I turn to face him and hug him, awkwardly, but I hug him. and I cry too.
The fact that I fancy him to bits is secondary now. We have been through something traumatising and heart wrenching and sickening, and we’re okay. I take his hand and sit back, closer to him, but not hugging any more.
“I can’t believe we’re alive. I thought we were dead for sure.”
“I know. Me too, me too. When Layland punched you, I thought that was it.”
“Bastard.”
“Absolutely. But we are alive.”
We are quiet. Just sitting close, holding hands, and I don’t want to break the spell. Is it only Sunday? Did all of this happen since Friday night? It’s crazy.
“Is it only Sunday?” he asks, and I laugh.
“I was just thinking the exact same thing.”
“Weird.”
“So weird.”
I like feeling like we’re on the same wave length; that we have some sort of a connection. I like being with him. But I’m also so scared of the turn my life has taken. “When will I be able to go home?”
He turns to me, touches my cheek. “I don’t know. We’ll call a meeting, with all the species, and try to settle this. Once the rebels back off, and we’re all safe, then you can go home. You might always be a witch, though.”
I smile. “I don’t mind being a witch. It’s how I saved you.”
He takes me in his arms, holding me so tight I feel like I can’t breathe. He pulls back and looks at me, so intensely that I’m blushing. He looks at my mouth, back to my eyes, leans in, I think he’s going to kiss me.
There’s a knock at the door, and he pulls away, jumps up and opens it. Elodie smiles at us, almost apologetically, and I wonder if she knew. “Food’s ready.”
Fletcher holds out his hand for me and I take it. Then he leans in, really slowly, and just kisses me. Just a kiss, just lips, no tongue, just a kiss. And I think I might die.
It’s too quick, too fast and then he’s gone. He’s leading me downstairs, but I touch my mouth as though I can feel the mark he’s left. I wonder if anyone will be able to tell.
I’ve just had my very first kiss.
The food is lovely. Elodie is a cracking cook, and the fact that we’re safe makes us all ravenous. We eat like we haven’t eaten for years, and the mood is light. Even the evil twins are chatting and smiling. Only Griff is quiet. I cannot imagine all the things he’s seen and done – and I don’t need to, I have seen them in my vision. It must take a toll on him. He looks exhausted and tearful.
“Chin up, Griff. It’ll all be okay. We’ll call the meeting, get it all out in the open.”
“What if they already know?”
“We’ll deal with that if we need to. Let’s get some rest today. You need it.”
He nods, but only pushes his food around the plate. The rest of us, we eat. Even Ember and Elodie seem in quite good moods. Coming back to the house and being altogether again is doing us good.
“Ellis, I think we’ll send an email to your parents after food, let them know that you’re well, how the trip is going.”
I nod, mouth full of food and swallow too quickly, so then I’m coughing like an idiot. “Yes, please, that would be great.”
I pretend not to see the evil twins smirking at me. Then I realise I don’t even care. I’m alive. And I saved everyone. And Fletcher kissed me. That’s a pretty good day all around.
We all help to tidy up after food and then Elodie brings her laptop over. “Fletcher, can you get me into the school’s account? Magic hacking confuses me.”
He grins at his mum and rolls his eyes at me, but helps her straightaway. “What shall I write?”
“Let me do it – it needs to sound like a teacher wrote it, not a teenager.”
Fletcher passes it over to her, then turns to me. “Hey, do you want to see your family?”
“You can do that?” Why am I still amazed at what magic can do? Fletcher can fly!
“Yeah. Easy.”
He takes the laptop when his mum has finished and goes online. “It’s like Google maps, but for witches. It’s on Woogle.”
He turns the laptop so I can see.
“So you can’t just spy on anyone – that would be creepy, but because they’re your family, you can look inside the house.”
“That still sounds quite creepy.”
“Yeah – like all technology, I suppose it could be abused. But you just want to see them, not watch them in the shower or anything.”
