by TJ Green
Avery decided to change the unspoken subject. “Where’s Reuben?”
El sighed. “He’ll be here when he’s ready.”
The others exchanged worried looks, and Briar shook her head as a warning.
“He’s grieving, El. We need to give him time,” Alex said.
“I know. I just wish he wasn’t angry with me.”
“I’m sure he’s mad at everyone right now.”
“No. Just me.” Her tone didn’t invite further questions.
This time Briar changed the subject, and grinned broadly. “So, where’s my grimoire?”
“Voila, madam,” Alex said, pointing towards the coffee table.
Briar gave a barely suppressed squeal that was distinctly un-Briarlike and ran to look at it. “I can’t believe it! It’s just beautiful.”
“I need to show you both something,” Alex said. “El, we need your grimoire, too.”
El pulled her grimoire from her pack and handed it over. Unfortunately, she didn’t look anywhere near as excited as Briar.
“Come over here,” Alex said, drawing her to the coffee table, where he placed her book down next to the others. “I just hope this works with yours, too.”
El looked mystified as Alex put out the lamps and conjured a witch light above the books. As he’d hoped, El’s book also showed hidden runes and writing.
All of a sudden, El’s grim mood disappeared and she sat next to Briar. “What? How? It’s just like the book we found in the witch museum. I didn’t even think! I’m so annoyed with myself...” she trailed off, turning the pages of her book.
“We need to check the back pages, if that’s okay?”
El looked puzzled. “Sure, but why?”
Alex didn’t answer as he turned to the end, and there, revealed by the witch light was another spell: Part Two, To Seal with Fire.
El gasped. “What’s that?”
Alex sighed. “In the back of each grimoire is part of a spell. We think they make up one large spell, but we’re not sure what it does. Again, yours has no ingredients, like mine, just a spell—a chant. You have part two, I have part five. Briar, you have part three.”
El and Briar looked from Alex to Avery and back again.
“I’ll sort food,” Avery said to Alex. “You explain.”
She headed to the kitchen, putting out olives, cheese, and crackers, plus the pizza, hoping that Reuben wouldn’t leave them waiting long—if he came at all. She listened as she worked, smiling as the others looked through their grimoires, comparing runes. She was surprised by how comfortable she felt with them all, although really, why shouldn’t she? She had spent the last few years keeping her distance from them, and now she wondered why she had. They knew her, understood her, in ways no one else could, even her oldest friends.
And Alex. She paused for a second, watching him. His long hair was loose, falling about his shoulders, his face animated as he talked through the runes he’d found. Whatever preconceptions she’d initially had about him were being slowly eroded away. He was thoughtful, funny, and sexy, and he felt genuine. As if he’d heard her thoughts, he looked up, holding her gaze for a second, before returning to his explanations. Oh my goddess, she thought, be still my beating heart.
“These runes,” he continued, “give protection. It must be a way of categorising the spells. But these,” he said, pointing to a few different pages, “add words or extra instructions to the spell. This suggests working with another witch.”
“But why wouldn’t you put that in the body of the spell?” El asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“This one here,” he continued, pointing to another spell in his own grimoire, “suggests an extra ingredient—vervain—and adds a warning: to lock the heart forever.”
Briar nodded. “Vervain works better if secrecy is attached to its use. Maybe it was thought to hide it within the spell would add potency.”
“Interesting,” El murmured. “Like a spell within a spell.”
But instead of answering, Alex went still, his face clouding over, his eyes gazing into the unknown.
“Alex!” El shouted. “What’s happening?”
Avery dropped the knife she was holding with a clatter. “Don’t touch him!” she shouted. “He must be having a vision.”
El and Briar both sat back, giving Alex some space. Briar said, “I’ve never seen this happen before.”
“No, nor me,” Avery said, watching from the kitchen. “But he said he’s getting them regularly.”
For a few seconds they watched Alex as he remained immovable. His eyes flickered rapidly and his breathing became shallow, but otherwise he was as still as a statue. Just when Avery was beginning to wonder how long was normal for a vision to last, Alex blinked and looked around, bewildered.
“Are you all right?” Briar asked, narrowing her eyes with concern.
“I am, but Reuben’s in trouble.”
“What?” El leapt to her feet, almost overturning a candle. “Where is he?”
“On the outskirts of White Haven,” Alex said, stumbling to his feet. “I’ll drive.”
“No. I’ll drive,” El said with white-faced fury. “Keys,” she commanded, and her keys flew across the room and into her hand.
Without hesitation she raced down the stairs, the others following. Avery helped Alex, who still seemed dazed. He paused briefly to seal the room.
“Maybe you should stay here,” she suggested to him as she waited.
“Not a chance. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
Within minutes they were outside, piling into El’s battered old Land Rover, and El spun the tyres as she floored the accelerator, racing through the pouring rain.
“Where?” she shouted.
“Old Haven Church,” Alex said.
Briar sat next to El, flexing her fingers, muttering softly to herself as she summoned her powers, and Avery joined her, trying to calm her shattered thoughts. Please let Reuben be okay, she thought.
“Who was there, Alex?” El called over her shoulder.
