Hex Appeal, page 25
‘What the fuck?’ he whimpered, as she turned and waved at him.
‘Come on, Josh!’
‘Yes, do come on, Mr… Henderson, isn’t it?’ said the woman on the broom. She held her hand out to him. There was a glint in her eyes he didn’t like one bit.
‘You must be kidding,’ he said, and made his own way over the ditch by the totally masculine and sportsmanlike method of sitting down on the edge of one side and scrambling inelegantly up the other.
‘My way was faster,’ sighed the woman on the broom. She floated along beside him as he trudged after Siena. ‘I must say, you’re displaying a lot of courage here,’ she added.
Josh’s feet were squelching inside his boots and the rain had soaked through to his underwear. ‘That’s me,’ he said. ‘Captain Courageous.’
‘Following your sister like this, when you’ve no idea what’s in store.’
Josh watched Siena reach the low piles of bricks that marked out some of the previous manor house. She waved at the woman in dungarees, went forward and pulled aside the baby’s hood to show him off. The other woman grinned and waved her hands about, but her smile faded when she glanced over at Josh.
He glared at her, and then at the woman flying beside him. There is a woman flying on a broomstick three feet from me, he thought. I’m not courageous. I’m insane.
‘What is in store?’ he asked the broomstick woman.
‘We’re going to raise an ancient evil and then destroy it,’ she replied calmly.
‘Cool,’ said Josh. ‘That happen a lot around here?’
‘More often than you’d think.’
‘You know what, lady, I don’t even know what I think any more.’
She shrugged as if to concede the point. ‘Tell me, Mr Henderson, did you ever find Beldam House?’
He stopped dead, and wondered for a second if lightning had struck him. ‘Beldam House?’ he said.
‘Yes. Essie tells me you had trouble finding it to begin with. Don’t feel bad, most people do…’
She prattled on, still hovering a couple of feet above the air, as Josh stood and tried to work out why he knew that name. Beldam House. He had tried to find it, hadn’t he?
For a moment he could only think of gothic towers and giant plants and, for some reason, parrots, and then he shook himself. A bad dream, probably. He’d had enough of them last night in the short hours of sleep he’d snatched.
‘Come on, Josh,’ called a voice from ahead, and he looked up to see the woman in dungarees, the woman who had either broken into his house and sexually assaulted him, or else was his girlfriend who he’d been happily boinking all night, standing in the lee of the low wall, beckoning to him.
Beside her stood a rusted cauldron.
‘I’m going to need you to trust me,’ she said.
Essie thought she’d had her heart broken before, and maybe she had. All those years ago when Sean leaped out of bed screaming and she realised what she’d done, for one. When she’d seen Bradley snogging someone else at the summer fete, for another. When her mother used to leave for weeks, sometimes months at a time and Essie had sat outside the time door, wondering when she’d come back.
But none of them, absolutely none, hurt nearly as much as the way Josh looked at her when she asked him to trust her.
Rain dripped off his face as he said, ‘I don’t even know who you are.’
The pain in her chest was almost physical.
‘But my sister trusts you. And what’s more she trusts you with her son, so.’ He glanced at Siena. ‘I guess I’m gonna have to trust you, too.’
Relief left Essie in one hard breath. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Oh, thank you, Josh. You have no idea…’
Lilith glared at her, tapping her wrist. She didn’t wear a watch, but Essie did, and she saw it was just after half past ten. Not that she needed a watch to tell her what every nerve was screaming.
The cross-quarter – the exact half point between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, the sunset of the year when light tipped towards darkness – was in about two minutes.
‘Right. Thank you. Do you have my phone? Thanks, Siena. Can I get you to—’
‘Essabett,’ said her mother. ‘We do not have time.’
Essie glanced down at her phone frantically. She had to get Josh to read what was on that ancient parchment so he could break the perception spell. That would take less than two minutes. But she’d also need him to seal it with blood, and persuading him to do that when he wouldn’t even come closer than ten feet was going to take significantly longer.
‘All right,’ she said, tucking the phone into her pocket. She’d do it after the ritual. Unless the ritual failed and then there would be no point, because they’d probably all be dead.
