The Broken Spell (18 page)

Adie watched the teacher as she took her spot on the diamond. Ms Gold’s breathing was measured and, more than once, Adie saw the shadow of a smirk cross her face. It seemed like excitement. Adie didn’t feel excited, she just felt nervous. She couldn’t understand why Grace hadn’t shown up, and why Ms Gold seemed perfectly happy to go ahead without her. After all, Grace had won the game by the river. Didn’t they need her?

‘You three,’ said the teacher. ‘On your knees.’

Adie frowned. She tried to make eye contact with Jenny, but Jenny was behind Ms Gold with her head down.

‘On your knees,’ there was a tremor in Ms Gold’s voice now, ‘until the verses are read. This is important.’

Adie watched Rachel and Una slowly lower to the ground, and then followed them. She felt insecure and unprepared, kneeling. She wanted to be on her feet, ready to spring into the air the second the Mirrorman appeared. She wanted Grace beside her – Grace, with her quick reflexes and good sense. Unable to meet the gaze of any of her friends, Adie suddenly felt very alone.

Back in 1977, Grace was sprinting through the woods towards the hut. She had already adopted her Grayanna disguise. She scoped out the surroundings of the hut, and tiptoed to the door to listen for voices. All she could hear were Beth’s soothing words to Vera. Meredith was nowhere to be seen.

Beth jumped at the sound of Grace entering the hut, but then smiled sadly when she saw who it was. Grace tried to hide her shock at the sight of Vera. The girl was completely motionless now, and her skin was turning grey. She looked cold. She looked
dead
.

‘I try to keep her as warm as I can,’ Beth said, pulling a blanket tighter to Vera’s shoulders, and giving Grace a
helpless
look, ‘but she stays cold. It won’t be much longer, and then no-one will be able to help her. Did you bring the dowser?’

Grace pulled it from her waistband and Beth grabbed it.

‘We can bring him back now! We can bring him back and he’ll break Vera’s binding.’

She pulled the Mirrorman’s fishing fly from her pocket, and lodged the hook into one arm of the dowser.

Grace’s heart was sinking. She didn’t want her friends to go up against the Mirrorman with Ms Gold – for all she knew, the teacher was planning to sacrifice them to the fight – but she didn’t want anything to happen to Beth either. Vera, she had to admit, looked as if she was lost already.

‘Where’s Meredith?’ she asked.

‘Took off again,’ Beth replied. ‘She pops in every once in a while, but never for long. She keeps saying she has stuff to do.’

‘What stuff?’

‘Who knows? It’s Meredith. She never tells you
everything
. But we need to find her for the casting.’

‘No!’ Grace started, before calming herself. ‘We have to go ahead without her. I… I can’t explain it, but we need to do it now. You said yourself, Vera’s running out of time.’

Beth watched her closely.

‘Alright,’ she said, at last.

They stood in the dark outside the hut. The wind had picked up and the night was getting colder – there was a storm on the way. Beth had wedged the dowser, with the fishing fly still stuck in one arm, into the soil. She sprinkled the concoction she and Vera had made days earlier around the dowser, spiralling outwards until the container was empty.

‘Right,’ she said, looking much more herself now she was filled with hope. ‘You stand here, and be ready to help him when he comes through the portal. The journey will
probably
leave him a bit shaken for a few minutes.’

A bit shaken
, Grace thought,
maybe long enough for me and Beth to forget this and make a run for it.

But that would leave Vera alone, and doomed, in the hut. Grace chewed on her lip with guilt and fear.

The first few drops of rain were beginning to fall, and the wind blew in all directions, whipping leaves and branches into a frenzy.

‘Ready?’ Beth shouted over the weather.

‘What?’ Grace could barely hear her, though she was no more than ten metres away.

‘You ready?’

‘Yep,’ Grace said inaudibly, but gave Beth an exaggerated nod.

Beth smiled and raised her arms above her head, calling out a verse that Grace couldn’t hear. The rain began to pour in earnest, and the wind snapped Grace’s hair from side to side. She watched the space above the dowser, and jumped as it made a sudden and loud
craaaack!
She could see a split in the air, like a crack in the world, which pushed and widened. The space around it swelled and stretched, fighting against the unnatural break, but the crevice grew. The sound was ear-splitting, even over the howling wind.

‘Beth!’ Grace started to panic. ‘You have to be careful. Be careful when he comes through!’

But Beth couldn’t hear her over the din. Grace could make out her hopeful gaze as she watched the portal break open. Then two things happened at once.

