by Silver Nord
“Don’t think about trying anything. Show us the safe!” the leader repeated, reading the silent dialogue between us.
“We don’t have a safe,” I patiently explained. “I should know. I’ve lived here for almost all of my life. I know this house pretty darn well.” I was confident about that. After I’d inherited the property in the wake of my mum’s passing, I’d uncovered a few unexpected mysteries. It had been enough to make me scour the entire shop and house just to make sure there weren’t any skeletons lurking in closets. No ghosts had popped out either.
“Open the safe now, or I’m going to have to hurt someone. Probably you,” the leader said, moving the gun over to Linda.
“Me? I’m too young to die!” she protested. “There’s got to be someone else who wouldn’t mind so much. I’m allergic to being shot.”
“I think everyone’s allergic to being shot,” I muttered as the gun hovered indecisively between us. “Look… can’t we just talk about this?” I said as I watched Erebus pad back into the room and launch himself at the leader.
“Down!” I shouted, dragging Linda below the hard wood counter just in time. There was a burst of wild gunfire a second later and I felt the impact of the bullets thud against our hiding place. So much for my hope that they weren’t real guns after all.
“Collar!” I hissed at Aunt Linda, knowing she had more luck with precise spells than I did. It was surely dangerous for him to have it on at the moment.
“Oh, right,” she said, before sending a spell towards Erebus. “Ah.” She pulled her head back round. “It appears to be impervious to my magic, just like the rest of him. Sorry.”
I pulled a face. I’d forgotten why hellhounds were so terrifying to witches and magicians. They were built for the job. But I didn’t know if Erebus was impervious to bullets, and I didn’t want to find out.
“Out of the cauldron and into the fire,” I muttered, reaching into the in-between and pulling out a bullet-proof riot shield and a mace.
Without thinking too much about it, I jumped up and rolled over the counter, scattering impulse buys in my wake. “Get out!” I shouted, revealing the true extent of my power in a stunning wave of gold and directing blasts of magic around the room.
I was a little too late to the party. The group had already fled from the nearly-invisible dog. All that remained was the leader, who’d recovered her gun and was waving it around nervously.
“Got you,” I heard her hiss as she noticed Erebus’ collar and brought her gun up.
I shot a blast of magic from the mace. She fell flat on her face, the gun skittering away without firing. For the third time today, the smell of burning hair rose in the air. It was with smug satisfaction that I saw I’d burned a hole in her balaclava. Hemlock would be delighted to know he wasn’t the only one who’d be walking around town with a bald spot.
“I’m giving you one chance to leave now and not come back,” I told the slightly smoking woman.
She pushed herself more or less upright and shot me a baleful look from behind her balaclava. “You haven’t heard the last of…”
I made the mace glow with magic. She fled before I could zap her again.
I waited until I was sure that the robbers were really gone before I crouched down by Erebus. “Good boy! I’m going to go out and get some of those mystery-meat sticks you like.” I ruffled his ears and he rewarded me with a face lick. I could sense that he was disappointed I hadn’t asked him to rip the intruders limb from limb, but I believed in second chances… even for violent criminals. Plus, I really hadn’t wanted to spend the rest of the day mopping up gore.
“That was weird, wasn’t it?” Aunt Linda said, popping up from behind the counter and doing her darnedest to look innocent and confused.
I folded my arms and shot her a look that said I wasn’t buying it. “What were they talking about? And don’t say you don’t know, because I think you do.”
“I don’t know. I promise! I know nothing about any safes, or whatever it is that’s supposed to be inside the safe. You probably should have asked them to be more specific.” She bit her lip.
“Fine,” I said, willing to accept her story so far. “But you do know something.” That much was obvious.
“Oh… it’s probably nothing. I didn’t see it properly…”
“Aunt Linda!”
“One of the men holding the guns had a tattoo on his wrist that looked sort of familiar. I can’t be sure though. I need to check some things…”
“Then check them,” I said feeling strongly that this was something I needed to know. “If there’s a new bunch of bad guys in town I want to be one step ahead of them.” I sighed, knowing it was an unlikely aspiration. Most of the time, I was several steps behind locked in a dark cupboard… and something told me my luck wasn’t about to change now.
