A groan escaped from somewhere deep inside me as I felt the raw shock, the terrible betrayal, the fear deep in my heart. My heat seeped away into the ground, leaving me cold to the bone.
Jet spoke again, his voice rushed. ‘Now remember one of your happiest memories.’
I opened my eyes, and there in front of me was a scene from a horror movie. Emerging from the bushes, coming towards us, were the dead. Many were sailors, but there were also women and children – their skin mostly washed away, every single eye socket glued to me.
I began to back away, but then I felt Jet’s hand on my shoulder. ‘There is only one way to escape them. Do as I say. Close your eyes, block them out and remember a happy memory.’
I closed my eyes, but all I could picture was the dead, getting closer by the second.
‘When you’re ready, say the word “discedo.”’
I tried to remember something, anything – but nothing would come.
‘Eva!’ said Jet.
I opened my eyes and the dead were nearly upon us. I screamed and Jet yelled, ‘Discedo!’ making them disappear in a puff of smoke.
I stared at the space where they had been. ‘How…did you do that?’
‘Practice,’ said Jet, running a hand through his hair. ‘You’re going to need to find your memory quickly, Eva – or…you know what could happen.’
I nodded, trying to find my calm in the midst of a storm.
‘Got a memory?’ he asked.
My mind flicked backwards and amongst the darkness, I found a moment from a happier time.
‘Don’t overthink it, and Eva, don’t open your eyes this time. You need to trust me to tell you when to change your thoughts. Can you do that?’
I stared at him, wide-eyed.
He rubbed my shaking arm. ‘You can do this. I know you can. Now, let’s see what you’ve got.’
I took a deep breath, then spoke the word vocatio. Within seconds, my body was flooded with the pain of losing my parents.
‘Okay, now, a good memory. Let it fill you.’
I felt the icy tentacles from the dead wrap around me, but I cleared my mind and remembered a time when I’d been happy.
I was on Ezra’s boat. Ezra stood behind me with his arms wrapped around me. The sky above us was blue, and the breeze ballooned the sails.
‘Good, that’s good – keep it up, let it fill you,’ said Jet.
I returned to the memory, but my mind flittered ahead. I was standing inside Ezra’s boat and he was telling me that he couldn’t leave with me, that we couldn’t be together.
Jet swore and seconds later, he shouted, ‘Discedo!’
I opened my eyes to see puffs of smoke all around us, only feet away.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘I had a good memory, but…then it turned bad. Sorry. I’m hopeless at this.’
Jet laughed. ‘For a moment there, I thought our game was up, but no, you’re not hopeless. Perhaps you just need to think of a better memory, a stronger memory – one that doesn’t turn bad.’
‘Right,’ I said, closing my eyes, a memory that I didn’t expect flooding my mind. ‘Ready?’
‘As I’ll ever be.’
For the third time, I cast my spell and made myself remember the night my parents were taken away. In seconds, Jet told me to find my happy memory.
This time, a new memory filled every particle in me, taking away the darkness and the pain, leaving me happy and light.
‘Now cast your spell,’ he said.
‘Discedo!’ I yelled, then opened my eyes to see the dead, who were nearly upon us, evaporate into nothingness.
‘You did it,’ said Jet, taking me into a hug. ‘How do you feel?’
The last memory returned. For a few short moments I’d forgotten about the danger my family were in. I’d forgotten my broken heart and the fact that I was playing with magic that might well turn my heart to darkness.
‘I feel happy…we weren’t killed.’
Jet laughed and pulled back from me. ‘That’s enough for tonight. Let’s go back to camp.’
‘Until tomorrow night,’ I reminded him.
He let out a deep breath. ‘Don’t remind me. Let’s get out of here.’
I gazed around at the trees, which shivered and swayed in the wind. I pictured the dead lost souls I had conjured up from the platform between life and death.
‘You don’t have to ask twice,’ I said, taking his warm offered hand and leaving the place of dark magic.
The sun was shining brightly and the spring morning held the first promise of warmth in so long that I’d almost forgotten how it felt to be properly warm.
I pulled the spare mattress into the sunshine and lay down, letting the warmth seep through my shirt and warm my bones. It had been two days since I’d recovered from the poisoning and even though I was getting stronger, I still had a long way before I was restored to full health.
Seeing the dead come for us last night hadn’t exactly helped. Returning to camp had been a relief, but it had done nothing to help me sleep well. All night long, I’d tossed and turned, the faces of the dead greeting me no matter where I looked. Eventually, Jet, who slept beside me, had brought me a cup of tea. We had stayed awake and talked until the spirits returned to wherever it was they had come from.
Pearl strutted from the tent, eyeing Boy, whom she had already tamed into submission, then pranced her way to where I was. She groomed herself before she lay down beside me and fell promptly asleep. The moment her eyes were closed, Boy trotted towards me and then dropped himself down next to me, causing Pearl to voice her displeasure before turning away, disgusted.
I laughed and for the first time in what felt like forever, I felt like my old self. I’d started to learn dark magic and hadn’t changed. My family were safe, for now.
‘Well, that’s not something you see every day,’ said Jet with a laugh. He had returned from checking the
