by Tanya Milne
‘Well, I was thinking that you could distract the officers, put a drop of what I have into their drinks, while I get Elijah out of there.’
‘Show me,’ he said.
I raised an eyebrow, carefully took the bottled potion from my bag and passed it to him. He raised it to his face and then looked at me. ‘You made this, didn’t you?’
Words wouldn’t come and I just stood there, gaping at him. The words of my ancestor Ethel came back to me and swam through my head: ‘Don’t tell anyone your secret, unless you trust them with your life.’
Do I trust him? With my life? This boy who should be my enemy?
‘Tell me, Eva,’ he said, staring at me so intently that heat rushed into my body.
A currawong started its melodic song, telling its beautiful story of the night that had passed and the day to come. By the time it was finished, the world around us was filling with life and birdsong, and the sun was moving into the sky. Now I could see his face clearly. There was nothing between us now – no shadows, no moonlight, no lies.
‘I am a witch,’ I said quietly, my heart seizing as the truth left my mouth –
a truth that was so exposing it could risk not only my life, but my family’s lives as well.
His face didn’t change, except a small smile turned up the corner of his mouth.
‘Why are you smiling?’ I asked, nudging him.
‘No reason,’ he said, the smile spreading across his face.
‘Don’t you believe me?’
‘Oh lovely, lovely, Eva. What am I going to do with you?’
I snatched back my potion, wrapped it up and placed it into my backpack. ‘You’re unbelievable, you know. I tell you a secret that could put my whole family at stake and you laugh at me.’
He grabbed my arms and pulled me closer. ‘Did anyone tell you that you’re adorable when you’re mad?’
I glanced up at him, and the laughter disappeared from his face. His gaze burned into mine, and my stomach filled with butterflies as he leant down and kissed me gently on the lips and then pulled back. ‘I know you’re a witch. I’ve known since that night on the boat, when you thought no one else was there to listen.’
‘You’ve what?’ I said, taking in the meaning of his words. ‘All this time…’
‘Yep, all this time, waiting for you to own up and tell me yourself.’
‘You kept my secret…’
‘Of course I’ve kept your secret. What do you take me for?’
His eyes were cold and he turned away from me. Before I could think, I reached up, pulled his head down and kissed him in a way that left us both breathless.
We pulled away and he stared at me, his face flushed and his green eyes soft.
‘Oh, Eva,’ he said, running his finger gently down my face.
‘Crap,’ I said, remembering where I was and what, for a few moments, I’d forgotten.
My heart felt as though it had been squeezed in my chest.
How could I?
‘Elijah,’ I croaked. In the distance, through the trees, was the back of Ezra’s massive house.
He checked his watch and took my hand, squeezed it. ‘It’s okay, we have a few minutes. Let’s go through the plan again, one more time.’
And so, with the sun starting to rise in the sky, we went through the plan that, if it blew up, had the potential to get us both into serious hot water.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ezra didn’t let go of my hand as we walked across the grounds to the rear entrance of his house.
‘What if someone sees us?’ I said, feeling as though I were five times larger than I was.
‘It’s unlikely. Even the security who guard our house go to the meeting. And even if they do see us, I’ll say that you’re my girlfriend and you’re here to see me.’
I peeked at Ezra – sweet, surprising, loyal Ezra.
‘Girlfriend, huh. That sounds serious.’
He turned to me, and I felt as though he looked straight into my soul.
‘Let’s talk, after all this – say midnight tonight on my boat.’
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Midnight seemed like a million minutes away.
‘If I can get away,’ I said, my stomach twisting and turning.
If I’m not arrested. In jail. In the cellar of his home.
He squeezed my hand and we turned back towards his home, the shadow of which was already on us. He led me up the back stairs and opened the door. We waited a few moments, his home sounding so strange after being outdoors for so long. It was generally quiet inside, but from our left, down the hallway, came the murmur of people talking. Ezra stepped inside and after a few seconds, he beckoned me to follow him. I walked up the stairs and into his house, my every sense on edge.
