by Holly Ice
‘Don’t you dare speak to Bianca that way.’ Mira backed Shane, growling, fur on end.
My heart stuttered. He did care.
But McKee didn’t even blink. ‘Be in my office in five minutes. I’ll wait outside the door.’
Shane and I tugged on enough clothes to be presentable.
‘I’m so, so sorry, Bee. He could’ve said all that through the door. He has no right to treat you like that. It’s unacceptable.’ Shane glared at the floor, grinding his teeth loud enough I heard squeaks. ‘This was over the line. Way over the line. I should report him to the coven. They’ll fire him for this.’
The problem was, I was almost sure this was about far more than a rifling through the head’s office. Kaylee warned me the DNA results were in soon. I had a feeling I was about to find out whether I really was a Wildes, and what that meant.
I looked at Shane’s fiery glare and swallowed hard. Could I tell him? In this state, he was likely to bite my head off.
Shit. He’d stormed off, towards McKee’s office.
Chapter 18
McKee’s door was ajar, the dull yellow light within splaying out onto the marble corridor.
Back straight as a rod and hand firmly clasped in mine, Shane walked in. I trailed behind him and forced myself to look McKee in the eye. He was sitting behind his desk, leant back in the chair lazily, like he had no fear in bringing us here. His smug smile didn’t bode well.
McKee steepled his fingers and waited. And after a good minute, he nodded to the door. ‘Close it, please.’
Shane slammed the door. I winced.
‘Childish.’ McKee shook his head. ‘I had such hopes for your future. And now you’ve chosen to play with this Animalis witch.’
Shane bristled. ‘The same witch you’ve been working with for weeks after class.’
‘That was punishment, not pleasure.’
‘Well, get over your shit, because Bee is perfect for me. Unlike you, she’s supported me.’
‘You think so?’ McKee pushed back his chair, opened a cabinet drawer, and dropped a small sheaf of stapled papers onto the table. ‘Read that.’
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Bianca’s DNA report.’
Shit. I should have called Shane back, dealt with the fallout in his room.
Shane glanced at me, picked up the papers, and went white. He took one large step away from me.
‘What is it?’
‘This is why you were looking into the Wildes, wasn’t it? You knew. And you didn’t tell me. Then, or last night. Or this morning.’ Shane couldn’t look at me. He was staring at my ear with such intensity it felt like he’d burn through me.
I peeked at the paper, and there it was, in black and white. I was a Wildes witch with a predicted connection between the great-grandparent and the great-great-grandparent level.
‘I’m sorry. You had a lot going on. I didn’t want to add to it when I wasn’t sure.’
And what did this change? It was only a name, and one I knew very little about.
‘How long did you know?’ Shane asked.
‘I didn’t know. I got my first inkling this week. I’d only just looked deeper into it.’
Shane shook his head. I recognised that disbelief. That hurt. It was the same broken look he got when he talked about how his uncle wasn’t who he thought he was. How he’d changed overnight. He thought I’d done the same. And that split my lungs open. I couldn’t breathe.
‘I asked you if something was wrong, Bee, and you lied. Your name, your familiar, your dreams, am I that hard to talk to?’
‘What about her familiar?’ McKee snapped.
Shane froze, glancing at me, Lyall, and the floor. I was sure he hadn’t meant to let that slip, but it was out there now.
‘I see. There’s even more to this.’ McKee stared at Lyall with a wee smile. ‘We’ll find out what that means soon enough. But I won’t keep an unknown Wildes in my school. I notified the coven this morning. The WMCF will investigate her time here, and how she got here.’
He was kicking me out? Did that mean I was going back to the human world? Already? We still had eight days until the end of term.
Shane clasped his shaking hands behind his back. ‘And if you find anything incriminating?’
He couldn’t think they’d find anything. They’d already investigated me – twice!
‘Then she’ll go on trial in the new year.’
I hadn’t done anything! Was it a crime to be related to the Wildes now?
