Deceptive Secrets

by RM Walker

  She looked at Jonas as he turned a page, his eyebrows furrowed together. He was the result of how monstrous people could be. It had been humans who had inflicted the curse on him. Or at least she thought they were human.

  Was she human? She was a witch, and a seer, but was she a human, or was she something different that only appeared humanoid?

  Unsettled with her thoughts she shut her book. “Jonas?”

  He looked up, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “Are we human?”

  Both eyebrows went up, but then he picked up a notepad and pen. She watched the flames flickering in the hearth as she drank her coffee and waited for his response. The notepad appeared in her line of sight, and she thanked him, taking it.

  We are human. But we’re also more than just human.

  At the founding of time we were separate. Fae, elves, kelpies, humans. We lived in the light. The brownies, pixies, imps, vampires, etc lived in the shadows. Demons, giants, trolls, shape-shifters, etc, lived in the dark. Creatures of the light interbred through the ages, until the mix was so thorough that you could no longer tell physically.

  Witches weren’t there at the founding. Witches come from a darker past; the first woman, Lilith, mated with a demon, and witches were the result. You are human with witch blood. You are you.

  “You make it sound like witches are evil.” Her mother thought they were.

  He took the paper, and she watched him write his reply until he handed it back.

  Not evil. Just different sources of magic. Fae can be evil, witches can be evil. Fae can be good, witches can be good. It’s not what you’ve got that matters, it’s how you use it.

  She laughed, smiling at him. A trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth reminded her why they were there.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “For everything.”

  He took the pen and paper back.

  This isn’t you. It never was.

  She tried to smile but failed.

  He patted her hand and went back to his book.

  She looked at the tall stack of books he was working through, and then her own pile. It seemed never ending; hopelessness washed over her before she pushed it away and opened a new book.

  THE BOYS LEFT JUST after nine. Matt was dropping the twins at their dad’s garage, and then he and Nate were going to get Matt’s things from the manor.

  Jonas went to his bed after they left. He’d stayed with her all night, but the strain was showing. She could only imagine the pain he was in. She was sleepy herself, but with only two of them looking now, she had no choice but to keep going.

  Drew had remained, and they’d eaten the leftover pizza for lunch. She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she went through book after book. Every time she got to what she thought was the last book, Drew would disappear upstairs and come back with an armful. But the words were jumbling together, and she sank back against the sofa, closing her eyes. She’d take a few minutes and then carry on.

  Her book was taken, and her eyes flew open. Drew was standing in front of her, marking the page with a bit of tissue before closing it.

  “C’mon, lie down,” he prompted her.

  “I’m fine,” she protested.

  He raised his eyebrows at her. “You’re the only one of us who hasn’t slept yet.”

  “I was out for the count yesterday,” she reminded him.

  “You’re going to miss something. You’re not any help falling asleep and drooling on books that cost more than this house.”

  “You’re joking?” She eyed him in disbelief. “More than this house?”

  “Some of them, yes. So, do as you’re told, brat.”

  She started to reply and ended up yawning. Giving in, she lay down and watched as he nodded in satisfaction. He covered her with the blanket from the back of the sofa and went back to the desk.

  She intended to rest for a few minutes, but her eyes closed, and she slid into sleep.

  “FOUND IT! WE CAN DO this!”

  Lily shot upright, woken from a dream of playing tennis with a dragon.

  The door banged open, and Jonas came in, tugging a dressing-gown around his pyjamas, Mysty hot on his heels.

  “I’ve got it, Jonas. We can do this.” Drew thrust a stack of papers at him. “I’ve got what we need in the box Lily brought over. The only thing we need is the name of the caster and the spell he used.”

  Jonas slumped, and his eyes closed in defeat.

  “You don’t know it, do you?”

  They sank onto the chairs either side of the fire.

  “Bugger, bugger, bugger!” Drew slapped his hands on the arms of the chair.

  “Don’t you remember who did it?” Lily stumbled to her feet, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders.

  “He was probably hidden from Jonas.” Drew sighed.

  The front door slammed shut, and then Nate and Matt came into the room.

  “Hey, babe.” Matt hugged her. “How’s it going?” He stepped back and Nate hugged her briefly.

  “We have everything we need except for a name.” Drew looked up, his expression intent.

  “How do we get the name?” she asked.

  “We don’t. I do,” he replied. “I still know quite a few people who can help me.”

  Jonas shook his head, grabbed the pad and wrote quickly. Blood trickled from his mouth, and he fell back into the chair, groaning in agony as the pad slipped from his fingers.

  “Only two.” Drew threw the pad onto the coffee table and thrust his hands into his hair.

  “What does that mean?” Nate asked.

  “It means there’s only two who know: the caster, and whoever wanted the curse put on him.”

  “If the Council works as a unit, then more than one of them knew Jonas was here, or that they sent him. It wasn’t just one person who made that decision, was it?”

  “It all depends on why he came here. Why they sent him.” He looked over at Jonas. “Can’t you just live without a tongue?”

  “Dad!”

  “Joking, joking, bad taste, but just joking.”

