I had, sure, I’d gone into a den of vampires, I’d been around several werewolves at once, but I’d always planned and had a failsafe ready to go, but this time, we weren’t going in with much of a plan—we were going to confront, ask questions, get to the bottom of whatever was happening and then destroy the powers that be.
“I’ve always known what I’m going into, I have no idea about this one,” I said honestly. “We could be surrounded by all different types of creature from the depths of whichever hell they’ve been pulled from.”
“Do you still think there could be a witch on their side?” she asked.
I sipped more of the water. “Possibly.” Another thought that didn’t settle my stomach. I knew there had to be something more sinister at work here, and no matter who was helping these people, it had to have been a witch…or someone with witch-like abilities.
My stomach was soon soothed, and we were on our way to the town hall. There was an eerie stillness and quiet to the streets. Only a few people walked around the town, but most of the shops were shut, or closing, and not many of them remained open, unless it was a chain restaurant or fast-food establishment.
“I think the people know,” she said.
“Perhaps they feel the tension in the air.”
I couldn’t feel anything. There wasn’t a single breeze, and the cloudless sky wasn’t bringing much warmth into the town either.
Town hall was a large building, open to the public, it was an incredibly old establishment and smelled somewhat like dirt inside, alongside the mixture of cleaning chemicals. The town hall was busier than the streets, people spoke, and their voices echoed throughout.
“We need to find out where he is, and fast,” I said.
“I’ll ask a clerk.”
I approached a lady at a desk, thumbing her way through a pile of paper. She looked up for barely a second. “Ask someone else,” she said.
Approaching a second woman, she turned away from me in her swivel chair.
“Second floor,” Cassandra called out, rushing to my side. “These people are not helpful at all,” she said in a whisper down my ear.
As we made our way to the second floor from the elevator, I toyed with the rings on my fingers, activating them slightly so I could have a sense of preparedness for when the madness descended, and chaos would strike.
“Sarah,” Harry said, standing as the elevator doors opened. He had a huge smiling face and a grin as wide as his cheeks would stretch. “Taking me up on the offer. We’re thinking about canvassing the local areas to get people to sign the petition.”
Leaving the elevator, I looked around. There was a single desk straight ahead, and behind the desk there were large double doors.
“So, that’s how you do it?” I asked, squinting to try see straight through him. “That’s how you’re picking off the residents of Cottonwood?”
He laughed. “We’re not picking anyone off,” he said. “We’re just getting them to see some sense in the idea that closing off the forest would bring up a more positive change.”
Cassandra snapped her fingers, and zapped at Harry, dropping him to his knees. “We know what you are,” she said.
I snapped my fingers, sending another zap at him. “Tell us what you’re doing in Cottonwood,” I said.
His smile turned to a grimace. He picked himself up from the ground, a toothy grin on his face. “The plan was simple, and it never involved a pair of witches,” he said. He stomped a foot, his shoe flying off as a clawed paw unfurled from it.
“Not so—” Cassandra thumped him with the bloodstone. “You’re not turning until you answer my questions.”
“Our questions.”
On his knees once again, he looked up, squinting through his eyes, half of his body in fur, the other half skin. Trapped in this state while the effects of the bloodstone wore on him.
“I’m not going to an—”
“Yes, you are,” I said, zapping him once again.
He hunched as the electric buzzed through him. “No.” He turned and glanced at his desk.
Fumbling in my pocket to grab the photograph of him, I shoved it into his face. “Who are these people?”
“Dead, now,” he said. “The girl you went to the mortuary for did it.”
“Destiny?” Cassandra and I spoke at the same time.
He grumbled.
“And what’s in there?” I asked, nodding to the door behind the desk.
“No,” he cried out, a guttural growl.
Thud. He was out cold.
SEVEN
As Harry laid on the floor, we approached the double doors behind the desk. Walking with caution, anything could have been hiding behind them, and it quite possibly was already in prime position to attack.
“Ready?” I asked in a whisper.
“Ready.” She nodded.
I snapped my fingers and the doors swung open, slamming into a thud against something solid. The stench of smoke overwhelmed my nostrils, and as we walked inside, I noticed a single cigar in an ashtray on the desk inside the office.
“Stinks,” Cass said.
Inside the office, where the door had collided and not fully opened, a body laid on its front. I assumed it was dead. I gave it a little nudge with my foot. Streams of smoke continued to streak the air from the cigar in the ashtray.
“You two are getting sloppy,” a voice chuckled. Philip Damaris, prisoner of the Witches Council, and man who’d abandoned us in our time of need.
I turned on a foot, blinking away the image of the man on the ground. “First you knock this one out,” he said, nodding to the man on the ground. “Then you kill that one.”
“Ha,” Cass scoffed. “We didn’t kill anyone.”
“That’s not to code,” I grumbled, shrugging. “Not like that matters anyway. The Council is closed for business, isn’t it?”
He grinned, approaching us, a hand stroking the side of the door. “I’m here for the girl,” he said. “Giving you one last shot at this.”