“Ew! You could do that?”
He nods, laughing. “But you wouldn’t want to. Right?”
I nod but still feel like a creep. “Stay downstairs.” I warn him, laughing, and he does. He zooms in through the window and I freeze. Then I scream. Then Fletcher yells for his mum, louder than I have ever heard – panic evident in his tone.
Elodie comes running and looks at the laptop. She sees what I see and calls out for Ember and Griff. And then everyone comes running, fear on their faces because of the panic on mine.
Peri, Efa and Layland are in my house. My brother and my parents are gagged and bound in dining room chairs. They look unconscious and although I can’t see any injuries or blood, I scream again. The three evil murderers who almost killed us all last night are talking, gesturing, chatting away like this is just another day for them.
I guess it is.
“Griff. We need to get over there. Now.”
“I need to get over there. I need to rescue them. I need to help them.”
I cannot breathe, the panic is stopping me and I think I’m going to pass out. They’re going to kill my parents. They’re going to kill my brother.
I can’t help it, I am crying, blabbering, incoherent, sobbing, and then I almost faint.
Fletcher holds onto me and I grip his t shirt, imploring him to listen to me and help me – to take me to my house so I can help my parents, help my brother, kill a fairy, a vampire and a shifter.
“They’re going to kill my parents. They’re going to kill my brother.”
“They’re not.” Elodie takes my hand. “Ellis, they want us, not your family. This is just a ploy to get us there, and it’s fine, we’ll go there, we’ll give them what they want. We’ll rescue your parents and your brother. They will be fine. They don’t kill humans.”
She is trying to reassure me, but I cannot be calmed down, I won’t listen.
“I’m going. I have to go.”
They realise they won’t talk me out of this and so we quickly make a plan.
17
“WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL. They might have their minions lurking around outside.”
“They probably will. These guys aren’t stupid. They want us dead, and they’re not playing. They are going to be so angry that Ellis outsmarted them earlier. They really weren’t expecting her to do any magic. They won’t be so easy to get rid of this time.”
“But you think my parents are still alive? And Isaac?”
“Definitely. They want us dead, not them.”
“What if they want to punish me for what I did?”
“Ellis, stop worrying. Let’s go.”
“Do we all know what we’re doing?”
Everybody nods and then it begins.
Ellis runs out of the house, chased by Fletcher.
“Wait!”
“I can’t. I need to help my parents.”
“Wait for help. Let me tell my mum.”
They are extra loud, extra argumentative as they get closer to the funeral home. They want it to sound like Ellis has rushed out to rescue her parents without any back up.
She slams into the house, breathless and the real anger and worry she feels causes her to face up to the three of them, without showing any fear. “Let them go!” Sparks fly from her fingertips and the three of them step back.
“Ellis, wait.” Fletcher slows down as he enters the room, trying to take in the scene.
“Any more magic, and it’s over.” Peri says.
They stand facing each other. Peri, Efa and Layland look overjoyed that Ellis has arrived seemingly without back up. Ellis tries to look scared, and Fletcher takes her hand. He whispers, loudly enough for them all to hear: “We should have waited. We shouldn’t have come alone.”
“I had to.”
Peri laughs – those pretty maniacal peals of laughter making Fletcher’s skin crawl. He pulls Ellis’s hand, like he’s trying to lead her away.
“Too late,” Efa says.
“Too late!” Elodie shouts, rushing through the door, with Griff and Ember by her side.
Peri leaps forward, towards Ellis’s family, but Elodie spells her, then the other two.
“This is why you’ve had to fight us in secret, attack us like cowards, because you cannot beat magic. It wins every time.”
Ellis rushes over to her parents and starts to untie them. “Ellis, you can’t. They can’t see you.”
“I need to know they’re okay.”
“They are. Go home with Fletcher. Let us get rid of these guys. Let us bring your parents around and spell them – take away this memory.”
“If you’re taking away the memory, why can’t I stay.”
