Briefly, as she swept her unruly locks back into a ponytail, she remembered how her hair had once caused her so much pain. Hours spent fretting over the ridiculous state of it. Now, most of the time she didn’t dare to look in a mirror for a different reason. For fear of catching sight of the dark shadows underneath her eyes. Worrying about her appearance came so far down on the list it didn’t even register. Her doubts were less introspective these days, the war had a way of focusing thoughts on important matters.
“How much longer till Constello’s man gets here?” Aero asked her dad, finding it hard to keep her fears under wraps.
Shrugging, he replied, “I don’t know, hun. Soon, I hope.” He searched the darkness for signs of their return through the small crack in the curtains of the living room window.
Aero noted he too must have been feeling somewhat despondent. He settled back down onto the chair and let out a heavy sigh. Her eyes flickered momentarily onto the pinboard next to him above the fireplace. Flashing a quick glance, which lingered longer than she intended, she paused as she noticed the gleam of a fresh red pin which had been placed since she last checked. “When did we mark off Devon?” she asked her dad.
“Umm, I’m not sure.”
Aero turned away from him as she made a face which spoke of her frustrations. He knew exactly when it happened but wouldn’t tell her. She recognised a dismissive answer when she heard one.
As she looked at the walls instead of his face, she remembered when this had been their cosy living room. Over the last four months, inch by inch, it had been overhauled and had morphed, with a creeping efficiency, into a working office space.
The room, her home, which had been her first taste of normality and security, had become a headquarters. As her eyes wandered, she tried to look anywhere but the pin board. She tried not to notice that the traces of her home being safe were eroding away. As had the months of her happiness. The space was cloying and claustrophobic. A constant reminder, if any were needed, of how life can turn sour on the whim of a pin.
Aero sighed. The biggest and most unnerving change, the pinboard seemed to glint at her from the corner of her eye. Every fresh new mark showed another place where Shadow Creatures had been spotted or attacked, each one tracking perilously closer.
It had been a long time since anything felt familiar or safe. In fact, she understood what it was to dodge bullets from all sides and knew first-hand what living inside a war zone did to a person. Living in semi-darkness, with no sun or shadows to mark the passing of time, the room seemed to have a constant sense of gloom that matched their moods.
Umbria, the leader of the Shadow Creatures, a ruler who had the power to get whatever he wanted, was amassing enemy troops. They were on war alert, but war implied defence, where they had none. War implied a battle which was fought on two sides. So far as Aero understood it, from the snippets of overheard conversations and information she shouldn’t know, this was a coup. Freedom was something they used to have. Guards kept vigil over their home, day and night, but when Umbria or his troops got here, it would be over.
The year leading up to Aero’s seventeenth birthday had been unremarkable. Her life existed in a place she had thought mirrored her conventional existence. So much had happened since then. Earth was under a targeted invasion.
Most were ignorant and unaware of it, thanks to the work of Arianna, the head of the British Intelligence group MI-S (Military Intelligence-Supernatural). Humans had been led to believe Britain was experiencing freak weather storms. A few choice articles on conspiracy websites and social media had helped to bolster the idea that this was down to global warming and so most thought no more about it.
Arianna Campbell ran the secret agency tasked with domestic supernatural intelligence and counter terrorism. Essentially their remit was to protect Earth from supernatural forces. Most of this work centred around keeping the existence of magic away from the public eye. Largely the job was a grind; monitoring websites and tracking the dark net for signs of activity. On paper these kinds of tasks sounded glamorous and exciting. In reality, intelligence gathering work was, more often than not, monotonous and boring, with endless long nights staking out potential suspects, eating cold burgers, and little thanks or appreciation given for a job well done.
In the past, thanks to her staff, they’d had glimpses of excitement and disappointments. Some of their more interesting and covert work had included a partnership with the Westwoods; specifically the most powerful member of the family, Joanna Westwood.
Their agency had been forced to take on the additional role of hunting down the nefarious group calling themselves The Realworlders. Essentially, these terrorists had discovered the existence of witches and were not afraid to use explosives or other notorious actions to remove them.
The Realworlders, run by the mysterious Megan, whose motives for such actions were unclear, were generally small timers. They didn’t really cause too much difficulty for the MI-S branch, except when innocent humans got in the way. But that was where Joanna Westwood and her unique skills had come in handy.
The relationship worked to their advantage two-fold. Joanna was able to utilise her powers to help eradicate these extremists who, if left unchecked, could have caused all kinds of messy damage, and it allowed them to build up a rapport with Joanna. Their own espionage provided first-hand by a witch herself.
But things in the unit had gone awry. Her own branch head, Maxwell Chambers, had screwed up intelligence. Joanna, well, she had become collateral damage. Arianna had taken an arse-kicking from the home secretary and been lucky to keep her job. Maxwell hadn’t been so fortunate.
A subtle change in the organisation had seen Jason, the then head of the DI (Defence Intelligence) security, move up to take the branch head, under her command. Thankfully things had quietened down since then. Until now.
