The Witches of the Dark Power

by Gabriella Lepore

  ‘But don’t worry—Demetrius is still here to stand guard alongside Talon and Finn,’ Cassandra explained. ‘As you know, Colt’s been exiled’—she cast a dejected glance at Mia—‘but tonight we had to exile Siren, too. We’d been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but we were left with no choice once we found Jonathan’s body.’

  Mia looked at the floor, staring fixedly at the web-like patterns in the threadbare Persian rug. How could she plead Colt’s case at such a delicate time? To argue Colt’s innocence now felt disrespectful to Jonathan. If the others truly believed it was Colt who had killed him, how could she stand before them and argue otherwise? She glanced at Blue and Dino; their expressions were grim.

  Mia bit her lip. This was beginning to feel hopeless.

  As Cassandra talked, Dino occasionally glanced at Mia, wondering how she was dealing with everything. Of course, most of this information was not new to them. But somehow, hearing the words coming from their mother’s mouth made it all seem much more real.

  Dino was numb to it, mostly. He felt tired, and wrought, and confused. Quite frankly, he just wanted Cassandra to stop talking.

  When she did, he rose to his feet. ‘It’s late,’ he said at last. ‘We should get some sleep.’ He turned his gaze to Cassandra. ‘Will you be all right, Mum?’ The word Mum sounded unnatural to his ears; he’d been calling his mother Cassandra for as long as he could remember. But he could tell by the sudden sheen in her bright blue eyes that it was a word—and a gesture—she needed right now.

  Dino’s relationship with Cassandra had been strained over the years. Admittedly, it had shown some improvement over the past few months, but Dino would hardly describe himself as the doting son. He rarely sought out his mother for conversation, and he almost never spent time alone with her.

  It hurt her—he’d always known that. And ever since he’d come into his Sententia power, he’d heard it, too. He heard that bolt of sadness she felt every time he sidestepped past her at home, or bellowed her name in annoyance. Did it make him feel good?

  No. Not anymore.

  There’d been a time when it did, though. As far as he was concerned, it had been payback for what she’d done. Or, at least, what he had perceived her to have done. This was his revenge—forcing her to endure the pain that he felt every time he pined for the father he’d never had. After all, she had chased his father away. His father had been a hero, a superman—and she had scared him off.

  Of course, back then, Dino hadn’t known that his father was Tol.

  So, after the summer at the Glass Castle, when Tol’s true darkness revealed itself to him, Dino and Cassandra’s relationship began to mend. Wounds healed and scars faded until only memories remained. Naturally Dino felt remorse for the way he’d treated her—even if he couldn’t say so to her face. In his own way, though, he began to show his love for her—and for Madeline, too. Sure, his aunt was a colossal pain, but at least he could laugh with her—when they were ripping in to each other, anyway. He’d tried to be considerate and warm. He ate meals with the family, spoke to them about their day, watched TV with them. He’d even suffered through the odd chick flick now and again, just to be nice.

  But it seemed he’d spent too long being angry and resentful to ever fully let go of his past hurt. So when he’d heard his mother and aunt plotting to send Mia away, it had been like taking the cap off a shaken soda bottle. All of his pent-up hostility had exploded, rupturing from the seams. And, just like that, he was back to square one. The long and short of it was, in Dino’s mind, he didn’t need them. He hadn’t needed them for years.

  However, standing in the drawing room now, Dino felt all his resentment evaporate. He saw before him a fragile and frightened woman. Cassandra seemed tiny all of a sudden, like she was drowning in a huge velvet armchair. She had lost weight, he suddenly noticed. Her arms and legs looked bony, and her skin was pale beneath a dishevelled mass of red hair. She looked broken. And Dino was overcome by an urge to save her.

  He may not have needed her, but she needed him.

  Mum. He wanted to say it again.

  Around him, Mia and Blue were rising wearily to their feet. Mia kissed Cassandra on the cheek, then she and Blue began across the drawing room, murmuring to each other in hushed voices.

  ‘Are you coming, Dino?’ Mia called over her shoulder when she noticed he wasn’t following.

  ‘In a minute,’ he replied.

  Shrugging, Mia and Blue continued into the shadowed corridor, leaving Dino and Cassandra alone. The drawing room door closed with an echoing thud.