A figure, wrapped in glossy black, tumbled through the portal and landed in front of the dowser. At the same moment, Grace saw a flash of golden blonde, and suddenly
Meredith was gripping the dowser, wrenching the fishing fly from the wood. The black figure growled and reached for the fly, but Meredith was too quick.

‘Meredith, wait!’ Beth cried, running at her. ‘What are you doing? We need his help!’

Meredith raised her hands and Beth was suddenly rolling backwards into the trees. The blonde girl swung around to Grace, but Grace had seen this trick from Ms Gold before. She dived into the undergrowth, and felt the invisible blow shake the leaves around her. Meredith started running, but Grace launched herself forward and gripped her ankles, tackling her to the ground.

‘Let go!’ the girl snarled, her eyes burning with rage.

Grace felt the tickle of something travelling up her leg and back, circling her neck. Meredith’s eyes narrowed and the vine tightened around Grace’s throat.

‘
Let go
!’

Grace refused to loosen her grip, and the vine wound itself even tighter. Her head swam, but then a sudden weight fell on her back, and fingers started grabbing at the plant around her throat. She gasped in pain as the fingers roughly pulled at her neck, snapping the vine. She took great gulps of air.

Meredith feverishly kicked off Grace’s grip, scrambling away from the figure in the black hood before he could fully regain his balance.

Grace was lifted to her feet, still gasping.

‘Slow breaths,’ a gravelly, whispery voice said. ‘Slower, or you’ll pass out.’

She took two or three more breaths before turning to look at the Mirrorman in the face. He was so close, she could make out the pores in his ashen cheeks, each wispy hair on his head.

‘The blonde witch,’ he growled. ‘She has my jewel.’

Grace numbly shook her head.

‘The fly,’ he said loudly. ‘My fishing fly.’

‘We needed something of yours,’ Grace stammered, ‘to bring you back.’

‘Where will she go?’

Grace shook her head again.

‘I don’t know.’

Just then there was a pained groan far behind them.

‘Beth!’ Grace cried, racing over to where the girl had landed after Meredith’s attack.

Beth lay curled up on the ground, holding one hand to her forehead where there was a trickle of blood.

‘God, Beth,’ Grace said. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Meredith,’ Beth mumbled. ‘Why did she…?’

Her words drifted into nothing and she groaned again.

‘She needs rest.’ The Mirrorman’s voice was dry and flat behind them. ‘She needs to be out of the rain.’

Grace was about to reply that she couldn’t carry Beth all the way out of the woods, when the old man pushed past
her, lifted Beth in his arms and brought her back to the hut.

Ducking through the doorway, he paused for a second, before plonking Beth down beside Vera. He stood and stared at the figurine in the spiky-haired girl’s hand with a dark look on his face.

‘Please release her,’ Beth croaked, reaching her hand to her head again. ‘We didn’t mean any harm coming here – she doesn’t deserve this.’

The Mirrorman furrowed his brow.

‘This is not my binding,’ he said.

‘Not yours?’ Grace said from the doorway. ‘But it was in the soil just outside. It was meant for anyone who came near the hut. It was meant…’

Grace watched his face as he continued to stare at the doll in Vera’s hand.

‘It was meant for
you
,’ she whispered.

‘The blonde witch,’ he said sternly to Beth. ‘Where will she go?’

Tears filled Beth’s eyes and a sorrowful sound escaped her throat.

‘Meredith?’ she said. ‘Meredith did this?’

‘Where?’ he repeated.

‘There’s no time left!’ Beth sobbed, gripping Vera’s hand. ‘Only the caster can break the spell.’

Or a Wiccan virtuoso
, Grace thought.

The Mirrorman pounced on Beth suddenly, holding her
by the front of her jumper.

‘Tell me where she is,’ he hissed, ‘and
I
will break the
binding
!’

Beth’s tears spilled down her cheeks and splashed onto her hands, but her face hardened.

‘Break the binding
now
,’ she said firmly, ‘and I’ll tell you what you need to know.’

Still holding on to her, the Mirrorman’s free hand snatched the figurine, with Vera’s fingers clamped around it. His
knuckles
went white with the pressure, and two streams of bright red blood ran down either side of his wrist. Grace couldn’t tell if the blood was his or Vera’s, but the brass sticks of the ornament were cutting into someone’s skin. Beth held his gaze, unblinking, as he mumbled with furious speed through gritted teeth. It was several minutes before the murmuring stopped, and he peeled his fingers from the brass doll. Beth kept her lips clamped together until she saw Vera unclench her own hand and let the figurine roll away from her fingers.

