Broken by Magic

by Rebecca Danese

  “What are we going to do?” I say, looking at her for an answer.

  Another rumble from beneath us and a sound that I mistake for thunder at first rips through the air. Only when I see it do I realise that the tarmac has split under our feet. The hospital shakes ominously, and windows shatter in their frames.

  “He’s going to collapse the whole building!” Ella screams, breaking through the front of the crowd and head-on into the human wall.

  “Ella, stop! We have to get out of here!” I call, but it’s no use - she’s already barely a few feet from the police, feet apart, arms by her sides, and when I reach her, I can see that her eyes are lit with concentration. There’s no stopping her now.

  Right in front of what must be hundreds of people—police, TV crews and reporters—Ella sends a surge of energy through her hands and catches a piece of rubble mid-air, allowing it to fall safely to the ground without further damage. In the daylight, I can only just make out the sparks between her fingers and the wave of energy that’s she’s using to hold the walls together. If the building were empty, I’m sure she wouldn’t risk exposure like that, but Nurse Gale and the four children hidden inside need saving, and Ella knows that too.

  The police standing in the way have the common sense to move, and no one tries to stop her, which I’m grateful for.

  Maybe it isn’t obvious to anyone else at first what she’s doing, but within minutes, the muttering from the crowd changes from fear to awe.

  “Is that girl holding the building together?”

  “Oh my God, I think she is!”

  “That’s amazing!”

  “How’s she doing it?”

  I feel a swell of pride right before the reality of what this means for Ella dawns on me. As soon as it’s safe, I have to grab her before anyone else does.

  “She’s an Augur too!” someone yells. “Someone stop her!”

  “But she’s saving the hospital,” another person retorts. Even here, when lives are being saved in front of their eyes, I can’t believe that anyone would complain. I brace myself, ready to pick her up and carry her away if I need to, in case things get out of hand, but I needn’t have worried.

  Just as it sounds like someone is about to kick off, I see the welcome sight of Lou and Jer muscling their way forward, with Marco just behind.

  They stand beside me, facing in every direction to defend Ella. We nod at each other, our expressions serious as the onslaught of cries both for and against Augur powers get louder.

  “Are they serious right now?” I hear Lou mutter.

  “I’m not sure we’re going to be safe for long. Ella, any chance you can wrap this up?” Jer asks.

  “Kind... of... tied... up right now,” Ella manages through gritted teeth. I’ve never seen her eyes go white before, but I suppose the last time she had to generate this much power, she was on the other side of Westminster to me. This isn’t like then. We had a whole power cut and anonymity on our side. Right here and now, with TV cameras almost in our faces, we’re completely screwed.

  “What’s your bright idea to get us out of here?” Marco asks me quietly as Ella grunts with the strain when another tremor vibrates through us.

  “Can someone sedate that Kai bloke already?!” Lou shouts, although I don’t suppose Miss Banks or anyone else can hear her from the other side of the building.

  “Still working on a plan,” I say to Marco, hoping that I’ll come up with something soon.

  “Don’t tell me to keep it down, it’s bloody Augurs who did this in the first place. Someone should arrest them!” A voice comes from the crowd, and all of us move closer together instinctively. And so do the police.

  But rather than step towards us in an attempt to stop what we’re doing, they turn their backs on us and face the crowd, forming a small semi-circle around our group and fending off any idiot who tries to come near.

  “This is unreal,” Jer says under his breath. I nod in agreement. It’s not every day that you get police protection when trying to stop a building from collapsing using magic.

  “I think it’s stopped,” Ella says, lowering her hands slowly and waiting to see if anything happens. She’s right though. We wait, holding a collective breath to see if anything else decides to fall apart, combust or tear open. When it seems like the coast is finally clear, she sways, and I catch her before she falls on the floor altogether. “You okay?” I ask, concerned.

  “Yeah,” she says, smiling weakly. “Just took a lot out of me.” I tuck her under my arm for support, but I can feel her gently shaking beside me.

  Although there’s a scatter of cheers from the spectators, I know we won’t be patted on the back by many, and now is the time to get away.

  “How’s that plan coming along?” Marco asks me.

  “Er, about that...”

  I’m interrupted by the now familiar disembodied voice who takes the opportunity to pop up out of nowhere as usual.

  “I’ll get you out of here. Everyone grab hold of Curtis!”

  “What? Who’s that?” Marco spins around. Lou and Jer look similarly confused.

  “Is this the invisible person you were telling me about?” Ella asks.

  “Yep, and I think we should do as they say.” I hold out a free hand, the other gripping Ella firmly to keep her upright, and my friends take hold of my arm gingerly.

  “This is weird,” Lou mutters, but before she can comment further, I notice that my feet are rapidly disappearing, as are everyone else’s.

  An outraged cry from some Augurist in the crowd rises above the noise around us. “They’re getting away! Disappearing using Augur magic!”

  “What the—” Jer starts to say as his arms and legs vanish, but is gone before he can finish. The place where his hand was feels cold and strange, and as Lou and Marco go, I see that my arms are almost gone too. The police that are protecting us from the mob only begin to notice when it’s too late, and one of them turns around to grab Ella just as she disappears. Finally, the tingling feeling reaches my body, just in time for me to catch the two pairs of eyes in the crowd, one in sad shock, the other in irate fury.