  Dino felt a wave of awkwardness, as he often did in his mother’s company. What did they have to talk about? He racked his brain for something to say, determined not to make a rude and abrupt exit as was tradition.

  ‘You don’t have to stay with me, Dino,’ Cassandra said with a kind smile. ‘I’m fine.’

  Was his discomfort that obvious? Or had she read his mind? He winced every time he remembered that she was a Reader—that she likely knew all the awful things he’d thought about her over the years. Cringing at the notion, Dino turned and started towards the door, relieved to have been given an easy out.

  But he didn’t leave. He stopped in the doorway and, for the first time ever, he aligned his mind to hers, tuning his consciousness to hear her emotions. A high-pitched noise started to ring in his ears.

  He knew that sound. He could recognise the different emotions with ease now, and he pinpointed this one as sadness. It was one of the more unpleasant sounds; it was painful to hear, coursing over his skin in shrill tremors.

  Damn it, he cursed.

  He knew he had two options: either walk away, like he always did, or . . . do something else. Anything else.

  Like be a son.

  What do sons do?

  He turned back to Cassandra. She remained in the armchair where he’d left her. She looked at him, her eyes hopeful.

  ‘Are you okay, sweetie?’ she asked softly.

  Dino drew in a deep breath. He walked back towards her, feeling excruciatingly self-conscious.

  Say something, he urged himself.

  Try as he might, Dino couldn’t muster a single word. He simply stood before her, burning with embarrassment at his ineptness.

  ‘Dino?’ Cassandra prompted. ‘Are you okay?’ She rose from the chair.

  They were face to face now. Before Dino could second guess himself, he reached out and hugged her. She felt so small in his embrace, and he suddenly realised how much time had passed between them. At six feet tall he was no longer a child.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured.

  At that, Cassandra let out the most heart-breaking sob. She locked her arms around Dino and clung to the back of his T-shirt as though she had been reunited with a long lost son—which, Dino supposed, wasn’t far from the truth.

  A new sound overcame him: a dulcet hum that spread in tranquil tones from the base of his skull to the pit of his stomach.

  Love.

  His throat felt tight. He was overcome by the love radiating from her. Who was this woman?

  This is my mother, he reminded himself. My Mum.

  ‘My son,’ she replied in a tearful whisper.

  Mia returned to the bedchamber and shrugged out of her coat. She and Blue had parted ways, having agreed to wait until morning before they broached the subject of Colt’s innocence. Without Amos around to give his consent, nothing could be done, anyway.

  It was pitch black beyond the window, but Mia lit the candles in the chamber to bring a rosy glow to the room. She drew the bed curtains back, then sank down on the edge of the mattress with a heavy sigh.

  She leaned back against the bedpost, watching the candlelight throw long shadows across the crimson floor.

  ‘How can we fix this?’ she muttered despondently to herself.

  A rustle of bed covers came from behind her.

  Mia’s breath caught in her throat.

  Someone was in her bed.


  Chapter Seventeen

  And One More Makes Four

  Mia jumped up from where she was sitting on her bed and ran across the room. In a panic, she found herself cowering in the looming shadows of the tall wardrobe.

  ‘Who’s there?’ she cried into the near darkness.

  A high-pitched voice returned to her from across the chamber. ‘You’re still alive!’

  Mia’s jaw dropped. She recognised that voice. She peered out from the sanctuary of the wardrobe. ‘Kizzy?’

  There was another rustle and a thud as the intruder climbed out of Mia’s bed and padded across the carpet.

  ‘Yes, it’s me,’ Kizzy replied breathlessly. She stepped into the dancing glow cast by the flickering candles.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Mia exclaimed. She leaped to her feet and rushed to hug her friend, trying not to get tangled in Kizzy’s wild blonde curls.

  Kizzy quickly returned the hug, then broke free and met Mia’s gaze. ‘Take a seat,’ she answered in a sombre voice. ‘Trust me, you’re going to need to sit down for this.’

  The girls sank, cross-legged, to the blood-red carpet.

  ‘I had a vision,’ Kizzy began. ‘A bad one.’ Her fingers linked together as she spoke.

  Mia’s chest tightened. She knew that Kizzy was a Seer—they’d spent the previous summer honing their powers together—but Mia had never seen Kizzy looking this tortured over a vision before.

