"Well I guess it must have been put in your house using some magic, otherwise I wouldn’t get anything from it. It’s almost like an aftertaste in my mouth, like a good cup of coffee," and he smacks his lips as if to prove the point. He stares at the cat in curiosity. "Where are you from, eh fella?" he asks it as he strokes behind its ears.
"Well, we could ponder that all day but more pressingly, tell us about the restaurant, Jer," Ella prompts him out of his daydream.
"Right you are. So, like, in the restaurant I didn’t get much time to do any deep searching while you two where messing around — nice acting, by the way," he winks, "I did manage to find an Augur signature — that bit of trace magic I mean — near where the fire started."
Ella nods enthusiastically at this news. "Did you recognise it?" She asks.
"Sort of. It was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t tell you exactly who it was, only that it’s someone I’ve encountered before. I’d be willing to bet good money that it’s a Magic Circle member, particularly as you saw him in the tell-tale black hoodie," he nods to me. I had mentioned the whole thing on the train en route to Federico, so between us we were already convinced that it was Magic Circle related, but hearing him confirm it is still surprising.
Taking his hand away from the cat for a moment, who has decided to sit on his lap, he pulls out a small notebook from his jacket pocket. It’s a small black thing with smart binding, like an artist’s sketchbook. He flips each page enthusiastically for a moment.
"Let’s see, let’s see... oh yeah, here we go," he slaps the open page and flings it down on the table.
Ella and I lean closer to get a better look. There’s a date and time from only a week ago, plus a list of random words like ‘earthy’, ‘dust’, ‘metallic’ and a little squiggle that I can’t decipher.
"That’s great, Jer, but what does it mean?" Ella asks, and I feel relieved it’s not me asking this time.
"It means that I have definitely encountered this Augur before. This particular guy has a unique little, er, call it a flourish, to his magic. So, I can confirm that the guy who set fire to the restaurant is the same guy that set fire to the Prime Minister’s car last week," he nods smugly. So Jer must have been sent round to the scene of the crime by the Duke after that incident too, to see what he could find. I don’t know why, but I feel shocked by this revelation and my heart begins to thud in my chest. It’s like up until now I kind of kept everything separate and compartmentalised in my head. The incidents happening to other people didn’t feel like they could really be related to ours. But now that I know the same Augur is responsible for these two attacks it almost feels like it’s on top of me and pressing down hard. I don’t even hear them talking after that as I try to digest the information.
There’s an Augur sending threatening notes to me and jeopardising my relationship with Ella. The currently content-looking cat has also had some run-in with said Augur, leaving it with some magic signature on the cat.
Another one has both set fire to the Prime Minister’s car almost harming--or worse--her husband and child, but the same Augur has also set fire to my place of work, a place which consists 99% of Augurs and one Normal: me. And we now know that that Augur is a member of the Magic Circle. We also know that the Magic Circle set off an explosion in Downing Street, although why I’m not entirely sure. It feels like there’s no escape from the madness now.
"You okay?" Ella asks, and I realise I’ve been quiet for a while.
"Er, yeah. As good as can be. I guess I just wasn’t prepared to have a small terrorist group on our tails trying to get to us, or more accurately trying to get the one thing you have..." I stop myself before giving too much away. I know Ella trusts Jer, but she didn’t even tell the Duke where the flash drive was.
She smiles and nods. "No one’s going to find it, don’t worry," she looks between me and Jer confidently.
The doorbell rings and I jump out of my seat, happy to realise that it’s actually the delivery guy with the pizza and nothing more serious. I eat like it’s my first meal of the day, which it isn’t but might as well have been. You get used to controlling your appetite when you work in a restaurant and have to look at other people’s food all day, but at least usually you have something in your stomach beforehand.
As we eat, I can’t help but ask something that’s been bugging me for a while.
"I know that Ella’s an exception to the rule, but how do your powers work? I mean, it’s not like you suck in some electricity right before you go and investigate a particular place, is it?"
