The Broken Spell (3 page)

‘There’s no lunch in your bag,’ one of her loyal
henchmen
, Bev, echoed. She leaned against a doorway, shaking out the last few items from the girl’s rucksack onto the floor. Snickering, she dropped the rucksack and pushed a small comb through the front of the enormous beehive hairdo that perched on top of her head. Trish, the other half of Tracy’s devoted posse, pulled a comb from her pocket and mirrored her friend’s actions, frowning as the comb got stuck.

‘So that means you’ve got lunch money,’ said the Beast, ‘and I want it.’

The girl shook her head, struggling to breathe.

‘I haven’t got any money, I swear.’

‘Leave her alone!’

Grace jumped as Jenny’s voice boomed across the room. She just managed to stop herself from ducking behind her friend, out of the Beast’s eye-line.

‘I said, leave her alone,’ Jenny repeated.

The tiny first year slid down the wall, touching her toes to the ground, as Tracy turned to face Grace and her friends.

‘Oh yeah?’ sneered the Beast. ‘Or
what
, friend of the  Freak?’

‘Or what?’ repeated Bev.

‘Friend of the Freak,’ Trish followed, looking a little
uncertain
as she tugged at the small comb still trapped in her hair. Grace wondered if she was expected to join in.

‘I’m not going to do anything,’ said Jenny. ‘But I can’t speak for Una.’

Grace glanced at Una, who hadn’t stepped forward but made a nervous attempt at a threatening look that came out more like a goofy smile. The previous year, Una had been briefly possessed by a demon, and had had a truly savage appearance. Jenny was obviously hoping this memory was still fresh in Tracy’s mind. Not to mention the brutal punch that the possessed
non
-Una had given Tracy, which had caused a giant welt on one cheek and got her suspended from school.

‘That girl asked to eat in our lunchroom today,’ Jenny lied,
‘and Una said it was okay.’

The Beast snorted, but loosened her grip on the girl’s collar.

‘Whatever,’ she replied. ‘You freaks should stick together anyway.’

Tracy walked past the girls, knocking Jenny’s shoulder.

‘Stick together,’ said Bev, following her leader.

‘Freaks,’ Trish said, still holding the tangled comb on one side of her head.

‘Eh, thanks for that,’ Una blurted out when they were gone. ‘What if she’d wanted a fight? I could have been mince-meat there.’

‘Didn’t you see her face?’ Jenny replied. ‘She’s still scared of you.’

‘Yeah? For how long though?’

‘Are you okay?’ Grace asked the first year, stooping to help her pick up her belongings that lay strewn across the floor.

‘Yes, thanks,’ the girl said in a tiny voice. ‘Thank you.’

‘No problem,’ said Jenny. ‘You want to eat lunch in our room today, just in case?’

The girl swept her long, black hair from her face, revealing large, brown puppy-dog eyes, and smiled.

‘Yes. If that would be alright.’

The six girls soon found a table in their lunchroom large enough for all of them.

‘Haven’t you got anything for lunch, em, sorry, what’s your
name?’ Grace asked, sitting down.

‘Delilah,’ the girl replied, shyly pulling a chair out.

‘I’m Grace. This is Jenny, Adie and Rachel. And the scary one over there is Una.’

‘Very funny,’ said Una, with her mouth full. ‘I’d have looked scarier if you’d given me a head’s up on the plan.’

Jenny giggled and pulled a Snickers bar from her pocket. Grace looked expectantly at Delilah and waved her tin-foiled sandwich to remind her of the question.

‘Oh, em, my mother forgot to get stuff in for lunch today,’ the girl replied.

‘Didn’t she give you some money to get something?’

‘
She
forgot,
I
forgot. She meant to give me some, but…’

‘I don’t mind sharing with you,’ said Jenny, holding out her lunchbox.

‘No!’ the others cried in chorus, for Jenny had the
unfortunate
habit of ruining perfectly good savoury sandwiches by putting chocolate bars and other sweets in them.

‘I’d take the Snickers out of
her
half,’ Jenny grumbled.

‘Here,’ said Rachel, holding out her sandwiches, ‘you can have half of mine. I’m not mad on salami anyway, because it gives me the most awful pimples.’

Delilah smiled gratefully and took one.

‘I like your accent,’ Adie said smiling. ‘Where’s it from?’

