Tarquin crouched down to look at the lock and shook his head. “It’s not. Lock is broken. I think the door is stuck.” He reached out to give the door a shove, and jumped back, striking his heels against the skirting board.
Tabitha tried the door, then shook her head in frustration. “Tarquin, what is it?” He’d slumped back against the wall, struggling to catch his breath.
He extended his arm toward the door. “It’s the force of the invisible field. It has to be coming from within, I can feel it being cast.
+++
The vortex showed them the same woman, Vixen, but she looked different somehow. She’d changed her clothes, but it was more than that. She was hiding in a room. Scarlett tried to work out where she’d seen the room before.
“Look,” Raven whispered, nudging the back of her leg.
Scarlett followed Raven’s paw through the ether to the wall nearest the bedroom and gaped. Vixen was in the flat, hiding in the bedroom.
Scarlett looked into the vortex. “What’s happening? I don’t get it?” She didn’t know what to think. Until this moment, she felt like she’d been doing well, but now, something strange was starting to happen. Her mind flashed back to how the spell had been cast and she tried to pick out what she’d done wrong. The look in Raven’s eyes sent a shiver right through her.
Raven stepped forward. “Something’s wrong, I can tell.”
She felt an expanding ball of panic waiting to consume every cell in her body. “I… I don’t know. What did I do wrong? Oh my God. If this thing goes pear-shaped, then my aunt… she’ll never let me near a magic spell again.”
Raven looked at her, completely expressionless. “If this thing goes wrong, Tabitha will be the least of your worries, believe me.”
“Thanks, Raven. You’re not helping.” Scarlett wished Amanda was there. She’d know what to say to calm her nerves.
Raven peered into the vortex, confusion written all over her face.
Scarlett ran the back of her hand across her forehead. “What is it?”
“Something’s not right, not right at all.” The vortex began to wobble and the cloud above faded. “Guys… ”
Scarlett could feel her legs start to tremble as she ran her tongue around her mouth, trying to wet her drying lips. Her voice reduced to a murmur. “What have I done?” She placed a hand over her eyes and shook her head.
The vortex continued to wobble, before momentarily disappearing completely. The strain was evident on each of their faces, but Scarlett continued to feel the brunt of the force. “It’s starting to collapse, isn’t it?”
Raven was still expressionless. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like it is about to collapse.” She nodded. “I’m sorry to say that you’re right.”
Scarlett shrieked. “What have I done? What are we going to do?”
Raven shook her head. “This was always the risk, Scarlett. There’s nothing I can do now. It’s down to you.”
“Oh my God, we’re all doomed.”
The vortex pulled them towards it, like steel to a magnet.
Scarlett fought to stand her ground, just about managing to stay on her feet. “This is it, isn’t it? It’s going to collapse and consume the whole of Bicester, along with every neighboring town for miles.” An air of resignation rushed over her. “Like a nuclear bomb.”
Raven nodded. “It feels like we’ve just seen the flash in the distance and all we can do is pray.”
Scarlett wished she’d kept her mouth shut about the nuclear bomb analogy. When images of a documentary she’d seen about Hiroshima came to mind, she doubled over, trying not to be sick with fear. Then, standing up straight, she looked at the ceiling and prayed for divine intervention.
The door clicked and a gust of fresh air blew in. “Scarlett, you in there? What are you doing?”
Scarlett’s eyes filled with tears. “Aunt Tabitha!”
“Scarlett,“ Tabitha said, marching into the living room. “Whatever are you doing?”
Scarlett wanted to throw herself crying into her aunt’s arms, like a two-year-old that had been lost in a supermarket.
Tabitha approached the faltering vortex with an air of confidence. “Come on, get out of my way.” She sighed. “Honestly, you’ll have the whole of Bicester sucked up.” She looked over her shoulder. “Come on Tarquin, it’s going to be okay. I think.”
Tarquin strode into the living room. “Looks like we’ve got here just in time, doesn’t it, Tabitha?”
Tabitha nodded, glanced at a patch of carpet next to her and waited for him to move across the room. “What do you think?”
Tarquin shook his head and contorted his mouth, as if carefully going over the facts. “Not sure. It’s gone a bit too far to salvage the operation.”
Tabitha nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”
Watching their calm, confident manner, Scarlett breathed in and resisted the urge to cry as she exhaled. And to think that only recently she was in Costa, thinking about going off and leaving everyone. Amanda had been right. Bicester was her home, the place where she belonged.
She was part of a community that was far stronger collectively than they were as individuals. What would have happened if she’d gone off traveling, got carried away with herself, and attempted something similar? Without the help of her aunt, it would have ended in disaster. She might very well have been lost forever.
Waiting for Tarquin to start muttering into the vortex, Tabitha turned and smiled at Scarlett. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Thanks to you. Aunt Tabitha, I’m so sorry. I had ideas above my station, I—”
Tabitha took a deep breath and stared at Scarlett, nostrils flared to the fullest. “Not to worry. It happens to all of us when we’re first starting off. The trick is to learn from it.” Her tone of voice grew gradually warmer as she spoke.
Scarlett gave a teary smile. “Really? You think I can still cut it as a witch? You don’t think I should pack it all in?”
