Authors: Jenna Grey
Lily’s heart left her body for a few moment and she felt nauseous.
“Where does he touch you?” she asked, her voice surprisingly calm.
“My face,” she said, and she touched her cheek.
“Nowhere else?”
Sarah shook her head and Lily sensed that she was telling the truth. Lily said a silent prayer of thanks.
“Can you make him go away?” Sarah asked, and she suddenly burst into tears and flung her arms around Lily, holding her tight and sobbing into her neck.
“Yes, I can,” Lily said, with such firm conviction that no-one could disbelieve her. She eased Sarah away and stared her straight in the eye, willing her to believe. “I can make him go away for good.”
Any fear that Lily might have felt for her own safety was long gone, and now all she could feel was sheer blind rage. She had no idea how she was going to do it, but she would not let that creature harm those children, even if it meant putting herself in danger to do it. She had been so focused on the children's peril that she’d not really had time to think of her own, and what might happen when night fell, and she was left alone in her room. She knew in her heart that Connor’s charm would work; she had felt its magic, but still there was the lingering fear that something would go wrong and the one thought she couldn’t allow in was what would happen if it did.
She had been tempted to spend the night in the children’s room, but realised that she might actually be putting them in more danger by doing that. At the moment the djinn, however many there were of them, seemed content just to torment the children, cruelly teasing them, but weren’t actually hurting them. Her presence in the room might just encourage the Shadow People to take it one step further. She still hadn’t quite worked out the ingredients of the charm that Connor had given her to protect her, but she could deconstruct it, she’d make some for the children as well. It might not work as well, collecting the ingredients in the day, but she needed to try and be sensible, going out at night was just too dangerous now – she’d make it work. Her sense of smell was usually so acute that she could pick out ingredients in sauces and dishes without much effort, but she really didn’t want to make a mistake when it came to making those charms. It’s not as if she could try again if the bloody thing failed. She wondered how the hell she was going to get them to wear them – not only Liam and Sarah, but Kieran as well, because he was in just as much danger. What about Claire, though? She was banking on the fact that she more or less hated Claire, or at least didn’t have any love for her, and that might be enough to keep her safe. It was obvious that the djinn were targeting the people she really cared about. She wished she did care more about Claire, but after tonight she really couldn’t feel anything but bitter anger towards her.
She desperately needed to get back to see Connor and tell him everything that had happened, although she was quite certain that he already knew. She supposed when it came to it she just needed him, to feel safe just for a few minutes, to be reassured that everything was going to be all right, that they really could beat these creatures and live happily ever after. It was a fool’s wish, but wasn’t any comfort better than none?
Lily went to the wardrobe and pulled out the ointment she’d made for Connor, giving it a sniff. It seemed to have worked perfectly as far as she could tell, maturing much faster than she hoped it would; magic buzzed through it, making her fingers tingle. It was certainly going to do something, even if it wasn’t what she’d actually intended it to.
As soon as Claire was back and settled down for the night she would go back to see him. Until then all she could do was wait.
Chapter Ten.
The house was quiet now, the only sound the ticking of the large clock in the hallway. Lily pulled on her track suit bottoms, a tee-shirt, a hoody and her trainers. There was no point in making this a casual stroll – she just wanted to get there and back, fast. She took the ointment from the wardrobe, and tucked it safely in her hoody pocket.
She slipped downstairs, terrified beyond rational thought, but knowing that she had to do this. She didn’t have to worry about Claire waking up at least – she was so drunk that Lily didn’t think anything could wake her up, short of a full scale attack by an entire contingent of NATO forces.
Lily slipped out and into the darkness, this time armed with two powerful flash lights, and a couple of ultra violet solar powered lights, but the chances are they would be useless – the bulbs would probably blow as soon as she switched them on. She’d sent off for some tasers, but they hadn’t arrived yet.
She started sprinting, the moon her only light, but under the shade of the overhanging trees all she could see were dark shadows, closing in on either side. The darkness had never been her enemy, not until these last few weeks, when the Shadow People had suddenly made their appearance, now every shadow brought new terror, every fluttering movement in the dark a threat. She could see well enough in the darkest of nights, could make out shapes and movement in the shadows that no human could ever see, but what had once been a blessing was now a curse, because she imagined every rustle in the bushes to be that obsidian monster, coming for her.
She ran hard and fast to the village, wanting to get to the comforting light of the few lamps along the high street. The village lay in darkened silence, the cottages and small Tudor houses on either side silent, the pub long since closed, and its tipsy occupants safely tucked in bed. By the time she moved into their comforting golden light she was so exhausted that she could barely keep on her feet. Her lungs were sharp shards of pain, her heart was thumping wildly, blood pounding through her temples, drying her throat, and tightening her chest. She just stood for a few moments trying to get her breath back, letting the street lights bathe her in their soft glow.
She looked up to see the strangest sight.
