The Witch Born to Burn

by Tanya Milne

  ‘Just going,’ said Max, grinning from ear to ear as his gaze continued to roam my body.

  ‘NOW!’ she said.

  Carol’s voice stirred me and I stepped behind the partition, where I started to dress as quickly as my shaking hands would allow.

  ‘Don’t tell me what to do,’ said Max, his every word issuing a threat.

  The next thing I knew, I heard a struggle and a punch being landed. I stuck my head out to see Jet nursing his knuckles and Max lying on the ground, cursing. Carol was dumbstruck as she glanced between them.

  ‘Touch her again and you’ll have me to answer to,’ said Jet. He nodded at me before striding from the room. He disappeared as quickly as he’d arrived.

  Max turned towards me, his look as dark as the night. He pointed his finger at me. ‘That’s two strikes.’

  I retreated behind the partition, but my hands were shaking so much I couldn’t put my clothes back on. I gave up and sat down on the ground.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ said Carol.

  ‘She has a mole, right side, upper buttock.’

  Carol took a sharp breath, and I pulled my legs up and rested my head against them.

  ‘She’d pulled her knickers up so high that I had no choice but to check,’ said Max.

  Tears sprang to my eyes.

  ‘It’s best you leave,’ said Carol.

  ‘It’s best you make the record, lady. I’ll be checking, and remember the consequences for sympathisers.’

  I listened to Max’s heavy tread as he walked across the office, then paused at the door. ‘It was mighty good to see you, Eva. We’ll have to catch up tomorrow after strike three, because there’ll be no one to step in for you then.’

  The truth of his words, the danger I was in, hit home and I started to sob.

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Carol, who placed my jacket over my shoulders and squatted down beside me. ‘I’m so sorry, Eva. Max gave me an urgent job the moment I came out of this room. I came back as soon as I could.’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ I blurted before wiping my eyes on my shirt, looking up at Carol’s warm brown eyes that were full of pity.

  I took a few steadying breaths and stood. Carol passed me my clothes before disappearing past the partition.

  Neither of us said another word as I finished dressing. When I stepped back out she stood with her clipboard in her hands, my name no doubt ticked off as having failed for the second time.

  ‘You going to be okay?’ she asked.

  No!

  ‘Thanks for being kind,’ I said quietly before leaving the room and making my way back down the corridor and into the glass-domed room, where sunlight was pouring in. I glanced around, but it was quiet. The screaming of silent protests was happening inside the rooms where people were being stripped of their clothes and their dignity. None of it made sense, yet here we were.

  I put one step in front of the other until I found the exit. I pushed open the door and sunlight filled my vision. I stumbled forward, lost my footing and fell onto the hard ground.

  Chapter Twenty

  I let out a cry of despair as I hit the paving. Large hands wrapped around me and pulled me into an embrace, pushing warmth back into me.

  ‘What the hell are you doing?’ yelled Ezra, some distance away.

  I pulled back to see that I was wrapped in Jet’s arms.

  What the…

  I stepped back and he let me go, his warmth instantly leaving me. I stumbled backwards and Ezra rushed forward and grabbed me. He glanced between me and Jet, whose eyes were lasered on mine.

  ‘What happened?’ said Ezra.

  I tried to speak, but my words got caught in my throat. All I could remember was Max’s hands on my body and the knowledge of what would happen to me should I fail one more test.

  ‘The deviant Max, that’s what happened,’ said Jet, his eyes wild.

  ‘What did he do?’

  Tears sprang to my eyes, and through my watery vision I watched my parents rush across the open square towards us.

  ‘He did what he planned to do – he saw her naked and God only knows what he said.’

  Ezra cursed under his breath as his face turned the deepest shade of red.

  ‘And how do you know this?’ said Ezra.

  ‘That’s all you want to know? A sick and twisted monster is obsessed with Eva, and you’re worried about whether I saw her naked.’

  ‘Did you?’ said Ezra.

  ‘It doesn’t matter what I saw, mate. What matters is what Max is doing.’

  Ezra moved towards Jet and I pushed him back. ‘Stop it, Ezra. Jet helped me – he decked Max.’