  I open my mouth to say sorry, to tell my parents that I never wanted to abandon them, anything to appease them, but Mum just nods. Dad looks at me one final time before turning away in disgust, and I get the feeling it might be the last time I see him, right before I completely disappear.

  CHAPTER 12

  When I can finally see, the space around me is dark. The image of my parents’ faces is still imprinted in my mind. I struggle to work out how long I’ve been asleep or unconscious. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and when I fish it out, I see an unknown number and the time, which suggests that I’ve been out for the count for a couple of hours. I’m not about to take a call from a mystery number, so I mute it and shove my phone back into my pocket, wondering what the hell I'm going to do about leaving my parents again. That, and the fact that my dad now completely knows that Ella is an Augur and that I’ve chosen her over him. I groan at the impossibility of it all and move my attention to my surroundings. All I know for sure is that I’m lying down, and I’m cold, and when I reach round, my hand makes contact with another person.

  “Curtis, is that you?” Ella’s voice is muffled but near.

  “It’s me. Can you see anything?”

  “It’s practically pitch black.”

  “Guys, I’m looking for a light switch,” Lou says, and I hear her shuffling around, her hands running over the walls until she makes a little ‘aha’ noise and flicks it on. I’m momentarily dazzled, as is everyone else.

  Not just because of the light, but by the sheer opulence of the room.

  Heavy velvet curtains hang across one side, most likely concealing a window and blocking out all the natural light. Marco is sprawled out in an armchair, shielding his eyes from the brightness. Jer lies on a settee, and Ella and I have been lying on a pile of cushions on the floor, it seems.

  Ornately framed paintings hang
on the walls, and above us the light spills from a chandelier. It looks a bit like one of those posh houses my parents used to drag me around to when I was little, with names like ‘Heathfield Manor’ and ‘Windsor Palace’ or something. The kind of place that they might say royalty lives in. Beryl’s manor, by comparison, seems like a cottage.

  “I hope Beryl and David got out okay,” I say to no one in particular.

  “They’re both old enough to have been around the block a few times. I’m sure they’ll be fine,” says Jer.

  “Which is more than I can say for us,” Marco says, rubbing his eyes. “Where the hell are we, anyway?”

  I don’t want to be the one to mention it, but Ella beats me to it anyway.

  “It looks like somewhere the Duke might live,” she says quietly, propping herself up on her bed of cushions.

  “Unfortunately, I agree with you,” I say, getting up and looking around. The expensive patterned wallpaper, the little pointless table with a vase of flowers near the window, even the antique paintings depicting upper-class men riding through forests with their hunting hounds or standing against picturesque backdrops all stink of a wealth that only one person I know possesses.

  “But who was the invisible saviour who teleported us here?” Marco asks as he joins me by a painting of a particularly pompous-looking bloke holding a sword.

  “I’ve been trying to work that out. They helped me turn off the power in the hospital and nearly gave me a heart attack when I thought a cat was talking to me earlier. Jer, any traces of magic you recognise?”

  “Yes and no. It’s like a familiar smell that I can’t quite place, for want of a better explanation. There was so much Augur activity going on in and around the hospital I was starting to get confused, but this one was definitely something I’ve sensed before.” His eyes glaze over for a moment, I suppose trying to put a finger on it, but he quickly shakes his head. “Nope, sorry. I’ve no clue. I do think the voice was a woman’s though, don’t you?”

  I hadn’t actually thought that far, but now that I think about it, yes, she did sound female.

  I nod, as does everyone else. “More importantly, I think the obvious question is, is the door locked?”

  Lou is the nearest and tries the handle, which clicks and reveals a dark corridor beyond. “Not that it would have mattered if it was,” says Marco, who could have gotten us all out of there without too much difficulty.

  “What do you say, explore the creepy posh house or try to escape?” Lou asks. I step over to the window and pull back the heavy drape to reveal blackness beyond. When I try the window, it’s stuck fast.

  “I can get us out if you want,” Marco says, coming over to look out into the darkness. He puts his head through the window and looks down, quickly pulling it back in. “Blimey. It’s freezing out there, and we’re about four storeys up. Maybe we should try the front door instead?”

  “Creepy house it is,” Lou says, holding the door open and marching out with Jer just behind her. Ella looks at me and shrugs, with Marco and I holding up the rear.

  The corridor stretches out before us, lit only by sconces at long intervals, leaving long shadows between each one. The thick-pile carpet absorbs the sound of our feet, and other than our own movement, I strain to hear any other noise in the building. Lou tries the occasional door and finds none of them to be locked but each one uninhabited, all furnished in the same style as the living room we came from. When I look back, it seems like it was the furthest room from the rest of the house, as if whoever put us there wanted us as far away from anyone else as possible. Eventually we reach a staircase that spirals downwards, the banister overlooking a marble floor far below.

  “I’m guessing we go all the way down?” Lou whispers, her voice practically echoing in the silence. We nod and take the stairs with caution, finding more corridors leading off at each landing.

