other witch - complete series, page 39
‘I’m sorry, food service has ended,’ one of the waitresses told me, doing a good job of looking regretful rather than impatient.
‘That’s okay. We won’t be long. Can I grab a cappuccino?’
‘Of course. And for you?’ She looked at the men.
‘Orange juice,’ Benji ordered happily.
‘Nothing for me, thank you,’ Bastion murmured.
Tarone looked up and froze like a rabbit in headlights. A golem and a griffin were an intimidating sight so I didn’t blame him.
Before he could do something stupid like try to flee, I sat opposite him and the two men sat on the other free sides of the table. ‘Hello, Tarone,’ I said calmly. ‘I’ve been phoning you but you haven’t returned my calls.’
He folded his arms. ‘That’s not a crime, DeLea.’
‘Nobody said it was – but it’s interesting that your brain goes straight to criminality.’
He glared. ‘My sister is dead. Have some respect.’
‘I have plenty. I have nothing but respect for your sister and everything she accomplished with her life.’
‘She would still be alive if she hadn’t left Jamaica,’ he said thickly, suddenly looking like a brother who was truly grieving.
‘We can’t know that.’ I softened my tone. ‘She made her choices and she loved her life.’
‘But not her family,’ he huffed.
‘That’s not true and you know it,’ I said vehemently. ‘She sent gifts to the family every birthday and every Christmas. She did video calls with your children and their children, too.’
‘But she didn’t visit,’ he grumped.
‘Because she feared you wouldn’t let her return to England.’ I wasn’t going to pussyfoot around; he had made Abigay feel like that. If she hadn’t returned to Jamaica, it was only him that was to blame.
His shoulders slumped and he stirred his tea dejectedly. ‘I know,’ he murmured.
‘Did you see her before she died?’ I asked. I knew that he had but if he lied about it…
He nodded. ‘Yes, I went to her home. We had tea and scones and cakes together. She loves … loved afternoon tea. She always had a sweet tooth.’ His eyes grew misty as he reminisced.
‘What did you talk about?’
He sighed. ‘I’ve aged. My daughter Donya tells me that I’ve been living in the past, that my fears have been pushing Abigay away. That it is my attitude that is the problem, not hers.’
He lifted his eyes to mine. ‘My daughter informs me that she is a lesbian. She has known for fifteen years. Fifteen years. It took her this long to tell me. Donya’s “best friend” Delyse “Bunnyhop” Johnson has been with her for five years. They live together – I always thought it was to save money on rent. Bunnyhop has come to dinner on many occasions.’
He closed his eyes. ‘And I’ve been talking to my wife about when Donya would finally find a husband.’ He groaned aloud in mortification.
‘Donya told Abigay she was gay, and Abigay was never less than supportive. I thanked her for that. It was an emotional talk,’ he admitted. ‘I said I felt like I was failing as a father because Donya hadn’t been able to speak to me or my wife. Abigay said it is only a failure when you give up.’
Tarone looked up. ‘I’m going to do better. It’s not too late to change. Donya only told me because she and Bunnyhop are going to have a baby together – they’ve done IVF. I have a grandbaby on the way.’
‘Congratulations,’ I said honestly.
He gave me a shaky smile. ‘Abigay promised to come home at Christmas and meet the new baby. And now she never will.’ Tears filled his eyes. He looked away and inhaled sharply through his nose, trying to keep them from falling. ‘Donya has already said that if the baby is a girl, she’ll be named Abigay after her aunt.’
I swallowed past the rock in my throat. ‘That’s lovely.’
He nodded jerkily. ‘I let Abigay down, and now I don’t have the chance to right those wrongs.’
‘Right them with Donya and her child. Abigay wasn’t one to hold a grudge.’
‘No, but I am.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘It’s another of my faults. I’m trying to change that, but there’s one thing I want to be clear on – I’ll never forgive her killer. You’ll find them, won’t you?’
‘I will,’ I promised, and I meant it with all my heart. Failure wasn’t an option, nor was it a word in my lexicon.
I would find her killer. Nothing would stop me.