  Ezra stopped moving, his eyes wide.

  ‘It felt good, too,’ said Jet, raising his swollen red fist. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

  As Jet began walking away, I found my voice. ‘Jet.’

  He turned around, his dark eyes zapping against mine.

  ‘Did you pass?’ I asked.

  It was as if a cloud passed over his face. ‘There’s always tomorrow.’

  Tomorrow!

  This time tomorrow I could have failed a third test and been branded a witch – life as I knew it effectively over. Max would be waiting for me.

  Jet’s eyebrows drew together as though he had the same thought as me.

  ‘Thank you,’ I whispered.

  He smiled, a crooked smile, the one he reserved for me. ‘Don’t mention it.’

  My family arrived at the same time Jet left. The questions from my family had left me exhausted. Once I’d managed to get out the flavour of what had happened, invisible seeds of anger had been planted inside Ezra.

  Ezra kissed me on the top of my head, promised to visit in a few hours and then strode to the building and disappeared into its bowels.

  Dad held me up as we walked away from the town hall. Elijah, who’d passed the second test along with my parents, hadn’t said a word throughout the questions. Instead, he’d stared at the door to the town hall as if he wanted to kill it.

  ‘Max’s day is coming,’ said Elijah, opening the car door for me and helping me inside. ‘Come on, sis, let’s get you home. We have work to do.’

  I gazed up at him, but his eyes were like steel. Heat pulsed through me as I took in the meaning of his words. All the shame, the feelings of being helpless and vulnerable – they drained from my body and into the ground underneath me.

  I was a witch, a powerful witch. Inside me was generations of knowledge. Fire burned inside me as my birthright. I would not, could not stand by and go down without a fight.

  Elijah paced the lounge room like a caged lion.

  ‘Come and sit,’ I said, patting the sofa beside me. ‘He’ll be here in a minute.’

  Elijah stopped pacing and placed his hands on his head. ‘And he definitely has info on the third test.’

  ‘That’s what he said.’

  ‘What were his exact words?’ said Elijah.

  Ezra’s car rolled to a stop outside our house. ‘Why don’t you ask him yourself?’

  Elijah opened the door and I walked to stand beside him as Ezra strode down the path towards us. Gone was my carefree boyfriend on his way to pick up his girl. The young man coming towards me in the dying light was on a mission to help save me.

  Ezra bent down and pecked me on the cheek before shaking Elijah’s hand.

  ‘Come in,’ I said, scanning the quiet street before closing the door behind us.

  My parents, who’d been in the kitchen, rushed forward and hugged Ezra in turn.

  ‘Can we get you anything, son?’ asked Dad.

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Ezra. ‘But we need to talk.’

  ‘Come and sit down,’ said Mum. She led him into the lounge room and sat beside him, my dad sitting on the other side.

  Elijah and I sat opposite them. If my future weren’t on the line, I’d have laughed at the sight in front of me – my parents’ new favourite person was jammed in between them. But there didn’t seem t
o be anything left in the world to laugh about.

  ‘What did you find out, son?’ asked Dad.

  ‘The third test will be in the bay,’ said Ezra, then paused as though visualising the image in his mind. ‘Every person will be tied up and thrown into the water. If they sink, they’ll be deemed innocent. If they float, they’ll be considered a witch.’

  ‘You have to be kidding,’ said Elijah, his every muscle clenching beside me.

  ‘I wish I was,’ said Ezra, rubbing his face. ‘I overheard my dad on a call. They’re setting up for it now.’

  I tried to swallow, but all I could picture was my body floating on the surface of the bay and Max’s face alight with pleasure.

  I blinked, my focus coming back into the room, and saw that Ezra’s green eyes looked red-raw with dark circles underneath.

  ‘Well, that’s pretty good news. Most people sink when they’re thrown into water,’ said Dad, rubbing his whiskers.

  ‘What about the bay? It’s putrid,’ said Mum.

  ‘Everyone will get sick…again,’ said Elijah.

  I remembered discovering the pipe that was pumping salt into the river, poisoning it.

