‘Okay, so I want you to start answering a few questions now, or—’
He cut off as my knees buckled and I collapsed to the floor.
‘Whoa, hey, sorry, are you… okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, attempting to stand, only to find myself instead curling into a ball on the floor. ‘Okay, not entirely fine.’
‘Look, you can’t just—‘
‘—Please. Help me. I’m in danger.’
‘From what? And please don’t say a monster.’
‘I don’t know. I heard a voice. Lots of voices.’
‘A gang attacked you? Is that what all those cuts are from?’
‘I need a place to rest, just for a little while.’
David crouched before me as he came to a decision. ‘Okay. But I’m locking the door to your room.’
He must have carried me, because I found myself in a bedroom I didn’t remember walking to. I lifted my head from the wonderful softness of the pillow to see David stood in the doorway.
‘Thanks. You’re a good person.’
‘Some might say ‘idiot’, but I’ll take ‘good’ for now.’
I smiled and he smiled back. It was a nice smile, open and friendly.
‘I must be mental,’ he said, then lifted a key, waggling it back and forth. ‘One night, then you’re going to tell me the truth. That or I’m taking you on a guided tour of the police station. Right?’
‘Right.’
‘Good. Okay. I left you a glass of water on the side, there.’
‘Thanks, David.’
My eyes closed before the door did, and sleep had its way with me. I heard the key turn in the lock, and then I was gone.
5
I opened my eyes.
I was in the London Coven.
Power rolled around the place in great waves. It coiled and it flowed and it sparked; every colour imaginable strobing endlessly. It was beautiful, intoxicating, and very, very moreish. It would be invisible to most people, but not to someone like me, a Familiar, a thing of the Uncanny.
I spread my arms wide and washed my hands through it, watching as it danced and weaved around my fingers. Few places in the country were as soaked in as high a concentration of magic as this place.
My coven.
It would be too much, for some. Any amateur sorcerer, or lowly creature with a foothold in magic, that walked through the door into this place might find themselves drowning in it, or driven mad. But then very few people ever stepped inside of this place. The coven was not open to visitors, and was protected by layer upon layer of spells from intruders.
Or, at least, it had been.
I looked down at myself. I was naked.
‘This is just a dream,’ I said to myself. I always knew when I was dreaming, and I’d had this dream often enough. It was the day I was created.
‘Familiar, I name you Stella,’ came a voice from behind me. It was Kala’s voice.
‘Why Stella?’ came a second voice, Trin’s
‘It was the name of someone who was kind to me once. Many centuries ago.’
I turned and looked upon them. My witches. My creators.
‘Well?’ said Feal, who had so far remained silent. ‘Can you talk, or did we forget the tongue again?’
‘I can talk,’ I replied. I felt tears prickle my eyes and fought to hold them back. All three of them were dead. But not here. Not in my dreams. Here they’d be able to live forever.
‘You are this coven’s Familiar, from now until your life is taken; do you accept your fate?’ asked Kala.
I nodded. ‘Yes. I suppose I’ve nothing better to do.’
Feal snorted, amused. One of the highlights of any day had been when I’d been able to make her laugh. Now she’d never laugh again. Not really. Not outside of my dreams.
A Familiar is created to serve a coven. Most witches don’t like to step beyond their home too much, especially when their home is as heavily protected as this one. So they use their Familiar, created by them for them, to step out into the world and do their leg-work.
I fetched. I carried. I delivered warnings, and worse. Much worse. Anything my masters asked of me. Most Familiars are not expected to last long. They are sent out into danger, they are not expected to always return. But I had, for sixty years, served them happily. But now… a Familiar was not meant to outlast its masters.
I felt the anger rise in me again and clenched my fists. I would get whoever did this to me. Whoever it was that murdered my coven. I would track them down, and I would make them scream in pain.
‘She looks angry,’ said Trin.
‘Can you blame her?’ replied Feal. ‘After what she let happen?’
That caught my attention, snapping me out of my anger, ‘What? What are you talking about?’
‘What are you talking about?’ repeated Kala, mocking me.
‘It’s your fault—’
‘Your fault—’
‘Your fault—-’
They stepped towards me slowly, making me back up until I was pressed against the wall. Without thinking, I drew in additional magic from the air, ready to defend myself. The witches stopped and watched as the wash of power in the room began to flow towards me.
‘I-I...’ I bit my lip, trying to calm myself so the magic would stop lapping towards me.
‘You think you can attack us?’
‘She means us further harm yet.’
‘No! I’m your Familiar! That’s who I am, that’s all I am; I would never do anything to hurt you! Not any of you, you know that!’
‘You know that—’
‘You know that—’
Mocking me again, but wait…
‘What did you say?’ I asked.
‘It’s your fault we’re dead, Familiar.’
‘Your fault—’
‘Your fault—’
Their voices…
It was only now I was noticing, or perhaps only now I was being allowed to notice…
The witches spoke, but not with their own voices. Each word came out as though a different person spoke it, just like the voice I’d heard in the blind alley outside.