  ‘Go on,’ said Mia, weakly.

  ‘Someone is going to kill you.’

  Mia felt a swell of relief. Sure, it sucked—but at least it was nothing new to worry about. ‘Oh, I already know that,’ she explained with a wave of her hand. ‘That’s why I’m here, for protection—’

  Kizzy shook her head, cutting Mia off. ‘No,’ she murmured. ‘Someone will kill you here.’

  Mia turned the words over in her mind. But no outsiders are allowed in the castle . . .

  She swallowed hard. ‘So it’s someone from the castle?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kizzy confirmed. ‘He’s here.’ She squeezed her eyes shut, as if trying to erase the memory. ‘He kills you, and Colt, and Wendolyn . . .’

  Mia’s heart started to beat faster. ‘Wait—he kills Colt and Wendolyn, too?’

  ‘And he doesn’t stop there,’ Kizzy went on. ‘It’s going to be a massacre. I saw it all, and I couldn’t stop it. I saw Blue, and Dino, and . . .’ Her sapphire eyes pooled with tears.

  Mia felt sick to her stomach.

  Why did I ever come here? she chastised herself. Suddenly, she was hit with the full weight of the consequences of taking refuge at the castle. Johnathan had already lost his life because of this—who would be next?

  Mia reached out and took Kizzy’s hand. ‘Who is he?’ she asked urgently. ‘Did you see his face?’ Jonathan hadn’t seen the attacker’s face in his vision, and neither had Madeline.

  Pale and shaken, Kizzy nodded. ‘I know who he is. Well, I don’t know his name or anything, but there’s a photo of him downstairs in the drawing room. I recognised him from it.’

  Mia drew in her breath. ‘Kizzy, that’s great! If we know who’s behind this we might actually be able to stop it. Your vision was just a warning. It’s not going to come true.’ Her words sounded certain, but as she spoke them, she shivered.

  ‘I came as soon as I had it,’ Kizzy carried on. ‘I went to find Wendolyn first, but I couldn’t wake her. Then I heard footsteps along the corridor, so I came up here to hide, and I didn’t come out until I was sure it was you.’ Her voice lowered to almost a whimper. ‘I was starting to think I was too late.’

  Mia pursed her lips. ‘Thank you for coming. It’s going to be okay,’ she said, as much for her own sake as for Kizzy’s. ‘Do you think you’ll be able to find the photo?’

  Kizzy nodded. ‘But what I still don’t understand is, why does this guy want to kill you?’

  Mia gave a deep sigh, then proceeded to fill her friend in on the Arx force-field that was supposed to make her invincible but that was actually ruining her life—and everyone else’s. When she was finished, she jumped to her feet. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go look at that photo.’

  Kizzy fiddled with a cork button on her multi-coloured jumpsuit. ‘But . . . what if he’s out there?’ She glanced furtively to the closed chamber door.

  ‘At least you’ll be able to identify him,’ Mia encouraged. ‘You’re the only one who can.’

  Kizzy winced as Mia hauled her to her feet. With their hands clasped, the girls paced out of the chamber and into the hallway. It felt especially cold as the ghostly howl of wind moved through the castle’s draughty corridors.

  The girls crept softly down the staircase, staying closely knit together as they went. Once on the ground floor, they tiptoed along the corridor and slipped silently into the drawing room. They found Dino alone in the room, seated in an armchair and staring into space. He looked up at the sound of the door opening.

  ‘Kizzy?’ He did a double take. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Kizzy had a vision,’ Mia explained quickly, closing the door behind them. ‘She knows who’s trying to steal the Arx.’

  Dino leaped from his seat. ‘Who?’

  Without wasting a second, Kizzy ushered them to the back of the room where a group of framed photographs cluttered the wall—the same wall where Mia had discovered the photograph of her parents just days earlier.

  ‘There,’ Kizzy announced with conviction as the trio gathered around a small gold frame on the outskirts of the grouping. ‘That’s him.’ She pointed to a fairly recent photo of a run-down lighthouse. In the foreground, Amos was dwarfed by four brawny boys dressed in black—the Lighthouse Hunter Coven. Demetrius was standing tall beside Amos, his Hunter eyes piercing through the photo like two black whirlpools.

  ‘Demetrius,’ Mia spoke his name out loud. ‘I knew it.’ She turned to Dino. ‘I told you so.’

