‘Help who? What danger?’
‘Can’t help . . . you . . . anymore. Know . . . your strengths, Char . . . I lo . . . you . . .’
Then the voice was gone. The wind stopped and Charley collapsed.
Charley opened her eyes, her head thumping as she took in her surroundings. It took her a moment to figure out what had happened, where she was . . . and then it all came flooding back.
‘No . . . no, no, no . . .’ She let out a long wail, hugging her knees as she wept uncontrollably. She was gone. Her gran was really gone.
Charley didn’t remember leaving the hospital, but she had a faint memory of arriving, standing in Dorcas’s living room – hearing her voice.
Gran brought me here. She was trying to tell me something . . .
But Charley had barely been able to work out a word of what Dorcas was saying. It had been like a bad telephone connection; she knew her gran was there, at the other end of the line, she just couldn’t communicate with her.
Charley stayed like that for a while, huddled on the floor, not sure what else to do. The house looked exactly the same as it had the last time she’d been there. A tear rolled down her cheek.
‘Chambers?’
She lifted her head when she heard his voice, her eyes red and swollen from crying.
‘She’s gone,’ Charley whispered.
Aiden stood in the doorway for a moment, watching Charley as she began to cry again, and then he went to her. He knelt down and pulled her close to his chest.
‘I’m so sorry, Chambers.’
She looked up at him. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face blotchy, and her nose was running. To Aiden though, she was still the most beautiful girl in the world.
‘Take me somewhere,’ she said softly.
‘Where do you want to go?’
‘Somewhere quiet.’
‘Okay.’
He helped her up and the two of them walked to the door, Charley’s legs still trembling as she clutched Aiden’s arm.
He took her back to the boathouse, knowing that they’d probably be alone; no one really went there anymore, most of the abandoned boats deteriorating, the wood rotting away from underneath.
Charley didn’t need much convincing this time. In fact, she didn’t need convincing at all. She walked to the end of the pier and flung her hands in the air.
She was ready.
‘Rise,’ she said, and the water began to gently splash, a few waves rolling along the surface. She wasn’t impressed. ‘I said, rise!’ she bellowed, and the lake split in two, the water climbing through the air until it was nearly as high as the tree tops.
‘Now, let’s have a little breeze,’ she muttered, swirling her finger in the air, the wind picking up all around her. She smiled to herself, but it wasn’t enough. She was bored of messing around with the elements. She needed more, something stronger, more powerful.
She pointed over to one of the boats and it shattered, sending bits of wood up into the destructive wind. ‘Again,’ she cried, and one by one, the boats exploded, the pieces almost instantly disappearing.
‘You want me to cry?’ she yelled. ‘You want tears? I’ll give you tears . . .’
Rain began to pour from above and it suddenly turned dark, as if night had just fallen. There was a blast of thunder and then a huge bolt of lightning shot across the sky, hitting one of the trees and setting it alight.
‘Chambers!’ Aiden yelled, rushing towards her. ‘You need to stop!’
But it was no use. Charley had no intention of stopping. She lifted her hand and swept it through the air, and Aiden was thrown backwards, landing in a heap a few feet away.
The fire was spreading and the lake was still separated, leaving a hollow space in front of her. She climbed down from the pier and walked into the centre of the lakebed, feeling tiny against the huge walls of water on either side of her.
She clicked her fingers and the wind calmed, the fragments of wood slowly changing colour, changing shape, morphing into something else completely: butterflies, thousands of them. Charley giggled and for a moment she felt at ease. She was carried back to her childhood, when her gran used to take her down to the field on the outskirts of town where they would have picnics and chase butterflies for hours.
She pictured her gran’s face and the contentment ebbed away. The golden field turned to a dull, dank waste ground and the butterflies all died, falling to the ground as if the plague had just struck. Dorcas’s nose began to bleed, her eyes sliding down her cheeks. Her features were all blending together, like wax dripping from a burning candle.
Charley didn’t want butterflies anymore.
‘You want darkness?’ she whispered gravely. ‘Fine, I can do that.’
The butterflies were just a huge blur of colour now, consuming Charley as she watched the devastation unfolding. She didn’t want colour, not anymore. She wanted blackness.
The bright shades of orange and yellow and blue began to fade, all blending together like paint. The colours faded and they were left with just a black mass, the creatures flying so fast that Aiden couldn’t make out what they were.
‘Chambers, what is that?’ he shouted over the noise of flapping wings. He could barely see her through the black haze, whatever it was shifting at such a pace that it now looked still, as if it wasn’t moving at all.
Charley turned to him, a look on her face he’d never seen before. A look that sent shivers down his spine and put a knot in his stomach.
‘Bats,’ she said.
The swarm of bats flew up into the air, high above Charley’s head. Black smoke was beginning to flow from her fingertips, followed by tiny sparks of electricity.
Aiden got up and ran towards her, leaping from the end of the pier on to the hollow ground.
‘Chambers, make it stop,’ he called, but a flash of light shot from her finger, hitting him in the chest, causing him to double over in pain.
‘I’m not done yet!’