“Faversham, and a woman I didn’t recognise.”
“A woman? Not Alicia, then?” Avery asked.
“Why the hell would it be Alicia?” Briar asked, spinning round to look at them.
“Just a thought I had. I’ll explain later,” Avery hedged, bracing herself against the seat in front, as El rounded a corner way too quickly.
Briar glared at her. “Don’t kill us, El!”
El ignored her, concentrating on the road. Avery turned back to Alex. “Who?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see features, just the sense of a woman. Dark hair maybe?”
“Fuck it!” El yelled, as she got stuck behind a car. As soon as she could, she veered around it, turning onto the lane that led to Old Haven Church.
The rain continued to pour down, and wind whipped the branches of the overhanging trees against the car. The lane was narrow, and if an oncoming car headed their way it would be a disaster. El didn’t care. She floored it, and Avery used her magic to help keep the rain away from the car, trying to sense if anything was in front of them.
She turned to Alex. “Did you sense anything else? I mean, was Reuben in the main church?”
He closed his eyes and frowned. “I sensed anger and desperation more than anything. There was a damp smell. I think it was maybe the mausoleum? I don’t know.” He looked up at her, anguished.
Avery thought of Reuben mourning his brother in silence and then being attacked, and her chest tightened with renewed worry.
Within minutes El was hurtling into the car park at the church. Reuben’s car, an old VW Variant, was parked there on its own. They piled out of the door and ran towards the church, drenched before they’d even reached the wide sheltered porch in front of the locked door. It was deserted. El set off again, the others following, running down the path towards the mausoleum, and that’s when Avery saw dark smoke spiralling into the air.
The mausoleum door hung at an angle, a
nd a woman with long, dark hair was directing blasts of energy like lightning towards the building. Avery could see a large crack in the wall from here, and the tree that sheltered the mausoleum smouldered. No one else was in sight, and it was clear that she couldn’t see the approaching group. El sent a blistering rope of fire at the woman, which snaked around her legs and pulled her to the ground. She turned, her face vicious, even though she was sprawled on the floor. Briar stopped and the rest ran on, but within a few feet, a massive crack erupted down the middle of the path, almost causing Avery to fall. The crack widened under the fallen woman, and although she was struggling to her feet, it knocked her off balance, and she fell into an ever widening, dark hole.
The woman stretched out her arm and flung a blast of energy towards them, causing Avery and El to dive out of the way on either side of the path, but Alex stood firm, holding his hands up and out. Avery wasn’t sure quite what he did, but the wave of energy stopped abruptly as the woman screamed and fell to her knees, engulfed now in mud as the earth started to swallow her whole. They were close now, within a few feet, and able to see the woman struggling for control.
Avery squinted through the rain, slicking her hair back from her face, and saw a large, broken branch to the side of the mausoleum, brought down by the wind. She used the wild energy of the wind that raced around her as if it recognised her, and pulling the branch up into a vortex of air, smashed it on to the woman’s head. She fell, unconscious, to the ground.
El raced onwards to the mausoleum, and Avery followed, skidding to a halt in the entrance. Reuben was unconscious on the floor, blood streaming from a wound on his temple. El rushed to his side, dropping to her knees and feeling his pulse, while Avery stood panting behind, looking around for any sign of Faversham. But the room was empty, other than for the coffins of Reuben’s family; Gil’s rested on a shelf, looking far too new.
A wave of sadness and anger, and the weight of centuries pressed down on Avery, and she took a deep breath, trying to steady her breathing. She turned back to the grounds and saw Alex and Briar standing over the woman. They were all completely soaked now, the woman drenched and covered in mud where the earth had pulled her in. Avery shuddered. She had almost been buried alive, and Avery wasn’t sure how eager she would have been to save her. She turned back to El. “Is he okay?”
El nodded, looking relieved. “He’s unconscious, but alive.”
Alex and Briar arrived at the mausoleum, and Alex nodded at the woman. “What the hell are we going to do with her?”
“I want to interrogate her!” El said, looking furious. Avery was shocked; she had never seen El like this.
“I’m all for defending myself, El, but I’m not attacking her now that she’s down,” Alex said, frowning at her.
“And where’s her car?” Briar asked. “How did she get here?”
“The same swirling cloak and dagger way Faversham does, I suppose. I’d love to know how they do that!” Avery said.
Over the sound of the wind and falling rain, Avery thought she heard something else. A car engine. “Someone’s here.”
Alex ran to El’s side. “Let’s get Reuben up and we’ll drag him to the car. That woman can stay here. I don’t care if she gets pneumonia.”
But as Avery looked back to the church, she saw two things—the tall, dark-haired form of Newton rounding the corner of the church, and then the unmistakable, blurred shape of Faversham appearing next to the fallen woman.
Faversham hesitated for a second, looking at Avery and back at Newton, who now started sprinting towards them. Faversham knelt down and grabbed the woman’s hand, and then with a whirl of wind, he disappeared, taking her with him.
Within seconds, Newton arrived at the mausoleum and sheltered under the porch. He shook water off his jacket, and slicked it out of his hair and off his face. He glanced back at the broken earth, at Reuben’s unconscious body, and then at the cracked wall and the smouldering tree, before looking at their bedraggled appearances.