Lyall gripped my shoulder hard enough it felt like a pinprick.
You knew this might happen, didn’t you?
Under the right circumstances, yes.
This had to be why he hid his identity. He must be recognisable as a Wildes witch, a member of a family which should no longer exist, and a bloodline that shouldn’t be so close to mine. No wonder he hadn’t wanted me to look into his history and had been so ambivalent about what might be said about him.
Were you involved in the murders?
I can’t say.
‘Will officers need to talk to me?’ Shane’s voice was raspy.
‘As soon as possible.’
‘I’ll give what information I can.’ His jaw was tight, and a sheen coated his eyes. The accusation in that stare… I’d lost him.
I couldn’t count on him, Justin, or anyone else to keep me safe through this. I was alone. Again. And I had no idea how to fight this. The worst part was, they could find a lot about my time here that didn’t add up, with all I’d done to help the WMCF. And Justin and the others… they might not out me as Cognata, but I couldn’t count on them outing their operation to save me.
‘What did the Wildes do to scare you so bad?’ I was a nineteen-year-old witch without family to help me and no money except what they gave me. What the hell did they think I could do to them? ‘Shane?’
He ran his hand through his hair, almost tearing at it. ‘You got close to me and lied. And lied again.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what your angle is, but the WMCF will find out.’
And there it was. Was what we’d had that fragile, that easy to throw away? I felt dizzy and sick. My gut was squirming, but there was nothing new to learn here.
McKee eyed me, a flicker in his eyes that made me think he wanted me gone. And in that second, my gut stopped squirming. The dizziness went.
He picked up his phone. ‘Mel? Yes, send them over now, please.’
The doors opened, and Andris stepped inside with Justin on his heels. I tried to appeal to Justin, but his face was closed off, like a soldier’s.
‘Here to take possession of the suspected Wildes descendant,’ Andris said, stepping forward.
‘Where’s she going?’ McKee asked.
‘Edinburgh. Under a round-the-clock guard.’ Andris eyed me. ‘The coven think she’s less likely to harm humans than witches.’
What the hell did your family do?
If I could tell you, I would. Don’t trust anyone. Say as little as possible. You need to focus on surviving this.
Surviving? You mean they might kill me?
Maybe.
My skin tingled and then numbed. I needed to find allies. Fast.
I looked to Shane, but he’d turned his back and was chatting with his uncle. My heart jerked sideways. He wasn’t going to say or do anything to stop this.
Justin and Andris each took one of my arms in their hard clasp and marched me from the room. Everything was a blur I wanted to hold on to. But then I was on the snowy driveway, facing a waiting car, steam rising into the morning air.
Andris opened a back door and shoved me in. This time, it was more prison vehicle than escort. A mesh blocked the gap between the front and back seats with a multicoloured sheen that meant it was spelled. I cursed. I couldn’t even talk to Justin because I didn’t ken what Andris did and didn’t know about their operations.
Seatbelt.
If I could, I’d pluck your feathers right now.
Survive. Hate me if you like, but survive first.
‘Fucking bird.’
Andris glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. ‘What was that?’
‘Just cursing my familiar.’
He set the car in reverse, turned, and barrelled out of the school drive, onto the main road out of town.
* * *
The flight was a long, boring affair. Like last time, it was a private plane. But this time I was always under watch, like at any moment I might attack. And neither of them said a word to me. Even when Andris went for toilet breaks, Justin didn’t smile or ask what happened. He stared through me rather than at me and stilled anytime I stood to stretch my legs. I’d become the bogeyman overnight.
I begged for us to stop so I could grab a sandwich once we were in the car on Scottish soil. We’d left the academy without anything, and the plane hadn’t had trolley service. My stomach was ready to eat itself. But both Justin and Andris blanked me.
‘Are you both going to ignore me?’
Andris glanced in the rear-view mirror, and his eyes narrowed. ‘Forgive me if the comfort of a Wildes isn’t important to me.’
