Unruly Magic (19 page)

I should have known to trust my intuition. My bad.

~

“Stella. Stella, wake up.” A hand shook me lightly for the second time.

I cranked open my eyes and stifled a yawn. Being woken up was only slightly more annoying than realising I’d fallen asleep and wasted who knew how much time. Evan was hovering over me, a mug in his hand.

“I made you coffee, sleepyhead,” he murmured and I felt the bed press down where he sat. “Though given the amount you drink, I’m surprised you can sleep at all.”

I made a noise that was half yawn, half groan and deeply unappealing. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A couple of hours. It’s nearly dusk, so I had to wake you.” He was looking at the other side of the bed with fondness, like he regretted not just climbing in and curling up instead. “Perhaps I shouldn’t keep you up so late. How about an early night tonight?”

I smirked and shuffled onto my elbows so I was sitting up. I smoothed my hair then rubbed consciousness into my eyes. “Easy, tiger. I don’t usually sleep in the afternoon. I must have been really tired.”

“We should take a vacation when this over. I’m partial to hot places.”

“Anything to get away from Wilding, huh?” I couldn’t help say it.

Evan shook his head. “I’d be with you anywhere and I know we don’t have to talk about it now, but just tell me you’re still considering coming back with me. I’ll make sure you have a good life. I’ll protect you.”

It was a warming idea and I leaned over to kiss him, because I really couldn’t get enough of him. “I haven’t said no, have I?” I grinned.

“No, you haven’t.” Evan stood up and stretched and I could see the muscles under his shirt work to keep up. As far as sights went, I’d add it to my list of things to see every day of the week. Too bad he had his clothes on. Oh, scrap that thought. I still needed to get up. “They’re ready and waiting for us in your living room,” he said, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards and I knew he knew I was blatantly admiring his physique.

“They’re planning on cleaning up, right?” I asked as I followed him out and he just laughed.

My furniture had been pushed back against the walls and the circle exactly as it had been when I’d taken my impromptu nap, except the tea lights were gone and in their place were thick stubby candles, their blood red hue in stark contrast to the white lines.

Étoile, Seren and David were stood in a way that picked out three corners and David motioned for me to take the last corner.

“What about Evan?” I asked. I looked behind me. Evan hadn’t come any further into the room and was instead leaning against the wall with his arms folded like he was waiting for the show to begin. He was drinking my coffee.

“Not a witch, remember?” murmured Étoile.

“Oh, right.”

“You don’t need to do anything,” said Seren. “David will say the spell and he’ll draw power from us to fuel it.”

“Stand here and look pretty. Got it.”

Étoile smirked.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” I asked, just as David opened his mouth. “I mean, won’t she be pissed off that we’re just summoning her? It’s not like we’re giving her a choice.”

Seren shrugged. “If she’s innocent, she needs help and we can help her.”

“And what if she’s not?”

“All the more reason to find her,” Seren replied.

I felt my stomach drop a little more. When Étoile mouthed, “What is it?” I just shook my head. I didn’t have a good feeling about any of this but I couldn’t protest. There was a piece of me that agreed with them. Whatever Chyler was going through, she did need help.

When Étoile, Seren and David raised their hands to waist height and spread their hands until we were almost touching fingertips, Étoile on my left and David on my right, I followed them. When David started speaking I stared at the flickering candle closest to me, trying to ignore the looming dissatisfaction I felt. It didn’t matter that I’d masked Chyler’s magic if they’d found a way to find her. I tried to quell the anxiety and tell myself that maybe they were doing the right thing. I couldn’t help Chyler indefinitely. She needed much, much more than me.

I could feel the air rush past us to centre in the circle and it built up like a mini tornado, absolutely fixed to one spot. Not a single grain of salt moved from its place and just when I felt like I might get sucked in too, the tornado parted so I could first see long blonde hair then a body then, finally, acid pink heels.

“What’s going on?” came Chyler’s plaintive shriek. “Where am I?” She wheeled around, rooted to the spot until she fixed on me. “You! You did this? What have you done?”