The three Bs were standing just in front of her – just standing there in the middle of the road, lined up in a neat row, staring at her. It was such an odd spectacle that Lily couldn’t quite take it in for a moment or work out what was wrong with the picture. Then she realised. They were wearing their night clothes, and all of them were bare-footed. Bryony’s hair was cut boy short, the legacy of Lily’s curse; her tee-shirt night dress was muddy and torn, her bare legs covered in large scratches, blood streaming down, her feet muddy and bloody as well, although it was hard to tell which in the sickly glow of the street light. Brittany and Brook were in even worse states, Brook’s face badly scratched across her cheek, one eye almost swollen shut, her lip puffy. Brittany had twigs and brambles caught in her hair, her face covered with spots from Lily’s curse, and very bloody, her pyjamas torn and muddy at the front. They were a dreadful sight as they stood on the tarmacked road just staring at her, with lifeless eyes.
“Hey,” Lily said, desperately trying to make some kind of sense of the situation. “What are you doing here?”
They said nothing, just continued that relentless, lifeless stare, moving around her, and spreading outwards, trying to box her in. And in that instant she understood. She braced herself, ready to run, but she still had the most dreadful stitch in her side and she had the terrible feeling that they could outrun her easily. She was exhausted – they didn’t seem to be feeling any pain. They were circling around her, like raptors, ready to go in for the kill, and she turned with them, trying to keep an eye on all of them, waiting for one or all of them to attack.
“Let them go, you fucker,” she said. “This has got nothing to do with them.”
Alien eyes looked out at her, dark malevolence, calculating, plotting its next move. One entity, occupying all three of them. She thought back to the writing on the wall: They are all one and the same. This creature was able to split itself into endless forms, take an infinite number of bodies. The three Bs were still in there somewhere, but whoever it was that was looking out at her through their eyes was far more dangerous than three spiteful teenagers. She didn’t want to hurt the girls, she really didn’t, but this thing was out to hurt her and she couldn’t just roll over and let it do it.
“Bryony, Brittany, Brook – if you’re in there, then you have to fight back. Fight!”
She knew even as the words left her lips she was wasting her breath. The fact that they had been taken at all was testimony to their weakness of character. They didn’t stand a chance against this creature. She looked around, desperate, trying to think of some way out of this without hurting the girls. She came up empty. There was only one way this was going to go and that was as an all out battle ‒ with her losing.
Resigned to having to fight her way out of this, Lily looked for something she could use as a weapon. She spotted a broken tree branch by the side of the road, far too far away for her to reach it, but if she could get a hold of it, it would at least give her some chance to defend herself. She raised her hand and willed it to her; she had moved larger objects, but not when she had been so exhausted. It took an enormous amount of power to move objects using telekinesis. For a moment nothing happened, then the branch rocked a little on its grassy bed, trembling, as if there was a mini earthquake beneath it, and one end lifted up just a few inches from the ground, wobbling drunkenly in the air. She could do this ‒ she could. The other end tilted up, so that the branch was hovering just above the ground, and then with such suddenness that it made her jump, the branch shot towards her. Lily snatched at it as it almost flew past her, barely catching the last few twigs as they sailed past her hand, and she pulled it to her, feeling the good, solid weight in her hand. If it came into contact with a head, it would do a lot of damage. Lily held it in front of her, grasping it two-handed, knees slightly bent, ready for an attack.
“You can’t win this battle – all you can do is force me to hurt these girls – and do you know what? I don’t mind doing it. They’ve made my life a misery for most of my life, and I don’t give a damn if I break their teeth. So come on, do your worst and I’ll do mine.”
It had been ridiculous for her to hope that a bluff like that would work. The Black King didn’t care what happened to these girls, and he wasn’t going to let her get away that easily. He would gladly sacrifice their lives to hurt her even a little.
The three Bs circled around Lily, in what looked like a carefully choreographed ballet, faces blank, just moving endlessly around her in every decreasing circles. Lily could breathe again now, recovered enough to run, she thought, and that was all she could do, wasn’t it? Just get the hell away from them and outrun them. The creature inside them might be superhuman, but the three Bs were overweight and out of condition. She looked down at the branch and realised that it was too heavy for her to run with it. If she ran she would have to ditch it and if they did catch her then, she was completely defenceless. Fight or run? She considered her options and decided there was only one. She flung the branch away, turned and ran.
It was a big mistake. She should have stood her ground for a little longer, given herself more time to get her breath back, but fear had got the better of her. She soon had a stitch in her side, a sharp pain that seemed to travel right through from one side of her body to the other. She put her hand to it and tried to run through it, but eventually it became so bad that she had to stop for a few moments to get her breath back. She doubled over, still clutching her side, gasping in air.