  ‘Lucky guess,’ Dino muttered. His attention moved to Kizzy. ‘And you’re sure it’s him?’

  ‘Positive,’ Kizzy confirmed with a shudder.

  ‘So Demetrius is our guy,’ Mia mused.

  Suddenly it seemed so obvious. How could they have ever doubted it?

  ‘That explains why Jonathan had the vision in the first place,’ Mia realised. ‘His vision wasn’t connected to me at all—it was connected to Demetrius! How could we have been so blind?’

  ‘Amos trusts Demetrius,’ Dino pointed out. ‘He obviously has no idea he’s been harbouring a raging psycho in his Lighthouse.’

  ‘Where’s Mum?’ Mia asked. ‘We need to tell her.’

  Dino’s eyes darkened. ‘She’s gone to check on Wendolyn—and Demetrius is with her.’

  ‘Damn it, Dino!’ Mia exclaimed, throwing up her hands. ‘Why didn’t you stop her?’

  ‘Because ten minutes ago I didn’t know any of this!’ he yelled back.

  ‘Now what?’ Mia wailed. ‘How do we get Mum away from Demetrius without him flipping out and killing us and stuff?’

  Kizzy snapped her fingers. ‘What about Colt?’ she suggested. ‘Can’t he get this Demetrius guy away from her?’

  ‘Colt’s been exiled,’ Mia explained. ‘Everyone thinks he’s corrupt. He and Siren are hiding out in the forest.’ She shot Dino another I-told-you-so look.

  He cast his eyes downwards.

  ‘Can we un-exile them?’ Kizzy asked.

  ‘Not possible,’ Mia said, biting her lip. ‘To do that, we’d need an Arcana coven of four.’ A smile began to shape as an idea formed. She pointed to each of them in turn. ‘One, two, three . . .’

  ‘And Blue makes four,’ Dino finished for her.

  Without missing a beat, they paced across the drawing room, back into the dim corridor and up the staircase towards Blue’s chamber.

  In the upper candlelit corridor, Dino rapped on the oak door.

  There was no response.

  ‘He must be sleeping,’ Mia whispered.

  ‘Then we need to wake h
im,’ said Kizzy.

  Dino twisted the brass handle and eased open the heavy door.

  The lamps had been extinguished and the curtains were drawn. It was smaller than Mia and Dino’s bedchamber, with only one single bed and wall-to-wall bookcases crammed with dusty old volumes.

  Mia, Dino, and Kizzy crept towards the bed in single file. They huddled together around his bedside as Blue slept soundly beneath the covers.

  Dino cleared his throat. ‘Blue?’

  Blue didn’t stir.

  Mia reached out and prodded his shoulder.

  ‘Apples,’ he garbled.

  Mia frowned and prodded him again.

  This time he stirred. His eyelashes fluttered open to find three anxious faces peering down at him with hopeful smiles.

  Blue let out a scream and almost fell out of bed, getting tangled in the sheets as he did so.

  ‘What are you all doing in here?’ he cried. ‘Have you been watching m-m-me sleep?’ He clutched the bedding to his chest. ‘Oh, hi, Kizzy.’

  ‘Hi, Blue,’ Kizzy replied.

  ‘Of course we haven’t been watching you sleep,’ Dino assured him. ‘Well, not intentionally, anyway—’

  ‘Demetrius is the one trying to steal the Arx!’ Mia interrupted.

  Blue sat up, his sandy-blonde hair rumpled.

  Mia hurriedly continued. ‘Kizzy had a vision and identified him from a photograph downstairs. So it’s not Colt!’ she finished.

  Kizzy nodded her head in confirmation, sending blonde curls drooping in front of her eyes. ‘It’s true.’

  ‘Demetrius?’ Blue said blearily. ‘This is huge. Does Amos know?’

  ‘No,’ Dino answered. ‘At least, we don’t think so. Amos and Madeline still aren’t back from the Lighthouse, and our mother is with Demetrius right now—’

  ‘So we need to get Colt and Siren back,’ Mia cut in.

  ‘And to do that, we need a coven of four,’ Kizzy added.

  Blue’s mouth fell open. ‘You mean, we’re going to break the exile spell?’

  Mia and Kizzy nodded.