  ‘All that salt being pumped into the bay – everyone will float,’ I said.

  ‘It’s a trap,’ said Elijah.

  The truth of Elijah’s words made everyone sink into their seats.

  Everyone except Ezra, whose words leaked anger. ‘My dad’s planned this all along to create fear…hate…power. What kind of person does that? I’m sorry for this…for everything.’

  ‘Oh, son,’ said Dad, putting his arm around Ezra. ‘This isn’t your fault. You are not your father.’

  Something inside Ezra gave way and his eyes filled with tears. ‘He’s a beast. You’d be better off without us.’

  My heart felt as though it were being squeezed tight. Mum placed her arm around Ezra so that he was enclosed in my parents’ arms, and said in her don’t-argue-with-me voice, ‘Don’t you dare say that.’

  Ezra wiped away his tears with the hankie Dad passed him.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Ezra.

  ‘We’re family now, remember?’ said Elijah. ‘So you’re stuck with our parents too.’

  We all laughed and Ezra smiled at my parents, saying, ‘I could think of worse things.’

  As the fire crackled, the room fell into a deep silence.

  ‘So, how are we going to make sure Eva doesn’t float tomorrow?’ said Elijah.

  ‘She can’t go into the water,’ said Ezra.

  ‘If I don’t, I’ll automatically fail,’ I said, remembering Carol’s word of warning.

  ‘But…’ said Ezra, panic rising in him like a tide.

  The edge of an idea that had been floating around inside me gained form.

  ‘Not necessarily,’ I said, and everyone turned towards me.

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Elijah.

  I turned to my brother. ‘Because you’re going to cleanse the water.’

  Elijah let out a long sigh. ‘But…I can’t,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, you can,’ I said.

  ‘How do you know?’ asked Elijah.

  ‘Because I’ve seen your gift. Mine is fire. Yours is water.’

  I kept my gaze on my brother as he wrestled with the truth of his gift. He began to fidget, and then he stood and paced the floor. Suddenly, he stopped and turned to me.

  ‘I have an idea,’ he said.

  All day, I’d felt as if I were inside a washing machine, being pushed and pulled in every direction, knowing there was no escape. But for the first time, he shined a light into my darkness.

  ‘We need to get a move on. Grab your jacket,’ said Elijah.

  ‘What? Where are you going? What’s going on?’ asked Mum, standing and following Elijah and me as we put on our jackets.

  ‘I don’t know exactly,’ said Elijah, zipping up his jacket and pulling his beanie onto his head. ‘But I’m going to try and clean the water in the bay and river.’

  ‘But that’s…advanced magic,’ said Mum. ‘No one I know has tried it before.’

  ‘Before now,’ I said, pecking Mum on the cheek. ‘Don’t wait up.’

  ‘But you can’t…go out into the woods without us,’ said Mum. ‘We might be able to help.’

  ‘The police are coming around later to check on anyone who has failed two tests,’ said Ezra.

  ‘What?’ I said, knowing exactly who would be coming to check on me.

  ‘It’s okay. I told my dad that Eva and I were spending some time together tonight, but the police might still drop past.’

  ‘They’ll expect to see us – make sure we haven’t done a runner,’ said Mum, her mouth pressed in a straight line.

  ‘I’m afraid so. It was the best I could do,’ said Ezra.

  ‘You did well, son,’ said Dad.

  ‘Ezra, any chance you know how to stop that pipe pumping salt into the bay?’ asked Elijah.

  Ezra nodded. ‘I’ve been doing some digging, and I think I’ve found a way. Happy to give it a go.’

  ‘Awesome,’ said Elijah, giving Ezra a high five. ‘Let’s do this.’

  ‘I’ll drive.’ Ezra held his hand out for mine.

  ‘You don’t need to get mixed up in this,’ I said, my insides clenching at the thought of Ezra putting himself in danger.

  ‘Sure I do,’ said Ezra as he stepped forward to take my hand.

  ‘Please be very careful,’ said Mum, wrapping my scarf around me. ‘And let us know how you go.’