‘My family’s Romá,’ said Delilah. ‘We just moved here. Me and my mum, I mean.’

‘You’re Italian?’ said Una.

‘No,
Romá
. My family travels around a lot, but mostly we lived in Moldova. My uncle has a farm there, and my
grandmother
prefers it there.’

‘You travel with your whole family?’

‘With some of my uncles and aunts, yes. And cousins.’

‘Sounds nice,’ said Adie.

‘It was. I miss it a lot.’

‘How come you’re here?’

‘My mother wanted to come here. She and my
grandmother
don’t really… She doesn’t like Moldova.’

‘What about your dad?’

Delilah’s olive skin flushed a little.

‘I… I don’t know where he is.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ Adie frowned.

There was an awkward moment of silence until Grace said, ‘Well, you’re welcome to hang out with us whenever you want. Especially if the Beast keeps giving you grief.’

Delilah’s brow furrowed.

‘Beast?’

‘What we call Tracy Murphy,’ said Jenny through her chocolate sandwich, ‘because she’s, you know, a
beast
.’

3

THE OLD COVEN

‘What does it look like again?’ said Grace, gazing up into the leafy canopy of the woods.

‘Oval leaf, dark green, blah, blah, blah.’

Grace sighed and pulled the weathered sheet of paper from Jenny’s hands.

‘We’re not going to win our glitter pens if you’re not even going to try.’

‘I’ve got all the glitter pens I need, thanks,’ replied Jenny. ‘Plus, we might as well let Una win. You know how she gets when she loses.’

‘It’s not just about
winning
. We should be learning this stuff. Getting good at it.’

‘You’re good at memorising things. Why don’t
you
just learn all this stuff, and whenever we need to collect a plant
for a spell or something, we’ll just ask you.’

‘So I do all the work. Thanks a lot.’

‘You’re welcome. Hey, what’s that?’

Jenny reached up and tapped a leaf on a low-lying branch.

A small butterfly flitted from the leaf, its golden wings
catching
the last of the evening sun in tiny bursts of light.

‘Woah! I’ve never seen one that colour before! It’s
amazing
. It looks like it’s made of gold.’

‘Look,’ said Grace, pointing to their right, ‘there’s another one.’

As they watched, a third, then a fourth tiny butterfly
fluttered
upwards, wings glittering like little gems. The girls followed the insects, mesmerised by their prettiness,
occasionally
pretending to catch them, which caused the little creatures to flicker their precious wings even faster and the girls to giggle with delight. They followed them to a
clearing
in the forest and then stopped, open-mouthed, at the sight before them. Thousands upon thousands of golden
butterflies
danced as far as they could see. They covered the forest floor, smothered rocks and small bushes, and filled the branches of every tree. Grace had to squint against the light as her eyes adjusted to the world of gold around her.

‘My God!’ said Jenny. ‘It’s
so
beautiful!’

‘I see you’ve caught me,’ a soft voice said. Grace dropped her gaze, and there, in the middle of the clearing, with a basket of weeds hanging on one arm, stood Ms Gold.

‘Come over here,’ the woman said. ‘They won’t get under your feet, I promise.’

The girls inched their way forward and, sure enough, a path appeared among the gold to make way. The rising
butterflies
swarmed around them; Grace felt like she was in snowglobe filled with glitter.

‘They keep me company,’ said Ms Gold, ‘when I’m
collecting
. The woods can be so dull, sometimes, don’t you think?’

‘What are they?’ breathed Grace. ‘Where did they come from?’

The teacher gave her a sympathetic smile.

‘I’m not sure I should tell you. It’s meant to be a secret.’

‘Are you… I mean, are you–’

‘What the
hell
?’ Una appeared at the other end of the clearing, with Adie close behind her. ‘Rachel, come here and look at this. There’s gold…
butterflies
. They’re butterflies! Golden butterflies everywhere!’

‘Hey, Una,’ called Rachel’s voice from further back in the woods. ‘Stop trying to distract me! Just because you’re losing,
again
!’

‘No, seriously. Come here and look at this. It’s… it’s 
magic
.’

Rachel stumbled into Adie and Una, and froze.

‘How… what… Wait a minute, is that Ms Gold?’