Another trick.
‘I’m not a big fan of people attacking me in my dreams. Especially not when they use the bodies of my masters to do it!’
‘Oh—’
‘She catches on—’
‘Took her long enough.’
I drew the magic toward myself, spoke the words, and threw an orb of energy that turned the three fake witches to ash.
Breathing heavily, trying to ignore the guilt gnawing at me, telling me that I’d just burned up my own coven despite what I knew, I stepped forward. I poked at the ash with the toe of one boot.
‘Come on, you coward, show yourself.’
Silence.
Would it be as easy as that? Well, it was my dream after all; maybe it was giving me this simple victory. Building my confidence and—
—a scream as a hand burst from the ashes and gripped my ankle. I yelled out in shock despite myself, and tried to pull away, but the hand, alabaster white with yellow, ragged fingernails that dug into my skin, held fast.
‘Get off me!’
I crouched and tried to prise the fingers free. They felt like ice. A second hand burst from the ashes, then a third, and a fourth, they were pulling me down!
I tried to raise my hands to form a spell, but more hands shot from the floor like vipers and gripped me, pulling me down into the floor itself.
It was just a dream.
Just a dream, that’s all it was.
I tried to calm myself by repeating that over and over. This was just a dream. A nightmare. It didn’t matter what happened to me here, I would wake up in Detective David Tyler’s spare room any moment, covered in sweat, breathing heavily, but alive.
‘Are you sure of that, Stella Familiar?’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Sure?’
‘Sure?’
The words, spat out
in a hundred different voices, swirled around me, over and over, like a ribbon made of razorblades, and now all that was left of me above the floor, above the ashes, was my head. I closed my mouth to stop myself from breathing in my master’s remains.
‘I’m waiting for you.’
‘I’m waiting.’
‘Waiting’
‘Waiting.’
Any moment now, I would wake up.
I had to.
Any moment.
Any moment…
…now…
I closed my eyes tight as the ashes swallowed me up.
6
‘Um, how did you get out?’
I looked up from the bowl of cereal I was eating and did my best to give a cheery smile.
‘Morning.’
‘You haven’t broken my door, have you? That’s a nice door, I like that door.’
‘Sorry. Had a bit of a bad dream.’
‘Were you naked? I’m always naked in my nightmares.’
‘Very naked.’
David sat down opposite me.
‘Tell me more.’
‘Then my masters tried to attack me, I killed them with magic, and was dragged down into the floor by twenty or thirty arms that burst up out of their ashes.’
David nodded slowly. ‘Well. Okay.’
‘Then I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to make myself useful. There’s coffee in the pot if you’re thirsty.’
David narrowed his eyes then went to investigate, pouring himself a cup.
‘Careful, I like it strong.’
‘Me too,’ he replied, taking a sip, then coughing slightly, eyes watering. ‘P-perfect.’
‘Thanks for letting me stay. Not every man would allow a woman who had broken into his home to sleep over.’
‘Well, I’m not every man. In fact, if my ex-girlfriend is right, I’m barely a man at all.’
I snorted. He was funny as well as kind. David took his place opposite me again, raising the cup of coffee to his lips, then thinking better of it and placing it on the table.
‘Well, thank you, I appreciate it.’
‘So… my door? Did you pick the lock, or…?’
‘Oh, I just used a simple trick to open it. Apprentice-level magic. It’s the kind of thing you learn on day one.’
David did his slow nod again. ‘I see.’
‘Do you?’
‘Almost definitely not.’
‘Oh.’
‘Magic?’
‘Magic.’
‘And by ‘magic’, you obviously mean…?’
‘Magic.’
‘Magic?’
‘Yep.’
‘Got it.’
More slow nodding, this time combined with a look in his eyes that said, ‘Careful, crazy ahead.’ For some reason it felt right to fill him in on my world. Like I owed it to him. Like by sharing with him it would make me feel less alone.
‘Look, Officer David Tyler—’
‘—Just David will do—’
‘—David, I know you’re not of the Uncanny. To you London is just another place, full of people, and buildings, and noise, and fried chicken shops, and everything can be explained. But what if I were to tell you that everything you knew about London, about the entire world in fact, was wrong?’
‘I’d say you and my ex would get on like a house on fire.’
I stopped and stared into his eyes, unblinking. ‘I’m being serious, David.’
He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms. ‘No, you’re being a nut case, and if you’re going to continue being a nut case, I’m going to have to take you down to the station for further questioning. I may be nice, but I’m not that nice.’
I stood sharply, my chair toppling to the floor. David rose, one hand out in a calming gesture, the other reaching to his pocket. I wondered what he had in there. Some sort of spray, or maybe one of those extendable batons?
‘I’m not going to hurt you, David.’
‘Good, getting hurt is one of my least favourite parts of the job.’
‘I’m not going to hurt you, I’m going to show you. Show you that I’m telling the truth.’