Chapter 32
‘Bunnyhop is an unusual name,’ Benji remarked.
‘It’s a nickname,’ I explained. ‘In Jamaica they call them “yard names”. Abigay’s yard name was “Salad” because whenever she went to a cookout, she always went straight for the salad.’
‘You knew her well,’ he noted.
‘She half-raised me, especially when I got older. Mum was working hard to make ends meet and raise funds to send me to Edinburgh for my mastery, but she didn’t want my rune work to slacken in the meantime so she got Abigay to tutor me.’
Benji wrapped an arm around me. ‘You must be sad. Friends comfort friends when they are sad.’
I leaned into him. ‘They do. I am sad, but mostly I’m mad. When the mad goes, the sadness will stay.’
‘Abigay was very old, so that makes it better, doesn’t it?’ he asked hopefully. ‘I have heard people say things like “it was her time” and “she lived a good life”.’
‘Whilst that is true, it doesn’t make her loss any easier to bear. We humans have a lot of loss in our lives, and we have to do something to make it easier to cope with, so we utter these empty platitudes to each other. But they don’t make the loss better. Nothing does, but no one likes feeling helpless.’ I cleared my throat. ‘And you only think she’s old because you’re what? Twenty, now?’
He held up two beefy fingers. ‘Twenty-two.’
‘Where has the time gone?’ I gave him one last squeeze and stepped away. ‘Shall we head back to The Witchery?’
My phone beeped with a text from Peter, my dragon-shifter potion ingredient grower: Sorry that it has taken so long to compile this. Here is a list of witches that have recently and regularly purchased felfa leaves. I compiled it with the help of other felfa growers I am friendly with. There are more growers with whom I am not friendly so the list is not exhaustive.
Exhaustive or not, it was depressingly long. I scrolled through it and noted a number of my suspects including Eleanora, Hilary and Beatrice. Certainty settled into my gut but I needed evidence; at the moment I had nothing but my suspicions. Bastion was right: I had to set a trap.
‘Anything you wish to share with class?’ Bastion asked, making me smile a little. I passed him my phone so he could read the screen.
‘Felfa?’ he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
‘It’s used to make various healing potions, but it’s also one of the rarest ingredients in black mordis.’
‘But everyone on this list could be completely innocent?’
‘Absolutely.’ I grimaced. ‘It’s not the smoking gun we need.’ I’d hoped for a shorter list.
Bastion studied me. ‘You look like you’ve made a decision. Your main suspect is on this list?’
I nodded.
Benji didn’t ask to see the list and I didn’t share it with him because his oath-enforced allegiance to the Council would be problematic. Even so, I didn’t want to cut him out of the investigation and send him back to the dank underground if I didn’t have to.
I slid my eyes to him and Bastion followed my gaze. He gave a slight nod then changed the subject. ‘Tarone could use a crying jag.’
‘Shall we send him a copy of The Notebook?’ I asked drily. ‘That sure worked for me.’
‘Maybe My Sister’s Keeper would work better for him just now.’
I’d watched that movie once before but I’d started crying before the opening credits even started. ‘That’s just cruel!’ I joked.
We reached the car and slid into it. ‘To The Witchery,’ Bastion instructed Oscar.
The short drive didn’t take long. I used the time to text a few of the witches on my suspect list, including my main one. I confirmed that we’d found some evidence of black magic in Abigay’s room and that Bastion would secure the room until such time as the Council could remove the dark artefacts. I postulated that Abigay had found the trinkets on her tour of the covens and she’d removed them for safekeeping. The trap was set and baited.
Oscar parked up in the witches’ car park and we walked the rest of the way on foot. As always, Rosemary was on duty front of house. She gaped as I went in. ‘Amber! Where have you been? You were summoned by the Council this morning!’
I could hardly explain that I’d been doing some breaking and entering in Liverpool. My eyes narrowed. ‘I haven’t received a summons.’
‘You must have!’ Her eyes were wide with distress. ‘They sent out alerts to all potential candidates.’
I checked my phone again: nothing from the Council. ‘Potential candidates for what?’