I don’t want to die with Josh hating me.
But she didn’t have much choice in the matter right now.
She nodded to Lilith and lit the fire under the cauldron. For a moment, she was worried the wood had got too wet, but she concentrated hard and flames whooshed up from it.
The cauldron contained a potion Avery had cooked up for them overnight, in between tending the various broths they were making for Maude. Neither Avery nor Blessing wanted to leave the older witch, and Essie couldn’t entirely blame them.
Besides, she knew that this was something that had to be done by herself and Lilith. This whole thing had begun between the Winterscales and the Hopkins. It had to end that way too.
‘In fire it began,’ she said. ‘In fire it must end.’
‘Fire?’ said Josh nervously.
‘You’ll be fine. I won’t do anything to hurt any of you. I promise. I promise. I promise.’
He didn’t look much relieved, and neither should he. Essie might not hurt them, but she couldn’t speak for Hopkins.
The contents of the cauldron began to bubble. It was a prop, just like everything was a prop, but into it Avery had added clippings of all their hair, plus some stray ones collected from Josh and Siena’s pillows. Essie couldn’t be entirely certain there weren’t some cat and dog hairs in the mix too, but she figured they were all part of the family so that counted.
Besides, it was the intention that counted. Essie had asked Avery to make something to strengthen her will and her power, and Avery had smiled and said, ‘Just think about who you’re doing this for as I make it.’
And Essie had thought of the other witches, of the village of Good Winter, of all the witches who had come before her and would come after. And then she’d thought about Siena and the baby, and mostly she’d thought about Josh.
‘And we have power,’ Avery had murmured, as the potion changed from a murky brown to the green of the shirt Josh had been wearing on their last day together.
She dipped a cup in and took a sip. It tasted of cold, crisp snow and smoky autumn mornings. It tasted like spring blossom and warm summer grass.
Fire and ice, she told herself. What was one but the absence of the other?
‘Matthew Hopkins!’ she shouted. ‘I summon thee!’
She grabbed her broom and walked in a rough circle around the cauldron, sweeping.
‘My Matthew?’ murmured Siena, cuddling the baby protectively. Essie saw Lilith shake her head.
‘Matthew Hopkins. Son of James Hopkins, father of John Hopkins,’ clarified Essie. ‘I summon thee to this time and place.’
She made the circle wide, and made sure Siena and Josh were inside it. Her mother she didn’t worry about. Lilith knew what was expected of her.
‘Matthew Hopkins, murderer of witches. I summon thee to this place and time.’
She closed the circle and banged her broom on the ground.
For a terrible moment nothing happened, and not for the first time Essie reflected that being a witch would be a lot damn easier if spells were things you learned and memorised instead of making them up every time.
‘Uh,’ said Josh, and then suddenly the fire roared and the earth trembled.
‘Are you sure this is safe?’ said Siena. She had both arms wrapped around the baby in its sling.
‘We will not harm you,’ said Lilith, and there was something very definite about that last syllable.
From the sodden earth something like ashes rose up, forming as they did the monstrous shape of a man. It wasn’t the well-dressed, handsome young man they’d met in the seventeenth century, but more like what would have happened if his corpse was preserved in ice for hundreds of years. Twisted, emaciated, the face a sunken gargoyle.
It lifted its head and roared, and ash fountained from its gaping mouth. Where the rain hit its blackened skin, it sizzled. Rage poured off it like dry ice.
‘Matthew Hopkins, son of James Hopkins. I bind thee to my will. I bind thee to my will. I bind thee to my will.’
The monster paused, and turned its hideous face towards Lilith, because it was Lilith who had shouted the words.
‘Your will, hag?’ Its voice whined like a cold wind under an ill-fitting door.
‘I will thank you not to insult me,’ said Lilith sharply.
The monster that had been Hopkins laughed, a nasty grating chuckle. ‘I know you,’ it said.
Essie began to move closer to Siena while its attention was diverted.
‘Aye?’
‘I know you of old. Lilith Winterscale.’
Lilith’s chin came up. ‘What of it?’
‘Even thy name speaks of congress with the Devil,’ spat Hopkins. His voice boiled with hatred.