The water rose even higher, far above the bright orange flames that were travelling further and further afield. The bats had slowed and were now drifting in and out of the water barricades, a rhythmic pattern forming as they soared through the air.
Charley clasped her hands and one by one, the bats burst, turning into a dim, grey powder that floated slowly down to the ground.
Aiden whispered something and waved towards the sky. Something shot upwards, some kind of energy, letting the water fall slowly towards the ground and putting the fire out as it drenched the smouldering trees.
He struggled through the water towards Charley, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders.
‘Stop!’ he yelled. ‘You need to stop, Chambers. Now!’
He looked into her eyes but there wasn’t anything there. Anyone there. They were empty, dark pools of nothingness. She let out a long, deep moan before going limp in his arms, leaving him to support her in the middle of the freezing lake.
Tabitha shrieked as she heard the front door crash open, knocking a hot cup of tea from the arm of her chair.
Aiden burst into the living room with Charley in his arms. He was dripping wet, soaking the carpet and covering it with mud from his dirty boots. Before Tabby could object, he laid Charley gently down on the table.
‘Aiden . . .’ Tabby said in bewilderment.
‘Don’t, Mum, I mean it. Something’s wrong.’
Tabitha sighed, looking at Charley lying motionless on the table. She was only a girl after all, just an innocent child caught up in things more dangerous than she could possibly know. Tabby could relate to that.
‘What happened?’ she asked, rushing to Charley’s side.
‘She was out of control. I’ve never seen her like that. She was so powerful, but it was dark. Really dark.’
‘What set her off?’
‘Dorcas,’ Aide
n said quietly. ‘She’s dead.’
‘What?’ Tabitha sounded genuinely shocked. ‘How?’
Aiden gave her a knowing look.
‘Is that why you were asking about nosts?’
‘Yes. I thought we had time to help her, but it happened so fast.’
‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ Tabitha said, putting a hand to Charley’s head, an orange glow shining brightly beneath her palm.
‘What are you doing?’ Aiden asked.
‘Keeping her warm. Come on, you need to tell me what happened.’
‘I found her at her gran’s house. She was alone. She asked me if we could go somewhere quiet, so I took her to the boathouse. She just let loose. Everything was cold, dark. There was fire and floods and . . . and bats, thousands of them. I couldn’t stop her, she was too strong.’
‘Did you try? To stop her . . .’
‘Of course I did. She hit me with something though, something big. I couldn’t fight her.’
‘You shouldn’t have intervened.’
‘Mum, she was out of control. She set fire to the trees, blew the bats to smithereens. If I didn’t try–’
‘Stopping her was incredibly dangerous. That ‘something’ that hit you was probably powerful enough to kill you. It’s amazing you’re not hurt.’
‘Chambers wouldn’t kill me,’ he muttered, still able to feel the pounding in his chest where the bolt of light had struck.
‘She didn’t know what she was doing. She probably wasn’t even aware it was you.’ Tabitha could see her son trying to get his head around it all, and she softened a little. ‘What was it like . . . to watch?’
‘I don’t even know how to describe it. I’ve never seen anyone with that much power before, except . . .’
Just as he was about to say her name, Quinn walked through the door.
‘You,’ he said, pointing in her direction.
‘Me? What about me? Why is Charley sleeping on the table?’
‘Quinn and Dru,’ Aiden said to his mother. ‘That’s the only time I’ve seen a magician as powerful.’
‘As powerful as what?’ Quinn frowned. ‘And we’re not that powerful,’ she replied modestly.
‘You are when you’re together. I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘He’s right, Quinn,’ said Tabitha. ‘When the two of you combine your powers, it’s quite spectacular.’
Quinn shrugged her shoulders. ‘Yeah, well, it’s just me now, isn’t it? Little old average me.’
‘You’re far from average,’ Aiden scoffed.
‘So what happened?’ Quinn nodded in Charley’s direction. ‘I’m guessing all this power must have come from her.’
‘Her gran’s death has unleashed a darkness in her,’ Tabitha sighed. ‘I take it she was aware of the nost?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And do you have any idea who’s responsible for it?’
‘No. We thought it might be this kid called Marcus–’
‘The Gillespie boy?’ Tabby asked.
‘Yes, how did you–’
‘I know who he is, Aiden.’
Of course she does, she knows everything.
‘How do you know it wasn’t?’ she asked.
‘Timing was all wrong. Charley saw him summon a nost, but her gran was already sick by then.’
‘So there’s another one loose?’
‘I think so, yeah.’
Tabitha put her hand to her head. ‘Someone else is going to die then, Aiden.’
‘Well, we need to stop it before that can happen.’
‘Like you did with Dorcas?’ she said cruelly. She knew her words were uncalled for, but she was only trying to get through to her son, make him aware of the dangers they could be facing.
‘We didn’t know how to stop that one because we didn’t know who conjured it up – we still don’t know. But we have more to go on this time. If we can convince Marcus to–’
‘To do what, call it off? You think if you ask nicely, he’s just going to undo it all?’
‘No, I don’t. We’ve tried asking nicely and that got us nowhere. I think it’s time for a different approach.’