“Because you’re too strong of a memory. They love you, and you’ll be harder to erase.”
“Ellis, my mum is right. She knows what she’s doing. We’ll go home and watch. Come on.”
She kisses her mum, dad and brother on their cheeks and then takes Fletcher’s hand.
The four of them, Fletcher, Ellis and the twins head back to the house.
“I promise, they’ll be fine.”
“I believe you. I just wanted to see them awake, to know.”
“Ellis. It’s over. They are safe, and so are all of us.”
“Will your mums kill them?”
“I think so. They can’t risk keeping them alive.”
They walk back inside and into the kitchen, almost on a high. Their plan worked perfectly. They all stop, open-mouthed; they can’t be seeing what they are seeing, and their hearts sink as they realise what’s happened.
Peri laughs, and flutters her wings, as though she’s had a shiver of pure pleasure. “Tricked you!”
Ellis looks more confused than the others, her mouth opening and closing, like a fish.
“Shall I explain, lover boy, or do you want to?”
Fletcher nods. “Shifters. Remember, they take human form?”
Ellis closes her eyes as she realises what’s happened. Her parents might be safe, but Elodie, Ember and Griff are at her house killing the wrong people. The three murderers are actually here.
“Loved your little play, by the way, it was quite a hoot watching you run up the road, Fletcher chasing you, the rest of the cronies running after you. How stupid do you think we are? I can’t even...” She shakes her head, trailing off, as though they are all too pathetic for her to even bother with. “So, we picked our least three favourite shifters – well, Layland did. It doesn’t do to get on his bad side, let me tell you – and they shifted into us. It was so much fun!”
She really is maniacal, and the four teenagers are too shocked to speak or fight back or defend themselves.
“So, how long do you think we have before the trio of idiots come back? Shall we kill you quickly, slowly-”
“Quickly – before the accident tries any of her nonsense again.”
“You’re right. I don’t usually like to rush these things, but you’re a slippery bunch. Besides, there will be nothing nicer than leaving the four of you here, dead, for them to find, and being long gone. They won’t even know what’s hit them.”
Again, the laughter. It’s so sick.
“We’ll start with this one.” Peri points at Ellis, and Ellis goes green.
Efa reaches for her knife, pulling it out of her pocket, just as she did before she killed Zeta. She’s just as quick and she slices at Ellis, catching her cheek with the blade, blood pouring from the wound.
At the same time, Fletcher yells, “Go!” and he and the twins launch themselves forward. Each one of them spells one of the adults, and the three of them fall like blocks, Efa’s knife clattering to the floor, blood splattering. But then, just as quickly, they stand up, fury covering their faces. Fletcher and the twins take a step back, confusion making them stumble. “Won’t work,” Peri says in her sing-song voice. “Zeta gave us some protections. You can’t spell us.”
“Fire!” Ellis calls out, and Fletcher nods, throwing out his arms and sending fire at them. The twins join him, Ellis can’t muster the energy, so much blood is pouring from the cut on her face.
It works, thank goodness it works. The three of them curse, and hesitate, but scream as the flames start to lick at their clothes, the heat overpowering them like nothing else could. They run, barrelling past them and running out of the house.
“Bolt the door. Magic it shut.”
“How did they get in?”
“Probably when we left.”
“Vampires need an invite.”
“Peri let her in.”
“Who cares. They’ve gone now. We need to fix Ellis.”
The three of them turn to Ellis, just in time to watch her pass out.
There’s a hammering at the door. “It’s us.”
“Is it though?” Fletcher mutters, trying to jam a pillow under Ellis’s head. “Check, Talia, ask them something.”
“Let us in.”
“We can’t.”
“Why not?” the panic in Elodie’s voice is so real that Fletcher nods at Talia. She has already begun to open the door, recognising her aunt’s voice, and the worry that she feels for her family. Nobody could mimic that.
The three adults rush in and freeze. “What happened?”