Behind her she heard the pounding of bare feet on tarmac, and noises which could never be human, even though they were coming from human throats. She wanted to look back, to see how close behind they were, but was so afraid that if she looked over her shoulder she would lose her pace, or see them right behind her. In the end she had to look. She glanced over her shoulder. Brook had collapsed and lay still on the tarmac – the others had fallen behind, but were still running. She could see that Brittany’s ankle was twisted badly, possibly even broken – it turned at a strange angle, even though she was still running on it.
Lily watched them moving closer and she had no doubts in her mind that if they attacked she was dead. She couldn’t hope to match them strength for strength. All three of them were far bigger than she was, and fuelled by supernatural power she was sure she could never match. If she was going to keep them at bay she would need to use serious magic.
And she suddenly felt Connor there with her, his hand in hers. It was so real that she actually turned her head, expecting to see him standing beside her, but there was no-one there. But she could feel him and hear his words in her head, and although she couldn’t understand him exactly, she knew what he was asking her to do. She raised her face to the heavens and turned to the moon, staring at its almost full brightness.
“Hecate, mighty goddess of crossroads, darkness, death, wisdom, and the moon, please come to me. Please Hecate, protect me and help me in this hour of danger. I am one of your own and I ask you to give me all I need to keep me safe. Hecate, surround me in your darkness so that I can bring forth my light.”
This was a summoning her mother had taught her, and she had never thought she would have to use it. It was the highest magic, way beyond most witches, and really never used by the fey. She poured as much of her power into it as she could, and she could feel Connor’s power joining hers, more potent than anything she could summon.
For a moment nothing happened, then as Lily gazed up to the moon, a dark shadow fell across it. For a moment Lily thought that it was the Black King… but then she felt an overwhelming sensation of well being as the darkness moved towards her, wrapping around her, like a mother’s arms embracing a precious child. She could still feel Connor’s hand in hers, his comforting presence beside her, but this wonderful feeling didn’t come from him. The velvet darkness seemed to slip inside her, and then came an explosion of white light that filled the air with a glorious luminescence, so bright it was almost blinding. The air shimmered for seconds afterwards with a silver glow, which gradually died away.
“Thank you,” she whispered, to the moon.
She watched as Bryony threw her head back and opened her mouth impossibly wide, like a wolf howling at the moon and a great pillow of black smoke poured from it, shooting off into the darkness. She dropped instantly as if someone had cut invisible strings. Brittany dropped too, the same malevolent cloud of tiny particles shooting from her mouth.
Connor was gone, and so was Hecate, she was on her own again, and she knew that after using that much power, she wouldn’t be able to use even basic magic for quite some time.
The three girls lay like broken dolls on the road, and Lily had no idea what to do. She had to do something to help them, didn’t she? They were injured, and as useless as they were, as spiteful and shallow, she could never wish this on them. What could she do, though? There was a phone box just along the road, she ran full pelt to it and was blessed with the immediate comfort of the bright neon light as she entered. She could barely see, blinded by her own sweat; she wiped it away with the hem of her tee-shirt, trying to get her breath back enough to speak coherently. She dialled 999.
“Hello, I was just out for a jog... and I noticed three girls acting as if they were drunk... in the village high street... Little Ostrey. They’ve just collapsed. I think they must have been on drugs or something... I think they need an ambulance.”
“Can I take your name, please?”
Lily put the phone down and ran.
How the hell the girls were going to explain this to the authorities she would never know, but she couldn’t just leave them lying there. She felt terrible for them – this wasn’t their fight. Yet again innocent people had been dragged into her battle and whatever had happened to them was her fault. This had to stop. She carried on running and reached Hawthorn Lodge in just a couple of minutes. She was so tired and distressed that she could barely put two thoughts together, but she needed to see this through now she’d gotten this far.
There was an attendant she didn’t recognise on the front desk, a large, ruddy-faced man that looked as if someone had turned his thermostat up too high; sweating and looking as if he needed to let some steam out of his ears to stop himself exploding. He was sitting at the desk, reading a newspaper, feet up, yawning away his boredom every so often. He glanced at the clock every ten seconds as if he might somehow be able to will the hands around faster, checking the back page for the football results. Lily pushed into his mind… and found very little, but apparently Manchester United did very well in last week’s match. It was a simple matter for Lily to wait until his head was down and open the front door. 2413 – and the door opened, with just the faintest noise as the rubber seal around it separated.
Lily crept inside, moving cautiously across the wide expanse of reception, her heart pounding so hard that she was sure that he’d be able to hear it as she passed his desk, but he just kept staring down at the newspaper, totally oblivious to her as she staggered up the stairs to Connor’s room. She breathed a heart felt sigh of relief as she closed the door behind her.
Connor was awake. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his hands pressed between his knees, staring down at the floor. The blinds were open and moonlight flooded the room – every shape and shadow in bright contrast to one another. When he heard the door open and close he looked up and leapt to his feet, rushing to her and throwing his arms around her, holding her so tightly that she could hardly breathe.