  Elijah and I hugged our parents before we followed Ezra out of the house and into the golden dusk light. The next time there would be light in the sky, my fate would be sealed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  By the time we reached the car park in the woods near where Ezra and I had found the pipe, it was dark. Ezra pulled out of sight from the road and turned his car off, plunging us all into further darkness.

  Outside, the trees were thrashing around in the wind. The calm, sunny days we’d experienced were over – the wind was blowing in a storm.

  ‘Just what we need,’ said Elijah, slipping from the car, leaving Ezra and me alone.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Ezra asked, grabbing my hand.

  Was I okay? Was I?

  ‘I will be,’ I said quietly. Questions swirled around inside me. I wanted to know everything that had happened since we’d left the town hall – whether Ezra had confronted Max, whether his dad now strongly suspected me of witchcraft and how many others also had failed the tests twice – but all of that would need to wait. The hands of time were ticking ahead and this night was all we had.

  I turned towards him and he leant forward and gently kissed me; his lips felt as cold as the night outside.

  He pulled away, groaning. ‘When this is over…’

  ‘Yes?’ I said, my mind filling with possibilities.

  ‘We need to talk.’

  Talk! What?

  ‘I want to know everything that happened in that room today,’ he said.

  I let out a low groan. ‘Come on – we’d better make a move.’

  ‘Promise you’ll tell me everything.’

  ‘Honestly, it won’t do you any good.’

  He growled. ‘Promise me.’

  I let out a sigh as it dawned on me just how possessive my boyfriend was.

  ‘If it means that much to you,’ I said.

  ‘It does,’ he said, then leaned over and kissed me with a passion he’d never shown before.

  We pulled apart, breathless. ‘I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, so long as you kiss me like that again.’

  And don’t stop.

  ‘Deal,’ he said before getting out of the car and zipping around to open my door.

  ‘You took your time,’ said Elijah, chuckling from where he stood just under the cover of the woods, Boy by his side.

  ‘Boy!’ I said, running forward and patting him.

  ‘Let’s make a move,’ said Elijah.

  E
zra walked over to pat Boy before taking my hand and squeezing it tight.

  ‘Follow me,’ said Ezra.

  In silence, by the light of Ezra’s torch, we made our way beneath the trees whose branches were flailing about in the wind like monsters’ arms. From a distance, thunder grumbled, and we walked even faster. Before long, we arrived at the place where the foul-smelling pipe was pumping salt into the river.

  ‘You guys keep going. I’ll see what I can do,’ said Ezra.

  ‘Come on, sis. Let’s head upstream,’ said Elijah.

  A bolt of lightning split the sky above us.

  ‘I’ll come find you,’ said Ezra. ‘Be careful.’

  ‘You too,’ I said, putting my hand on Boy’s head. ‘You stay with Ezra, Boy.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Elijah, waiting for me to step in beside him before we began walking upstream.

  ‘What magic will you try?’ I asked.

  Without the moon, the altar and our book on magic.

  ‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ he said, grinning the same way he always did when he was about to do something he shouldn’t.

  ‘Elijah–’

  ‘Oh, come on, sis. No one said witchcraft had to be boring.’

  I laughed; I couldn’t help it.

  ‘That’s a nice sound,’ he said, putting his arm around me. ‘Particularly after a day like today.’

  I thought back to all that had happened, and it made me feel as sick as the river we were walking beside.

  ‘You okay? I mean really?’ he asked.

  ‘What is it with you boys?’

  Elijah laughed. ‘We care, that’s all.’

  ‘How did I get so lucky?’

  ‘That’s another thing I didn’t think I’d hear you say, today of all days.’

  ‘You mean the day before my reckoning.’

  Elijah took a sharp breath. ‘Not going to happen. I’ll make sure of it.’

  In that moment, I could picture it all playing out. Being named a witch – Elijah stepping in, risking his own life.

  I stopped.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  ‘Elijah, I need you to promise me that if I fail tomorrow, you won’t do anything stupid.’

  Elijah stared up at the sky, where swirling grey clouds were swallowing the stars. ‘I can’t promise you that.’