Dark Spell (16 page)

“We’ll get it pulled out of the ditch in the morning,” said Rose as they walked.

“Once we’ve concocted a good story to explain how it got there,” cautioned Bessie.

Inside the car, Callie pushed back her sleeve. The mark on her wrist had vanished. She held up her arm so the others could see. “Look. I felt it go, somehow, when the Longman took Duncan.”

No one spoke much as Rose drove mechanically back to Pitmillie. It was half past three when they dropped Josh as close to East Neuk Cottages as they dared.

“See you later,” said Callie softly as he got out.

The cottage was silent as he climbed back into his room, undressed and crawled into bed.

I’ll never get to sleep,
was his last waking thought.

Callie had gone, yawning, to bed as soon as they got back to The Smithy, but Rose and Bessie sat over cooling cups of tea in the kitchen, talking quietly as Bessie waited for daylight before she drove back to St Andrews.

“All that power…” Bessie shook her head. “I'm glad we didn't realise how much she had when we started to teach her. I'd have been afraid to let her in my house in case she accidentally reduced the whole thing to rubble. I never thought for a moment she'd be able to channel Wild Magic out there. Earth and air and sea… good grief.”

“Nor did I,” said Rose. “I've never seen
anyone
use Wild Magic like that.” She paused, then said, “I don't think we should let her know just yet how… exceptional she is.”

“Heavens, no. She's only just got to grips with the idea that she's got any power at all. We'll have to take it slowly, but, my goodness, what she'll be able to do…”

“What will she
choose
to do, I wonder?” Rose took a swallow of tea and grimaced. “Cold,” she said, and got to her feet to pour it away.

“All that can wait for now. I just need to tidy things up here: take the spell off Julia and David, try to make
my peace with Julia, do what I can to help sort out the house…”

“Mere details,” said Bessie airily.

It was early afternoon. Julia and David sat reading in the garden of The Smithy, still happily enspelled, George pottering beside them. Their car had been retrieved, more or less undamaged and sat in the road outside The Smithy, waiting for Rose to take it back. She and Callie had decided to have a look at the state of Callie's house before they decided what to do next.

When they got there, Callie opened the door and hung back to let Rose enter first. Rose stood in the hall, looking round in disbelief. Callie had warned her what to expect, but…

But the house was simply a house, not the claustrophobic set of chambers and tunnels into which Duncan Corphat had transformed it. Rose and Callie walked silently from room to room. The sitting room was still littered with butchered photographs and the contents of the cupboards sat on the kitchen floor. David and Julia's room was a maelstrom of clothes and the tarpaulin flapped over the hole in Callie's ceiling, but otherwise there was no trace of what had happened.

“How can it look like this now?” asked Callie, baffled.

“It must all have been illusion,” Rose replied.

“But it was real.”

“No, Callie. It
felt
real. You saw for yourself last night just what power can do.” She turned to face her
granddaughter. “Concentrate for a minute: how does the house
feel
now?”

Callie closed her eyes. “Normal. Empty. He's definitely gone.”

Rose smiled. “I think we should have a bit of a tidy up before your parents get here.”

They spent an hour setting the place to rights as much as they could, then Rose called George to bring Julia and David home.

“I'll take the spell off them and then…” Rose gave a sigh, “and then we'll try to explain.”

Callie's heart sank at the prospect. “Rose,” she said hesitantly, “if it gets too bad with Mum – about me being a witch – can I come and stay with you and George?”

“You know you can.”

“I don't mean just for a few days.”

“I know you don't, dear. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.” They heard the sound of a car engine. “Here they come. I'll put the kettle on.”

“Hello, dear,” said Julia as she came in. “It
is
nice to be home.”

“Hello, Callie,” said David. “Cup of tea? Lovely.”

George, coming in behind them, raised his eyebrows at Rose.

“Everything's fine,” she said.

“I think I'll go and see if anything in the garden needs watering,” he said, heading for the back door. “David might want to come out in a few minutes.”