As Aiden, Tabitha and Quinn stood looking at one another, deciding what to do next, Charley began to stir. She pushed herself up, groaning as her head started pounding mercilessly.
‘What’s going on?’ she croaked, her voice hoarse. ‘Aiden?’
‘I’m here,’ he said, rushing to her side. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Like I’ve been hit by a truck.’
‘Well, it serves you right for getting ahead of yourself,’ said Tabby. ‘Stupid girl, you don’t know your own strength.’
Aiden shook his head at his mother’s tactless outburst; she really did choose her moments.
Tabby knew she was being harsh on Charley, but she also knew it was important to scold her for her rash decisions; it could have turned out so much worse.
‘Are you all right?’ Tabby said, fetching Charley a glass of water. ‘That must have been quite an ordeal.’
Charley looked at Aiden. ‘Why is she being nice to me?’
‘Because she knows I’ll lose the rag if she’s not.’
Tabitha frowned. ‘Charley, I know I’ve been hard on you. I suppose it’s not really fair.’
‘No, it’s not,’ Aiden said sharply.
Tabitha groaned. ‘Aiden, be quiet.’
‘Why should I? It’s true.’
Tabby sighed and walked away without saying anything else, trying her hardest to avoid an argument.
‘Are you not even going to apologise?’ he called. ‘I think she deserves that at least.’
‘No, Aiden, I’m not. Your girlfriend just spent a good chunk of the afternoon tearing the sky apart. She put you in danger. That shock should have killed you. I’m sorry about Dorcas, really I am, but you are my concern. You are my son and I love you, and losing you doesn’t bear thinking about. So, no, I will not apologise.’ She turned and left the room, scared she would lose her temper if she stayed for another moment.
Aiden turned back towards Charley, wiping Tabitha from his mind.
‘I almost killed you?’ she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
‘No, Chambers, I’m fine. I’m tougher than I look. Not as tough as you apparently, but hey, we can’t all be superheroes.’
Charley’s face crumpled. ‘I’m not a superhero. Your mum’s right, Aiden. I’m dangerous.’
‘Chamb . . .’ He stopped to think, something in his brain suddenly clicking. ‘Wait a minute. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.’
‘How can it possibly be good?’
‘I’m with sparky,’ said Quinn promptly. ‘I’d rather not be zapped with bolts of killer lightening. I’ve got a dodgy ticker, remember.’ Quinn winked and Aiden hit her gently on the arm.
‘I’m serious. No one ever got far by playing it safe. They want a war, we’ll give them one.’
Quinn cleared her throat to get Aiden’s attention. ‘And, eh, who exactly are we fighting, apart from a daft demon kid and a killer we can’t identify? Don’t you think it’s a bit early to be calling it war?’
Aiden gave her a bewildered look. ‘No, I don’t. I think it’s the perfect time to do it. Dorcas is dead and Abbie’s in hospital after being shoved from a rooftop. You’re trying to slice Chambers open in her dreams and we have a demon on our hands who seems quite adept at conjuring up nosts. More people are going to die if we don’t do something.’
‘Aiden,’ Charley said quietly, ‘if Marcus is a demon, does that mean his parents are, too?’
‘Not necessarily. I mean look at you, your parents are insigs.’
‘I guess there’s only one way to find out,’ Quinn smiled.
‘Oh, yeah? And what would that be?�
�� Aiden said dubiously.
‘I should seduce Garth; after I’m finished with him, he’ll tell me everything I need to know.’
Aiden’s disgusted expression amused Quinn no end, and she burst out laughing.
‘I’m joking, you idiot. Well, sort of.’
‘God, Quinn, you really don’t have any boundaries.’
‘Of course I do. You just don’t have a sense of humour.’
‘Yeah, I lost it when you started telling me about your seedy desires for older men.’
As the pair of them bickered, Charley drifted away into a daze. She still couldn’t accept that her gran was gone. Some part of her had really believed they would manage to save her, that they would find the culprit in time and convince them to stop before it was too late. It had all just been wishful thinking.
Charley didn’t know what was coming, she didn’t know what to expect. But she was certain of one thing: when she found the person who murdered her gran, she was going to kill them.
Jess wandered along the street, her eyes streaming as the cold wind irritated them. She knew that her dad would be mad at her for leaving her mum by herself, but she just had to get out of there. She couldn’t stand sitting there listening to her mother’s constant whining for another second.
They’d gone straight to the hospital when Nick had phoned, and almost as soon as they’d arrived, he’d dashed off to look for Charley, asking Jess to stay with her mother.
She didn’t mean to be so selfish and she didn’t know why such horrible thoughts were cropping up in her mind. She didn’t want to think them, but that didn’t matter. They were there, screaming from inside her head.
She could feel her fingers tingling and, glancing down at them, she noticed the tips were turning black, the skin peeling off them like glue.
‘What the . . .?’
Jess panicked, quickly shoving them into her pockets. She knew something was wrong – very wrong – she just didn’t want to deal with it. She hurried over the road and, not looking where she was going, bumped straight into someone.
‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, keeping her head down and walking away.
Charley Chambers Page 20