#exceptionalcameo

"Ah!" He yelped, slamming a hand over his mouth to stop his parents from worrying. "Agatha!"

"Come on, just hand over the location, and you can put this whole" - gestures with her hand and a nonchalant shrug of her brow - "kidnapping thing behind you. Be honest - you don't get paid enough not to tell me. You should be behind some desk filing papers, not out risking your life...tell me where it is, and this can all be over."

Well, this certainly was a pickle. Sterling never had very good luck when it came to magic. He should have known volunteering to interview the victims of the Westview Hex, and subsequently Billy, would lead to some form of trouble. He just never expected it to be from Agatha Harkness herself.

His fingers writhed behind his back where they were magically bound to try and reach the distress beacon on his cufflinks while the witch talked. The blade hidden inside his wedding ring didn't really work on magical bindings. The agent didn't really have a contingency plan for magic and he didn't know much about it to find a way out of this. He remained stern and calm, staring at her as if this was more an inconvenience than a kidnapping. After all, this wasn't his first rodeo and he knew it wouldn't be the last if he made it out of this one. With Merc finally out of his head though he was able to keep his focus at least.

"First of all, I'm paid exceptionally well. Hazard pay in SHIELD, as this will qualify for, is pretty substantial so talk more. I'm fine with this dragging out. Two, I am good at both filing and risking my life so this is a pretty standard afternoon for me. Three... No. I don't think I will."

Sterling leaned back and huffed out a sigh as he waited for whatever the punishment might be for this. It could honestly go one of two ways. Either she liked that he didn't really show fear and was mouthy in the face of danger or she would take it as a challenge to up her game.

"No! No, it didn't! You just killed Alice, she was my friend! She was good and kind and she just got rid of her curse, she was protecting you she was protecting all of us! And Lilia and Jen, they weren't - they weren't- They were making a mockery of her, we just left her there. We just left her! Who's going to tell her friends that she died? Not even Lilia stopped to cry for her! You just move on, just like that? No! No. I shouldn't have - I shouldn't have -"

By then, his voice was already broken. Shattered. "Why didn't anyone stop for her? I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand."

Learning the truth about The Road, that the whole thing had been some elaborate urban legend conjured by collective witch belief and Agatha's deliberately encouraging whispers, had left Lilia with, among other things, one burning question in particular.

"The things you've said to other witches prompted an attack every single time? There's never been witches who just, I don't know, left?" she asked in exasperation.

"In that basement, I was tempted, you were definitely pissing me off, Agatha," she admitted vehemently. "But..." But she'd been fighting the urge to attack her, even before she realised what was going on, what Agatha was trying to do. "it wasn't my first instinct. I didn't want to give you the satisfaction of rising to your cruelty."

@exceptionalcameo

cassidy rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her tea, following agatha out of the coffee shop as she does so. "two things can be true agatha, just because you're funny doesn't mean you aren't rude," cassidy points out.