‘Can you at least tell me what the Wildes did?’
Andris looked at the passing road sign. ‘Give her the short version to shut her up. We’re almost there.’
We were. Edinburgh Castle was on the horizon. But, condensed or not, I needed to know what happened with my ancestors, how deep this hatred went, and how likely I was to get out of this.
Justin sighed and twisted around, pulling against the seatbelt. ‘The Wildes were an influential, powerful old family. They had witches in many of the highest roles in our society, and they were respected to a fault.’
‘So what happened?’
Justin’s lips thinned. ‘The Wildes had such strong spirit witches. They helped people and avoided a lot of problems with extreme groups or planned attacks. But their powers also made them paranoid. One day, they must have snapped. Maybe the psychic was wrong or crazy. I don’t know. But they worked with witches from other, lesser-known families and murdered over two hundred witches. Few families went untouched.’ Justin cleared his throat. ‘Eventually, the WMCF tracked them down and executed them for their crimes.’
‘All of them? Without trial?’ My gut tugged. Groups didn’t kill people without a reason, and they didn’t ken what that might be, which meant they hadn’t asked. ‘Who spearheaded the lynch mob?’
‘Be careful how you talk about this,’ Andris snapped. ‘You’re in enough trouble as it is. Sympathising with those murderers will get you nowhere. There were plenty of witnesses to what they did. A trial delayed justice.’
Justin glanced at Andris, then back to me. ‘The families were grieving. Some lost five or six people. It wasn’t as democratic as it should have been, but the Wildes used their power in all the wrong ways, bypassing security and spells to get inside homes and cause maximum damage. An example needed to be made.’
‘But all the Wildes were killed? Every mother and bairn?’ However grieved they were, that wasn’t right. Bairns were innocent.
‘By then, they weren’t a large family. The youngest was fifteen. Old enough to know better.’
I’d done some crazy stuff at fifteen. That didn’t mean I should be killed for it. The human world had juvenile detention for a reason. And if the whole family were urging the teen on… that couldn’t have been easy. ‘You said this happened when witch numbers were on the rise?’
‘Yes. My great-grandparent’s generation.’
Lyall, were you there?
His beady eyes peered into mine. He didn’t give me an answer, but as I thought about yes and no, yes got a much more forceful tug.
So you were.
I wish I could tell you more.
Jesus. I rubbed my face, but the car was slowing, and when I looked up, we were in Blair street. I was home. Back in the real world. Flashing Christmas lights lined the inside of our flat’s windows.
Justin opened my door and waited for me to get out. Then he turned so Andris couldn’t see him. ‘Find good representation. They’ll throw everything they can at you.’
My heart fluttered. Was he still on my side?
Andris motioned for Justin to hurry.
‘Don’t run.’ He hopped back into the passenger side.
The car trailed around the corner.
I stared at the main door to my building. They’d had a bag with my wallet, keys, and clothes waiting in the car, but I wanted a friendly voice right now. So I held the buzzer for my flat.
‘Hello?’ A groggy Finn.
‘Hi. It’s Bee. Can you let me in?’
‘Bee!’
The door unlocked, and I dragged myself upstairs.
Chapter 19
I stared into my breakfast cereal and circled my spoon through the milk, pushing the mushy flakes one way and then the other. I’d loved this stuff before the academy, but it wasn’t much compared to croissants or fruit and yoghurt. Nothing better in the cupboards, either. Rhea skipped breakfast, and Finn loved his Pop Tarts. And the flat was so quiet. I heard the creaks as people moved around downstairs, the bustle of the street, but in here it was just me. Never thought I’d miss the communal life.
Get something from the shop.
I swallowed a spoonful of cereal and chomped through it. Then I peered through the living room window onto the street. Busy as always for this time of day. I couldn’t see any of my watchers. But I felt eyes on me all the same.
I’m fine in here. I didn’t want someone following me everywhere, judging everything I did.