David’s hand retreated from whatever he had stashed in his pocket. Good. He gave me a place to sleep things off, the last thing I wanted to do was put him down on his arse.
‘Okay, you’re going to show me that magic is real?’
I nodded.
‘How? I’m afraid I don’t have a pack of cards to hand and you don’t have a hat to pull a bunny from.’
I snorted and shook my head. ‘You normals, you see only one, thin slice of reality. You’re looking at the world through a crack in a door.’
‘Okay, did you or did you not damage my door?’
The background magic of David’s house washed around me, but I didn’t need to draw on it for this little demonstration. My own natural power would be more than enough to turn his head.
‘Well? Let’s see this ‘magic’ then. Unless you’re talking out of your bum because you’re insane.’
‘Detective David Tyler?’
‘Yes?’
The ancient words ran through my head as I reached out one hand and pushed them towards him. ‘Shhh.’
I watched, amused, as David waited for something to happen, for the fireworks to begin. Perhaps disappointed, perhaps satisfied that I’d been lying all along, he smiled and opened his mouth to say something…
…only no words came out.
‘It’s no use trying,’ I said, as David’s eyes opened so wide it seemed like they were in danger of falling out. He gripped his throat, pulled at his tongue, walked around in a little circle of panic, all the time trying and failing to speak.
Finally he stopped and turned to me, mouthing some words, wide and slow.
‘”What have I done?” I cast a spell on you. Just a little one. It’s called the spell of silence and robs anyone it’s cast upon of their voice for a short time. Or until the spell is reversed.’
I pictured the words in my head once again, but this time reversed them, before reaching out to him: ‘Speak.’
‘—uck is going on? I…! Wait… I can talk! Hello? Hello? This is David.’ He looked up at me, relieved beyond belief. ‘I can talk!’
‘Yes, congratulations, you’re neck and neck with a two-year-old.’
He stopped rubbing at his throat and the relief began to drain from him as a horrible reality dawned.
‘That was… was that…?’
‘Magic?’
‘Yeah. That was magic, wasn’t it? I mean, sort of, magic-magic. David Blaine, but not tricksy bullshit.’
‘Your face has gone very pale.’
‘I’m just going to sit down and tremble for a moment or two, if that’s okay?’
‘Okay.’
David sat down, placed his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. ‘This is insane. This is completely insane...’
‘Would you like to see more?’
David looked to me, eyes wide, and shrugged. ‘Can’t hurt. Unless it can, in which case… still yes.’
I smiled and prepared myself to blow his mind.
7
‘Is that… that’s me!’
David hopped up onto his feet and backed up a little, staring with a mixture of confusion and wonder at the replica of him I’d just made appear between us. This David, this simulacrum of David, glimmered with colour, magical sparks popping and fizzing around it. It wasn’t solid, it wouldn’t fool anyone that it was the real thing. This conjured David was see-through, like a ghost. It took more power than I knew how to cope with to create a true double, a double that could replace someone and fool even the closest of friends.
‘Officer David Tyler, meet Officer David Tyler.’
The copy smiled and waved to him, ‘Hey there.’
‘Okay. Okay, that is very disturbing. Also, I am at least an inch taller than that, and my shoulders are a lot broader.’
‘Afraid not.
’
I passed my hands through the double and he began to break apart, drifting like smoke.
‘Bye, David; good to meet you.’
David waved to his double as it faded from view. ‘You too...’
‘Well?’ I asked. ‘Convinced?’
He looked to me; I knew what he was feeling. Bewildered, excited, terrified, I’d seen the emotions pass over more than a few normals in my time as the London Coven’s Familiar.
‘Stella.’
‘Yes?’
‘What did you put in that coffee?’
I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest.
‘That’s all this is, must be. You put something… something illegal in my coffee and now I’m seeing things. Hallucinating. Tripping off my tits. That’s all there is to it.’
‘Nope.’
‘No?’
‘Definitely not.’
He put his hands on his hips and huffed for a second, searching for what to say next. ‘Well… I’m still getting that coffee tested.’
‘Stop. You know it’s not true. You know what I showed you was real, admit it.’
David’s breathing slowed as he calmed down and took a seat again.
‘Okay.’
‘Okay?’
‘Look, I’m not completely closed-minded. I’m open to the idea of, you know, the supernatural. Aliens. Strange shit. But… look, this is just a lot to wrap my head around this early in the morning, okay?’
I sat opposite him and reached out, placing a hand over his. I thought he might pull away, but his hand remained under mine. ‘You’ve no need to be scared of me, David.’
‘Who said I was scared?’
‘Your hand is trembling.’
‘Okay. Maybe a touch, you know, terrified.’
‘Magic is real. I use it to help people. I suppose you could say I’m the magical equivalent of you.’
‘So, you’re a what? A magic detective? Harry Potter with a badge?’
I smiled, ‘Sort of. I’m the Familiar to a coven of witches.’
Uncanny Kingdom: An Eleven Book Urban Fantasy Collection (Uncanny Kingdom Omnibus 1) Page 6