Chyler took a step towards me then stopped as she came to the edge of the circle, her eyes flickering to the symbols and their lit candle centrepieces. She held her hands up, touching it like she wasn’t sure if she could move past it.

“You
summoned
me?” she snarled, her voice furious. “I told you to back off. I told you not to tell them about me!”

I glanced quickly in either direction. David had his eyes open but they were slightly glazed with concentration. I could feel power move between the four of us like an open electricity circuit, fizzling and hissing. Étoile and Seren were still but watching Chyler as she jabbed a finger at me.

“I told you nothing good would come of the witches. They aren’t here to help me...” Chyler broke off and her entire body shuddered so fast it was like she was giving off a tremendous vibration. Her voice stuck in her throat and she went rigid for a second before the vibrating started again, like she was having a fit standing up. I could see the whites of her eyes as her irises rolled back.

Slipping my eyes slightly out of focus I gasped. I could make out the shape of something not quite corporeal seeming to edge from her body. This thing took on a translucent shape and I got the impression of dark, wavy hair and a face that was closer to its thirties than Chyler’s teens. The eyes fixed on me and it made a hideous screeching noise through its shadow of a mouth. Through my fear, I got the impression of two distinct auras. Two witches.

“Stella,” Chyler gasped, her hands clawing at her throat like she was being choked. “Stella, help me. She’s in me. I can’t stop her... I can’t... Stella,
please
!”

The ghost woman whipped her way around the circle, Chyler in the middle, as if it was trying to find a way out and then, without warning, we were blown back by some unseen force, the salt circle scattered and broken, the candles skittering across the floor to snuff out. Étoile and Seren had hit opposite walls and were scrambling to their feet. I was on my ass looking up and David was flat on his back as Evan darted forward, his chest heaving like he was taking a great gasp of air in readiness to pummel Chyler. I wondered if he could also see the dark presence that was coiling about her body, in wisps of smoke and shadows.

“Oh, Stella, help me,” was Chyler’s last wail as the thing wrapped around her, invaded her, and they both winked out of existence.

Evan was by my side in an instance.

“What the hell was that?” I gasped. Étoile and Seren seemed to have shaken themselves to their senses and David had gotten to his feet and was walking a little awkwardly over to Seren, straightening his glasses then rubbing a hand through his hair, his face guarded.

“That was an imposter spirit,” said Evan, pulling me up so I could dust myself off. I was covered in salt sprinkles.

“Say again,” I whispered.

“An imposter spirit. I’d guess a witch. She doesn’t have her own body so she took someone else’s.”

I gaped at him. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Étoile was shaking her head. “I’ve seen it before and it all ties in. Damn it, I should have seen this! We knew that Chyler was dabbling in dark magic. She must have called something up, or let something through, and it got into her. I bet it attacked her mother too.”

That made my stomach turn over and I leant against Evan. Étoile had voiced exactly what my mind was trying to process. The schizophrenic nature of Chyler had been puzzling me. She behaved like a frightened, desperate young girl one minute; defiant and devious the next. I wondered if I had been speaking to both of them at times, but which one had sought me out? I could understand if Chyler needed help, but what would a spirit want from me?

“I can’t believe I let her get away.” David slapped his hand against the door in an unexpected fit of pique that made me jump. “I didn’t make the protection symbols strong enough. I was just expecting a weak kid. She shouldn’t have been able to blow her way through that or even disappear.” He turned to the sisters. “Whatever we’re dealing with, she’s incredibly strong.”

Seren nodded but when she turned to me her face was hard. “Stella, I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Étoile nodded. “She obviously knew you. Did you know she was here? Have you been helping her?”

I took a deep breath and nodded, preparing to be bawled out. “She came about a week ago, just before you all got here.”

“Did you know what she was, what was inside Chyler?” asked Evan.