“No,” Cassandra said immediately. “I’m not coming, and I’m certainly not doing anything now that we’re this close to find out who’s at the centre of all this.”
Another faint chuckle came from the corner of the office, it was like someone had poured laughing gas into a closed space and it was all going to our heads.
“Ford,” I said, immediately, sensing his eerie presence caress the peripherals of my vision.
“Surprise,” he grumbled, no longer much of a surprise. “I’m here for him.”
The man on the ground must have been the Lord Mayor, without seeing his face, I could only assume given his size in the picture, it was him. “Is he one of them?” I asked.
Bending, Ford touched at the man’s neck. “A werewolf? Yes.” His face twisted, and his eyes squinted. “Whoever did this, they did you girls a solid.”
“Girls?” I scoffed.
“Women,” he corrected himself.
Philip coughed into a fist. “You know who did it. Why don’t you tell them?”
Disappearing and reappearing behind Philip, Ford breathed down his brother’s neck. “Little brother,” he said. “You know I can’t do that.” He tutted several times, vanishing once again.
“I’ll be taking him then,” Phil said, approaching the man on the ground.
Ford slapped Phil’s hand away from touching the body. “I don’t think so,” he said. “The Council has declared the doors shut. They’re no longer collecting bodies.” He smiled. “So, I’ll take it from here.”
“Then I’m taking the other one!” he shouted.
“Go for it,” he said with a larger smile.
I wondered if the punch Phil had given him early even mattered, or was it washed off as quick as it came. “Tell me then,” I said. “Tell me who this man was, and why are we lucky?”
“Because this man was a leader,” Ford said, whispering down my neck.
Something I already knew. He was in charge. He was in power.
Phil stood beside Harry once again. “If you’re not coming, you’re really on your own this time,” he said. “I won’t be coming back again. I promise.”
Rolling my eyes in his direction. “I didn’t think you were coming back this time,” I said. “But you did. You really need to be a man of your word, Phil. People might suspect you of telling lies.”
He waved us off, disappearing with the man’s body.
“Crap,” I grumbled. “We needed to question him.”
Ford grinned. “He’s always got in the way,” he said. “I’m surprised you witches haven’t already left yet.”
“We’re not leaving,” I said.
“We’re staying to clean up this mess,” Cass added.
He continued his long line of tutting, walking around the office in a circle. “You don’t seem to understand. They’re attracted to the beacon like an ultraviolet light. You don’t see it, but they do.”
“So, we create something to attract them and then—” Cassandra began.
Ford threw his head back in laughter. “That would be an incredibly dumb decision.” He immediately clapped a hand around his mouth. He’d clearly said too much.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “Unless we can draw them into a circle and have them all condemned.” That was already an impossible task. “But we don’t have the resources. We don’t really have anything.”
“I’ll wish you luck now,” Ford said. “I must return. Events don’t unfold unless someone is watching. And there’s not many of us left. I have a hundred and three years of my sentence, many others have much less,” he chuckled, dipping to the man’s body.
Pop. They’d gone.
“Do you think—” Cass sighed, clenching her teeth with a chomp.
“What?”
“Do you think Phil will become like Ford?” she asked.
I had absolutely no idea. This was uncharted territory. I’d never met a reaper before, at least not one who’d been upfront about it. I took Cassandra’s hand. “Use your teleportation stone,” I said. “Let’s get back before someone comes up here and figures out what’s happened.”
“You know, I don’t think I should,” she said, pulling the crystal out from inside her blouse. “What if my family are already on their way for it?”
“Then there will be more witches in the fight, after all.”
There was always a silver lining, there had to be, if there wasn’t, the world was bound to go mad.
EIGHT
Our one single lead was a bust, and the one lead that wasn’t bust, had been stripped away from us before we even had the chance to extract information. The nervous feeling I’d been experiencing earlier was now replaced with frustration, equally giving me stomach ache.
I scrunched up the photograph and threw it across the kitchen counter. “Well, they’re all gone then,” I said.
“If Harry was right, and Destiny did kill the others, then I wonder who killed the man on the ground,” Cass said.
“I’m sure he was the Lord Mayor,” I added. “So, there’s bound to be news coverage of that.” Which didn’t really matter because the Council weren’t listening anyway, but I’m sure they were watching, waiting to see when it would be safe again.
Cassandra sighed, sitting in a chair at the table.
“What’s up?” Jinx asked.
“Nora, I feel silly for suggesting we make a beacon,” Cassandra said. “Now that I say it to myself again. It’s a suicide mission.”
“And,” I began, pointing a finger into the air. “It’ll be incredibly difficult, involving far too many crystals and gems. A number of which would take us years and a bounty of money to afford.” I glanced around my kitchen. “Not sure if you’ve noticed, but we don’t have the money, and time seems to be slipping through our fingers.”
“I have something to tell you,” she said.
“But the idea of finding some way to attract a creature with UV is a good one,” I said. “Possible one that could lead us to the whereabouts of the main hive.”
