by LJ Swallow
“But Anastasia may’ve used that magic,” says Jamie. “Who knows where she’s been or how far.”
“She’s back now,” says Matt. “But her and Gabriella remain separate.”
“Have any Dominion at all found their way onto the academy?” presses Tobias.
“Not as far as we're aware,” says Matt. "A couple of hunters we know are watching—"
"Hunters?" Ash's loud response stops the conversation between a couple at the table beside us and he lowers his voice. "You work with hunters? You're bloody crazy."
Matt shrugs. "I’d rather them than me on the frontline, Ash."
"Do these hunters know who they're hunting?" asks Tobias.
Amelia glances at Matt. "Mostly. They're confident the Dominion are too focused on you and the academy to bother with them."
"Until the hunters get in the way!" Jamie rubs his temples. "Shit, Amelia. You can't trust hunters."
"Are you telling me not to trust someone who kills witches?" she asks softly.
Crap. I veer the conversation away. "What does Alaric think about Theodora keeping the academy open? Has he any idea about the presence below Petrescu?"
"He's focused on taking down the Blackwoods," says Matt. "The academy is their focal point, so he'd rather nothing changes there."
“What?” I ask, incredulous somebody else will risk peoples’ lives.
"And what about the presence?" asks Jamie.
"Alaric doesn't know anything. I told him about your Petrescu theory, and he agrees, which means this is more than witches," Amelia replies.
"But Alaric’s main aim is to kill Anastasia?" asks Tobias. “Not help us.”
Matt looks between us all. "Isn't that everybody's aim? Aren't we all in a 'kill or be killed' situation with Anastasia and Gabriella?"
Nobody has ever admitted this as bluntly, but Matt's right.
The Blackwoods and Dominion kill anybody who threatens their plans for the future.
And we're the biggest threat of all.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
MAEVE
The journey to the Winterfall estate feels like half a day due to the silence between the three of us, but when I check my phone shortly before we arrive, we’ve driven four hours.
I hated leaving the others behind. We waited until evening to travel to Wales with Andrei, but Andrei didn't have any option but to stay behind this morning. This way, we split up the way Alaric advised. Ash remains at the academy and whoever watches us will need to split their group too, which helps.
The Winterfalls lived in the Lake District, and the untamed countryside suits my idea of a place witches could hide themselves. The estate is partly hidden from the world at the edge of a forest, a short drive from the nearest town. The pictures in Jamie’s book show a Georgian-style home, the grey brick building must’ve once filled with light, as the whole of the front facade is covered in long windows. Despite the position amongst the trees, the sweeping paved driveway could be seen in the photo along with cars parked outside.
What will the place look like now?
There’s no need to hide our arrival when nobody will be nearby—if anybody were, we’d see them in this isolated spot. I share my fear that a Blackwood might materialise, but Tobias assures me none ever came close enough to the estate. Without a memory of the place, they couldn’t arrive using the blood spell that Jamie once performed.
The closest they could get is the small village nearby.
The woods running up the side of the hill are harder to pass through, and the old, pale, brick-paved driveway is cracked with weeds pushing through. The closer we move to the house, the greater I sense Tobias’s mood change. Fear? Disgust? I reach between us to touch his arm and his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel relaxes. Slightly.
The derelict building comes into view, but with a surprise. Metal scaffolding is erected on the left-hand side of the house and large grey bricks are piled on the ground, besides wheelbarrows and other signs of builders around.
Jamie leans forwards and rests his arms on the back of my front passenger seat. “That’s weird. Alaric didn’t mention a rebuild.”
“He never came here,” says Tobias.
When we step from the car, Tobias is quieter than usual and gives no instructions on what to do, but he heads straight to the scaffolding, away from the entrance. Many windows are boarded, others broken, and I wrap my arms around myself as I gaze at the place I should’ve spent my life.
The house where I would’ve died.
Jamie hugs me to him, a silent comfort because he’s no words either. Disentangling myself from his arms, I cross to the entrance, where now missing doors once kept the world out, and step inside.
A large set of stairs faces me, sweeping upwards to a centre balcony. The metal balustrades are missing in places, and the carpet is brown with mould and dirt. I imagine the tiles beneath my feet polished and picture fancy lights on the walls where exposed wires now hang.
Jamie walks by and halts at a room on the left.
“Someone is definitely renovating this place,” he says.
I walk across the cracked tiles and peer into the room. New plaster partially covers the exposed brick on the walls and places are marked for installing new appliances.
A kitchen.
“This is weird,” I say, suddenly uneasy at being here. “Could we get arrested for trespassing?”
Jamie smiles. “I’m more worried about the magic than the new owners.”
Owners. “Do you think they’re here?”
“No vans outside, so there’s nobody working on the place today. Do you want to look around?”
“How safe is the house?”
Jamie points to where metal poles hold up sections of the ceilings and I stare at the huge broken cornice in the centre. “Held together.”
But how safe from magic?
“I want to find Tobias,” I say nervously. “We should stick together.”
