Anna comes down the stairs, so similar to her twin. The only difference being the colour of their wings – Anna’s are pale purple, and Erin’s are light green. “What the hell, Elodie?”
“I’m sorry I burst in, but I’m sick to death of the games, the drama. We just want Ellis back.”
“We don’t have Ellis.”
Straight away both Elodie and Fletcher know it’s true, and the anger vanishes, replaced by a creeping fear. If this isn’t the council, and Ember isn’t answering her phone...
Elodie is shaking, and Fletcher is swearing. Erin takes them both, leads them into the lounge, sits them down and gives them a drink. “I think we can overlook the dramatic and rude arrival, what’s going on?”
Elodie cannot speak, she is crying now, panic over Ellis and her sister making her shudder.
Fletcher wipes his eyes. He had been so sure that Ellis was with the council members, a petty but easily solved revenge attempt. This feels different.
“Okay, they’ve taken Ellis. I saw her bundled into a van with a hood over her head. Since the rebels are all dead-”
“Really? They’re all dead?” Anna bursts out.
Fletcher nods. “We left you in Scotland, not out of malice, but necessity – we weren’t sure who was on Zeta’s side. There was a showdown with Zeta. She’s dead, Peri, Leyland. Efa. Did you know that Efa was Zeta’s daughter?”
The women both look shocked.
“Right? So everything was over, and then we even figured out how to undo the original magic that gives us power over all of you.”
At this the twins sit up straight, eyes wide.
“We went back in time, before the clause was put into the spell that bound all of you to us. We’ll undo it today, give you all back your power, your authority, Well, that was the plan, but someone took Ellis. And we assumed it was you lot, angry with us over all that’s happened.”
The twins take a breath. “We had no idea. We were tied up for so long, one of our own came looking for us. They rescued us all – it wasn’t easy, let me tell you, to get out of your magic – but we let it drop. The council, each one of us, understands how hard this has been, all that’s gone on. We knew you’d reach out to us again, and we were happy to wait.”
Elodie’s eyes fill with tears. “Thank you. But if you guys don’t have Ellis, that means there are still some rebels alive. And my sister was tracking them and now she’s not answering her phone. She always answers her phone.”
Anna passes Elodie a tissue. Elodie thanks her, wipes her eyes and blows her nose. “Vann is dead. And Mya. And Gregory was on the rebel’s side.”
Fletcher takes over. “Efa killed Mya at the portal. Gregory turned on us, and then Zeta killed Vann.”
The twins are crying. “I can’t believe Vann is dead. And Gregory – he was on the rebel’s side?”
Elodie nods, misery covering her face. “If this isn’t the council, it means that it’s the rebels. And the rebels are far angrier than you are. I thought if you had taken Ellis, you’d have done it to annoy us, get your own back, but once we explained everything to you, you’d let her go. The rebels won’t go so easy on her. The rebels will be angry that we killed everybody. We thought they’d fizzle out without their leaders, but we were wrong.”
“Let us help.”
Fletcher shakes his head, worry about Ellis consuming him. “I don’t even know what we can do. We have no idea where the rebels are, or how to find any of them. Ember would know but she not answering.”
Elodie sobs, and Fletcher hugs her. They are both helpless.
Erin takes off her apron. Anna nods. “This is where good old-fashioned fairy dust comes in to its own.”
Elodie and Fletcher look confused.
“Oh, we know fairy magic has nothing on your magic, but our magic is full of clever little quirks. Fletcher – you love this girl?”
He nods, his eyes flat. The rebels will kill Ellis. They have no reason to keep her alive.
“Then we can find her.”
“You can?” His voice is small.
The twins nod, and Erin holds out a palmful of shimmery, glittery fairy dust.
Ellis
Here we go again. Kidnapped again. This has got to be a record. It’s not even funny anymore.
This is a little more brutal, though. Worse than when we were taken by thugs for Peri, Efa and Layland, obviously worse than when lovely John the vampire took us, maybe on a par with when Zeta took me and Efa kicked the living crap out of me.