‘Bind it to your will,’ Essie murmured to Siena.
‘What?’ Siena looked terrified, as well she might.
‘Repeat those words my mother said. Say it three times.’
‘But my son is called Matthew—’
Yes, and thanks for that. ‘Was his father called James?’
‘Uh… I don’t… um, actually know.’
‘Cosmic,’ muttered Essie. In front of her, Hopkins traded insults with Lilith, the shade of its body hissing and spitting in the rain. ‘Call him the witchfinder general. Do it now, please. Quietly.’
Siena looked like she’d rather be anywhere but here, but she repeated the words Essie had told her. Essie nodded, and crept closer to Josh.
‘I need you to bind him,’ she whispered, as loudly as she dared. Josh might just be in Hopkins’s eyeline.
‘What?’ Josh looked stunned and terrified, which was fair enough. There was a sort of ice mummy ghost shouting insults right in front of him.
‘Strumpet!’ shouted the monster that had been Hopkins. ‘Putrid whore!’
‘Hey, less of the insults, buddy,’ said Josh, just as Essie reached him, and she could have shouted at him. Fantastic timing to draw his attention!
Hopkins swung around, his desiccated face a few feet from Josh’s.
‘What say you?’ he grated.
‘Just,’ Josh swallowed, and leaned back but stood his ground. ‘Less with the whore, okay? She’s a lady.’
‘I thank you,’ said Lilith.
But Hopkins made a sound like a snort. ‘She is a whore,’ he said. ‘I have seen her puling brat and yet she be unwed.’
‘Puling brat?’ Essie said. Did… had her mother had another child? Four hundred years ago?
‘Not the time or place,’ said Lilith quickly.
Essie figured time and place were rather mutable things for her mother, but she agreed they had more important things to do right now. Hopkins was leaning closer to Josh, and inhaling. She saw a look of recognition come over his face.
‘A whore I may be, but I am no blasphemer,’ said Lilith loudly, and Hopkins swung back to her.
‘Blasphemer!’ he roared. ‘Not just a whore but a lying one!’
‘You take the words of the scripture and twist them to your own ends,’ shouted Lilith. ‘For profit! You sell your soul for silver!’
Essie darted to Josh and whispered urgently, ‘Say, “Matthew Hopkins, witchfinder general, I bind thee to my will,” three times.’
He looked at her like she was mad. ‘Lady, I don’t know what it is you’re doing here—’
‘Trying to save the world, and I need your help,’ Essie hissed. ‘Just do it, Josh. Please.’ She felt tears burning in her eyes. ‘I know you can’t remember me, but do it for Siena, for the baby. Please. For the people you love.’
He glanced over at his sister, who huddled against the ruined wall of the old manor house, cuddling the baby close.
He looked back at Essie. His brown eyes were narrowed against the rain but against her too.
He glanced at the monster, who was screaming Bible verses at Lilith as if they were arrows or bullets.
‘Fuck it,’ he muttered, and then slightly louder, ‘Matthew Hopkins, witchfinder general, I bind thee to my will.’
‘Thank you,’ whispered Essie, as he repeated it. ‘Thank you, Josh.’
He gave her a wary nod, but kept his eyes on the monster.
She waited until the last of Josh’s repetitions had faded into silence, and then murmured her own. She felt it take hold, the link between her and Hopkins. His filthy, rotten soul bound to her.
She took in a deep breath, and reminded herself of the smell of winter and of summer. Then she raised her voice and shouted.
‘Matthew Hopkins who calls himself the witchfinder general! We bind and abjure thee!’
His face whipped around, and his horrible dried-up eyes swivelled in her direction. The force of his malevolence was horrifying.
He peered at her. Then he laughed that merciless laugh. ‘It is the puling babe,’ he said.
‘The…’ began Essie, put off her stride. What did he mean by that? Had he met her as a baby? When?
‘Whore’s whelp,’ sneered the spectre. ‘Fornicator!’
Concentrate, Essie. ‘We bind and abjure thee,’ she repeated, but Hopkins swooped closer and breathed ash all over her.