I’m outside before Jamie can agree or disagree and he hurries to catch me. I pass a skip filled with rubble and roof tiles, beside charred wood. There are few signs of the fire outside, and I’m scared to see more of what’s inside.
“Did you feel anything when you walked inside?” Jamie asks, and I shake my head.
“Did you?”
“I never touched anything.” He pauses. “Maeve, we’ll need to look around the house.”
“It might not be safe,” I suggest, and he hugs me around the shoulders.
“You know this has to happen. That’s why we came.”
Tobias stands around the side of the house with his back to the building. There’s a distant view of one of the lakes, across the valley to the steep mountains favoured by visitors.
He doesn’t respond when I touch his arm and I debate whether to take his hand. Do I want to feel the energy and emotions he has right now?
“Why did you come with us if the place upsets you?” I ask softly.
Tobias glances at Jamie, who huffs before continuing his circuit of the building perimeter. “Because I need to protect you. That’s why I’m here.”
Here. With me.
Tobias tries to move his hand when I take hold and close my fingers around his but I grip tight. Immediately, the confused emotions flow into me.
“I’d rather not share the pain with you, Maeve,” he says and gently prises my fingers away. “And I don't want to stay here long. You need to go back inside.”
“Is this a normal renovation, or...?” I ask.
“I can’t sense anything supernatural. Maybe a human bought the place.”
“They’d need a lot of money to fix this,” remarks Jamie as he re-joins us. “Would be easier to pull the place down and start again.”
“Lucky for us, they didn’t,” says Tobias as he moves away, towards the house entrance.
Tobias pauses as we step back into the hall and I worry he won’t walk any further. He’s pale and his eyes dart around, taking in the damage.
“How much of the house did you see that day?” asks Jamie. “Where was the library?”
“I don’t know, but you can be sure somebody already checked the library for books that survived the fire.”
A defeated Jamie wanders across the hall towards a nearby corridor. I walk after him, but Tobias doesn’t move.
“Tobias?”
“Can’t you feel the pain?” he whispers.
“Yes. I can feel your pain. That’s why I took your hand.”
“Not mine.” He closes his eyes. “The house holds an imprint of that day. Of the deaths.”
“Don’t let this stop you, Tobias. I need your help.”
He looks away and doesn't move, so I join Jamie who stands with a hand on the wall, below torn black and white flock wallpaper. “Do you think the place is haunted?” I ask.
“Ghosts don’t exist,” he says. “People's energy remains, imprinted like a photograph, that’s all.”
He glances at Tobias. Did Jamie hear his words echo around the dead, empty space?
We tread over the dusty floor and I’m scared that any moment, part of the building might crash on my head. The short hallway ends at another doorframe without doors and Tobias stops again.
“I can’t.”
The metallic taste of blood fills my mouth as I’m hit with one of Tobias’s memories. He manages to shut down before I catch more than a glimpse, but the return of the blood taste scares me more.
“Is this the room?” I ask.
Jamie turns. “Every witch was in one room and you managed to kill them all? You must’ve been quick if nobody had a chance to run or cast a spell.”
“We promised not to talk about the event,” he replies stiffly.
“Murders,” says Jamie and I shoot him a dagger look. He peers inside. “Fuck. Yeah, maybe don’t come in here.”
A room filled with bodies fills my mind and I steady myself on the wall. “Why?”
Jamie strides towards Tobias and meets him face to face. “Would dried witch blood cause you issues?”
Omigod.
“Didn’t anybody clear the place up?” I ask hoarsely.
“Didn’t the room burn?” Tobias steps forward then backs up.
“Some. I mean the copious amounts of brown stains could be something else, but I’m not keen on touching anything.”
I’m on the verge of fleeing, but there must be undiscovered secrets somewhere in the house or grounds. Tobias looks as if he might run before me. “Could you take a look, Jamie?”
“Fine.”
The moment Jamie passes into the room, Tobias looks to me and his eyes are filled with an intense fear I’ve never seen before. “When I say that I can’t stay in here, I really can’t.”
As I open my mouth to respond, he blurs from view as he leaves.
How cruel are we for bringing Tobias here? How dangerous is this to him?
And do I want to follow Jamie? No.
I rest against the wall and stare down at the carpet. Soiled by the fire and by time, I can barely make out the pattern beneath, but patches of blue show through the soot and mould.
What's inside the room? I attempt to blank my mind before my imagination shows me images I don't want to see.
Jamie reappears, holding a small, round candleholder, and the dull silver matches his expression. “A few of these survived the fire somehow, but there isn't anything else in the room I can touch.” He pauses. "Or that I'd want to touch."
I hardly want to ask the next question. “Did you see or feel anything from the day the Winterfalls died?"
“Yes.” He shoves the candleholder into my hand. “And I don’t want to see anything else. Take this."
The metal is cool against my palm as I take hold, and I'm relieved when I don't pick up the past in the way Jamie does.
"Where did Tobias go?” he asks in a flat voice.
“Outside.”
Jamie makes a derisive noise. “I knew Tobias wouldn’t help us.”
“He’s struggling, Jamie.”
