by Mara Webb
“It just says we need a mirror and something that belonged to Edith. I hold the object tightly in my hands with my eyes closed, focus on Edith and then when I open my eyes and look into the mirror, I should be able to see what she sees. Sounds easy enough.” I looked around the room, the mirror was in here somewhere, Edith had so many. I heard a scrambling sound from behind one of the bookcases.
“Back here!” Quin yelled, “I have one.” I could hear the squeak of old wheels as a floor length mirror rolled into view. It was a tall oval shape with a dark wood frame, two upright wooden posts held the mirror in such a way that it could be tilted back and forth. Hanging off one of the upright posts was a necklace.
I stood up and walked over to see what Quin had found more clearly. It was a silver chain with a circular locket hanging at its center. The front of the locket was decorated with concentric rings, each circle engraved with a long, curved shapes and embossed with delicate leaves. In the very center of the rings was a single diamond, it was immaculate. Perfectly cut, reflecting the light from above and shining it into a thousand different directions.
“Is this Edith’s?” I asked Quin.
“It must be, she must have left all this here for us, just in case,” he replied.
I opened the locket gently with my fingertips, it held a compass inside one half and on the other an engraving of the Wildes family coat of arms. I recognized the image from a painting at my grandmother's house. When I was a child, I used to visit her all the time and she would sometimes tell me stories about our Irish heritage and show me that painting. This necklace must be some sort of heirloom.
I brought the locket closer to my eyes, it clearly wasn’t a compass for directing North. Where an ‘N’ would traditionally be was the silhouette of a woman's head, the hair curled and up in some sort of bun. In place of the ‘S’ for South was a black cartoon heart, not an anatomically correct heart but those hearts kids draw all over their schoolbooks or carve into a tree when they fall in love.
East and West were replaced by ‘Want’ and ‘Need’. The needle spun wildly as I held the necklace. The compass was clearly not for orienteering, maybe it helped with decision making? I couldn’t guess as the needle wouldn’t settle.
“Is that a weird ‘not a compass’ compass?” Quin asked.
“Yeah, do you know much about it?” I replied inquisitively.
“Not that one, but I have heard about things like that. Whatever you are trying to use it for, whatever it is supposed to help with, it will only really work if you are focused. So much witch stuff is about concentrating, probably another really good reason that I am better off as a cat. I remember being a human, I would start speaking all the time without knowing what I was going to say or the point of a story with dinner tonight.” He paused. I waited a few seconds to see if he had noticed what he had said.
“Huh?”
“See?” he said. “I just did it then! I was talking and then my brain was thinking about food again. Anyway, use that necklace as the object that belonged to Edith, hold it tight and let’s get started.”
I sat down in front of the mirror cross legged, the necklace held firmly in my right hand. I hadn’t looked at myself in what felt like days. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw my reflection. When I was a teenager I use to gaze into mirrors for hours, inspecting any little imperfection on my skin, applying heavy make-up to my eyes and laboriously creating hairstyles that I would wear for an hour.
I was not looking at my teenage self now. I was older. I looked tired and pale. For as long as I can remember my eyelids would swell slightly when I cried, a burst of pink would explode across my face with each of my eyes at the center. I could see that familiar rose color across my cheeks and forehead now.
I closed my eyes and started to think, every thought one of Edith. I pictured her face the night she drove to visit me after I told her Greg and I had separated. I remembered her voice cheering the loudest at a school play. I could almost taste the blueberry muffins she made me on a rainy Tuesday.
I opened my eyes and looked into the mirror. It was as though a portal had opened in front of me. I could no longer see my face in the glass, but a stranger's bedroom. I could see a book on the vanity table that was attached to the mirror. Could this be one of the stolen books? The title terrified me. Suddenly two people rushed into the bedroom, it was worse than I thought.