Squinting back the tears, Aero decided it better to keep the thought to herself that she should have gone with her mother. She hadn’t wanted to disobey her orders, though, and leave her dad defenceless.
Or worse, be accused of being overprotective. It came into her mind rather than magic being her special skill, she was an expert in worrying. Sure, not that long ago it had been all about the stupidest of things, but now her worry was justifiable. Award-winning even.
The invasion had woken her up to a new reality. One in which there was no time for soul searching. The threat of an attack from the Shadow Creatures was always close. An unseen but ever-present gargantuan elephant in the room. So, when she had watched her mother and aunt go out of sight, she had immediately wanted to call them back. Her heart had insisted she should follow.
Too anxious to sit, her legs eager to go out into the night, Aero paced the room. Had her skills allowed, she would have liked to have turned herself into a lion or other similar strong creature. Or, better yet, a peregrine falcon like her mother, then she could have taken to the air and been with them in moments.
Whilst her training had come a long way, thanks to practising with Lilly, she wasn’t ready to fight. Memories of her brush with death had proven to her she would never be ready.
She took a breath between each stride to slow her pace, keep her magic under control, and avoid concerning her dad more than necessary. Aero spent a few seconds watching him before asking, “He’ll get through to us okay, at the border?”
“Yes, your mum and aunt left to get them earlier,” he replied, clearing his throat.
Her dad’s statement pointed out the obvious but seemed to also put a finality on her expressing further anxieties. How could he be so calm?
Aero thought back to when the only concerns she had were the annoyances of homework or coping with bullies. She even found herself missing the routine of school. As her stomach growled with hunger, Aero did her best to distract herself, thinking instead about the bubble which protected them. Ironically, doing magic was one of the few things which took her mind off the situation. She had no choice but to live with the dis
comfort of ignorance. Like a nervous tic, she opened and closed her hand around the glowing sphere of light she could now conjure with ease.
Checkpoints had been set up on the inside of the perimeter of the protective spell. Points at which trusted people could enter if they knew how to. This was how Weaver would get in. She still didn’t know if calling a unicorn a man was offensive or not. They had not had the time to sit and discuss an appropriate list of terms for each other.
The spells they had placed to protect Scholarly Wood were far from indestructible, but, for now, it was all they could do. With help from a few of Constello’s friends, they had managed to add a cloaking spell too. Rather than being a way to make their home invisible, it added a disguise.
The bubbled walls at the entrance to their village provided a mirage of mist. Humans who looked upon it would see only a low-lying pool of fog. It was beautiful, not just because it protected them, but because on the inside the walls refracted like sunlight through soapy suds. Beautiful hues of purple and blue reflected and caught the eye, changing colour depending on the angle. It reminded her of the silvery majesty of the Shadow Realm.
“I don’t like this, Dad. I feel like we’re the bait caught in a trap,” she said softly.
He looked up at her as if noticing her for the first time. His face was calm and quiet, but she saw the flicks of sadness flash across his eyes. “I know, hun, but we’ve just got to keep ourselves safe and hidden until we can fight back.”
Aero plastered on her patient face and took a deep breath. It didn’t seem like they were ever going to be fighting back. There were no plans. They didn’t even know where to start. How do you fight an entity that can literally become anything? Who knew how far these Shadow Creatures had infiltrated? So far, they had heard reports of attacks being solely located to Britain, but why only here, and what was their purpose?
Over the last six months, Constello or one of his men had been making sure detailed reports of the invasion were being fed here. Each time a representative came with updates, they seemed to bring worse news.
42 Cauldon Avenue looked just as warm and inviting but her home had become a wretched place. It remained on the outside as it had a year ago, but time had been less gentle to the world around it. There had been points in her life when Aero could never have imagined anywhere feeling like home, but moving to Scholarly Wood had somehow opened all their hearts to the possibility of something better, leading them all to the opportunities and risks that connecting with others gave. Having lived a solitary and isolated lifestyle up until then because of her dad’s work, this had felt like a second chance.
She’d often wished since that the changes had stopped there, but life was a train which kept on chugging. She didn’t always have a choice about the stations she stopped at. All she could do was to ride the rails the best she could.
One of those stations she’d paid a visit to had been grief. Losing her grandma had been something she would never get over. Then, of course, had been the stop she liked to call ah, so it all makes sense now. This was when she had discovered her heritage, the magical powers that had been bestowed to her.
Being a witch was something Aero felt okay about; after all, it had explained a few things, not least of which was the oddness she had felt with the world. The tricky part of it all had been dealing with the pace and magnitude of the responsibilities which followed. There was no emergency cord labelled ‘pull here if you want to get off’.
Aero remembered when the witch-hunters, the Realworlders, had come after her. Their mission had seemed simple, as well as deadly. It was Umbria who had pulled Aero and her aunt into the Shadow Realm. He had led them to safety. The leader of the Shadow Creatures had transported them to a new dimension, a new world.