I can’t say I’m enjoying it.
But I had forgotten about my impending death for a minute, so that’s an upside.
Who am I kidding? There is no upside. Then I feel a wave of relief that I saw my family. Then a swoop of almost excitement that I might die and see Molly again.
Now I know things are bad.
I love Molly to bits, but I am not ready to join her in eternal gone-ness. I want to live. I have a scary and sad feeling that it might be out of my hands, though.
It’s difficult to breathe with a hood over your head, so I slow my breathing right down. I cannot afford to panic. It’s so hot. I’m not in a seat so every time we go around a corner I go flying. My hands and feet aren’t tied, though, so I can right myself quickly. I’ll be covered in bruises though.
Bruises!
I’ll probably be dead.
I wonder who took me. Nobody good – obviously. There aren’t many kidnappers who swoop in, steal you, cover your head with a hood and then take you to Disneyland or out for pizza.
I wonder, suddenly, if I will live a brief life. I keep having these close calls and near misses, but I’m only seventeen. Surely life should be a little more... less. If that makes any sense.
I’m due to die today anyway, when we perform the magic to undo the authority the witches have over the other species, but now it looks like the Grim Reaper is looking to take me any way he can. Or maybe he wants to kill me in a nasty way – is there a pleasant way to die?
Keep breathing, Ellis, until you can’t.
At the moment, that’s all I can do.
I’m hoping the journey to death, or wherever, lasts and lasts and lasts but I already know that death is coming for me, so when we stop again and I hear doors open and shut, I feel close to throwing up.
That would not be pretty in this hood.
Then I giggle. During this fresh hell, I actually laugh.
There’s got to be something wrong with me.
Although my dad has always said that we need a certain amount of black humour to deal with the job we do. He’d be proud of me, I’m sure.
That pang again when I think about them. And then fury at myself for not staying safely inside the confines of Fletcher’s house and garden.
He will be so worried about me. And his mum will be.
Okay, so add feeling guilty to petrified. I am having a marvellous day.
“Ow!” I can’t help but shout out when someone grabs me roughly by the arm, pinching my skin, and pulling me out of the van.
Not fun.
“Get her inside.”
Not a voice I recognise, and at least they won’t shoot me in the street like a dog.
I’m pulled inside and shoved into a soft chair. I make myself comfy and then adjust the hood, trying to let a little air in at the bottom.
“Leave it on!”
I was leaving it on. Just a little hot and passing out, you know. I say nothing, just fold my hands in my lap and wait.
I have no idea where I am or who I’m with, who took me or if I’m alone in the room. It’s quiet but they could all be pointing and laughing at me, or gesturing quietly with weapons, getting ready to end my life.
If the rebels have taken me, then I’m dead. They are bound to be mad at us. We’ve killed most of them and I’m sure they’re ready for revenge.
If the council has taken me, I might have a hope of talking them around.
Until this smelly hood comes off, I won’t know.
And there’s a little bit of me – okay, a huge bit of me – that doesn’t want to know.
I’d rather pretend that I’m safe in Fletcher’s arms, kissing on his bed. Or safe at home, eating sweets on my bed. Or looking after my dead bodies, brushing their hair, putting a little lipstick on the ladies, tying the ties so neatly for the men.
Okay, crying in the hood isn’t fun. It’s too hot and too wet and too stifling. I’m gonna... yup!
I rip the hood off, throw myself forwards, so I hopefully miss my shoes, and puke.
I wipe my mouth on my sleeve.
Attractive.
Then look up, wondering why nobody’s told me off. Um, because there’s nobody here.
I must be a very important kidnap victim and prisoner then. They’ve left me all alone.
I’m in a tiny room, a lounge, not a warehouse this time. And there’s nobody here. I try the door, and it’s locked. Then I try the window. It’s locked. I won’t make it easy for them. Whoever took me, whoever was stupid enough to leave me on my own, I’m hoping to make them regret it.
Can I magic the window open, magic the glass away?