My head thumped, so full of things I could’ve done better, ways I might’ve avoided this situation. But I didn’t have any way to battle that. So I finished my cereal and curled under my blanket to binge-watch the series I’d missed while at the academy.
Lyall wandered off after a few hours, but I wasn’t sure when. I wasn’t paying that much attention, even to the programme.
Finn was the first to finish his shift. He looked at me and shook his head. ‘You been there all day? Again?’
I shrugged. I had nothing better to do. I was back to lounging on the sofa and waiting. Before I’d waited for enough money to go to uni. Now I was waiting on people I didn’t know to investigate me. And I had no way to influence them from a flat in the middle of Edinburgh, surrounded by humans.
Finn tutted. ‘We’re going out. Put on something decent.’
‘Where?’
‘I don’t know yet. Get ready so I can make plans.’
I snuggled further into my covers, but Finn wrenched them away from me. ‘Now, Bee.’
I groaned and dragged my feet into my room. Normally I’d have told him where to go. But the flat, lovely as it was, felt claustrophobic.
Leggings swapped out for jeans, I met Finn in the living room.
He smiled. ‘First time you’ve listened to my advice.’
I huffed but didn’t argue.
* * *
A hot chocolate identical to the one from Finn’s selfies warmed my hand, his treat. And now he was trying out his fifth scarf and silly hat. I snorted despite myself. He was great at cheering people up.
Job done, Finn unwound the scarf and put them back on the stall. ‘What do you want to do next?’
I turned in a big circle. Stalls were everywhere, but I didn’t want to spend anymore, when I didn’t ken if I’d get any more money from the academy or if I’d have to get a new job. But I didn’t want to go back to the flat yet, either. The market air smelled like candyfloss, and the night was lit with Christmas lights, fairground rides, and people battling the crowds on their phones. All so much more attractive than a quiet flat.
‘How about the ice rink?’ Dancing put things in perspective. Ice skating might be the next best thing.
Finn looked at the stars, grinning. ‘Perfect!’ He slung his arm around my waist and drew me through the crowds for the five-minute walk to the looped ice rink.
So
me kids were out, doing their best to stay upright with wee penguin helpers, but most the young ones were in bed by now. The crowd was a mixture of people clinging to the walls and those doing tricks and spins or lapping everyone at top speed.
Finn pointed to the kiosk. ‘Skates hire is over there. What’s your size? Seven?’
‘Good memory.’
‘Wait here. I won’t be a minute.’
He hurried through the crowd before I could tell him I’d pay for myself. Smiling, I shook my head. How had I never spent more time with Finn before?
‘Bianca?’ A man’s voice, quiet.
There. Behind me. I spotted Justin in the dark beyond the lights. I hurried over, the grass crunching beneath my feet. ‘Is everything okay?’ He was alone, but I’d thought the WMCF worked in pairs for guard shifts.
Justin wrung his hands and stared into the lights around the ice rink. ‘I wanted to apologise for the trip here.’
‘You were just doing your job.’
‘No, I should have said something. We’d already researched you. I knew you lived a human life until the academy. You didn’t have any expectations or aims going in.’
If he believed me, why was he so anxious, meeting me in the shadows?
‘How is the investigation going?’ I asked.
Justin buried his hands in his pockets. ‘Not well. McKee and others on the coven are scrutinising everything you did like you’re a criminal mastermind. They’re pushing that agenda so strong, people believe it. And I’m sorry, but someone said Lyall was human.’
‘Shane?’
‘No, someone I work with.’ Justin shook his head. ‘And then Kaylee told them about you collecting DNA…’
I bit my tongue. Aye, I couldn’t expect her to keep that one quiet after all this came out.
‘The coven have announced an inquest.’
‘But they were already looking into me.’
‘Yes, but now they’ll host a hearing, going over the evidence of what you may have done to see if criminal charges apply.’ Justin squeezed my arm. ‘All they’ve found is what you did to help me with the operation. I’ll tell them you were helping me. They’ll have no reason to charge you.’