“So, I’m saying goodbye to them? Seeing them one last time, without them even knowing it.” She shakes her head, anger colouring her face. “I hate this. I don’t want to say goodbye. I don’t want to die. And I don’t want to be your stupid head witch anymore.”
She pulls away from him, shakes off his arm, and runs upstairs.
When he opens his door, she’s gathering her things into a pile on his bed. “I’m done.”
“Ellis,”
Fury makes her fingertips spark. “No! Thea and Talia get to walk away. Why don’t I? Because I’m the stupid head witch! That’s your problem, not mine. I didn’t ask to be head witch; I didn’t ask to be a witch at all. I didn’t ask to be a part of this stupid war. I don’t want to say goodbye to my family. No!”
She stands up, and then her hands drop to her sides and she sobs.
He holds her, and eventually she leans into him, tears soaking his clothes. He doesn’t care. “I’m sorry, more sorry than you’ll ever know. If I could undo it, I would. If I could keep you safe, I would.”
Her voice is quiet. “But you can’t.”
They cry together, holding on to each other, as though the world might end if they let go of each other. Which it might.
“Why is this so much worse than anything else? Why didn’t I say goodbye before we went to the pier? There were demons on the pier. And Zeta’s dead now. Is it that bad?”
There is hope in her voice that makes him want to cry even more. “When they banished the demons – before my time – more people died than at any other time in the history of the supernatural creatures. Trying to get the demons, who were reluctant, to say the least, back to the portal, to get them in there, to subdue them enough.” He shivers. “We’ve all heard horror stories.”
“Can’t we just leave them out, then?”
He shakes his head. “Without proper supervision, they’ll just kill everyone. Men, women, children, human or otherwise, they just don’t care.”
“So where are they now? If they’re so terrible, why aren’t we hearing reports about it?”
“I don’t know. Zeta only just died; she might have been magically harnessing them somehow. So we have to do it, and we have to do it quickly.”
“So, do I even have time to say goodbye to my family? Is there any point if they won’t even know I’m there?”
“It’s your call. We’ll make time.”
She lays down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “This is not how I thought I’d end up. When I realised that I’d become your head witch; I thought it would be amazing. I thought I’d have power. I thought it would be fun.”
“It’s not usually so bad.”
“I hate it.” Tears roll down her face and into her ears, making them itch.
He lies down beside her, takes her hand in his and holds it next to his heart. “I can’t say it enough times. I’m sorry. I wish things were normal. I wish we were just in college again. I wish you weren’t a part of this. But you are. If we can get the demons to the portal, if we can figure out how to convince the other creatures that we mean no harm, if we can get everything back to normal, then we can try again to make you normal too.”
She closes her eyes. “I don’t want to see my family. It’ll be too sad. To be there but for them not to know I’m there. It’ll feel wrong, and it won’t achieve anything. It’s just going to make me even sadder. If I have to be part of this, let’s just do it. Get on with it and get it over with.”
He closes his eyes and they lie side by side in silence until Elodie knocks on the door.
Ellis
The knock at the door makes me want to throw up. This is it. Time to invoke some black magic and wrestle with demons. Sounds like fun.
I follow Fletcher from his lovely, safe, smelly bedroom, down the stairs, feeling my stomach drop with each step. I wish I was an evil twin and could escape this.
“Did you want to go home?” Elodie asks, looking so concerned for me I cry a bit. I shake my head no.
It’s a lie. Of course, I want to go home, and not just to see my family, but to hide under my bed and never come out again.
It’s not an option. The next time I see my family I will be safe and my normal self again. Or, if they cannot undo the magic that made me a witch, then I’ll at least be safe. I won’t risk bringing trouble to their door and seeing them will hurt me more than help me.
“Ember’s back. It’s time.”
The front room looks unfamiliar. It’s empty of furniture and full of candles instead. The fire is lit, and roaring merrily away, and I think about jumping in it for a second. I want to run away.
Ember is sitting cross-legged on the floor, her back to the flames. Elodie sits opposite her, and gestures for me and Fletcher to sit opposite each other, in between them.
On the floor in the middle of us is the book. The family spell book.
Like a family recipe book, only creepier.
I try to breathe; I do not want to have a panic attack or pass out, or die. Not much to ask.
“This is the easy bit,” Elodie says, and I actually snort, then cough and then clamp my mouth shut because Ember is glaring at me, and Fletcher is shaking his head. Sorry, but easy?
Easy is what my family makes me do: put lipstick on dead people, decant ashes into pretty boxes and share my living space with corpses. What Fletcher’s family makes him do is battle supernatural creatures, invoke evil demons and try to save the world by shutting down stupid