14
I sat staring through the mirror into someone else's home, like peeping through a window when they don’t know you are there. I heard faint sounds getting louder until two people had entered the room. Imogen and another girl had burst through the door and were now trying to whisper as if they didn’t want to make too much noise. Surely anyone sleeping in that house had already been woken by their heavy feet.
“Look, we can’t afford any more screw ups, right Robin?” Imogen whispered. “Marnie won’t be able to resist interfering now. It has to be her.”
“I don’t understand why it didn’t work with Hannah?” Robin replied. She looked familiar, I thought she might be one of the other cheerleaders.
“Well I guess we have to move on. We can’t sit around sulking about little mistakes like that, I just know it will work this time. I have triple checked the spell and I feel a lot more confident now. Just make sure the rest of them know what they need to do and before you know it, we’ll be famous.” Imogen smiled broadly, biting down on her lower lip. It was the type of smile you give when you shouldn’t be smiling.
Imogen picked up the book that was sitting on the vanity and stuffed it into her backpack. Her room was lined with posters and photographs of dancers posing, promotional pictures from dance movies and one small family photo next to the bed. She grabbed up her wand and added that to her backpack before she left with Robin.
I closed my eyes and let go of the necklace. When I reopened them, I was once again staring at myself. I could feel a cold moisture on the back of my neck. Fear had given me a cold sweat that I could feel down my spine.
“Quin, we might need back up. It’s way worse than I thought.” I quickly stood up and picked the necklace up from the ground. I reached behind myself to fasten the tiny clasp of the necklace and let it hang down onto my chest, I figured it might come in useful, whatever it was. Better to be safe than sorry.
I scrambled down the attic ladder too fast, my feet slipped, and I missed several of the steps, landing with an ungraceful thud on the carpet. I needed to pack my own bag of tricks for this trip, I needed to be better prepared than Imogen. Quin ran through the doorway behind me, looking confused and anxious.
“What did I miss?” he asked. Of course. He hadn’t been able to see what I saw in the mirror. He hadn’t seen or heard the conversation between Imogen and Robin. He didn’t know about the book they had or what they were planning.
“We need to get to the woods right now Quin. We can’t risk being late at all. This is not just a spy mission now, it’s a rescue mission. They had a book on sacrificing, was that from the library upstairs?” I almost didn’t want the answer.
“Yeah...there was only really one super dark book up there and that’s the one. Did it have a table on the cover and like a bunch of fire? Yeah? Then that’s it. It’s all about different sacrificial ceremonies and how to use them to get something you want. It is obviously a big no-no because it involves murdering a person or an animal and it is definitely forbidden under the laws about magic for personal gain. It’s a very old school approach.”
My heart sank. “What?” I shouted. “So, a couple of teenagers have stolen a book about sacrifice, and they might have already tried it on Hannah and failed? Now it looks like they are planning to try again tonight! Isn’t that what Marnie overheard? That they would ‘try again’? They made sure she overheard, they are going to use Marnie as their sacrifice, I can just feel it.” I was shaking.
I grabbed my wand and ran to the closet to change into darker clothes. I wanted to be undetectable until the last moment. I couldn’t risk being
seen beforehand. I needed to somehow stay back long enough to confirm these wild theories, while also making sure no one got hurt. It might be time to call Ryan.
I grabbed my cell phone and my power bank charger so that I could keep the battery full, just in case I needed it in an emergency. The cold sweat on my skin felt hotter now. My pulse raced. They had already killed someone that they were friends with, who knows what they would do to me if they caught me in the woods.
I grabbed Quin and ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. I grabbed a thick black coat from the coat stand and my magic threw the door open in front of us, slamming it shut again as I jumped down the stairs. The car engine started and the driver’s door swung open. I stepped in, lowering my head as I stooped down into the seat. Quin jumped out of my arms and onto the passenger seat. Seat belts pulled down across both of us and clipped into the latch, securing us into the car. I backed out of the driveway and started to drive, we had to hurry.