For a moment, Jamie gazes towards the open doorway where daylight shines into the house, then looks back to me. “Remember your vision, Maeve? The one where you saw the end?”
Heart sticking in my throat, I nod.
He looks at the candleholder in my hands. “I just saw the beginning, and I don’t ever want to witness that again.”
“Let’s focus on the present, Jamie.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
MAEVE
Footsteps sound in the entrance hall again and we turn the corner to rejoin Tobias.
Instead, a youngish man in paint-stained jeans and a faded, dirty grey shirt straightens as he sees us.
“Can I help you?” he asks tersely in a local accent. “What are you doing here? Apart from trespassing, this is a construction site and dangerous.”
I moisten my lips and look at Jamie.
“Not more urbexers,” he grumbles and rubs a hand across his crewcut brown hair.
“Uh. What?” Jamie’s as useful as I am.
“Urban explorers? Obviously not, since you’ve no clue what I mean. Your kind come here all the time.”
“Oh!” Jamie’s eyes widen. “Are there photographs of this place? I never thought to look for them. Maeve, you must’ve seen people post pictures online of derelict places they explore.”
“Places they break into, more like.” The guy steps back and gestures at the door. “Please leave.”
“I’m sorry we came here without asking,” I say quickly. “The house belonged to some relatives of mine and I was in the area. I’m curious.”
He tips his head as he takes a closer look at me. “Who? The family don’t have any living relatives.”
“My name’s Maeve.” I swallow. “Winterfall.”
“No. Nobody survived, and nobody came forward as a family member."
“Do you know much about the family?” I ask quietly. I never considered that humans would be involved in the situation, but a fire and multiple deaths couldn’t be hidden from so many.
He blows air into his cheeks. "My mother worked here and was working the night it happened. She only survived the fire because someone told her I was in an accident and she left to find me. I hadn’t been in an accident, which means this wasn’t the accident everybody says.”
My stomach turns. I want to leave.
“Do you own the place now?” I ask.
“Partly. Nobody came forward and me and a couple of mates bought the land. We’re restoring the building and turning the place into a holiday rental. Views of the lakes. Big house.” He chews his lip. “Good money in a location like this.”
“Sorry for trespassing,” I say and walk towards the doorway, my spirits sinking. We’ll never have a chance to look around.
“Hang on.” The man steps in front to block my way and I startle. I didn’t detect anything supernatural about him, but I spent a life amongst them and never noticed. “You have their eyes.” I blink self-consciously. “And hair colour. You look a little like one of the family.” He scratches his head. “Sorry, love, but there’s nothing left here for you.”
His gentler tone and sympathy almost trigger tears but I smile. “I didn't plan to take anything.”
“Really?” He nods his head at the candleholder. “That fell into your hands, did it?”
Shit.
Maybe I should cry and show him how I feel. “I’m so sorry. I just wanted something that belonged to my family.”
“I’d have sympathy apart from the thieving,” he says and shakes his head. “The items that survived the fire were taken by local historians; the family and house were one of the oldest in the area and they were devastated to lose so much history.”
“Taken?” I ask and my breath catches. “There are things that didn’t burn?”
“Yeah. A couple of metal trunks with family records, house deeds and such. Photos. Knick-knacks. Sentimental stuff.”
“Where are the items now?”<
br />
He tugs his brows together at my excitement. “Not sure. Some is on display in the museum in Kentwick. Head over there.”
I turn to Jamie. “Omigod, Jamie! There might be something!”
“Might be nothing.”
“But something,” I insist.
The man rubs his nose. “Listen. I’m Steve. Here’s my number.” He digs in his pocket and pulls out a card smudged with dirt. “We should have the place ready in about six months. Come and take a look—stay for a couple of nights, on me.”
I take his card, but all I can think about is finding that museum. “Thanks.”
“I’m sorry for what happened to your family,” he says awkwardly. “Were you close?”
Jamie places a hand on my shoulder, and I touch the back of his hand. “I never met them, but I’d love to discover more about who they were.”
JAMIE
I didn’t volunteer to come to the estate but refused to back down when asked to help. Who else could come but me, the witch with telemancy skills?
But I never considered what I might see.
Naturally, I expected some of the day’s violence attached to items as bad energy, but I’d hoped to stay away from the worst as I check objects around the house for clues.
Instead, I plunge headfirst into a room filled with horror.
I saw Tobias’s face. The red mask of death. The hemia facial features and coal black eyes disguised part of who he is, but I still recognised the guy in my vision of the past as Tobias.
At the beginning of the year, I believed the guy was a benevolent professor and now that I know the truth, I struggle to forgive him. Tobias is a symbol of how fucked up this world is.
How can any magic block suppress the evil I witnessed when I held the candleholder?
Now there's a guy renovating the place and he’s throwing us out before we’ve taken a good look around.
With a nervous smile, Maeve hands the candleholder to Steve on the way by and he chuckles before handing it back. “You can take a souvenir. We're throwing out everything from that room anyway. I don’t know what happened in there, but the inquest results sounded pretty nasty.”