We stood in a small plain white room with a timber floor, and the head of a stuffed deer stared at us with glassy dead eyes, a look of horror etched forever into its being. I tore my gaze away and quietly passed Ezra my backpack.
‘Careful,’ he mouthed, squeezing my hand for a second before letting go.
I took one long look at him before I turned right and walked down the hall that ran the length of the house, towards the entrance to the cellar. Morning light streamed through the windows alongside the hall. It would have been beautiful if it didn’t feel like a scene from a horror movie. I tried to quieten my steps, but my every footstep made the old floor creak and groan. I’d just reached the end of the passage when I heard the sounds of men talking, coming towards me.
I opened the door to my left and ducked inside, then closed it just in time before the men walked past.
‘I think he’s about to crack, don’t you?’ said Max.
‘It’s amazing he hasn’t before now, considering,’ came the reply.
Considering what?
They kept walking and I never heard their reply.
Considering what? What have they done to him? WHAT?
My legs could no longer support me, and I sank down to the floor, covered my eyes and started to cry.
‘Well, hello,’ said a voice from the other side of the room.
I looked up, and there, staring at me from an armchair by a log fire with a book in her hands, was someone with the same green eyes I knew so well – someone who held my destiny in both of her hands.
We stared at each other for a long moment. Her long blonde hair was loose down her back. Under her thick white dressing gown she wore a pale-pink silk nightie, and on her feet were slippers. She was fragile and beautiful, yet also somehow unstuck. In her eyes I saw everything: how she lived, what she endured and an unexpected kindness – the same kindness that Ezra had in his heart. Now I knew where he’d gotten it from.
‘I’m Gretel and you must be Eva,’ she said in a quiet voice. ‘Ezra has told me about you.’
I nodded. There was no point denying it. I’d lost and lost badly, and now I would be absolutely no help for my brother. Tears welled up and flowed down my cheeks.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked, passing me a tissue box.
I wiped my eyes.
Pull it together, Eva.
‘You don’t know?’ I asked, wondering how much she knew about the horror her husband was inflicting on the town, on my family, on Elijah.
‘No,’ she said quietly as she sat back down, her gaze flicking to the door.
A small seed of hope burst inside me.
‘I’ve come to get my brother,’ I said, feeling returning to my legs, to my body.
Her beautiful pale skin went so white that she looked unwell.
I stood up. ‘I have to go.’
I hesitated for a second, expecting her to call for her husband or a police officer, or at least drill me with questions.
Instead, tears sparkled like crystals in her eyes. ‘Be careful, dear.’
My eyes fluttered quickly and I realised in that moment who she was – a beautiful, precious bird trapped in a golden gilded cage with a beast for a captor.
‘
You too,’ I whispered, my heart opening to this poor woman. I pushed the door open, then checked it was clear before I strode towards the cellar, where my brother was being held. I waited for the call, for footsteps, but they didn’t come. As I neared the stairs that would take me to the cellar, to my brother, dread sat in the pit of my stomach.
What have they done to my beloved brother? Heat burned in my hands and I knew in that moment that I would hurt anyone who’d laid a finger on him.
I checked my watch. The meeting would be about to start. I had maximum ten to fifteen minutes to get Elijah out of the house before the officers came back. Hopefully by then Ezra would have made sure they all had a drop of my potion in their morning coffees they routinely drank at their meeting, and they’d forget all about me and Elijah. If not, well, we were both stuffed.
I blocked the rising fear that made me want to puke and walked down the stairs. The further I went, the darker and colder the room got. When I reached the bottom, it took me a few seconds to make out Elijah sitting in a chair in the middle of the otherwise empty room, flopped forward.
‘Elijah,’ I said, running across the wet concrete floor to where he sat. I crouched down. His whole body was soaked and his eyes were closed. I shook his shoulder. ‘Elijah, wake up.’
