Peter shook his head. “I knew he’d understand; after all, his own dad is the same.”
“Huh?” I was confused. I knew Clare and Duncan didn’t see his dad, but I’d never heard he was aggressive or anything.
Peter gave me a look. “I hear things hanging around this house. Duncan’s had it pretty rough from his dad; maybe you should cut him some slack?”
I blinked a few times, realising that I had never asked or cared before. Maybe I should have.
“Whatever,” I mumbled; “can we deal with the fact you appear to have come back from the dead?”
Peter’s face lit up. “Yeah! You are one righteous witch, Emily Rand! Bringing back the dead. That’s got to be major league magic.”
“I don’t know,” I said, “I didn’t mean to do it!”
We both jumped as Bob tapped his beak on the window. “Oh, thank heavens,” I said, letting him in. “What did aunt Iris say?”
Bob gawked at Peter. “Holy hemlock,” he chirped. He looked at me. “She’s coming now, in her car. But you’ve got big problems, Mistress. I don’t know what you’ve done, but there are a load of, uh, dead bodies, heading this way.” He jerked his head at the window, and Peter and I rushed over to look out of it.
From the window I could see right down the hill to the common. It was really dark outside, but there was definitely something moving slowly over the common in this direction.
I felt sick. “What are they?” I whispered.
Bob looked worried. “For want of a better word, I would say ‘Zombies’. They all bust out of their graves a few minutes ago. I assume you didn’t call them on purpose?”
“No.” I clutched my head, trying not to wet myself from fear. I mean, I’ve played “Resident Evil” on my PlayStation, and zombies are no laughing matter.
“Are you sure they’re coming here?” Peter asked.
Bob nodded. “The spell came from here. I felt it. In fact, I saw it. Big yellow light? Pretty hard to miss. It went over the cemetery and then all these bodies started coming up. Only men, though, which is weird.”
“The spell to revive.” Peter looked at me. “You said ‘this man’ in the spell. It worked on me as well as Duncan; do you think it worked on all of them? There must be hundreds of dead men buried in this town.”
“Just this town?” Bob said, really not helping my nausea. “How do we know how far the spell went?”
“What do we do?” I whispered. I slumped down to the floor, still unable to face looking at the zombies again.
“Another spell?” suggested Peter.
I wailed, “But I don’t know what I’m doing! This is a nightmare!”
With his usual sense of crap timing, Duncan came back with some clothes for Peter. Bob dived under my bed to hide, and Peter and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: we had to get Duncan out of the way.
Duncan held out some clothes for Peter and said, “These should fit. Are you coming to the party tonight? Because if you are then I might have a spare costume if you wanted.”
Despite the zombies on their way here, I took a second to wonder if Duncan had always been so friendly but I’d just never given him a chance.
Peter nodded and said, “That would be fantastic, can I come and look?” He practically pushed Duncan out of the door. On his way out he said under his breath, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you aunt will know what to do.”
Of course! Iris was coming, I ran back to the window. The zombies were at the bottom of the hill; they moved very slowly, so I figured I had a few minutes. Where was Iris? The whole road seemed deserted despite the fact it was now only about half past seven.
Then I saw her headlights. The zombies reached the road about the same time she did. Her car stopped for a second and then sped up exponentially and screeched up the hill.
“Keep an eye on them,” I called to Bob as I ran downstairs to let her in.
“There’s something very odd going on.” She sounded breathless. “Maybe it’s just kids, but I swear I just saw grown men dressed as…”
“Dead people?” I asked, giving her a shaky smile.
“Oh my stars!” She slapped her forehead. “I knew it felt wrong. What have you done?”
I dragged her up to my room, shut the door and quickly explained.
“Wait a minute.” She held up a hand. “Let’s get this clear. You say energy came out of your hands?”
“Yes, and then out of my whole body when I did the Revive spell.” I spoke fast, anxious about how much time we had before flesh-eating zombies tried to kill us. “Iris, can you do a spell, quickly?”
“No,” she said calmly. “I don’t have the power.” Then she looked almost excited as she said, “But you do. I just knew you’d be special. Emily, you’re a Natural Witch!”
I looked confused, obviously.
“OK, never mind right now.” She stroked the crystal around her neck thoughtfully. “But it’s a rare type of witch. You’ll need some specialist training.”
“Iris!” I almost shrieked at her. “I don’t care. We’re about to be attacked by the walking dead! What should we do?”
“Oh,” She looked surprised. “They won’t attack. You called them. They’ll await your command.”
“Are you serious?” I was giddy with relief.
She nodded and opened the window. “Tell them to wait in the garden, out of sight; we don’t want them traipsing mud in the house.”
I leaned out fearfully. An awful stench hit my nose. The first of the zombies was just entering the garden, hundreds more behind him.
“Uh, listen up, zombies.” I called out nervously. “Could you all wait in the garden, or the neighbours’ gardens? But stay out of sight, get off the road please.”
I was thrilled and amazed as they blundered about trying to do exactly as I had instructed.
“What I don’t understand,” Iris frowned, “is how you managed to revive them too. Didn’t you cast a circle before you did the spell? It should have been contained within it.”
