“I don’t know,” he told her truthfully. “It varies, depending on the situation. From things he said when he had me imprisoned, this witch is over a thousand years old—he’s dangerous, canny, and unprincipled, so we’re obsessive about covering our tracks. The only thing I know for certain is that it’s going to get more dangerous the closer we get to him. Our seer believes he’s in the Atlanta area, and we’ve seen other indications that something dangerous is hiding there, such as spells layered over the local internet hubs.”

And he had been taking the most dangerous position of all of them, always at the forefront, in the public eye, initiating face-to-face contact with likely suspects. He did not offer that statement. Molly was already aware of it.

“He must have hurt or killed so many people,” she murmured. “Can your coven defeat him?”

At that, he had to serve up another dose of truth. “We think so, but we won’t know until we fight him.”

She shuddered, then gave him a clear-eyed look. “You said you wanted to negotiate. So tell me what you want and lay it out in specific detail. Then I’ll let you know if I can give it to you.”

“I want eighteen weeks,” he said. “Four and a half months. From what I’ve been reading, you should be due for your first ultrasound. I want to make that trip to the doctor with you.”

She tilted her head. “You’re asking for that to be our first date?”

There was a certain wry amusement in her words. He touched her lips with a forefinger. “Your first ultrasound is only one part of this negotiation. Dating is another matter. When we go on our first date, there’ll be no doubt that it’s just between you and me.”

Heat smoked along the edges of her expression and her mouth softened, but then she asked, “What would you do with the eighteen weeks?”

He could see that what he said next mattered a great deal. But just as he was willing to make massive changes, he also couldn’t water himself down to make things more palatable.

He said without hesitation, “Try to find the witch. You should know, we intend to kill him. That’s the best solution to everything. The Elder Races have a tribunal, but we have no intention of pursuing justice that way—not when there’s a chance he might go free. As a district attorney, I can pursue certain legal strategies, but we have only ever intended those as one possible method to reach a final end.”

She closed her eyes. “You’ve been hunting him a long time. What if you can’t do it?”