The revelations and discoveries had come thick and fast. There they had met Constello, a magnificent night unicorn, and whilst a part of her had thought it all a dream, her aunt had witnessed the unbelievable sights alongside her. The beauty of the Shadow Realm had remained with them long after they had left its moonlit land.
She and her aunt had spent night after night since together, talking about it with Aero’s mother. Describing the lakes of Arcadia, the texture of the grass, the iridescent sands and the unbelievable mythical creatures they had encountered. These conversations proved to reaffirm to each other that the Shadow Realm was a real place and not an illusion. The Realm had seemed like an opportunity, a chance for new exploration and hope. Yet out of this world had spilt malevolence and hatred. An uprising of creatures who could not be fought and who could never be persuaded to stop.
Chapter Five
Cookies and Dreams
The doors to the living room swung open, changing the light in the room as it poured in through the half glass front door. With the heart of an optimist Aero looked up, but the delicate fragrance of Lilly’s perfume hit her even before she had a chance to see the outline of her best friend standing in the doorway. She took care to turn around hurriedly, she didn’t want to risk her friend seeing her face drop and get the wrong idea. The disappointment of it not being her mother returning was no doubt etched on her face.
Lilly took a committed step into the living room and Fred with his longer stride made quick work to follow suit. He leant forward as if to whisper a secret in her ear, before stepping to one side.
Although the living room was a generous size, with the four of them now standing in it, it felt somewhat overwhelming. Fred especially seemed to suck up more of the air than the rest of them. A late growth spurt had seen to the last inches needed to push through six foot and beyond. If they had been in doubt about their adulthood, Fred’s stature alone seemed to dispute the fact.
In a flash, Aero had recovered herself and once more slipped on the mask she felt had become a second skin in recent times. “Lilly, Fred, it’s so wonderful to see you. With everything that’s going on, I feel like I hardly see you these days!”
She tried hard to ignore the voice inside her which laughed at the poor imitation of her mother’s hosting skills.
Fred took a seat on the sofa, sensing the room needed the air back. Despite his tendency to play the joker, Aero had come to admire him, and with every passing day her respect for him intensified. He had a way of pulling them out of their own heads and his infectious energy often seemed to spill over into them all. Lilly handed over the familiar cake tin she was carrying to her, before taking a seat next to Fred. “My mum thought you might like these.”
“That’s so generous of her. Please say thank you from me.” Aero found herself smiling at the thought of the cookies in the tub. Lilly’s mum was always thinking of them. Moving with the efficiency of a sous chef, Aero went through to the kitchen to put them away. In quiet contemplation, she wished she could put down the weight of her worry with them too, but knew relaxation wouldn’t come until her mum and aunt were back home and safe in her arms.
“Perhaps your mum and Louise will like them when they get home?”
Aero knew they would be hungry when they returned. “I’m sure they will, Lilly, your mum makes the best cookies.”
“I take it you haven’t heard anything?” Lilly inquired.
The sound of Xander’s heavy footsteps on the floor seemed to be all the answer they needed. The Westwoods had been living on guard for so long that Aero no longer noticed her dad being on alert every second whilst her mum and aunt were gone. Or how his worry was more profound than if they’d gone on their usual run, which was not without risks on a good day. Neither did she understand that she had been kept inside even more that day, and how her dad’s worry extended beyond the usual which she was aware of.
How his life had become somewhere between half awake and half asleep with anxiety. How his stomach was knotted every day with hunger because he always made sure his daughter ate, he pretended to have already eaten in order to preserve their meagre stocks.
If Aero had noticed all those things, she would have realised how desperate they rea
lly were, and just how deeply his love extended to keep her safe. All she knew was her dad could no longer get work. It was too dangerous for him to leave them. Food was scarce because they had no money, and this was all playing out because the Shadow Creatures had a meticulous sense of evil.
She would also have known about the conversation which had taken place with Arianna a few days before, where she had said, “All we know is these attacks are not random. People were taken, children too. The Shadow Creatures have kidnapped them, targeted them. We don’t know if they’re alive or dead or why even these particular people. We have our theories but nothing more. What we do know is this, they must be getting help from someone.”
The Shadow Creatures were being methodical. They had the power to take over the Earth in one swift move. Aero would have been under no illusions about the ease with which they could take this life from under her nose, and how they hadn’t. Which only served to burden her dad with yet another secret and worry.
If Aero had known these things, perhaps her anger at him would have been tempered. Her frustrations could have been turned into forgiveness, but she didn’t know he wanted more than anything to keep her safe. When Perri and Louise had gone on a secret mission to capture a Shadow Creature to find out about these attacks, he had been wracked with indecision and guilt. Knowing the promise to Perri to keep their daughter safe, no matter what the cost, could mean losing her.
Instead, there was one lone heartbeat of hesitation before Aero replied to her friend’s question. “No, nothing. They should have been back hours ago. I can’t help thinking something has...”
A Sorcery of Shadows: The Westwood Witches 2 Page 4