Jer smiles as he breaks off a slice and holds it poised in his hand. "Nah, I think it’s a bit like with Agnes and people like that. Until Normals got all clever and started sending digital signals around everywhere, filling the Earth with moving energy of some form or another, we probably wouldn’t have been able to use much of our abilities at all. I know because in remote parts of Ireland I’ve not been able to tap into me magic very much. Maybe on a sunny day, though we don’t get many of those. In some places there’s only trees and grass for miles and miles around, and although I could still do something it wasn’t as intense as when I’m in a building full electricity and that. My girlfriend can’t really use her powers at all without touching something that has at least a battery in it though, so I think there are different degrees of it all. A bit like Ella doesn’t need anything to channel off of."
I think about that for a moment. It kind of fits with what that Connelly guy was saying about Augurs not being a problem until people developed technology.
"So, you two met at Gregorio’s?" Jer changes the subject. I nod while trying to catch a bit of dripping mozzarella on my tongue.
"You managed to bag your Normal, then?" he says to Ella as if I’m not here. "I mean, I’m assuming this is the guy you were going on about?"
I shoot her a look, and she seems to be smiling embarrassedly.
"Seriously? Jer knew you liked me too? Was I the only person in the universe that thought you didn’t?"
They almost fall off their chairs laughing at the look on my face, and in the end I can’t help but chuckle, even though the irony of it is almost unbelievable.
"You know she spent two months pretending she had no interest in me at all?" I say to Jer.
"Ah the old hard-to-get game eh? Very clever. I’d say it worked though, wouldn’t you?"
"Yeah, I guess it did," I say and give Ella a smile. There’s a silence while we finish up our pizza, and Jer clears his throat loudly.
"I guess I better get back to the Duke and give him the news. He’ll be waiting up for it and I don’t want to keep him." He washes his hands at the sink and throws his jacket on, giving me a friendly slap on the shoulder and Ella a quick hug before letting himself out.
"Damn," I say a few minutes after he’s gone.
“What's up?" Ella’s asks as she throws the pizza boxes into the recycling bin.
"I meant to ask him if he had any notes that would help me out about the guy next door. I feel like he’s tied into this somehow." Could he be the person who left the note? I wonder. But the cat isn’t his, I don’t think, and I get the feeling that he and the feline aren’t friends.
"Ah, don’t worry. We’ll probably be seeing plenty more of Jer now that you’ve been properly inaugurated," and she laughs at her own joke. Inaugurated. It’s a completely different word, but I get the feeling that in some way I have been accepted into this terrifying group of strange and wonderful individuals.
We clean up the cups and head upstairs, at which point it hits me that Ella is going to probably be sleeping in my room. Not probably, but definitely. I can’t lie, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Who wouldn’t? But I’ve pushed it out of my mind each time at the thought of Agnes’s premonitions. Even before I knew what outcomes Agnes had predicted for us I’d been trying not to think about it in case Ella could somehow read my mind.
Ella goes to the bathroom and I sit at the edge of my bed, suddenly hot and n
ervous.
When she finally comes out, she gives me an expectant look and sits next to me on the bed and I’m both excited and terrified at the same time.
"Ella, is this really happening?" I ask somewhat stupidly. She smiles, and the room practically lights up.
"Yes, Curtis, this is definitely really happening," and she leans towards me. We kiss, but it’s not like the strong electrifying kind. Everything about her is softer. Her expression, her lips, even the way she tugs at my shirt is gentle and coaxing.
My t-shirt ends up on the floor, and she runs her warm hands over my chest. This is about the time that I wish I had visited the gym at any point in my life. I’ve still got the muscles of a footballer, but they’re mostly on my legs.
I slide her top over her shoulders, and she pushes her bare skin against my torso. I can’t help my sharp intake of breath, and she stifles a giggle, but I’m laughing too so it’s okay. As she moves her hands up my back I draw her into another kiss and enjoy the feeling of warmth that spreads from my face through the points where she’s touching me.
The thought of Ella’s overbearing sister probes its way into my head, and I freeze. Can she see us right now in one of her visions?