It dawns on them all at the same time and Ember swears like a sailor. Elodie doesn’t even tell her off. “Shifters!”
Fletcher nods and Elodie rushes to his side. “How did you-”
He points at Ellis, and Elodie puts her hand on her cheek, tracing the blood back to the cut. “It’s only superficial. She’ll be fine. How did you get them out of here?”
As Fletcher speaks, Elodie tends to Ellis.
“We spelled them, but it didn’t work. Then Ellis reminded us about the fire. They ran away, I’m sorry we didn’t kill them.”
“Shh, don’t say that. I can’t believe they tricked us. We’re so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid. They are clever. There’s a difference.”
Griff takes his phone. “I’m phoning all the council members right now. This is too much.”
Elodie nods and whispers to Ellis to wake up. Slowly she opens her eyes, her hand flying to her cheek, before she remembers her family. “Are they okay? My mum and dad? Isaac?”
Elodie smiles. “All fine. Happy and unaware of anything that happened. We’ve filled them with happiness and love and peace, and they won’t remember a thing. I promise. I can’t say the same for you four. I’m so sorry.”
Ember is holding onto the twins like she won’t ever let them go, and Elodie pulls Fletcher and Ellis towards her.
“I think that’s it; I think we’re safe for tonight. We’ve put protections on your house, Ellis, and with Zeta dead they shouldn’t be able to get through them. Wait, how did they get in here?”
“We think they slipped in when we all left.”
“Layland probably shifted into a rat and ran inside.”
“Then invited the fairy and the vampire in.”
“Do they really have to be invited in, vampires?”
Fletcher nods. “So much of the myths about supernatural creatures are based on fact, but it all gets messed up. Vampires love garlic, for example.”
Ellis laughs. “How will I ever get used to this?”
Fletcher takes her hand. “You will. I’ll help you.”
Ellis
AND I’M MELTING AGAIN. Never mind the fact that I nearly died, that a blade slashed right through my skin, Fletcher holds my hand and I
forget everything. Is that love?
I don’t know.
But I like it.
Elodie, Ember and Griff head into the front room, making plans and strategizing and leaving the four of us alone.
Thea smiles at me. Or is she constipated? I’m not sure.
“You saved our lives tonight. Thank you.”
I shrug like it was nothing, and really it was. I had no idea that I would be so furious that I’d spark up and throw fire around, forcing the three deadly gits to run away. It was a total fluke.
Talia nods. “We’re so grateful. I know we don’t know you...”
She trails off. Ooh this is awkward for her. I love it. I don’t step in to help her, just let her flounder. So the evil twins haven’t really ever done anything to hurt me or force me out of college but they’ve never been nice either.
They are those girls. You know the ones – there was a whole film about them.
I shrug again. Weirdly I don’t actually care if they like me or not, smile at me or not, talk to me or not. This is a change. I was always desperate to be noticed and liked and included, especially after Molly died. Now I feel okay.
Maybe because I have magical powers! Maybe because Fletcher kissed me, even after Sally turned up. Maybe just because I’m alive. Who knows?
“Ow.”
Fletcher, beside me, is inspecting his finger. He holds it up for me to see. “Look, a splinter.”
“Just magic it away.”
He shakes his head. “I need to get the wood out first.”
“I’ll do it – get me a drawing pin.”
He shakes his head again, sucking on his finger. “It hurts.”
“Your jaw is black from bruising but this hurts?” I laugh and he looks offended. I take his hand and look at the splinter. “Drawing pin.” I say again and then Thea passes me one, before leaving the kitchen with her sister, leaving us alone.
“It’s going to hurt.”
“You got punched in the face by a massive werewolf and almost died twice. I think we can cope with a splinter.”
I look at him, our heads are so close, I can feel his breath. I look back at his finger, poke at the skin with the pin. He pulls his hand away, sucking on his finger again.
I grin and take hold of his hand. “You’re being a wuss. Let me.”
The Accidental Witch Page 16