“Yes, I did, but…” my voice trailed off as I looked at the candles on the floor and remembered leaping across the room just after I knocked Duncan out. “I broke the circle,” I finished lamely. “And I didn’t recast it before I did the Revive spell.” I hung my head.
“Why didn’t Bob remind you?” Iris shot Bob an irritated glance.
“She didn’t call me.” Bob hunched his little shoulders and gave us both a cross look.
“Emily,” Iris scolded me, “You must never do magic without your Familiar. He will act as your second pair of eyes, he will keep you grounded, and once you have bonded, his presence should add greatly to your magic.”
“Well, I didn’t know that. Sorry, Bob.” I reached out and stroked his head with one finger.
“So without the circle, how far has the magic gone? Have I revived all the dead men everywhere? Or just all the dead in England, or what?” The thought sent shivers down my spine.
“Oh no, it’s highly unlikely you’ve even covered the whole town. Definitely not beyond.” She seemed confident and I sighed with relief.
“Well, that’s something anyway.” I looked out the window again. Zombies were still arriving, but there were apparently no more on their way.
Peter came back into the room; he was wearing a onesie with a skeleton motif on it. “It seemed appropriate.” He laughed as I raised an eyebrow.
Iris coughed, trying to catch my attention subtly.
“It’s OK,” I told her, “Peter knows everything, he’s my ghost.”
“She revived me too.” Peter explained as Iris registered disbelief.
“Oh dear,” Iris sighed. “We have an awful lot to do tonight. Your spell only worked on Peter and the, uh, zombies, because it’s Halloween. The veil between the living and the dead is very thin tonight, but come midnight the veil will drop down again and they will all return to the way they were.”
I thought about that for a second. “But isn’t that go
od? The zombies will go back to being just dead bodies?”
“Yes, but in your garden! We have to get them back in their graves. And what about Peter? Tonight is the best night of the year to get him to cross over; he could be stuck here for another year whilst you learn what to do.”
“Aw, really?” Peter said. “Do I have to go tonight? I was hoping to take the old body out for a spin. Get out of this damn house, maybe smooch a few ladies.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
“But then you would become a ghost again at midnight.” Iris reiterated. “Do you want to stay here another year, until the veil is this thin again, to pass over?”
Peter shook his head. “I don’t think so. No offence, Emily, but if I have to listen to your music for another year I’ll go crazy.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my music,” I huffed. Though I suppose I do have an unfortunate habit of singing along to musicals, which no one was ever supposed to hear!
Iris clapped her hands to get our attention. “We can try a reversal spell. I can write a spell, but Emily will need to provide the power.”
“How do I do that?” I asked.
“What did you do before?” she said.
“I don’t know! It just sort of happened.”
Iris sighed, “Oh dear. This is the problem with Natural Witches. Your powers are attached to your emotions. You can’t just invoke them with words, you have to do it with feelings.”
“Well, that’s easy then,” I waved my hands at the window. “I definitely feel that I want the zombies to go away.” I aimed my palms at the window. Nothing happened. I shook my hands like you might shake a faulty toy; still nothing. I blew a long breath of irritation out of my cheeks.
“It’s not working.” I stamped my foot in frustration and my bedroom light flickered again.
“You aren’t focused enough,” Iris said, looking up at the light with concern. “I’ll write the spell, it might help.”
She pulled a pad off my shelf and a pen from beside it and began to write. “There,” she said, handing it to me.
I read aloud from the paper:
“Undo what I have done,
Return the dead from where they come
In their graves undisturbed peacefully
This is my will, so mote it be.”
“Try saying it three times,” Iris suggested when still nothing happened; there was no bright light, and the zombies continued to moan quietly outside.
I did; we still had nothing.
“Right, that settles it,” Iris said, “I’m taking you to my Coven meeting, right now. When a Coven adds their magic together it can get pretty powerful. You can use our magic to enhance your own.”
“Yeah, OK.” I should have known I would end up going. Too bad about the party, I thought, feeling defeated.
“I think you had better bind Peter to you before we go, just in case.” Iris nodded to Peter, who was flicking through one of my magazines.
“How do I do that?” I asked.
“I’m afraid the quickest and simplest method would be a blood binding. As Peter is currently corporeal it should be easy.” Iris handed me a needle. “Both of you prick your fingers please.”
We did. “So do we press them together?” I held my bleeding finger out towards Peter’s.
“No, I’m afraid you have to ingest it. Suck the blood from his finger and vice versa.”
“That’s just revolting!” My stomach turned.
Peter was less bothered. He grabbed my finger and put it in his mouth, holding his own out to me. I gingerly sucked it.
Weirdly, the process felt quite erotic. My eyes caught and stuck with Peter’s as we sucked at each other’s fingers. I’d never noticed his eyes much before. They were a gorgeous blue-green. I felt myself suddenly incredibly drawn to him. Then there was a bang of light and we both staggered back, losing any physical contact.
Iris nodded in satisfaction. “Well done, Emily. A perfect binding.”
Chapter Seven
“WE'LL HAVE TO sneak out of the house,” I said. “Otherwise, Duncan will think I’m going to the party without him.”