‘For testing! For the Symposium member position.’ She bit her lip. ‘You’d better run. If they start the tests without you, you’ll be ineligible.’
Shit!
I grabbed Bastion’s arm and pulled him away from Rosemary’s listening ears. ‘I baited the trap,’ I explained hurriedly. ‘Terrible timing. You’ll have to stay here to see who comes.’
‘I’m not leaving you,’ he refused flatly, crossing his arms.
I glared at him. ‘You have to. I’m not letting this opportunity pass us by.’
‘We have cameras. They’ll have to be enough.’
‘Well, they’re not,’ I snapped. ‘We need to catch them in the act, not loitering in the hallway. We don’t have cameras in Abigay’s room, do we?’ He shook his head. ‘So one of us has to be here to ambush the black witch, and it needs to be you. You can take them out.’
‘I am here to protect you,’ Bastion said stubbornly. ‘That is my sole duty. I am not leaving you.’
‘Leaving me is protecting me! This is our opportunity to catch the black witch who’s targeting me.’
‘You know as well as I do that there’s a whole coven of them. Capturing one of them won’t make you any safer.’
‘I’ll stay here,’ Oscar said firmly, interrupting our bickering. ‘And I’ll summon all of you if someone starts poking around. Amber, you have to go! If you miss this chance it may never come again.’
He wasn’t wrong but I felt conflicted leaving him to face a black witch alone. ‘You won’t confront her, right? Just get evidence she was there?’
‘Right. Now GO!’
I went. I prayed I wouldn’t regret my decision.
Chapter 33
We were running through the underground city. ‘Too slow!’ Benji grunted. ‘Do you trust me, Am?’
‘Of course I trust you!’
‘Good.’ He looked at Bastion. ‘Meet us at the examination room. I will guard her until then. You have my word and oath.’ Then he swept me into his arms and walked us into the walls. I started to scream but shut my mouth abruptly as the walls met my face.
To say the experience of travelling through the walls was terrifying is an understatement. Somehow I could feel every grain of mud and sand passing through my being as Benji propelled us forward. We were moving faster than a rollercoaster, and if I’d had any air in my lungs I’d have been screaming. It felt like a second and a lifetime. When he finally burst us out of the walls, I bent double and sucked in a couple of desperate breaths.
‘Hurry!’ Benji urged. ‘They’re starting!’ He gave me no time to recover, just opened the huge wooden doors in front of me and shoved me in. ‘Amber DeLea presents herself!’ he called into the cavernous room.
This wasn’t the coven Council’s chambers but the witches’ hall. The full Council was sitting and before them were a number of witches: Kassandra Scholes, Eleanora Moonspell, Beatrice Wraithborne, Jason Bivane and Harold Tipither.
Jason and Harold weren’t real contenders, even if they didn’t know it. Harold had a rich dad but the magical ability and concentration span of a possessed mouse. He hadn’t mastered any of the witches’ core subjects. Jason had plenty of knowledge and ambition, but he was far too young. He’d only passed his runes’ mastery two years earlier and had yet to be tried and tested. Kass had her potions’ mastery, as did Eleanora, and both of them were strong contenders – but I was the only one who had mastered potions and runes.
Beatrice was a surprise. I’d thought she was gunning for the Crone role but perhaps this was her backup option.
‘I apologise,’ I said demurely to the room at large, like I wasn’t hopping mad at the omission. ‘I didn’t receive a notification of the testing.’
There were murmurs between the councillors. They all had their faces hidden by shadows and that suddenly gave me the chills. What if the shadows hid more than their face? How could we know that the Council members were who they claimed to be? The last few times they’d met, they’d had their cowls up. Abigay had said that wasn’t usual, yet the cowls were all I’d seen. What if an imposter was lurking amongst them?
The thought was like ice in my veins but there was nothing I could do about it right at that minute. Throwing accusations about would torpedo my chances of the membership seat faster than you could say ‘sunken ship’.
I sat at one of the examination tables and did my best to focus on the paper in front of me.
‘Pssst,’ Eleanora hissed at me.
I looked at her. ‘What?’
