“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