Tabitha shook her head. “No, I don’t. But it’s a good thing we had Tarquin to come and sort things out, isn’t it?”
Scarlett rubbed her eyes, sniffed and said, “Yes. He’s a good man, isn’t he?”
“The best.”
The vortex rose up into a column of light, the clouds reformed and golden raindrops pelted down. Scarlett looked on, not knowing what to think. From what she could gather, it looked like Tarquin was regaining control of the situation.
Everything began returning to how it had been at the start, when things were going well. It was just the raindrops… she couldn’t remember them falling this hard or heavy. Indeed, they appeared now to be much more like hailstones than rain. She wanted to believe her aunt, that everything was going to be okay, but she knew that as long as Vixen was still at large, none of them were safe.
A gust of wind appeared from nowhere, blowing the hailstones this way and that, but always remaining within the vortex. Tarquin’s calm expression evaporated and a look of confusion and fear took hold.
Tabitha took a step towards him. “Tarquin, you okay?”
His face had turned a strained red. “Y… yes. Should be. I’m struggling to—”
“Do you need a hand?”
Tarquin nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
Tabitha moved across the room to stand beside Tarquin. In no time at all, the entire flat was filled with a kind of primordial chanting, in some kind of ancient tongue that no one aside from Tabitha and Tarquin understood.
Scarlett watched with interest, trying to learn something, to take something positive out of the situation. She knew that a few weeks down the line, her fragile confidence was going to take a battering, should they make it that far, but for now that was the least of her worries. She would have to cross that bridge when she came to it, put it on the pile of things to deal with when her head was in the right place.
Things had calmed down considerably from earlier
, but it was evident from the looks on both of their faces that, as Tim would put it, they were not out of the woods yet.
Tim. She wondered what he was doing right now. Unless her aunt and Tarquin could get things sorted out, she might never see him again.
They glanced up at the ceiling, took in a deep breath and started chanting louder, their voices booming. The walls trembled, the floors quaked. The cloud swirled around and gushed like a powerful multi-colored river.
The gushing sound grew louder, akin to a mighty waterfall. The vortex rose high into the cloud, touching the ceiling as the rain pelted harder, now thundering down onto the carpet. A wind appeared, blowing in her face, drying her skin, rocking her head right back. Scarlett lowered her head, raised her hands to cover her ears, and turned away from the vortex. She opened her mouth to scream.
With an earth-shattering ‘crack,’ the vortex compressed down into a shiny golden ring. The gushing reduced to a gentle ripple then faded out altogether.
Still exhausted from her efforts, Scarlett raised her head to see Tarquin and her aunt, despite looking quite drained themselves, slapping each other on the back, congratulating themselves on a job well done.
Tabitha took a deep breath and exhaled through puffed cheeks, relief written all over her face. “That was a close one, wasn’t it?” she said to Tarquin with a smile.
Tarquin nodded. “I always knew you had things under control.”
Tabitha chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She turned to look at Scarlett who had moved up beside her. “Panic over.”
She smiled and gave her aunt a hug. “Thank you.”
Tabitha closed her arms loosely around Scarlett’s back. “Don’t mention it. Just try and be a bit more careful next time.”
“Oh, I won’t be trying anything like this again.” Scarlett regretted the words as soon as she’d said them.
First of all, it wasn’t like her to just give up after a setback. If she did, then she’d be spineless, without any kind of credibility to her name. Amanda wouldn’t mind if she stopped taking so many risks, in fact, it would probably please her no end. But deep down, she knew that if she gave up now, she’d never be able to look at herself in the same way again.
Tabitha smirked. “Something tells me you don’t mean that, Scarlett.”
“Well—”
“As I said, learn from your mistakes and you’ll be much stronger for it. Life is about taking risks. Often, you have to take risks to meet your aspirations.”
“Well, I promise I’ll be more careful, then.”
Tabitha smiled. “That’s good enough. You’ll make a great witch one day.”
“Thanks, Auntie.” Scarlett dropped to the sofa and put her head in her hands.
Tabitha furrowed her brow and glanced towards the bedroom. “What’s that noise?” she whispered to Tarquin.
Tarquin held his breath to listen. “What noise?”
“Just now. I heard a noise from the bedroom, like there’s someone in there.”
Raven looked at Tabitha. “That must be Vixen.”
“Vixen? You mean she’s here?”
Raven nodded. “We saw it the vortex.”
Tabitha looked at Tarquin. “Tarquin?” Her tone suggested she was issuing an order rather than asking a question.
Tarquin sighed, then smiled at Tabitha. “Okay, follow me.”
They filed out of the living room.
“Shh,” Tarquin said, looking at each of them. He turned his ear towards the door and nodded. “Definitely in there,” he whispered.
He placed a hand on the door handle, inched it down and nudged the door open just enough to get a peek.
Vixen flung open the bedroom door, knocking Tarquin off balance.
“Stop her,” Tarquin shouted, as they all rushed to prevent her from escaping. It was left to Raven to scamper along and try to cut her off.