‘Why did you text me about dark artefacts?’ A frown passed over her worn face.
‘I might need some help nullifying them,’ I lied.
Her expression cleared. ‘Oh well, I can help with that. You need plenty of avronda root. I know a guy.’
So did I. I nodded and studied her eyes but there was nothing in them but simple curiosity: no zeal, no covetous light. She wasn’t interested in the artefacts for herself. Eleanora had always been at the bottom of my suspect list and now I scratched her off.
I looked at the cloaked and hooded figures around me. Amongst them were Hilary and Willow. Hilary had been one of Abigay’s best friends; she was also my chief suspect.
With all of the Council members here, I didn’t have to worry about Oscar back at The Witchery. If Hilary was here, she wouldn’t be attacking Oscar for the black artefacts. He was safe. Something in me eased and I focused on the test in front of me.
I turned over the top paper and smiled a little as I saw runes. If this whole test was rune based, I was a shoo-in.
Unfortunately, the rune paper was followed by a mystic paper with crystal-ball uses. That isn’t my speciality; I prefer to leave that sort of thing to the seers. I know the basics because I have to teach them to the acolytes, but it isn’t my passion. Divining the future is always a tricky business and it has the potential to ruin lives. I’d seen too many self-fulfilling prophecies to dabble lightly.
After that there was a potion theory paper, which I no doubt excelled at, and then a potion practical. When I finally looked up to take a breath, our coven Council audience had dwindled to just three. With their hoods up, I didn’t know which three were left – and I had no way of knowing if Hilary was amongst them. My stomach lurched in panic. Oscar!
I looked towards Bastion. He was on his phone, looking at me. He shook his head and hung up. His face was carefully blank, but Benji looked worried. I chewed my bottom lip. Something was happening and I’d bet my bottom dollar it was happening at The Witchery.
What mattered more to me: Oscar’s safety or my lifelong dream of becoming a member of the Symposium?
In the end, it was a no-brainer.
Chapter 34
‘What are you doing?’ one of the hooded Council members said as I stood up from my desk and walked away from the potion ingredients.
‘I have somewhere I need to be,’ I said flatly.
‘Amber, if you walk away without completing the last test, we can’t make you the Symposium member.’ I recognised Willow’s American twang.
‘I know, Willow. It’s okay. Thank you for all your help in getting me this far.’
‘You didn’t need my help, Amber. You deserve to be here.’
I smiled. ‘Thank you for that. I appreciate it.’
Kass was watching me with wide eyes. She pointed urgently back to my place, her meaning clear. I smiled ruefully and shook my head. ‘Good luck,’ I mouthed.
With worry for Oscar churning my gut, I ran to Benji and Bastion. ‘Let’s go.’ Neither of them argued with me as we started running through the underground city.
‘Here,’ Benji rumbled. ‘You can break through here. I’ll mend the damage afterwards so no one will know. I’ll travel through the walls and meet you in Abigay’s room.’
The ceiling above us looked solid and we eyed him dubiously. Benji punched it hard; his fist didn’t go through it but into it. Then he yanked hard and the whole thing came raining down on us. Bastion shifted into griffin form and threw open his wings to protect us from the falling debris.
Benji looked at us sheepishly. ‘I used a little too much power there.’
‘No? Really?’ Bastion snarked.
I elbowed him. ‘It’s fine.’ I smiled at Benji. ‘Thank you for making the opening. Are you sure you can close it?’
‘Easily,’ Benji assured me. ‘Go. I’ll meet you there.’
Since Bastion was in his griffin form, we might as well use it. I climbed onto his back. ‘Get us to The Witchery,’ I ordered.
‘Hold on,’ he grunted back.
I grabbed a tuft of fur at the apex of his back and clung on for dear life. His huge wings beat around us and drew us upwards. In moments we were airborne.
Benji knew what he was doing: he’d hustled us through the underground city so that we weren’t far from The Witchery. Bastion’s wings beat up and away and in less than a minute we were landing on the roof. He shimmered back into human form as I slid from his back, then took point as we ran down to the floor below.