‘Foul hag born of a hag,’ he said. ‘I remember thee. Froze thy mother’s tit as a mere suckling babe. Like Midas,’ he jeered, ‘but a weak, artless woman.’
I froze her? Essie’s gaze darted to her mother, who avoided her gaze. I hurt her, just like I hurt Sean, just like I’d hurt Josh if he ever remembered me –
‘Hey.’ A hand touched hers, a warm human hand, and she looked up, astonished, to find Josh beside her. ‘He’s trying to distract you. Concentrate.’
‘Useless hag who freezes all around her!’
‘Let go,’ begged Essie, tugging her hand away. ‘I don’t want to hurt you—’
The corner of his mouth quirked. ‘You promised not to.’
From her other side Siena said, ‘You said it three times. That has to mean something, right?’
Essie looked from one to the other of them. ‘It means an oath that can’t be broken,’ she said.
‘Well then,’ said Josh, and his hand took hers firmly. ‘I guess that means you can’t.’ Siena took her other hand. Josh said, ‘What did you come here to do?’
Essie’s fingers tightened around Josh’s. He couldn’t remember her, but he could trust her. He was still her Josh, the one she’d fallen in love with. And that was more powerful than any magic.
Essie looked at the monster taunting her, and lifted her chin. ‘I came to burn you,’ she said.
Hopkins cackled. ‘Burn me? With that pathetic fire? Thou hast the warmth of thy mother’s tit.’
Lilith came to stand on Siena’s other side, and took her hand. ‘And what would you know about the warmth of a woman’s tit, Hopkins?’ she said.
‘No one’s ever let you touch one,’ Essie said.
‘Lies,’ hissed Hopkins. ‘I have fathered a child.’
‘Within wedlock?’ said Essie.
‘Even on a woman who gave you her consent?’ said Lilith.
‘What woman would give you consent?’ said Siena, with the full force of withering scorn only a girl from Beverley Hills could summon.
‘Are you sure you’re not just angry at the world because a nice girl said no to you?’ said Josh.
Hopkins screamed and flew at them, but he was insubstantial, no more than a stinking shadow.
‘How did you know a nice girl said no to him?’ Essie muttered.
‘Look at him,’ said Josh. ‘He’s every angry guy watching porn in his mom’s basement.’
‘You want a nice girl, you gotta be a nice guy,’ agreed Siena.
‘Nice girls owe you nothing,’ Josh said to the raging spectre, and Essie felt a glow of pride.
‘Hagridden whoreson!’ roared Hopkins, surging forward.
‘Fire is the opposite of ice,’ Essie said to the others. ‘When I say so, concentrate as hard as you can on burning him—’
But Siena wasn’t listening. ‘You stay the hell away from my baby,’ she snapped, recoiling. Essie and Lilith held her firm.
Hopkins inched in closer, his hideous face sniffing like a rabid dog. ‘Another Hopkins whelp,’ he rasped.
‘That’s Matthew E—’ Siena began, and Lilith’s free hand slammed down over her mouth.
‘Don’t give him the name!’ she snapped.
‘Never give him his name!’ Essie cried.
Siena’s hand trembled in Essie’s. But she rallied. ‘You’re not fit to speak it,’ she spat.
‘Good girl,’ Josh murmured.
‘Blood of my blood,’ crooned Hopkins thoughtfully.
‘You keep your filthy hands off him,’ Siena said.
‘Off him?” Hopkins was nearly purring now. ‘How about in him—’
‘Now!’ yelled Essie, as Hopkins oozed closer to the baby in its sling. ‘We burn thee with fire! We send thee to Hell!’
‘You will burn for all eternity,’ shouted Lilith, as the raindrops hitting Hopkins began to steam.
‘You never will rise again!’ Essie roared with all the force she could.
‘You’ll never hurt anyone,’ Josh yelled.
‘You’ll never work in this town again,’ screamed Siena, and despite herself, Essie nearly laughed.
The thing that had been Hopkins began to wail.
‘With fire we burn you! We condemn you! We destroy you!’ Essie shouted. The rain came harder and harder, but it was a hot rain, and where it hit the monster it burned like oil. ‘We cleanse you from this earth forever! As we will it, so will it be!’