He didn’t move. I put my hand on his face, which was hanging forward at an awkward angle. He was cold, so cold.
What have these beasts done to him?
I shook his arms. ‘Elijah, it’s me. You need to wake up. We need to get out of here.’
He stayed still, and a fear unlike anything I’d felt before unleashed inside me so that, for a few moments, I was completely paralysed.
I raised a hand to his neck to check his pulse. My body shook so much that I couldn’t rest my fingers against his pulse. I took a long breath and dug deeper than I ever had before, and calmed my body. Slowly, I stopped shaking. I searched again for the pulse of life – a life I knew I could never endure without.
A small thud pumped against my finger. He had a pulse, but it was weak. There was no way my brother was waking up on his own. I stood up slowly. They’d done this to him. All my fears drained away, leaving red-hot piping anger that coursed through my veins. I placed my hands on my brother’s shoulders, and heat coursed from my body into his. It was as though I’d given him an electric shock. His body convulsed against mine and I took my hands away.
Elijah cried out and started to struggle against the chair he’d been tied to.
‘Elijah, it’s me,’ I said, walking to stand where he could see me.
‘Eva, what are you doing here? You need to get out of here.’ His eyes were red-rimmed and wild and they looked straight to the stairs. ‘Go. Get out of here. Now.’
‘Not without you.’ I crouched down and looked at how they’d tied him to the chair. I gasped when I saw they’d used fishing line and it was pulled so tight that they had cut his circulation – his hands were deathly white.
I growled and pulled out the knife I’d slipped into my back pocket. The moment his hands were free, I held them in mine until heat poured into them. Then I let them go.
‘What just happened?’ said Elijah, looking between his hands and me.
‘I’ll tell you later, but we need to get out of here. Can you walk?’
Elijah stood and cringed in pain. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’
They will pay!
As we started towards the stairs, the lights above our heads turned up until they were blazing. Then we heard footsteps on the stairs. I turned to Elijah, whose face was frozen, his eyes round. I scanned the room, but there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I stepped in front of Elijah, my hands raised. No one would hurt my brother. I was ready.
Orpheus Blackthorn stopped when he saw us and did a double take. Then he started to laugh, a belly laugh.
‘Look what the cat dragged in,’ he said once he was back in control, his pale-blue stare flitting between us. ‘And here I was, just coming down for a little chat with Elijah, when who should be here. The very girl I want to talk to. Eva, Eva, Eva. Seems that you can’t stay away.’
I looked up at the stairs, strained to listen for any sounds, any movement, but there was nothing. Orpheus was alone – for now at least. It was him against us. I took a long slow breath. ‘We were just leaving.’
He raised an eyebrow before he spoke in his thick accent. ‘I don’t think so.’ He collected the walkie-talkie from his hip pocket. I didn’t hesitate. I ran to him and knocked the walkie-talkie from his hands. It skidded across the room and landed in the corner. He put his hand back, pushed me to the ground and bolted towards the walkie-talkie.
I sat up, lifted my hand and sent a bolt of fire. It landed on the walkie-talkie, setting it ablaze.
Orpheus stopped in his tracks and turned to me before he spoke. ‘You’re a witch. I knew it! From the moment I laid eyes on you. You bewitched Ezra, didn’t you?’
I stood up and walked to stand next to Elijah, who was staring at me, mouth open.
‘I am a witch, and do you know what a witch like me does to people like you, people who hurt my twin brother until they very nearly kill him? Do you?’ I said.
I raised my hands in front of me, where a heat so hot burned that I knew if I released it onto Orpheus, he would catch on fire and all of our troubles would be over.
‘Eva,’ came a voice from the bottom of the stairs.
‘Ezra,’ I said, sweat dripping from my body. ‘Get out of here.’
Ezra glanced between me and his father. ‘Don’t do it, Eva. It’s not worth it.’
