“They seemed such nice people,” Clara was saying. It was right after school, and she’d cornered me by the gate.

“The Silver Thorn people?”

“Oh, you know?” She stretched a bit. “Bruce told me they would try to make me have sex with somebody.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And that I had to be careful because some covens were like that.” Clara frowned. “I suppose you need to keep your eyes open and be ready to run.”

“Except they chased her when she tried to run and now she’s having to hide. I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.”

Let alone on somebody I kind of liked when she wasn’t making eyes at me.

“Maybe somebody should infiltrate them with a camera or something.”

“It’s tempting, but it’s dangerous and it could be entrapment.”

“I’d do it. They want me anyway. They’d fall right for it.”

“Entrapment,” I repeated. “Actually, do you have time to come home with me?”

She nodded. “The place I work at sells ice cream. They’ve cut my hours down to almost nothing.”
Summer would probably make up for it. “I want to talk this over with somebody who knows how to do it.”

I didn’t want to ask her, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to turn her down if she really wanted to do it. I thought she should have the right to make her own decisions, just like Kanesha.

And her own mistakes. But the entrapment thing…I was glad that had occurred to me. It was time to talk to the cop in the household.

Clara followed me quietly, then, “But you aren’t a witch.”

“I’m something else.”

“Which you aren’t going to tell me.”

I grinned at her. “Nah. I’m going to make you work it out on your own. It’ll teach you to sense magic better.”
She scowled.

“I may actually introduce you to a friend of mine. He’s a hunter…somebody who deals with supernatural threats. He might also know somebody who could train you.”

“If I wanted to do that.”

“If you wanted to do that,” I echoed. “It’s up to you…hunting’s dangerous, but rewarding.”

“But you don’t call yourself one.”

I found myself falling silent. I’d let quite a few people believe I was a hunter, but mostly because I didn’t want to explain things further. What did I call myself? I wasn’t sure. Maybe hunter was, in the end, close enough.