‘Hello, girls,’ Ms Gold said, smiling. ‘Come over here and join your friends. The insects are perfectly harmless and you can appreciate the full effect much better from here.’

Rachel wandered forward, gazing around her as she went, and grinning at the sparkling motion-filled air. Adie kept hold of the back of Una’s jumper as they joined the others, looking amazed but a little frightened.

‘Where did they come from?’ she asked. ‘Why are there so many?’

‘I suppose I can be a little over-enthusiastic,’ said Ms Gold.

‘Did you make them?’ said Grace, lowering her voice to a whisper. ‘Are they
magic
?’

Ms Gold just smiled again, raising her hand and allowing a tiny butterfly to settle on her outstretched fingers.

‘I
knew
it,’ said Grace. ‘I
knew
that volcano was real. I just knew it!’

‘Anything to help my students learn,’ her teacher replied. ‘The world is filled with wonder, and I don’t want them to miss out on any of it.’

‘You’re a
witch
!’ Adie gasped.

Ms Gold blew gently on her fingertips and watched the shimmering butterfly fly away.

‘And I’m not the only one collecting herbs this evening.’ She nodded to the small bag of leaves on Adie’s arm.

‘
We’re
witches too, Ms Gold!’ Una said excitedly.

‘We’re not really,’ Grace said quickly. ‘We’re kind of… we’re just learning.’

‘I
knew
there was something special about you girls!’ Ms Gold replied. ‘Five witches working together. You must cast
the most tremendous spells.’

‘We did a while ago,’ said Jenny. ‘We did all these spells, but they didn’t quite work out and–’

‘We don’t do spells,’ Grace interrupted loudly, giving Jenny a look. ‘I mean, we did try a few before, but they didn’t work out well. We’re learning magic properly now, so we don’t do spells.’

‘You don’t cast spells?’ Ms Gold looked puzzled. ‘Witches that don’t cast
spells
, what an oddity. How do you learn if you don’t cast spells?’

‘We’re learning all about herbs and things, stuff for making potions. When we know all the theory, we’ll be able to do magic safely.’

‘That sounds like a peculiar way to teach aspiring witches. Who is tutoring you?’

Right on cue, they heard Ms Lemon’s voice from the woods.

‘Girls? Where
have
you got to?’ she called. ‘None of you is going to beat the time at this rate.’

She stepped into the clearing, and paused, astonished, as she took in the dazzling swarm of tiny golden creatures. Her gaze then landed on Ms Gold. All the colour drained from her face.

‘Beth?’ Ms Gold stepped forward and smiled widely. ‘Beth, is it really you? Oh, I have been dying to see you for so long! How strange to be back here – the two of us!’

Ms Lemon didn’t move a muscle, but gasped one word.

‘
Meredith
.’

‘Meredith?’ Grace whispered as Ms Gold made her way towards their frozen French teacher. ‘Wasn’t she the other girl in their coven?’

‘Yeah,’ Jenny replied. ‘They had a big fight, or something. But she disappeared, didn’t she? Left when they finished school.’

‘Well, she’s obviously back.’

‘Yeah. Isn’t it great?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘What do you mean?’ Rachel asked Grace.

‘What did they fight over?’ said Grace. ‘I mean, are they still friends?’

‘Not judging from the look on Ms Lemon’s face,’ said Adie.

‘They were just kids back then. I’m sure they’ll work it out,’ Una said. Her face brightened. ‘Ooh! Maybe we can get Ms Gold to give us lessons as well.’

‘That would be brilliant,’ said Jenny. ‘I bet
she’d
let us do some spells. Come on, let’s go ask.’

As the girls approached the two women, Ms Lemon was looking a little less shocked, but not any friendlier.

‘Miss?’ Grace said expectantly.

‘Come on, girls,’ Ms Lemon said abruptly. ‘We’re going.’

‘Don’t be that way, Beth,’ said Ms Gold, reaching to take her hand, but missing, as it was pulled away. ‘Can’t we let
bygones be bygones? Things are so different now. And I understand you’re tutoring these girls. With Vera, is it? I’d be happy to help. It’s so important to train the next generation, but it
is
a lot of work.
I’ll
share the burden.’

‘We don’t need your help, thank you. Vera and I are doing just fine.’

‘Teaching them to identify elements, but not showing them how to use them? Is that
just fine
?’