Orpheus stared at his son, his only son. ‘Did you bring her here?’ he thundered.
‘Yes,’ said Ezra, that one word sending an arrow to puncture my heart.
Traitor!
The heat from my body drained onto the cold, wet floor. I slumped forward, my hands on my legs, just holding me up.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Orpheus’s frown turned into a grin, and he slapped his son on the back. ‘I knew it. I knew you had it in you. Son, I am so proud of you.’
‘I trusted you,’ I managed to get out. ‘How could you?’
‘The same way you had no problem kissing Jet,’ he said, pushing over a weak Elijah, who’d made a run at him. I rushed to Elijah, helped him from the ground, held him up.
The sick and twisted Orpheus was beaming at Ezra, his hands clasped together. ‘This is an excellent turn of events.’ He glanced down at his watch. ‘You stay with them, keep an eye on them. I’ll go get the others.’
‘Sure,’ said Ezra, picking up the cup of coffee he must have placed unseen on the floor when he arrived and passing it to his dad.
The coffee! The drops!
‘What’s this then, son?’
‘Well, I went to the briefing to tell you about Eva, but you weren’t there. I thought you might like your coffee. Might be a long morning with these two.’
Orpheus whistled as he walked back towards the stairs. Ezra and I stared after him, watching the cup that he held in his hands.
Drink! Drink! Drink!
Orpheus stopped on the stairs and turned to Ezra. ‘You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of you, son,’ he said, then took a sip of his coffee before continuing on his way.
Ezra turned towards me and for the longest moment, we stared at each other, silently transmitting everything that could never be put into words.
‘You need to go,’ said Ezra quietly. ‘Before he comes back.’
‘Does it work?’ I asked.
Please say yes.
‘Does what work? What’s going on?’ asked Elijah, barely able to stand.
‘I’ll tell you when we get you home,’ I said, helping Elijah to walk forward.
‘I think it does. The moment they had their coffees, they stopped talking about you and Elijah. But if you don’t get out of here before they come back, they’ll start suspecting you all over again,’ said Ezra.
‘Right,’ I sa
id. ‘We need to move. Elijah?’
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
Ezra and I helped Elijah to the top of the stairs. ‘Once the coast is clear, I’ll grab the car and come pick you up where we planned. Think you can make it?’
I nodded. ‘Thank you, Ezra,’ I whispered.
Ezra turned back. ‘You can thank me later. Get moving.’
Footsteps started down the hall, and I felt as though I was going to be sick. I helped Elijah move as quickly as he could in the opposite direction, but they were moving faster. Their footsteps got closer and closer, the back door still metres away.
‘Hey!’ came a voice that sent shivers down my spine.
Max!
I walked faster, and even Elijah seemed to get a boost of energy. We made it to the door. I put my hand on the knob, not daring to turn around.
‘Not so fast. Come back here!’
NO! NO! NO!
Chapter Thirty-Three
‘I said, come back here, weasel,’ said Max from behind us.
Elijah and I froze.
‘If you ever talk to me or any of my friends like that again, you’ll have me to answer to,’ said Ezra before we heard the sound of someone landing a punch. Max cried out like a little girl who’d skinned her knee, and then we heard him hit the ground. A commotion broke out down the hall.
I smiled, picturing Max lying on the ground in front of everyone. I opened the door and together, Elijah and I walked out of the hellhole and across the grounds towards the woods. As we walked I could feel eyes burning into my back. I turned around to see Ezra’s mum standing at one of the second-storey windows looking down at us, a small smile on her lips, but her eyes those of a trapped, desperate woman.
‘Fly free,’ I whispered before we disappeared into the safety of the woods.
Slowly we made our way to the meeting point. I helped Elijah sit against a tree trunk and checked my phone reception. Finally, I had three bars. There were about forty missed calls from home. With a shaking hand I picked up the phone and dialled home.