Nick had feared. He hated being indebted to anyone, much less witches. Just the thought made his skin crawl. But the only chance he had to get Lacey to break free from her pack and go off on an adventure with him was to free the ErlKing and take care of BadCreek once and for all.