"Agnes—" I try to interrupt, pulling away and looking into her eyes.
"Shh, forget about Agnes. This is about you and me and nothing else. Just trust me. Can you do that?" I do, more than anyone I’ve trusted in my whole life. No question.
"Absolutely," I say and there’s nothing more to discuss.
CHAPTER 9
I wake up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window and an unfamiliar weight on my leg. As I open my eyes I see Ella’s blonde hair across my pillow, her head turned away from me. I almost want to pinch myself at the sight of her next to me. I can just make out the sound of her gentle breathing, still fast asleep, as the sun leaks through a gap in the curtains and falls across her bare shoulder. It’s freezing in the house, and I can make out little goosebumps across the surface of her skin.
My eyes travel down the bed to find the cat purring softly at the foot of it, which would explain why my leg has gone to sleep. If it’s light outside it must be some time after eight, I calculate, what with it being December. And although that’s normally early for me to get up on a weekday, it seems I’m not getting back to sleep now. My bed is small and cramped for two, and I resolve to invest in a double when I next get paid. Hell, I might even ask Ella if she wants to move in with me somewhere away from the threat of my parents where it’s just her and me. Too soon?
But then I realise that with the restaurant shut down for the time being I have no idea where the pay is going to come from, so I’ll probably have to endure the watchful eye of my Mum and Dad for a while longer. Or I could move in with her? But the thought of living under the same roof as Agnes gives me a little bit of the creeps.
So, I have to add finding a new job as well as a new place to live to my worries. I don’t want to be away from Ella for any minute of any hour of any day if I can help it. Last night was amazing and I could relive it every night for the rest of my life quite happily.
Cramped up against the wall, I have the sudden desperate need to move, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do that without waking her. I attempt to pull my arms and legs out of the duvet and slide to the end of the bed, but as the cat doesn’t seem to want to move either, and I end up falling off all together with an audible, "Oof," sound.
She stirs and her eyes open. "Morning," she says, stretching.
"Sorry, I was trying not to wake you up," I say, clumsily pulling on a jumper and trousers. "Coffee?"
"That would be amazing," she yawns and the cat, giving up its spot at the end of the bed, decides to follow me.
"Oh, now you want to move," I tell him. He gives me his usual differential look and a swish of his tail before pushing past me down the stairs. The kitchen is as we left it last night, empty pizza boxes on the counter top and mugs on the draining board. I rinse them out to warm them up and put the kettle on before donning a pair of trainers I left by the back door to take the empty boxes out to the recycling bin outside. I unlock the door and the cold winter air hits me like a sledgehammer. My breath appears in front of my face like a cloud of smoke. Trying not to slip on the icy path, I shuffle down to the wheelie bin at the side of the house, which is almost frozen shut with the cold, yanking it open and sending particles of ice flying up towards me.
I wrestle with it for a moment, shoving the rubbish down inside and slapping the lid shut, only to shuffle back to the house. I can’t have taken me more than two minutes in total to do all that, but I hear noises coming from upstairs and assume that Ella’s already up and having a shower.
"That’s odd," I say to myself as I notice the kettle didn’t come on after all. I flick the useless switch a few times, then try a different plug socket to no avail. "Another power cut," I mutter to the cat, but when I turn around he’s nowhere to be seen. There’s a loud thump from upstairs and in a sudden paranoid panic I race up the stairs to check if everything is okay. Did Ella fall over in the shower, or is it something worse? There’s no one in the bathroom, and I rush straight past the open door into my bedroom, thinking maybe she’s fallen out of the bed, but the sight that greets me is worse than I expected. Ella is standing in the middle of my room, duvet held tightly to her body with one hand and a ball of glowing energy in the other, but to my horror it’s what she’s facing that scares me even more. A man in a black hoodie is standing in the corner, a lighter in one hand and his fingers aflame in the other. I try not to have a heart attack as I realise that one of the Magic Circle’s members is currently standing in my bedroom in a face-off with my girlfriend. The cat is standing on my desk, back arched and practically spitting at him in fury.