‘Vera!’ She eased her friend’s head and shoulders onto her lap, and stroked her hair. Colour flooded Vera’s cheeks and eyes, and her head rolled from side to side as she blinked and groaned awake. Beth looked up at the Mirrorman.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

‘Where–’

‘The demon well,’ Beth replied instantly, ‘by the school. She’s obsessed with the power of it. She’ll go there.’

He was gone before she’d finished speaking, and the
realisation
hit Grace like a truck. Ms Gold said she had gotten rid of Creepy Bob years back – Meredith had planted the Muerte figurine to lure him after her. She had been
preparing
for his destruction all along. He was running into a trap.

Grace took off after him but, though he looked like a withered old man, the Mirrorman moved through the woods like a cat. She soon lost sight of him in the distance, but she kept running. The wind was blowing against her, and by the time she reached the edge of the woods, near the school, her legs were like jelly.

And then, she caught sight of them, facing each other across the patch of ground that was the demon well.

‘The jewel,’ she heard him growl over the storm.

Meredith stood with the shimmering fly held out in one hand.

‘Here it is,’ she said. ‘Take it!’

‘Wait!’ Grace screamed, breaking into a run again. ‘It’s a trap!’

The Mirrorman turned at the sound of her voice and, from nowhere, Meredith hurled a net of smoke that
enveloped
him and pulled him to the ground. In an instant, she had dragged him over to where the mouth of the well was. She crushed a glass container under her foot, and liquid flooded from the breakage and seeped into the ground, which began to bubble and sink beneath the weight of the
Mirrorman. He fought against the net, but it snaked around his limbs as he struggled. Beams of red light spiked from the grass around him. The demon well was opening.

‘No!’ Grace cried, throwing herself to the ground and gripping one end of the smoky net. She tried to drag him away from the well, but a sudden punch to the face sent her sprawling. A second later, Meredith had her pinned to the ground, holding down her wrists and grinning. The jewelled fly was hooked onto her shirt, its orange eye glinting in the moonlight.

‘It’s over,
Grayanna
,’ she hissed. ‘No-one can stop me now.’

Grace’s cries mingled with the Mirrorman’s as the red light engulfed him, and he was swallowed by the demon well. The red mouth of the well snapped shut.

Under his fading cries, and the gleeful, triumphant roar of Meredith, Grace could hear the sound of a train. As light swelled around her, she slipped one hand from Meredith’s grip and snatched the fly from her shirt. She saw the girl’s look of horror, before the foghorn blast sent her racing into the future.

20

FROM THE WELL

Adie kept her hands on the ground as she kneeled on the floor; she was certain she could feel the ground getting warmer. Ms Gold had shrieked words in another language, but now she was silent. And smiling.

‘You girls,’ she said at last, ‘have the honour of being part of something extraordinary. A new age, a new beginning, a new
world
.’

The woman looked nothing like her usual composed self. Her hair was unkempt, and she looked barely able to stand with the nervous tremors that gripped her whole body.

‘I had the chance once,’ she breathed, ‘to become the most powerful being on Earth. And it was snatched from me. But now…’

Adie’s heart fluttered with panic as the woman gasped
for breath.

‘But
now
,’ Ms Gold continued, ‘I will have an army more powerful than any witch’s trinket. My own army. My
demon
army!’

Before Adie could move, the beaded bracelets on her wrists pulled together, like the strongest of magnets,
snapping
her arms behind her back. She tried to roll away from her place on the diamond, but she couldn’t. It was as if her knees were glued to the spot.

‘Rachel!’ she cried.

‘I can’t move, Adie,’ Rachel cried in reply. ‘Oh God, what’s happening?’

‘Jenny!’ Una’s face was already dripping with tears, as she struggled against the bracelets gripping her wrists. ‘Help us!’

But Jenny didn’t even look at her three friends. She kept her head down, standing quietly behind Ms Gold, as the teacher’s triumphant chants grew more frenzied.

Adie’s gaze fixed onto the centre of the diamond, where red cracks were appearing in the floor. Her eyes widened in horror.

‘The well,’ she gasped. ‘It’s opening!’

Grace blinked against the blast of sound that landed her back in her own time. She was by a door in a dark corner of the P block. Through it, she could see she had bounced right
into the scene the Mirrorman had shown her – the image of her nightmares.

Jenny was immediately in front, with her back to Grace, right behind Ms Gold. The other three were on their knees, hands bound behind their backs, screaming. Adie was in the centre, her face illuminated by red shafts of light that were streaming from the site of the demon well.