“I'm sure he will,” said Rose.

The four of them sat round the kitchen table. “Here
goes,” said Rose, putting her hands flat on it. She looked from Julia to David. “I release you,” she said simply.

Callie watched as her parents realised properly where they were, looking round in confusion as though they had just woken up. She saw in their faces vague memories of what had happened : what they had said, what they had done.

They looked at each other, and at Callie, in anguish.

“It's all right. None of it was meant. None of it was your fault,” said Rose reassuringly. “Everyone's safe. There's nothing that can't be put right.”

“What happened to me?” pleaded David. “Have I been ill? Have I been mad? Why did I think those things?”

Rose leaned forwards and clasped his hands. “David, listen to me. I know you don't understand what's happened to you, but believe me when I say it's over. It will never happen again. Your family is safe.” She released his hands and sat back. “Now, please go into the garden and have a talk with George. He'll explain all the things that it's better he and you don't know anything about.”

David looked at her as though she was mad.

“Go on. George will make sense of it for you.”

There must have been some trace of the compulsion left, for David meekly did as he'd been told.

Julia put her face in her hands. “I can't bear it,” she sobbed. “How could I have thought those things? How could I have said them?”

“It wasn't you, dear. Callie and I know that. There was something else in the house, making you do those things, twisting your thoughts, twisting your feelings.”

Julia took her hands away from her face. “I dreamed
of someone,” she said. “In the house with us. So angry. So frightened.” She shook her head. “But I can't… Oh, Callie!”

Callie threw her arms round her mother. “It's all right,” she said. “I understand.”

“Drink your tea, Julia,” said Rose, “and we'll try to explain it all. It might take a while.”

Rose and George had gone, leaving Callie alone with her parents. They kept glancing at her when they thought she wouldn't notice.

“Stop it!” she said suddenly. “I feel like something in a zoo.”

David turned her to face him and gave her a hug.

“I had an interesting talk with George,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “about things that he and I don't know anything about. It explained quite a lot about your gran and your mum that I'd never quite understood. And it explains a lot about you.” He set Callie back at arm's length. “You marvellous girl.” He grinned. “And that, apparently, is all I have to say about things.”

Callie smiled back at him, more relieved than she could express. At least one parent had accepted her for what she was.

“I'm starving,” David went on. “Who's for fish and chips?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, please.”

“I'll nip down to Anstruther and get them then.” He
kissed his wife and daughter before he left.

It was as good a time as any for the difficult conversation, Callie decided.

“Mum,” she began, “I understand if it's too hard for you, having me around here.”

Julia stopped what she was doing and stared at her daughter. “What do you mean?”

“All the witch stuff. I could move out, go and stay at The Smithy.”

“Is that what you think I want?”

“I… I don't know.”

Julia sat down. “All those things I said…”

“I know you didn't mean them. Rose explained. It was Duncan.”

Julia shook her head. “Not just that. I mean the way I've been since you discovered you're a witch.” She gave a shaky laugh. “I'd been dreading it for years.”

Callie's heart sank.

Julia saw her expression. “No – I don't mean it like that.” She took a breath. “I never understood why I wasn't like Mother. So when you were born and she told me you might be, I was worried. If you were both witches, where did that leave me? I was afraid you wouldn't need me. I was jealous.”

She groaned. “I can't believe how pathetic that sounds. Jealous of my own mother and daughter. I know mothers are supposed to be embarrassing, but that's way past any reasonable limit. I wouldn't be surprised if you
did
want to go and stay at The Smithy after that.”

“I don't, though. As long as you can cope with having me here,” Callie said carefully.

“Of course I can cope. Just don't go putting one of those spells on me again, like Mother did.”

“As long as you behave.”

“Careful.” Julia wagged a finger. “Just because you're a witch doesn't mean you can be cheeky.”

She sobered.

“You've been so brave, Callie. You saved us all. No one else could have done it. Not even your grandmother.”