I spot a wooden stool, and without even thinking too much about it, I lift it and throw it at the window. Okay, not as easy as they make it look in the films. I batter the window, knowing that I’m making too much noise, but not being able to help it, but needing to do it.
I hit the glass again and again and again and when it eventually cracks I kick at it, hit at it, feeling the sweat drip down my face, feeling my hair stick to my face, knowing that at any minute whoever took me will come back in and stop me.
I feel so sick, but I won’t throw up again. Once is enough.
I push the rest of the glass out with my hands and my arm, not taking the time to cover my skin or be too careful. I don’t know how many times the sharp glass slices through my skin, the blood mingling with the sweat and making it sting.
I have to go.
Outside I look left to right like a trapped animal, waiting for the hand on my shoulder, the blow to my body, that stops me, but it doesn’t come.
But I know it will.
Come on, Ellis. Shape up!
I don’t know what to do! I want someone to help me, tell me what to do, save me.
Nobody’s coming and it won’t be long before whoever took me realises that I’m missing.
The garden is fully enclosed by a six-foot fence, no gate, no way through.
Up and over, girl.
Really?
I tuck down the side of the house and the fence is close enough that I can walk my way up between the wall and the fence like a spider or something. I am high enough to grab on the fence, bang my knee, graze my whole arm as I swing against the house, and then get my leg over, bang my shin, cry out, bite my lip to keep myself quiet, feel it bleed.
I must look a right state between the sweat and the sick and the blood, but the instinct to run, move, go, escape is like a voice shouting in my head.
Go!
Go!
Go!
Alright. I’m trying.
I wobble on top of the fence and then drop, feeling my ankle scream out as I land, and then hobble to my feet.
It’s probably only five minutes since I pulled my hood off, but I am jittery about being caught, stressed that I’m going too slow and sure that they’ll stop I me any second.
I take a deep breath. It will hurt to run, but run I must.
For just one second I allow myself a bit of pride. Without magic, for crying out loud, I just escaped. Me.
I smile despite the pain and look around, wondering which way to run.
Does it matter? Just pick left or right and go.
I know my luck will run out – it always does.
Left. Decision made. And then I feel a weird tingle. A shiver. Not a premonition, but a certainty that I shouldn’t run.
That can’t be right.
Any minute a kidnapping thug will realise that I’ve done a runner and come after me. Come on, Ellis.
No.
My feet won’t move.
Is this a trick? Some witch rebel magic?
No. This is something inside me. Some instinct, some inner voice, some subconscious wisdom.
I follow the fence around from the back of the house to the front. I step up to the front door of the normal-looking semi-detached house and – rude – just go inside without knocking.
11
Just as Erin opens her mouth to blow the fairy dust, the front door slams open and the four of them turn to see Ellis, bedraggled and sweaty and bloody and smelly and there’s a second of confusion where Ellis can’t understand why Fletcher and Elodie are with her kidnappers, and Fletcher and Elodie can’t understand how Ellis got away from whoever took her and knew where to find them, and Erin and Anna wonder if they can escape the wrath of three witches.
They realise they cannot win a fight against three angry witches and turn to flee.
“Stop them!” Ellis screams out, and with no further explanation Fletcher holds up his hands, binding and freezing the two fairies. While Elodie sits them down on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, Ellis falls into fletcher’s arms.
“God, you’re hurt?”
She nods. She can feel every cut from the glass now, every scrape, every bruise. She can also imagine how disgusting she looks, pretty much as disgusting as she feels. She pulls back from his embrace. “Can you do some of your magic, clean me up?”
Elodie steps forwards. “Here.” With a few dabs and flicks of her wrist, Ellis looks and feels ten times better. “I can do more for you when we get you home, but for now that’s the best I can manage.”
“Where did you come from? How did you know we were here?”
Ellis dissolves into tears. “I didn’t. I’m so sorry. I was so stupid. I went to see my parents and Isey – I didn’t let them see me, I promise, I was invisible. I don’t even know how. And then when I came back down the hill, someone shoved a hood over my head and took me.”