Grace gripped the fishing fly in her hand, not even feeling the hook pierce her palm. She rushed forward, ploughing into Jenny and sending her and Ms Gold sprawling across the floor. She spun around, in time to see Ms Gold raise her hands, but not in time to avoid the invisible strike that
followed
. She hit the wall with horrible force, and sank to the ground, dazed. The ceiling was spinning above her as Ms Gold’s luminous face came in to view.

‘Little Miss Resourceful, aren’t you?’ Ms Gold raised her hands for another hit, but stopped short when she saw what was in Grace’s hand. ‘The
jewel
!’

Grace readied herself to fly, concentrating hard so she wouldn’t go too high or too far. But just as she focused her mind, the fly’s feathers fluttered against her skin and she took off at ferocious speed, crashing through the double doors of the P block, and rolling to a messy stop in the C block. Stunned, she clambered to her feet, watching the feathers settle in her palm.

‘Grace!’ Adie screamed helplessly through the heavy doors.
Grace ran towards them, but they were suddenly blown from their hinges, and Ms Gold emerged in a mini-cyclone that fired debris in all directions.

‘Finally,’ the woman’s voice sounded strangely discordant, ‘I will have it all! I will be the most powerful witch the world has ever seen, with a demon army at my command! And
you
, little one,’ she grinned, reaching for Grace, ‘will be a loyal soldier.’

She rushed forward, grabbing Grace by the throat, and flashing her beautiful smile.

‘At last!’ she hissed.

Her amber eyes were all Grace could see as the world began to fade out…

‘Drop her, Blondie,’ a voice said.

A beam of light struck Ms Gold’s head, knocking her and Grace to the ground. As she regained her balance, Grace watched what looked like a glowing boomerang swing around, and then return to the outstretched hand of Mrs Vera Quinlan. Her heart leapt with joy as the Cat Lady jogged towards them, followed by Ms Lemon and, very far behind, Delilah. On spotting the tiny girl, Ms Gold roared.

‘Child! I’ll
end you
!’

Delilah stopped, as if frozen, at the end of the corridor.

But Ms Lemon and Mrs Quinlan kept on coming. When they reached Ms Gold there was a ferocious eruption of light and sound as all three began throwing magical strikes. Ms
Lemon fended off Ms Gold’s sonic boom blasts, while Mrs Quinlan flung the glowing boomerang like a ninja, striking her target almost every time. Ms Gold hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop before stretching her hands out to the side.

‘You always feared me, Vera.’ She spat the words from her mouth. ‘And you had good reason.’

‘I couldn’t stand you, trollop,’ Mrs Quinlan replied. ‘There’s a difference.’

Ms Gold grinned, wriggling her raised fingers, and there was an almighty crash. Distended tree roots and branches smashed through the windows of the corridor, and even through parts of the block walls, stretching out to wind
themselves
around Ms Gold’s enemies. Grace left the two women to fight off the attack, leaping under and over branches, and racing through the open doorway to the P block.

The cracks above the demon well had spread and joined, so almost the entire circle glowed with red light. Black misty arms thrashed beneath the surface as demons fought to be the first to escape. Grace wrapped her arms around Adie’s shoulders and tried to drag her from the spot, but a shard of pain shot through her head. Followed by another, and another. With each stab came a vision – the enchanted mirror, a black slicker chasing her through the woods, Meredith’s triumphant cry by the demon well. She looked down, her heart thumping at the sight of all those demon bodies clashing.

But amongst them was something else. A face buried in the red light, with one blue eye and one white. He reached his hand towards her.

Before she could react, she was thrown to one side. Jenny lodged one knee in her stomach, holding her down. With a vicious grin, she focused her attention behind Grace, and within seconds Grace could feel the breath of the Baskerville hound on her head.

‘No, Jenny!’ Una sobbed.

‘Stop it, Jenny!’ Adie’s voice joined her. ‘Why are you doing this?’

Hot saliva dripped on Grace’s cheek and rolled into her hair. The hound could barely wait for its master’s command.

‘I’m doing this,’ Jenny sneered, barely loud enough for Grace to hear, ‘because Ms Gold will rule the world. And
I’ll
be her right hand.’ She bent close to Grace. ‘’Bye ’bye, Grace.’

As Jenny leaned over, the bronze charm that Ms Gold had given her slipped from under her collar, and Grace knew what she had to do. Gripping the fishing fly tight in her hand, she scraped the hook hard along Jenny’s leg. With the other hand, she snatched the bronze charm, pulling Jenny on top of her as the hound leapt forward. Unable to hurt its master, it bounced off Jenny’s back, and Grace snapped the charm from her neck. The girl fell backwards, blinking and gasping for breath.