"So, it’s true, you’re the Augur that doesn’t need electricity to use their power?" he says, and his voice is hoarse, like someone who has inhaled too much smoke.
"Cigarette guy?" I say in shock, suddenly then realising how stupid I sound. "I mean, you’re my bloody neighbour! What the hell are you doing in my house?" I shout at him.
"Curtis, stay out of this," Ella says quietly to me and I feel almost hurt by that.
"How do you know I’m not channeling electricity through the floor?" she asks him, her voice angrier than I’ve ever heard before.
"Because I caused a power cut about ten minutes ago. So, either you’re Ella Chisholm or you’re someone else who has that same ability. Which would be just as good as far as I’m concerned." He seems almost casual as he talks, as if his life isn’t being threatened by another powerful Augur. My eyes watch the dancing ball of flame in his hand and a thought occurs to me. If he can manipulate fire using just a little cigarette lighter, then it could be possible he caused the fires in both the restaurant and Downing Street. But no, the world couldn’t surely be so small that a pyromaniac Magic Circle member happens to be living on my street.
"Ha, well this isn’t Ella Chisholm, so you’ve got that wrong," I say defiantly, sounding braver than I feel. Ella’s eyes don’t leave him, but I see her pull a face and realise I’ve probably said something stupid.
"Oh, right, of course. She changed her name, didn’t she?" he says rhetorically. I spend a moment feeling confused until I realise that he’s probably right. Ella could have easily changed her name after her parents died if she knew there were people looking for her, and no doubt Agnes made the whole thing happen. I feel slightly irritated by the fact that she didn’t tell me, but now isn’t the time to start having a domestic about it.
"What do you want?" Ella asks him through gritted teeth.
"To find one of the most powerful Augurs who’s been hiding in plain sight," he smirks. "Which, thanks to your not-so-special boyfriend, wasn’t that hard to do, actually."
"Hey!" I protest, feeling insulted.
"Listen, I’m not here to argue with you about your taste in men," he says to her, ignoring me, "but I am here to tell you about
a proposition."
"You have nothing that would be of interest to me," Ella says cooly, and as she clicks her fingers a small spark of electricity flies off and hits him in the hand. He drops his lighter and swears, his power extinguished while he fumbles to pick it back up.
"Wait, wait!" he holds up placating hands as she makes to move towards him, her hand glowing even brighter. "I’m honestly not going to do anything to hurt you, I just need to talk to you, okay?"
"Curtis, grab the lighter," she says to me, and I do so trying not to look petrified.
"Just a minute of your time is all I need. If you don’t like what I have to say I’ll leave, but I think you need to hear this," he says sounding much less confident now his fingers aren’t on fire and his source of energy has been taken away from him.
"I don’t want to talk to you, whoever you really are," she says angrily.
"If I told you my name is Edward Clarence, would that change your mind?" he says hurriedly, the words almost tumbling over each other to get out of his mouth. Although that in itself doesn’t mean anything to me, this obviously affects Ella in a way I didn’t expect. Her jaw practically hangs open with surprise, before she checks herself and gives him an even fiercer look.
"You’re lying," she says and takes another step towards him, small sparks flying from her fingers as she rubs them together.
I have no idea who Edward Clarence might be or what he might want with us, but if he knows something about the Magic Circle and what they’re planning, or if there’s even the slightest chance he might be able to help us get the information out about Carlton Munday, I feel we need to take it, even if Ella doesn’t see it immediately.
"Ella," I try to say quietly, but there’s no other noise in the room to obscure the sound of my voice, so I might as well be shouting. "I think we should hear him out. He might know something useful about, well, you know," I say, giving her a wide-eyed look and hoping she can somehow read my mind. She considers this for a second whilst not for a moment looking less annoyed, but eventually nods and lowers her hand. "You could at least have had the decency to knock on the door rather than barging in here like a criminal," she narrows her eyes at him, unimpressed. She’s kind of scary when she’s angry, and if I didn’t find it so terrifying I’d probably enjoy it.
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