  “This place must be five storeys high,” Ella mutters under her breath.

  “Yeah, but it must be somewhere well hidden to be that big. Where do you think we are?”

  “Judging by the darkness outside, somewhere not in London.”

  “Catching a bus home is probably out of the question then,” I joke before being shushed as we reach the first-floor landing. Music drifts up from downstairs, and we stop at the top of the staircase, looking at each other for guidance.

  “There’s someone down there,” Jer murmurs, “and they’re using magic.”

  “The invisible person?” I ask.

  “Seems like it.”

  “Off you go then, Curtis,” Lou says almost too cheerily.

  “Why me?”

  “You’re the one she contacted, right? So, you should be the one to find out whether we’re in any immediate danger,” she replies, folding her arms.

  I look to Marco for help, but he doesn’t seem to be able to look me in the eye, and Ella, still pale and a little washed out, isn’t about to volunteer, so I turn and descend the final few steps, thinking in amusement that of all the Augurs in the house, it’s the Normal who has to get things done.

  At the bottom of the grand staircase is an entrance hall the size of the entire ground floor of my house. House plants the size of trees stand in pots and drape tastefully over surfaces, and creepers wrap themselves around the picture frames. Marble columns frame the front door, and several pairs of boots and shoes have been kicked off beside it. Due to the size of the place, I would say that the ground floor is more lived in than the rest, and whoever occupies the house is probably not making much use of the rest of it. Doors to the left and right of the hall show a sort of study or library on one side and a sitting room on the other, but it’s the door at the far end tucked behind the staircase that the music drifts from.

  Delicious smells waft out, and my stomach grumbles in response.

  As quietly as I can, my trainers muffled on the marble floor, I tiptoe into an expansive kitchen. The plant theme continues here, with what I’m guessing are herbs lined up on the window sills and dotted around the room. The music comes from a television set where a classical concert is being blared out across the room. A large dining table with heavy wooden chairs around it sits in a place of pride on the right, with magazines strewn across the surface, giving the whole space a homely, lived-in feel that is severely lacking from the rest of the house.

  I wonder whether I should call out and ask if anyone is there, but when a saucepan lifts itself off the stove and over to the sink I realise I’m not alone.

  “Ah, Curtis. I wondered when you would be up. Are your friends awake?”

  The voice is, now that I actually listen, definitely a woman’s, and this Augur seems to spend her entire time being invisible, which is odd.

  “Er, yeah. They’re just upstairs. Sorry, but who are you exactly?” I ask the space by the kitchen sink. I feel like maybe it’s a bit abrupt, but then, what choice do I have when four other people are waiting for me to tell them the coast is clear, and I’m talking to a disembodied voice?

  “Yes, right,” she says, sounding a little flustered. Water from the pot is emptied, and a steaming colander of pasta moves over to a counter where a stack of plates sit, following which another pot is attended to and makes its way over to the serving area. If it’s one person doing all this, I’m impressed. “You can call me Tilly, how’s that? Hm? And your friends can come in and have some dinner. I promise I won’t bite.”

  I look somewhere in her direction dubiously before going back into the hall and calling the others down.

  “Tilly says she won’t bite and that we can eat something, which smells amazing by the way.”

  “Tilly is it now? And how can we trust her?” Jer asks.

  “I don’t know if we can, but she got us out of a tight spot, and she’s invisible, so there isn’t much we can do about it right now.”

  “Well, I’m starving, so let’s get on with it, shall we?” Marco says, ploughing through our little group and into the kitchen.

  “Are you
okay?” I ask Ella, hanging back a little.

  “Yeah, I think so. Better for having slept but not one hundred percent if I’m honest,” she admits. I wrap an arm around her and kiss the top of her head.

  “Maybe you just need some food,” I suggest, and escort her into the warmth of the kitchen.

  “Welcome, welcome. Please have a seat at the table, and I’ll bring you something to eat,” Tilly says cheerily, as if talking to her might be the most normal thing in the world.

  “Thank you,” we each murmur, glancing at each other nervously.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve had to host anyone, so please excuse the mess,” she continues, either ignoring or not noticing that her guests are very quiet. “I’m afraid I haven’t had to transport so many people in such quick succession either, so you all had to sleep off the effects for longer than I expected. Normally, half an hour does it. You must be very hungry.”

  Plates float over from the counter followed by the pasta, sauce, bread and a huge salad bowl. There’s probably enough food to feed a small army, but none of us are complaining.

  “Help yourselves, and I’ll fix you all something to drink. You must have a lot to discuss after everything that happened today.”

  If I could see her expression, it would go a long way to help in me figure out if we could trust her. That remark could be innocent, or it could be a way of her getting information from us while we have our guards down. What information? I ask myself. Could she secretly be working for someone who is trying to get to us? The Magic Circle? No, she helped me turn the power off at the hospital. The Duke, maybe? Being paranoid all the time is wearing me out, and I sigh loudly.

  “Everything okay?” Jer asks me as he ladles sauce onto his pasta.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I’m getting a little fed up of my day revolving around eating, sleeping and running for my life. I just need to process things.” I grab a slice of bread and stuff it into my mouth before I can be asked any more questions.