I knew I would need help, but I didn’t know how to ask for it. The only other witches and wizards I knew in this town were on the council, we hadn’t had a meeting since all this started so I didn’t know if they were even aware that I was being blamed by the Huxley’s for Hannah’s murder, Ryan had suspected it but didn’t know about the threat. I didn’t want to incriminate myself with the illegal books but what choice did I have now? If I didn’t act, then there would be another murder tonight. I was already in danger after the last body was found, would they try to pin this on me too?
“Quin, how much do we trust Ryan? Do you get any weird vibes from him?” I don’t know why I thought Quin had all the answers.
“He seems like a decent enough guy; do you mean should you date him? Wow,” he sniffed, “I just...to think that you would want my opinion on who you should date…” he sniffed again. “I am so honored; I knew we were close, but this is overwhelming. I think you should do it Nora, and it goes without saying that when you guys get married, I will of course be your maid of honor. I know I am not the traditional choice, but I would make you so proud and jus—”
“No, no hang on, no,” I cut him off. “Can we trust him with all of this? The books, the Huxley threats, this ritual we are about to bust. Would he help us or turn us in?” As we drove a streetlight shone into the car and the diamond on the locket twinkled. The compass. “Can the compass help me decide whether I should call him?”
“You can try, it’s worth a shot.” He watched as I flicked open the locket with one hand, the other still firmly on the steering wheel. I held the locket up so that I could watch the road and glance down at the compass. The needle was spinning wildly.
“What does it mean? It is spinning all over the place.” I put both hands back on the wheel. My phone was telling me to turn left at the next lights.
“It can mean one of two things. It either means that it is ticking all the boxes, so your heart and head are aligned, that you truly think that it is the right move and that you want and need it to be a good idea or...it’s a terrible plan. So yeah, either one of those.” He smiled as if that had been helpful advice.
“Great, so that is not helpful whatsoever. I’m going to have to do it, lives are at stake here.” I used the voice command feature of my phone and got it to call Ryan on speaker. He answered after two rings.
“Good evening Ms. Wildes, how’s it going?” he said in a flirty tone.
“Not good. I need your help, I might need the whole council, I don’t even know where to start but I need you to not do anything hasty until you have heard me out, okay?” I pleaded.
“Are you in danger?” His tone changed, he understood that this conversation was more serious than he expected. I took a deep breath.
“Someone broke into my house and took a bunch of books from the attic, illegal ones. I think it was Hannah. Then Hannah Huxley ended up dead on my lawn. I think that the books were used to kill her, the magic inside them I mean. I think she was used in a sacrifice ceremony and that another ceremony is happening tonight, I am heading there now but I don’t know what I am facing when I get there.” I stopped talking and waited. The silence on the other end of the line was painful to hear.
“Nora, I’m miles away, hundreds of miles away. I can’t help. I don’t know what to say. Look, I will make some calls and I’ll try to find a broom to fly back, it will be a lot quicker than driving. This is...you didn’t need to do any of this alone.” He sounded frustrated, I understood. I had been so afraid of getting in trouble that I had taken all of this on by myself, it was too much.
I told Ryan where I was going, and he made a sound of acknowledgement before hanging up. I was going in alone, there was no time to call anyone else now. I was almost at the spot I had identified on the map as the best place to leave the car. I couldn’t risk drawing more attention to myself by sitting in the car making calls, it was time to move.
I used my magic to shut off the engine and put the car in park. We were waiting down the street from Imogen's house in the dark. The streetlamps zig-zagged in their positions on the sidewalk, I aimed my wand at the one closest to the car and blew the filament in the bulb. A common enough occurrence that no one would be suspicious, and it covered our vehicle in a shroud of black. From our position we were able to see Imogen’s house and just beyond the curve of the road as it turned a corner.