  “Very bad taste,” Nate snapped.

  “Well. I can think of one answer.” Drew got up and began putting the books back on shelves.

  “What?” Lily moved to help him.

  “You transfer from here to Glastonbury College, come live with me, and we leave this lot to their own fate.”

  “That is also in bad taste.” She glared at him.

  “Maybe in bad taste, but it’s the only sane thing to do.”

  “We can’t leave him like that. There must be something we can do. I won’t just sit back and accept defeat at the first hurdle!” Her stomach clenched at his apparent ease in letting Jonas suffer.

  He turned to her. “I can rip the spell from him, Matt can heal him. We’ll have an hour tops to hear everything he has to say, pack up, and get the hell out of dodge. Because that’s how long it will take them to send someone down here to find out why the curse was removed. They’re already watching this area because of us.” He was almost nose to nose with her, anger sparking his eyes to a liquid black. “I don’t care what happens to your little harem over there, but I do care what happens to you and me. One whiff of what you are, one tiny inclination you’re more than what they think you are, and—”

  He was shoved away from her and she found herself facing Nate and Matt’s backs.

  “Get out of her face,” Nate roared.

  “You want her dead? They’ll take you lot, but they’ll kill her instantly.”

  “Why?” Lily peered around Nate’s arm.

  “Because you are a witch seer.” Drew sighed, sinking onto the chair, looking defeated.

  “Why kill her? Why not use her?” Matt demanded.

  “Because the current witch seer is a first-class bitch who won’t give up her position until her bones have rotted around her.” He put his head in his hands, elbows on the desk.

  “Position? You mean in the Council?” Lily slid
between them.

  “Your role is to take her place. You’d have learnt at her knee and when she passed through the veil, you’d take the seat.”

  “But I don’t want it. I don’t want to sit on any seat or have anything to do with this Council.” That was one thing she was certain of.

  “Destiny doesn’t give a fuck who it shafts, Lily. It was another reason I let Lynda carry on drugging you. If it had become obvious earlier what you were, there would have been nothing I could have done.”

  “But you told me you didn’t think I was a seer.”

  “I was hoping you weren’t. I was desperately hoping it had skipped a few generations.”

  “Skipped a few generations?” Nate asked. “What do you mean?”

  “It runs in the family,” he said bitterly.

  “So—” Lily stopped as it slotted together in her head. “This woman, this witch seer, the one on the Council? She’s my relation somehow? I’m related to her?”

  “She’s your great-grandmother. Damn it, Lily, I didn’t want you to find out like this. I wanted to tell you when we were home, where I could explain it all, break it to you gently.”

  “Break what to me gently? That I have a great-gran that wants to kill me?” She threw her hands out sideways, this was unbelievable.

  “She would if she knew what you are. She’d kill you even if you weren’t a witch seer. It didn’t stop her from killing Sarah.”

  “What? What are you saying?” Surely it wasn’t what it sounded like.

  “She killed Sarah. Or rather she had one of her minions kill her.” He stood up and faced her. “Your grand-dad, Sarah’s dad, came from magic. His brother, mother and father were witches, but he had no magic. He was forgotten, passed over in favour of his brother, and it made him hate magic. It was something he could never compete with. He married a girl from a similar position as his, united by their hatred in magic. Sarah never knew anything about the Council until after I was recruited. I don’t think Rose knew, or if she did, she never told Sarah. No one seems to know about the Council unless for some reason the Council wants to be known. For us it was coincidence, or maybe karma, who knows. But when I needed a job, it was the Council I ended up working for.” He held her gaze, putting his hands on her shoulders.

  “I told you before, you can’t walk away with a pension and a pat on the back. You’re in it till you die. They weren’t letting me go, and they used Sarah to keep me. If I stayed, like a good boy, Sarah would be safe. But she refused to give into blackmail. We’d never be able to stay together with the way the job was making me, so we worked out a plan. We’d make it look as if she was leaving me. When she was close to having you she left, told Lynda she couldn’t live with me anymore. I took the place apart, I killed everyone above me in my division and then walked away. I assumed it was enough to tell the Council to let me go. I was wrong. Sarah took you to Lynda with instructions to keep you hidden before coming to me. We were going to finish it once and for all. She didn’t make it.”

  “They killed her?” Nate demanded.

  Lily knew the answer, and it lit a spark of anger deep inside.

  “I could never prove it, but I knew. They bound me. Lynda was called before the Council. She testified exactly what Sarah had told her about us. It was lies, but we never got the chance to tell her.” He tried to smile and failed. “She told them you showed no signs of any magical abilities. They knew in your family it wasn’t passed to every child, so they let her leave with you.”

  “Bloody hell.” It washed over her like a tide of stinking mud.

  “Yeah, bloody hell,” Drew drawled. “So, if your teacher insists on keeping his tongue, my best option is to take Lily away from here.”

  “No.” Lily stepped back from him. “I’m not leaving. We can’t just run away.”

  “We can, and we are,” he snapped.

  “Well, you can, but I’m not.”

  “You want to get killed?” He threw his hands out to the sides.