A deep, guttural growl rolled through the floor and Grace
wondered if the few seconds she had were going to be enough to originate a beast of her own. The hound answered her question by hurtling towards her, dripping jaws wide open. She braced herself for the impact but, with inches to spare, the beast popped into nothing.

‘I’m so sorry!’ Tears were pouring down Jenny’s face as she dragged herself off the floor. ‘I’m so sorry, Grace! I don’t know–’

‘No time for that now!’ Grace yelled. ‘We have to get them away from the well!’

Demon arms were now stretching beyond the mouth of the well, gripping the carpet with their misty claws. Moving swiftly, Jenny began snapping off the beaded bracelets that held her friends. But in the midst of demon limbs, Grace could still make out the Mirrorman’s outstretched hand.

‘I have to get him out,’ she shouted over the growing howls of the demons below. ‘Hold on to me, and don’t let go!’

‘You can’t!’ Jenny said. ‘They’ll grab onto you!’

Jenny was right. Grace knew she wouldn’t be able to pull the Mirrorman out before a demon would grab hold and try to take possession of her body. But she had to try.

She leaned over the mouth of the well and reached in. His hand was grasping for hers. At that moment, she felt the flutter of feathers in her palm again. The closer she leaned towards him, the more frantic the jewelled fly became. She dropped to her stomach and reached further into the well.

‘Grace, no!’

The redness inside the well burned like intense sunlight. Her skin felt instantly tight and dry, but she leaned even
further
in. A demon gripped her arm, then another and another. But something – something magical – was preventing them from disappearing into her flesh and taking possession. She could feel the jewelled fly pulsing in her left hand, and
suddenly
understood. She reached in as far as she could with her right.

Frustrated, the demons tried again and again to worm their way into her flesh, but the jewel kept them at bay. They clawed at her arm, leaving terrible scratches, but they couldn’t get under her skin. Their anger prompted more clashes with each other as they realised they had to get further out of the well to find a victim. They thrashed around, black mist
dispelling
and reforming as they fought.

Grace felt her friends grab hold of her ankles as she
disappeared
almost entirely down the well. She groped around.
There
it was – the Mirrorman’s hand among the fiery chaos! Grace’s hands clamped onto it.

‘Pull us out!’ she yelled. The heat was becoming too much and her skin began to blister.

There were several more unsuccessful pulls, before her hoody was grabbed in several places and she was wrenched backwards, hauling the Mirrorman with her. He collapsed at her feet, unconscious.

At the same moment, Ms Lemon slid across the floor towards them, with a slender branch twisted around her leg. Another tree branch smashed through the window of the P block, grabbing hold of her arm.

‘Girls!’ she cried. ‘Help me!’

Wicked laughter filled the P block, combining eerily with the storm howling outside, and the rain pelting through the broken window.

‘Bet you’re sorry now, Beth,’ Ms Gold cackled. ‘You should have taken
my
side. Now you and Vera can die together.’

The more Ms Lemon struggled, the more the boughs snaked tighter and tighter around her. Through the doorway Grace could see the formidable Mrs Quinlan wrapped in tangled branches, unable to move.

Quick as a flash, Adie stretched out her hands, guiding the falling rain into a swirling vortex and throwing it at Ms Gold. The woman faltered, but stayed standing. Adie
continued
firing watery missiles, hitting her over and over. Grace felt a flurry of air as something invisible rushed past her and knocked over Ms Gold. Una uncloaked as she rolled away. Jenny used the precious seconds to reproduce her Baskerville hound. It immediately pounced on the teacher’s chest. But one vicious strike from Ms Gold’s hands, and the hound was blasted to pieces. The woman then zapped Una and Jenny, sending them flying into the grip of the branches that still held Mrs Quinlan.

Getting slowly to her feet, the anarchy of the block seemed suddenly to go quiet as Ms Gold strolled towards Grace and Adie. Grace shook the Mirrorman’s slicker, begging him to come to, but he did not respond. She couldn’t see Rachel anywhere, but Adie raised her hands for another water strike.

‘Don’t bother, little one,’ the woman said as one of the broken beaded bracelets flew from the ground, and snapped itself around Adie’s wrists once more. ‘It’s time to answer your true calling.’

She nodded towards the well, where two demons had managed to break free from the battle and were
crawling
across the floor. Ms Gold smiled as she approached. An ancient, gravelly voice stopped her in her tracks.