Havoc!: The Untold Magic of Cora Bell
Page 17
Tick and Tock flew around, dodging the falling debris as best as they could. A chunk of sky hit Tick on the arm and the fairy swerved in the air. Tock grabbed him as they flew over to the cottages.
The syphon stood up from the ground, a deathly stare in his white eyes. He glanced at the fairies. And Cora’s heart dropped.
Kaede stretched out his hand and grabbed hold of Tick and Tock with his magic. They kicked and clawed in the air against his magical grasp.
Cora clicked her fingers and appeared in front of Kaede, but he was expecting her. He held his hand out, and it sent her flying across the grass.
Cora wasted no time. She got up, her shoulder aching worse now. She ran at the syphon. Then she clicked her fingers and holding onto the Jinx magic she collided with the syphon like a steam train sending him barrelling in the opposite direction, his hold on Tick and Tock vanishing.
Cora panted. She watched as the syphon stood up once more, and groaned. Crud.
‘Kaede! We must go!’ Archibald cried out. He stumbled over to the syphon.
Unsteadily, Kaede wiped his bloodied nose on the silver sleeve of his robe. Cora could see that one of his arms hung limply by his side, and his right leg was broken. With an angry shout, he held his hand up to the sky.
Cora watched as the dark Tynth sky above them started to rupture and splinter. Parts of the sky fell heavily to the ground. Tynth was crumbling.
Then Kaede pulled something down towards him. Whatever it was, it went soaring straight at Cora, sizzling in the air. It was a black lightning bolt. Cora clicked her fingers, disappearing out of the way of the magic bolt just in time.
With a click, she appeared back where she stood.
There was a sharp sound behind her.
‘Oops,’ said the silver-haired man.
Turning, Cora almost fell to her knees. Dot had been hit by the bolt of lightning.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Cora froze. Time slowed around her as she watched, eye wide, as Dot clutched her stomach.
‘Dot!’ Cora cried. She clicked her fingers with the witch’s magic and appeared behind the old woman. She held her before she could hit the ground.
‘Dot, Dot,’ she said, placing her down softly.
The old woman’s eyes were closed.
Tick and Tock flew to her side.
‘She needs help,’ said Cora, she pushed the tears from her eye.
Cora looked up at where the warlock and the syphon stood, rage filling her up. But the grass hills were empty. They had gone. The sky above her was crumbling faster now. The ground rumbled dangerously beneath them but Cora didn’t care.
Cora stared down at Dot. Her hands shook as she grabbed Dot’s hands in hers.
‘Can we take her to The Hollow?’ asked Cora.
‘The council will just follow us there,’ said Tick, shaking his head.
Cora saw Dot’s chest rise up and down softly. Cora breathed out in relief.
‘Belle,’ said Tock. ‘We can take her to Belle.’
Tick put his ear to Dot’s chest.
Cora remembered the hobgoblin who had helped her with her magic.
‘She’ll know what to do,’ said Tick.
Cora nodded.
‘Hold on, Dot,’ she said. ‘You’re going to be okay.’ Though she wasn’t sure if she believed her own words. Why had she asked Dot to come with them? She should have kept her safe.
Scratch walked over to them. He licked Dot’s face and curled up next to her on the ground.
The fairies turned to Cora.
‘Are you alright?’ Tick asked her, he held his arm close to his chest.
Cora nodded. The scratches across her skin were bleeding but she didn’t feel them. And her shoulder still ached from when she was thrown down onto it. But she didn’t feel that much either.
The sky above them rumbled like thunder. More parts of afternoon blue plummeted down faster like tumbling bricks, crashing to the ground and splitting the grassy fields apart.
‘We need to go,’ said Tick.
Tock hovered in the air, zapping falling sky parts that fell in their direction into small pieces.
From the ground, Cora looked up and stared out at the crumbling town of Tynth. The cottages. The rolling green hills. The afternoon sky. It was the place where she had once lived. Where her family had once lived. And she had made it back . . . just in time to see it disappear.
Cora still had so many questions. Everything she had learnt about herself, about her family . . . about the silver-haired man. The man who had attacked her family.
The man who said she had a . . . a brother.
Cora glanced down at Dot.
‘Cora,’ said Tock. The ground split open near them, opening wide into darkness. ‘We have to go.’
The fairies flew down to Cora and held onto Scratch, Dot and her.
Holding tightly to Dot, Cora nodded at the fairies. It was time to go.
And with a POP! of magic, Cora, Tick, Tock, Dot and Scratch all disappeared from the crumbling syphon sanctuary that was once her home.
to be continued . . .
About the Author and Illustrator
REBECCA MCRITCHIE would love to tell you that she was raised by wolves in the depths of a snow-laden forest until she stumbled upon and saved a village from the fiery peril of a disgruntled dragon.
But, truthfully, she works as a children’s book editor and lives in Sydney.
Whimsy and Woe and the sequel, Whimsy and Woe: The Final Act, were her first fiction titles, followed by the Jinxed! series.
SHARON O’CONNOR is a freelance illustrator who lives in Melbourne with her husband and triplet sons.
Since graduating from R.M.I.T. Graphic Design, she has spent many years designing and illustrating in publishing, textiles and packaging with a particular love of character design. In her spare time she likes to paint, bake macarons, hang out with animals and take lots of photos.
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Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Australia
HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published in Australia in 2020
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Rebecca McRitchie 2020
Illustration copyright © Sharon O’Connor 2020
The rights of Rebecca McRitchie and Sharon O’Connor to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
ISBN: 978 1 4607 5765 9 (paperback)
ISBN: 978 1 4607 1131 6 (ebook)
ISBN: 978 1 4607 8473 0 (audiobook)
Cover design by HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover and internal illustrations by Sharon O’Connor