Her home was on a cul de sac, a dead-end road. Tom had said that a few of the cheerleaders had houses that backed onto the same wood as Imogen. Were they all going to be there? How many were involved in this? I saw a car pull up a little further down the road, shut off its engine and its sole occupant get out. It was Marnie, she started running towards the woods.
15
It seemed as though Marnie hadn’t been too concerned about being seen. She had parked right outside Imogen’s house and had just disappeared over the fence. She was clearly taking the shortest route, whereas I had researched the most sheltered path, the one with the least eyes on it.
I had only ever seen sacrifices in horror films. It always seemed to involve an abandoned church or a villain’s basement, a copious amount of tall, pillar-esque white candles and a pyre or table on which the victim is tied. Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be planning to interrupt one at midnight in the woods.
I was also afraid to change plans at the last minute. I had done some research about our strategy to sneak in, unseen. Marnie’s hasty arrival obviously altered the urgency, but I knew I would slip up if I made rash decisions. I unclipped my seatbelt and then reached over to Quins to do the same.
“Quin, I don’t know what I’m doing. What if we get in there and she is already dead? I can’t face another corpse this week. I’ve hit my limit.” I put my hand on the door handle and pulled, unlatching the door.
“Wait, your eyes!” Quin shouted. I quickly pulled the door closed again.
“Shhh, don’t yell. What are you talking about?”
“Your eyes,” he said more softly than before, “I brought your hay fever eye drops from the refrigerator, I couldn’t pull the door open, obviously, but I used a summoning spell and the force of the moving eye drops made the door swing open. I grabbed a slice of ham while I was there. Anyway, put a drop of these into each eye, I’ve already put the charm on the bottle.”
Being able to see in the dark would be advantageous. I flipped down the sun visor and opened the mirror. Small LED bulbs illuminated my face slightly as I leaned in, guiding the bottle of eye drops to the ideal position, squeezing just enough so that one drop fell into my eye, repositioned on the other side and repeated.
I leaned back a little so that I could see both of my eyes in the small reflective surface. The brown of my eyes spread across the white, the amber streak still flashing through the left one. The pupils narrowed and stretched vertically to form thin ovals. I flipped the sun visor back up and was plunged back into total darkness inside the car, only now I could see perfectly well.
“Are you sure the spell was just f
or my eyes Quin? I can hear birds, really very loud birds that I could not hear before. I also have this sudden urge to obsessively wash behind my ears. I can’t concentrate at all.”
“Oh yeah, sorry,” Quin replied, “I guess I didn’t think about that. I thought ‘cat eyes would be really handy’ and read the first bit of the description for the spell and then I heard a rustling and I thought maybe a mouse had snuck in so I went to investigate and then a bunch of other things that I can’t remember and now here we are.”
I put my hand on the door handle again and pushed the door outwards. Quin and I both stepped out onto the road and started stretching. I lay down flat on my stomach and pushed up with my arms to stretch out my back and a slight purring sound escaped from my mouth.
“Quin!” I whispered, “this is worse than not being able to see in the dark. I could have just felt my way around with my hands, or you could have put a charm on some glasses or contact lenses for me!”
“You’re right, that would have been a better idea. We really should have mulled it over before we got to the point that you are acting like a weird human cat hybrid in a built-up residential area at midnight. Never mind. Let’s go!” He ran to the start of the dirt path leading into the woods and I followed.
Once we had moved away from the houses there was no light to be seen anywhere. The trees were thicker than I had anticipated. Fortunately, my cat-like agility enabled me to deftly avoid bramble scratches on my legs, silently leaping over the shrubbery and weeds along the floor. My hearing was tuned in to every movement. I could hear mice scurrying away from us, the sound of their tiny feet crunching into dead leaves was amplified enormously. I wondered if there was time to stop and kill one of them.
Damn it, Quin.
Heavy movement came from ahead of us. It was loud enough that it must be human, I couldn’t tell if it was Marnie, more cheerleaders wandering towards the site of the ritual, or regular folk walking their dogs. I suddenly hated dogs.