She takes a breath and Fletcher hugs her. “I saw it. I saw them take you. There was nothing I could do. But I saw it. We figured it was the rebels or the council, so we came to talk to the twins.”
“We figured they were the most sensible, the most likely to listen,” Elodie says.
“They were just about to take us to you, with fairy dust.”
“Or so we thought.”
“That’s why they left me for so long,” Ellis says, shaking her head. “They brought me inside, still with the hood over my head, but not tied up. It was so hot in the hood, and when I started crying it was claustrophobic, so I pulled the hood off and threw up, and that’s when I realised I was alone. I smashed the window, jumped over a six-foot fence and was ready to run, when I got the strongest feeling that I shouldn’t. That’s when I came around the front.”
Elodie kicks at Erin. “I can’t believe you were here the whole time. The liars!”
Fletcher shakes his head, disgust for the fairies covering his face. “They were so convincing. We really thought they would help us.”
“Obviously not. So I think it’s safe to assume that the council is still angry with us?”
Fletcher nods. “I almost feel like not giving them their power back. The effort we went to, going back in time, fixing this total mess, and this is how they repay us?”
“No, Fletcher, that’s not how this works. We do the right thing, because it’s the right thing, not because people deserve it. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
“And these two?”
“Oh, they’re coming with us. I’m done.”
Elodie grabs hold of Anna, none too gently, and pulls her up off the floor. She turns to Fletcher. “You get Erin.”
Fairies in hand, the three of them head outside.
“Ellis can’t fly.”
“Well, she will have to learn.”
Fletcher raises his eyebrows at Ellis,
who nods her head. “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do my best.”
“Come on, Fletcher, help her. We can’t leave her here and then come back for her. It’s not safe. Again. Nobody goes anywhere alone.”
Reading the anger in his mother’s tone, Fletcher nods. “Okay, so you know how when we fly and you’ve told us where to go, instinctively just knowing?”
Ellis nods.
“That’s like flying. There’s no broomstick or magic wand. Just think it and do it.”
“What if I fall or crash?”
“You won’t. Don’t overthink it. Don’t stress. Just follow me home.”
Ellis nods and takes a breath.
Elodie goes first, without a word. Fletcher kisses her cheek, Erin tucked under his arm like a roll of carpet. “You can do it. Just like you turned invisible.”
He takes off, slowly, watching her.
She closes her eyes, and then she’s doing it. She’s actually doing it.
They land at home, Ellis a little further away from Fletcher and Elodie, who are still holding the fairy twins. She runs up to them. “I did it!”
“You did! Well done.”
“Let’s get these two inside.”
“Not so fast.”
A figure jumps down from the fence and lands in front of the door. As his feet touch the floor, he shifts. Into an enormous snarling wolf. Fletcher turns at a noise behind him and then looks the other way. They are surrounded.
Seven snarling, dribbling, angry wolves are literally at their door. Skulking closer and closer, teeth bared and ready to pounce.
“Fletcher,” Elodie speak to him, but not out loud. “Drop Erin and run in the house. Ellis follow him. I’ll ward them off.”
“But the fairies...”
“The wolves are here for the fairies. Let them have them. They’re not worth dying for.”
With a shout, hoping to confuse the wolves, Fletcher tosses Erin like a rag doll onto the floor and turns to grab Ellis. Elodie throws Anna then magics up a ring of fire. Wolves fear fire.
Ellis is in the house, Fletcher about to follow her, when he hears his mum cry out. One wolf has braved the flames and has her scarf in its teeth. “Mum!” Fletcher yells, kicks at the wolf, and pulls the scarf from his mother’s neck. “Go!” She runs inside and he follows, just as another wolf sinks its teeth into his calf. Fletcher howls but kicks out, again and again, until the wolf releases its jaws. Fletcher ducks inside, slams the door and sinks to the floor, agony and blood stopping him from going any further.
The Accidental End (The Accidental Witch Trilogy Book 3) Page 10