  “Of course, I don’t want to get killed,” she snapped. “But I’m not tucking tail and running either. Besides, they’re watching you anyway. Running will only get their suspicions up.”

  “Not if we leave in a dignified manner.”

  “What about Lynda? She won’t just wave goodbye, will she?” Nate pointed out.

  “She’ll make enough stink to alert every, whatever they’re called, in the country.” Lily agreed.

  “Witch hunters,” he snapped, glaring at Nate.

  “Mum won’t let me go off. I’m not just disappearing on her either. Besides, whatever Jonas has to tell us may not be that bad.”

  Drew closed his eyes; his head went back, and he sighed. “You aren’t going to listen to me, are you?”

  “No.”

  “Short of kidnapping you, which is impossible with your four little limpets, is there nothing I can do or say to dissuade you?”

  “No, there isn’t. So, we need to carry on looking. There must be something else we can find in these stupid books that won’t need a name.” She moved towards a stack of books.

  “There is a way,” Drew said grudgingly.

  She whirled around and stared at him. “What?”

  “It’s an Obscurus Arcanum. I’m not sure you’re ready.”

  “You’re not putting her in danger,” Nate said.

  “No, I’m not. He is.” Drew indicated where Jonas was listening, a drawn worried look on his face.

  “No, they are, this Council. They’re the ones who’ve caused all this,” Lily contradicted him.

  Drew shoved his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, you’re right.” He sighed. “They started this long before you were born. And it won’t ever end, until they do.”

  “What are you saying?” Matt tilted his head.

  “We can unlock all the secrets Jonas holds. We can find out why he’s here, and it will still have nothing to do with Lily. This, you all here, it’s all coincidence. It’s pure chance. The only reason I’m even standing here is because I need to know if staying around you lot is dangerous for Lily.”

  “Well, staying around here with this lot is the only thing I intend on doing. So, what is this other thing we can try,” Lily snapped. They were going in circles, and it was driving her mad.

  “You’re a seer, with the powers of a witch. I’m a powerful witch. If you use my power, combined with your own, you’ll be able to see what happened. We might be able to figure who it is if you get a really good look at him.”

  “Why can’t you do it?” Nate demanded.

  “Because it’s a form of shadow-self. Jonas has only half a memory, it’s not complete because he was prevented from seeing his curser or hearing the curse. We need to fill in those blanks.”

  “So, I’m time-travelling?” Surely that wasn’t possible even for magic.

  “No, not time-travelling, but your shadow-self needs to be where the original spell took place. Blood and hair from Jonas will be the physical link, magic does the rest.”

  “I still don’t get why you can’t do it,” Nate snapped.

  “Because if I shadow-self in there, I’ll set off every alarm they have, and they’ll be here before we can stand up,” Drew explained. “When someone is cursed, or bound, their magical signature is recorded. It’s like a tripwire, the moment I even came close they’d know.”

  “Why can’t one of us go?” Josh asked, nibbling on his thumbnail.

  “You have magic, but it’s limited to your specific powers and a few tricks. Witches are magic,” Drew replied.

  “Okay, so let’s do it then. There’s no point in hanging around,” she said.

  Drew covered his face and barked out a laugh, stopping as abruptly as he’d started. He dragged his hand down his face. “You’ll do it, even if you don’t know how dangerous it could be?” he demanded. “You’re so impetuous. You’d risk your life for an old man who wouldn’t give you the time of day. For a group of boys who will dump you as soon as they get what they wan
t from you. So naïve, so incredibly naïve,” he shouted.

  Nate shoved him backwards, getting into his face as he shouted at him. Matt joined him, and the noise level rose as Drew defended himself. Jonas got to his feet, shoving his way in, trying to make himself known without talking.

  The whole situation was out of hand, her head began to thump. She was hungry, tired, frustrated and angry with all of them. Didn’t they know they were making things so much worse?

  “Stop!” They didn’t even hear her, let alone listen.

  The twins came barging through the door and united with Nate and Matt. She shouted at them again, but her voice was lost amongst the cacophony of noise.

  She’d seen this before, seen them all arguing, shouting. The terror she’d felt came flooding back.

  “You have to stop!”

  She called up the wind, just enough to whip around them. But nothing happened. She tried again and still nothing happened. Frustrated she tried to call up a ball of fire in her palms but there wasn’t even a spark.

  Focusing hard, she pictured the effects of the wind in her mind, imagined it lifting her hair, swirling around them. Something popped deep inside and the pain was excruciating. It went as quickly as it came, and she fell onto her hands and knees. Blood dripped from her nose and eyes to the floor. A trickle ran down her neck and she lifted a shaky hand to her ears; her fingers came away covered in blood. She needed their help, but they were oblivious to anything but their own anger.

  She tried to get to her feet, but it was too much. Her throat constricted and black, string like, gunk dripped into the spreading pool of blood. She urged, choked, as it stuck in her throat. She coughed, trying to dislodge it, and vomited. Thick, black glutinous strings splattered onto the floor. More followed and she choked as it filled her throat, her nose, blocking her airways. She frantically tugged the strands but there was no end to them.