+++
Tim drove past Costa, spun around the corner, and came to a screeching halt outside the gates leading to the parking lot. He shut the car door with a thud and ran across the yard. No sooner had he opened the door than he heard footsteps thundering toward him in the dark.
It was hard to see at first, but once his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he caught the outline of a human figure. A female figure with a decidedly angry looking face. The kind of face that looked permanently cranky.
“Hey!” Tim called as she attempted to brush past him.
“Get out of my way,” she spat at him.
Tim didn’t budge. “That’s not very polite now, is it?” He grabbed hold of her arm.
“Get off me,” she snarled, wiggling her arm to try and shrug him off.
“No, not until you tell me where you were going.”
The woman stamped her foot on the concrete stair. “Let me go! This is assault.”
Tim smiled. “Well, call the police!” Tim considered letting her go until he realized she looked vaguely familiar. He had to get a better view.
After glancing around and scouring his surroundings for a light switch, he spotted one at the top of the first flight of stairs. “Come on, this way.” He grabbed hold of her wrist and led her up the stairs.
“Where are you are you taking me?!”
The light came flooding around them. Tim looked at her closely and gasped. “Come on.”
“What? Where are you taking me?” she demanded again.
“Back the way you’ve just come, no doubt.”
He dragged her kicking and screaming back into the flat.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
McMillan’s Flat, Market Square, Bicester
When Timreached flat 2B with Vixen, he found the door was slightly ajar.
Tim looked over his shoulder and grinned. “You must have forgotten to close it on your way out.”
Vixen scowled at him and hung her head.
He nudged the door, led her inside, and then swung his arm back to shut it with a bang. “Hello?”
Scarlett’s elbows felt like metal rods digging into her thighs as she lifted her head from her hands. “Tim?”
All eyes turned to watch her run past Cliff to the door. “Tim. It is you! I thought as much. What are you doing here?”
He grinned. “I believe you lost something—or someone.”
“Yes, Vixen—honestly, she’s a right nasty—”
Vixen coughed.
“Piece of work. I was going to say, nasty piece of work. Well, whatever. Come on, come in.”
Scarlett could hear Vixen mumbling to herself about it being her boyfriend’s flat as she led them to the living room. Tim took a wooden chair from the dining table and told Vixen to sit. She stomped her way across the room, mumbling and cursing under her breath.
“I see you’ve met Vixen then?” Tabitha said, looking at Tim, who had made himself comfortable in an armchair.
Tim nodded. “Found her running down the stairs. I recognized her face from the records.”
Vixen coughed. “Hello, I am still here you know!”
No one spoke or turned to acknowledge her.
Tarquin leaned forward to take the floor. “So the question now is, what are we going to do about her?”
A bout of mumbling spread through the living room, coming to a halt when Vixen gave a loud and exaggerated cough. “Hello!”
Tim rose to his feet. “One minute.” He walked to the corner of the room, dragged Vixen to her feet and took her to the bedroom. Everyone listened from the living room as she cursed and threatened him with all kinds of depraved acts.
The raised voices silenced and Tim reappeared, clapping and rubbing his hands together. “Sorry about that little distraction,” he said, resuming his place in the armchair.
Scarlett looked at him curiously.
“What did you do?”
“Just stuck her in the closet with a chair in front of it,” Tim said cheerily.
Cliff snorted audibly.
Turning to the rest of the group, Tarquin declared, “well,
we need to figure out what to do with our friend in the bedroom.”
Raven was the first to reply. “Well, she did it, didn’t she? Let’s take her to the police, let them do their job. They can lock her in a cell and throw away the key, for all I care.”
Scarlett pursed her lips. “Yes, she did do it and we all know that. But, how are we going to convince the police? Are we going to say we conducted a spell and saw back in time? They’d laugh us out of town.”
Tabitha nodded. “Well, you’re right about that.”
“And something else. Right now, as we speak, they think that Raven is the guilty party. She is the missing girlfriend after all.”
“Well, we’re going to have a job on convincing them,” said Tabitha. “But, I’m sure we can do it.” She paused to give it a moment’s thought. “We just have to find a way.”
Roughly five minutes of silence followed as everyone struggled to come up with a credible idea. It was Tim that spoke first. “May I make a suggestion?”
Tabitha nodded. “Go ahead. Please do.”
“I could put her in the back of the car and take her to the military facility.”
Tabitha looked unsure. “Would that work? Could you just take her in unannounced?”
“Well, I‘d have to do a bit of fixing first, but no, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Raven grinned. “So what will happen once she gets there?”
“She’ll be assessed and then taken upstairs. You know how it works.”
“She’ll be given the treatment they gave me and Ronnie?” asked Raven. “With the cells and the cattle prods?”
Tim frowned, glancing uncomfortably at the other witches in the room. “Well, at first. Ultimately, we have very specific protocols for what we do with witches…” He trailed off purposefully.
Raven grinned. “Brilliant! Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.”
Up until that point, Scarlett had never once imagined that Raven might be out for revenge herself. “I have heard a few stories about cats having long memories when it comes to revenge.”
Everyone laughed, except Raven, who just shook her head and sat down on the floor in front of her.
Raven (A Very British Witch Book 4) Page 15