The other two nodded, and we gathered up what we needed and snuck downstairs.
At the front door Peter paused. “This is kind of a big deal for me,” he explained as I accidentally walked into his back. “The world has changed a lot.”
I took his hand. “Not in this town it hasn’t.” I tried to reassure him. “We have a cinema complex and a bowling alley, but otherwise I don’t think there has been any progress here since they installed street lamps.”
He smiled at my lame attempt, and curled his fingers into mine.
My stomach flip-flopped a bit. I wondered if it was weird to feel that way? I suddenly didn’t want him to leave.
All romantic thoughts flew from my head as I stepped outside and the smell hit me.
It was full-on revolting. I pulled my cloak round to cover my mouth.
“Hey, zombies, please make your way to The Seven Sisters,” I shouted through the material. Then, as I tugged on Peter’s hand, we all dashed for Iris’s car.
The dead smell was slightly sweetened by all the dried lavender, sage and rosemary she had in the car. She started the engine and drove quickly down the hill as the mass of zombies started to slowly follow.
It was just gone eight as we approached the clearing.
“Wait here” – Iris stopped Peter and me as we drew near – “I’ll have to explain things first.”
I nodded and slipped my hand back into Peter’s, where it had become comfortable staying.
“Do you really want to go tonight if we can manage it?” I asked him.
He nodded sadly. “Yes, sorry, but apart from you I have nothing to stay for. You’ve got a life to live, I’ve got an afterlife.” His fingers stroked the back of my hand.
Bob dropped out of the sky and onto my shoulder. “They’re ready for you now, Mistress.”
We went forward. The circle of women parted and greeted us. I counted nine women, all dressed in black cloaks not dissimilar to my own, underneath which they were wearing… nothing at all.
Their ages ranged from about twenty to about sixty. I really wished they would stop flashing the flesh. I was so not cool with it.
They had big welcoming smiles on their faces for me, but were looking at Peter with rather unfriendly eyes. We held hands a little tighter.
Iris came forward. “This is Emily, and this is her ghost.”
There was some muttering and then as if by silent agreement they all came and hugged us both. I tried not to shrink away from the wobbly bits coming too close.
The eldest woman took my hand; Peter had dropped it to avoid one of the more cuddly witches. “Emily, if everything Iris says is true then you are a Natural Witch! We would be very glad to have you join us.”
“Er, thanks.” I muttered.
“Come, child, we will form a circle and draw down the moon.” The other witches returned to the circle shape within the ring of trees as she spoke.
“Draw down the moon?” I thought briefly of the movie where someone lassos the moon. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“You don’t need to do it, just stand in the centre with your ghost and we will do the rest. Just raise your arms up and try to feel her energy pouring down, around and into you.” She walked me to the centre of the circle; Peter followed.
“We’ll cast the circle and you will take the place of the priestess. Our power should generate in the circle and you will harness it.”
“I will?” I looked around, feeling once again totally out of my depth. “Then what?”
“You’ll know, dear,” she said smiling; “after all, you’re a Natural Witch. Now if you want to leave your clothes over there?” She pointed to a pile of clothes by a tree.
“Huh?” I stumbled backwards. “I’m not taking off my clothes!”
A small frown creased her forehead. “You need to feel the moonlight on your skin. It has
to connect with your magic.”
At that moment a moaning became apparent. The zombies had arrived. The other witches began to back away looking fearful.
“Zombies stop!” I said, feeling super important and powerful. The zombies stopped and stood swaying and moaning.
“Please hurry, dear,” the eldest witch shooed me over to the tree, “this is all most unsettling and rather smelly. We really must resolve it and quickly!”
At the tree I found Iris shedding her clothes. “Quickly, Emily, get undressed; you can keep your cloak on for warmth.” She disappeared back into the throng.
I looked at Peter; he had never left my side and was now trying very hard not to laugh at the look on my face.
“Oh, don’t be such a prude, Emily, just get on with it. You have to do it or the zombies and I might be following you around for ever.”
I huffed a little but began to undress. I supposed I had nothing he probably hadn’t seen a million times before, but it was different now I knew him. I didn’t want to get naked in front of all those women, but then I supposed they were all naked too. And what about the zombies, they were all men! A disgusting thought followed that one, that most of the zombies probably didn’t have eyes anymore anyway.
“Turn your back at least!” I snapped. He gave into his laughter but turned around.
Once I was naked, I pulled my cloak tightly around myself. It was freezing.
Peter and I walked to the centre of the circle and the other witches began to chant. I didn’t really listen to the words. I felt the energy and power instantaneously. It was as if it were bouncing around between the seven trees. The witches began to dance. I felt the chant as if it were music and I too began to dance without conscious thought. The energy began swirling like a vortex with me in the eye of the storm. I threw my arms up to the full moon and let it wash over me.
I heard Bob’s voice somewhere above me. “Now, Mistress.”
“Undo, undo, undo,” I cried.
The moonlight shot into me and radiated back out of me. I was blinded by the glare and then it was dark again.
Riot Girls: Seven Books With Girls Who Don't Need A Hero Page 99