‘We’re teaching them about responsibility, Meredith, something you could never understand.’

‘You’re still so afraid, Beth. And you’ll just teach them to be afraid. You’re not schooling witches, you’re schooling normal people to
use
witchcraft. It’s nothing more than
dabbling
. A true witch has magic in her
soul
. It’s a part of her, not just something she uses.’

‘Girls,’ Ms Lemon said sharply, ‘I said, we’re
leaving
. It’s
getting
late.’

‘Witches don’t have to fear the dark,’ said Ms Gold softly. ‘You would know that, Beth, if you would just fully embrace what you are.’

‘Girls! Come on!’

Ms Lemon didn’t wait for them but marched off, and they didn’t lag behind. Grace glanced back at Ms Gold, who smiled sadly at her, the shimmering gold around her
popping
into blackness as the butterflies disappeared. Nobody dared ask Ms Lemon what had just happened. Instead they
stumbled on in the growing darkness, struggling to keep up with her furious stride. When they reached open ground near the school car park, Ms Lemon turned to face them.

‘She’s teaching at the school?’

‘She’s our new Geography teacher, Miss,’ replied Grace.

Ms Lemon sighed and stared into the distance for a moment.

‘Is something wrong, Miss? Did we do something?’

‘No, my dear girls, you did nothing wrong.’

‘Maybe Ms Gold
could
help out, Miss,’ Jenny said quietly. ‘Give us extra lessons.’

Ms Lemon looked a little hurt before her face hardened.

‘Vera and I will teach you everything you need to know. I want you to keep your distance from Ms Gold. Is that clear?’

‘But she’s our teacher, Miss.’

‘
Outside
of class. Is that clear?’

She raised one eyebrow and kept it up until she received a chorus of reluctant ‘Yes, Miss.’

‘Good. Now let’s all go home.’

‘Mrs Quinlan,’ Jenny said bravely during their lesson the next day, ‘we met the other girl from your coven, Ms Gold. She’s a teacher at the school now.’

‘So I’ve heard,’ the woman replied with her back to them as she scrawled squeakily on her old kitchen blackboard.

‘She offered to help teach us, but Ms Lemon thinks it’s a bad idea.’

Mrs Quinlan kept writing and didn’t reply.

Grace glared at her friend, willing her not to push it any further, but Una was giving Jenny an enthusiastic thumbs up.

‘What do you think?’ Jenny asked.

‘I think,’ said the woman, dropping her chalk and turning to face them, ‘that you’ve got two witches teaching you, free of charge, and that’s enough.’

‘Ms Gold says we should be doing spells while we learn. That that’s how we should be learning.’

‘Is that so?’

Jenny gulped and kept going, ‘I wouldn’t mind having another teacher. You know, just to have another viewpoint. Another way of looking at things. I think it’s a good idea.’

‘Do you?’ The pale eyes were becoming alarmingly hooded. ‘And what about the rest of you?’

She turned her stare on the others, who all tried to look at anything in the room but Mrs Quinlan. Grace picked at the table with her fingernail, Rachel cleared her throat
uncomfortably
, Una bit her lip, and Adie give a non-committal whimper. Jenny exhaled noisily at the betrayal.

‘I think Beth and I have been too soft on you, that’s what it is,’ said the woman, stroking the ears of a cat on the table. ‘You’re all spoiled rotten. You know what you need? Some good honest labour.’

Grace exchanged worried looks with the others.

‘I have a list of items here that are essential tools for any witch. I’ve got them all, of course, in the house. The attic, to be precise. Been a while since I’ve used most of them, mind. Might take some digging around to find them.’

The woman’s chapped lips widened to reveal her yellowed teeth.

‘Off you go.’

Grace felt queasy at the thought of rummaging around in Mrs Quinlan’s attic. God knows what was up there. And if the state of her house was anything to go by, they could be up there for days. The girls didn’t protest for fear of worse punishment, but the pain was written all over their faces. They picked their way through the mewing cats that lay
scattered
throughout the kitchen and hall, and made their way upstairs. At the top they could see a square hole in the ceiling above a very decrepit-looking ladder. The ladder wobbled worryingly, squeaking a little, as each of them mounted it and climbed carefully into the dark room. Grace brought up the rear, following Jenny’s feet into the gloom, and coughing uncontrollably as dust filled her lungs.