“I think we need to talk.”
6
“I think now would be a good time for you to tell me exactly what’s going on!” Newton yelled.
He stood in the middle of Alex’s living room, soaking wet, trying to towel himself dry with an enormous bath towel. He scrubbed at his clothes and rubbed his hair with fury, until it was standing up on end. He was wearing casual clothes, jeans and a t-shirt, with an old university hoodie, so that despite his anger, he seemed far more approachable now than he had been before. His drenching had removed some of his command.
Alex stood opposite him, also soaking wet, and also trying to dry himself while shouting. “I think it’s pretty clear what’s going on. Our friend Reuben was attacked and almost killed. Would you like me to file a report?”
“Only if you think you could explain what the hell happened. I’m not sure magic really qualifies for a good statement.”
“Well, magic pretty much sums it up,” Alex said snarkily.
“Start from the beginning. And tell me everything.”
“First, tell me how you knew we were there.” Alex demanded, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“One of my colleagues had spotted you hurtling up the lane and called it in. I’ve asked for everyone to watch your cars for suspicious activities.”
“Really! You’re spying on us?” Alex asked, incredulous.
“For your own good,” Newton shot back.
“We’re not bloody children!”
“No. You’re just unleashing magic onto an unsuspecting community,” Newton said dryly.
“Actually, no, we’re not! The only people we’re unleashing our magic on are other witches who are intent on doing us harm and stealing our grimoires! Witches we didn’t know even existed.”
Newton stared icily at Alex. “But innocent people have been hurt in the process.”
“Not by us.”
“Tell me everything,” Newton repeated.
Alex glanced questioningly at Avery, and she nodded.
Alex sighed and started to explain.
Avery looked from one man to the other, mildly amused, but also slightly amazed at their antagonism towards each other. They were like chalk and cheese, and she decided not to get involved.
She sat in front of the blazing fire, wrapped in a blanket after towelling her hair dry. Reuben was lying on Alex’s bed, where Briar was using her healing spells, trying to bring him back to consciousness. El was with her. She presumed they’d call if they needed any help. Avery reckoned Alex must have dished out every towel and blanket he owned.
It was dark outside now, the fury of the storm continuing unabated. They had returned to Alex’s flat a little under half an hour ago. They had all helped carry Reuben to the car park, and then split into groups. Briar and Avery brought back Reuben’s car, with him on the back seat, while Alex returned with El. Newton had followed behind. Avery had driven, and stopped briefly at Briar’s place for her to pick up some herbs and gemstones that she needed for healing. She lived in a tiny cottage tucked on one of the town’s back streets, and Avery had waited in the car, and then swung by her own flat to feed her cats. She wasn’t sure what time she’d end up getting home later. She was relieved to find that her wards remained sealed.
A huge rumble of thunder cracked overhead and Avery jumped, jolting her out of her reverie.
Newton scowled again, his arms crossed in front of his chest. “You have no idea who the woman is?”
“No,” Alex said patiently. “I have never seen her before in my life, but she was trying to bring the mausoleum down on Reuben’s head. She meant to kill him. We need a plan.”
Alex was right. Faversham had killed Gil, and now they were all at risk; they had to fight back. Before she could think coherently she needed food. The smell of warmed pizza filled the flat, and Avery dragged herself from the fire and over to the kitchen. She pulled out plates and cutting boards and placed the three pizzas out, grabbing a slice for herself.
“Hey, guys, you should eat.” She pushed plates towards them, and then carried some through to Briar and El.
The bedroom was only lit by candlelight, and the sweet smell of incense drifted across the room. Briar sat cross-legged on the bed next to Reuben. She had placed healing stones on certain points of his body, a poultice on his head wound, and she held his hand as she quietly whispered a spell.
El looked up as Avery entered, her expression grim.
Avery placed a plate with a couple of slices of hot pizza into El’s hand.
El shook her head. “I can’t eat.”
“I don’t care. Try. Force yourself.”
El rolled her eyes, and took a bite, chewing unenthusiastically.
“How’s he doing?”
“All right. Briar’s amazing. She’s been sitting like that for the past 20 minutes. His breathing is stable, and his colour’s good.”
Avery smiled, relief washing through her. “Do we know why he was in the mausoleum?
“To spend time with Gil? I don’t know, we haven’t talked in days.” El’s pale blue eyes filled with tears again.
“It’ll be okay. Just give him time.”
El nodded and turned away.
Avery headed back to the living room and did a double-take. Newton and Alex were leaning on the counter, a slice of pizza in one hand, a bottle of beer in the other. They still looked antagonistic, but clearly hunger had exhausted them.
“Any idea why Reuben was at the church?” Avery asked. “The weather’s foul. It just seems odd to me.”
“I’ve no idea. I’m too tired to do this right now,” Alex said.
Avery sighed and reached for another slice of pizza. “Me, too. But we need to hide where we are from Faversham. I feel like we have a homing beacon on us. Reuben was a sitting duck on his own. Especially in the middle of a deserted graveyard.”