“Beginner's luck,” said Callie, embarrassed by the unfamiliar praise. “It was the most amazing feeling, down at Dane's Dyke. It was like being part of… of everything in the world. I was fighting against being a witch until last night, but I'm not ashamed of what I am any more. It's part of me. A marvellous part of me.”

“I know,” said Julia, smiling.

Josh and Callie lay on their backs on the baking sand, watching the single tiny white cloud in the sky.

“Go on. Make it move.” Josh elbowed her in the ribs.

“Don't be daft. I can't.”

“How do you know? Go on, try.”

Callie squinted up at the cloud for a few seconds. It stayed still.

“There. Satisfied? I'm not a performing monkey, you know.”

“Okay. You'll have to work on that a bit before I see you again. Remember, I'll be expecting to be impressed.” He sat up. “I suppose I'd better go and help Mum pack up. We're meant to be leaving in an hour.”

“And so another peaceful country holiday draws to its close,” Callie intoned solemnly as she sat up too.

“Yeah. Even more boring than the last one. Your dead relations don't half cause a lot of bother up here. I think it would be safer if you came to Edinburgh for a holiday next time.”

“Is that an invitation?” Callie screwed up her face. “Edinburgh? Nothing to do there. I'd get bored.” She shrieked with laughter as he started to tickle her.

As they walked up the road from the beach, Josh asked, “Do you think you'll manage to use your superpowers only for good once you're back at school with all the idiots?”

“Mnnn… It's going to be hard to resist the temptation to give things a bit of a tweak sometimes, but Rose is very insistent that I mustn't do anything like that.”

“But she won't be there watching you.”

“This is true,” said Callie with a mischievous smile. “You know, I'm quite looking forward to seeing Evie again.”

Josh groaned. “Poor Evie.”

They had reached Callie's house now, and sat down next to each other on the wall.

“Want to come in?”

“I'd better not. I was meant to be back half an hour ago. She'll be going mental as it is.”

“Remember to put your photos up on Facebook.”

“Yeah. I'll do it tonight.”

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds.

“It's a shame we're too old for ‘What I did on my holidays' at school now,” Josh said to break it.

“We'd only get in trouble for making stuff up.”

Conversation dried up again.

“Look, I'd really better go.”

“I know.”

“You're going to come down to Edinburgh for the September weekend, aren't you?”

“If I haven't been invited to some fabulous party here.”

“I'll definitely see you, in that case. Are you coming on your broomstick?”

“Of course, and the cat'll be riding behind me.”

“Don't wear the pointy hat, though. You'd look stupid in Edinburgh.”

“I could turn you into something, you know.”

“No you couldn't. You haven't got that far in
Witchcraft for Dummies
yet.”

“I'll be working on it for September.”

“Right. I'll remember not to be so rude then.”

“Sure you won't be too busy trying to be cool to talk to me in Edinburgh?” She remembered what he'd said before any of this happened.

“Nah. You're pretty cool, you know. Why else would I have taken all those crazy risks and let myself be taken over by an angry ghost. You're…” He went a bit red, gave a lopsided smile.

There was a short silence, then Callie gave him an affectionate shove. “I thought you had to go?”

“I do.” Josh got to his feet. “Bye then.”

“Bye.”

“See you in September. And remember, no pointy hat.”

Callie smiled as she watched him walk away.

All the settings I used in
Dark Spell
really exist in and around St Andrews, although I did take some liberties with the geography of Fife Ness.

You can walk along Dane's Dyke (though you'll probably be as unimpressed with it as Josh was), but you won't find Longman's Grave, even though it appears on maps. George's tale of being shown the stone slab and skeleton and never finding it again is a true story that happened to a friend of mine. I couldn't get it out of my head once I'd heard it (and I haven't been able to find the grave either). Fife is a strange and wonderful place!

The tunnels under St Andrews Castle are very creepy and well worth a look if you're visiting. Take a torch, just in case…