I shook my head. “God, no. No!” I put my head in my hands. What had I been thinking not telling them? I’d been thinking about how glad I was to see Evan and the relief that he was alive. How happy I was not feeling afraid every day. How I liked magic not dominating everything I did. No wonder I’d sympathised with Chyler, I was trying to protect her from the damage I’d been dealt, but I’d been saved from it and I should have trusted the people who were there for me. I felt hot tears prick at my eyes and the shame of feeling so stupid.

It was Étoile who stood in front of me, pulling my hands away from my face. Softly, she said, “Stella, we need to talk.”

Uh-oh.

Ten

The kitchen table was rapidly becoming my least favourite place in the house. At least it was right now. We were all sat round it, them staring silently, questioningly, at me.

I breathed deeply. I could feel the cabinet doors begin to rattle in solidarity with my anxiety, but it wasn’t until the glasses flew out of the cupboard and dashed towards the floor that Étoile took my hand in hers.

“You can control this,” she said. Out of the corner of my eye the glasses hovered a foot from the floor seemingly unsure of whether to smash or not. I saw Evan nod at them and they floated back to the cabinet that my magic had pulled them from. I forced myself to, to pull my magic inside where it belonged, and around me the doors began to settle down. It didn’t escape my notice that this was the first time in a long time that I’d been anxious enough for something like this to happen, but as far as accidents caused by me went, this was small fry.

“Tell us what happened,” Étoile urged and I didn’t need her to add: so we can fix this mess.

I forced myself to meet her eyes. “Like I said, Chyler came to see me a week ago and she was afraid. I told her I would look into things and that I would try and help her.” I pulled back from Étoile to spread my hands across the table and leaned forward. “I had no idea you were looking for her then and she was terrified.”

“But you knew when we came to visit,” Seren protested. “We told you we thought she would try and get in touch with you.”

“And I bet you didn’t tell me the whole truth either.” I threw the words at her like an icy slap.

Seren had the good grace to look guilty.

“I didn’t think so.” I shook my head, tired.
Witches
. “I’ve only seen Chyler a couple of times since you came.”

“Did you put the masking spell on her?” David asked and I nodded. “How did you do it? I didn’t teach you to do that.”

“I just kind of felt it and pushed the magic at her. It was... automatic.”

David’s eyes widened in surprise, and what I thought was a glimmer of admiration. “You didn’t say a spell at all? Interesting.” Whatever I thought I saw faded into a wary expression as he rubbed his thumb against his jaw, lost in thought.

“When did you see her again?” Seren asked.

“When I was out running. I run some mornings and she just appeared when I was taking a breather. That was the day after you came. And I found where she lived so I went to check on her today.”

Seren latched on to the first bit of my confession. “So she could find you?”

I nodded. “She has some sort of book that helps her do stuff. She said it was the family spell book and that’s how she found me. And I can find her; her magic isn’t masked to me.”

Étoile and Seren exchanged a look and I asked, “What is it?”

Étoile pursed her lips and I could feel her thinking before she added. “A family spell book is tied to the family. An imposter shouldn’t be able to access it, unless...”

“Unless, Chyler is still here,” Seren finished, her eyes far away in thought.

“I don’t understand.”

“You can’t use a spell book unless there’s express permission from the keeper of the book, and even then it wouldn’t necessarily work. The keeper would have been Andrea, Chyler’s mom, and she wouldn’t have offered it up to something as dark as that imposter. But with Chyler as the keeper, that’s a different story,” explained Seren, Étoile nodding in agreement at her side. “But what I really mean is, there must be some part of Chyler still there or the book would be no use at all.”

“I’m sure I spoke to Chyler sometimes, but other times she was acting so strangely. That must have been the imposter,” I surmised, trying to think this through logically. “So this witch wants... the book? Why? Doesn’t she have her own?”

David took up the story. “Not all witches have spell books, plus when a witch dies it passes on to her descendents and her power goes with it. Old books like the Anderson’s are stuffed with power that the next generation can tap into. It would be quite attractive to someone dangerous, someone who wanted to come back even more powerful than they had been.”