“Nora,” she said once again. “I have something that I need to tell you.”
“How important is it?” I asked. “To the case.”
“Somewhat,” she said with a shrug.
Jinx hissed. “Modest.”
She stood. “Just come with me.”
I followed her into her room. She stood at the foot of her bed and sighed deeply, her chin sinking and dipping to the base of her neck.
“What is it?” I asked. “Have you decided to leave?” I wouldn’t blame her. I might have even done the same thing if it had happened to me during training. “What is it, dear?”
Cassandra pulled her teleportation stone out from her blouse once again, fiddling it between her fingers. “I didn’t just steal this,” she said. “I took a bunch of stuff, mostly stones. I’m surprised I’m not enemy number one.” She snapped her fingers and a holdall bag appeared on her bed.
“Oh, goodness.”
“Right,” she said with a smirk. “I figured, with the lockdown, and the fact my family would never have alerted the Council to a bunch of stolen jewels and gems, I figure I’m golden now, at least until we solve this thing.”
“And then?” I asked. “Will you give them back?”
She rolled her eyes. “Definitely not.” Unzipping the bag, gems spilt out across her bed, their immediate power and energy spun spirals around my body.
“How come—I—oh—wow.”
“I spelled the bag,” she said. “Nobody saw it coming.”
I approached the bag on her bed of gems carefully, I wanted to jump into them and have them touch every part of my body. The energy from them felt like my youth was coming back, poured into my blood with an IV.
“You never said why you did this,” I added.
“And I don’t think I will.”
Jinx hissed again. “Bad place.” Hissing once again. “Bad—bad.”
Dum.
“And this is your mid-morning news report with Martha Mandel,” the television blared out throughout my house.
We ran into the living room.
Someone had it in for us, someone was watching everything we were doing.
“We need to ward the place with some of those,” I said, nodding to her bag. “Nobody should be able to pass through that.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t come with good news this morning,” Martha spoke. “I’m here to announce that all residents inside the county of Kent, are being advised to stay inside their homes and remain until otherwise informed.”
“What?” we gasped.
“This can’t be true,” I said. “If it was, we’d have—”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Greg at the door?” Cassandra continued, rushing out of the living room to pull her bedroom door shut.
“As the death toll rises inside the area at an alarming pace, their focus is inside the Ashford region, specifically the town of Cottonwood.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
“The High Witch is going to be out solid when she comes to clean this mess up,” I mumbled to myself.
A panicked Greg waltzed inside as Cassandra followed him.
“Have you seen the news?” he panted. “What do you know about it?”
Shaking my head, I didn’t know what to tell him. “Nothing,” I said. “I can’t believe what’s happening.”
“Can you—you know, do some—you know,” he waffled.
“No, not for this,” I said. “This is more than healing a cut.”
He turned, and turned, spinning on the spot as he looked at Cassandra and then back to me. “Maureen wants me to board her house up with wood,” he said. “Can you believe it? We’re being driven to the point of insanity.”
We were being driven alright—right off the cliff’s edge.
“It’ll pass,” Cassandra said, resting a hand on his shoulder, in her other hand, she placed a small crystal at the base of his skull. “I think what’s b
est for you right now, is that you go home, and be a watchful eye.”
He sighed. “I think that’s a good idea,” he said calmly. “It’s silly to think this is the end of days.”
I burst out laughing, trying to humour him. “Goodness, what on earth makes you think that?” Other than the news, I presumed. That was always an awful place to look for information, especially when it seemed there was the hidden agenda of informing monsters about this place.
He looked over my shoulder to the television. “I have supplies at home,” he said. “I should stay there until this all blows over.”
“Good idea,” I said.
Cassandra continued to hold the crystal in place at his neck. “Come out when it’s over,” she said.
I had to agree. I didn’t want Greg to be pulled into this, and often he’d find himself in the stickiest of situations, helping out neighbours and finding out they’re actually there to eat his brains—or something equally ridiculous.
I didn’t want the stress of worrying about him to cloud the work we were going to be doing, and soon, we’d be in the thick of it, the thickest parts of it. It wasn’t going to be pretty.
NINE
With Greg finally out of the picture, we had real work to get started with. The first thing on the agenda was finding out what stones Cassandra actually had in her possession and the powers they contained.
Cassandra was preoccupied. “Do you think they’ll come after us?” she asked.
“Who?” I wondered, running my fingers across the stones and gems laid across her bed.
“The creatures,” she said quietly. “What if they know we were at the town hall, and then suddenly we’re being chased.”
I shook my head. “Not quite how it works,” I said. “Unless they know the Council is closed, then we might have an issue. But they never know about that kind of stuff, it stays between the witches.”
“And now the monsters that work for them!”
Oh. “Crumbs.” I pulled a smooth polished dark blue stone with pieces of gold flakes and light blue rings. “Labradorite.”
“And that will—”
The Enigma on Eden Road Page 3