“Could you at least give me a vague description of the tattoo?” I asked my aunt as dark thoughts suddenly ran through my head. It might just be a coincidence, but the man in the river had displayed his fair share of ink.
“I didn’t get a great look, and I can only vaguely remember what it should have looked like. I’ll check and scribble it down. I promise,” my aunt added, sensing that I was not feeling favourably towards either of my relatives at the moment.
“Fine,” I allowed, trusting her to be true to her word.
I glanced around the shop at the new bullet holes and shattered glass. It looked like a war zone. I hoped it wasn’t a harbinger of things to come.
5
The Barrier Between Us
“What do you mean you can’t send anyone?” I said, pressing the landline closer to my ear to hear through the static that was interfering with the line. I’d tried to call out of town with my mobile phone, but it had flatly refused. At least the older technology seemed to be clinging on… for now. Even so, it had taken four hours to get through to the detective.
I listened as Sean Admiral explained that he couldn’t justify sending out police officers to Wormwood for anything less than actual murder. “You know why! It’s taking half a day to get there. Maybe more. It’s surely just a matter of time before someone gets lost in the enchanted forest and is never seen again. I’ve only just got back to Witchwood Police Station with your aunt.”
“I see,” I said, feeling anything but understanding. I’d just been threatened at gunpoint, and those responsible were surely still hanging around town, passing unseen without their robber disguises.
“Hazel, this is anything but okay. We both know that. If this is about your aunt…”
“It’s about being robbed at gunpoint!” I said, cutting him off. “Plus, I think the murder and this robbery attempt are connected. These thugs had tattoos all over them. Aunt Linda thinks that she saw a design she recognised. It reminded her of the membership tattoo for a gang with a reputation for being magical mercenaries.” Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to remember anything more specific, or even when and where she’d first heard about the gang, but it was still a clue that implied the two incidents were linked.
I heard a sigh on the other end of the line. “I’ll come back to town as soon as I can get there. I promise I’ll look into what you’ve found out. You are all right, aren’t you? They didn’t take anything and you got rid of them without being hurt?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, still feeling huffy.
Sean sounded a lot happier when he spoke again. “Then all that remains for me to say is keep an eye out for anything suspicious and do your best to stay out of trouble. I do wish I could do more…”
“It’s fine. We’ll just have to take matters into our own hands here,” I said before hanging up. Okay, so maybe I was still a bit peeved about Aunt Minerva.
I sat back in the chair behind the bullet-marked counter and ran my hands through my curling hair. Wormwood had just become a lawless town. I could no longer rely on the police or anyone else to solve my problems for me. I needed to do some problem solving of my own.
&nb
sp; I suddenly considered the message regarding Constantine I’d sent to the Witch Council on the same day I’d found the body in the river. I hadn’t received a reply and something told me I wasn’t going to. The spell around Wormwood must be keeping communications from reaching their destinations.
I grabbed the landline again and dialled. “Aunt Linda, I’m closing up the shop. Please stay and look after the bakery.” The apothecary could be shut, but even in the face of total annihilation, I wasn’t going to break my word to Tristan.
“Going anywhere nice?” she asked.
“No,” I answered thinking black thoughts. “It’s a trip I have to take.”
In a world where I seemed to be surrounded by half-truths and solutions were scarce, I needed to pick my battles. Constantine seemed like someone I’d be able to wring the truth out of. Who knew? Perhaps my father had some of the answers I was seeking. If he was alive, I was going to find him. And a snake like Constantine was not going to stand in my way.
I gathered some supplies and wished the growing menagerie farewell. It was time to leave Wormwood.
The early summer breeze whipped through the trees that lined the side of the road, sending the evening scents of cut grass and ripening strawberries through the air. To the casual observer, Wormwood looked like a perfect British town, ready to flourish and bloom as the summer made its arrival known. In truth, it was poised on the edge of a precipice.
I passed several new posters on my way towards the edge of town. Some had even been pinned up over the mayor’s festival promotions, which showed either daring or desperation. All of them featured the same subject - a black cat named Mitzy had gone missing. According to the poster, it wasn’t like her at all. I spared a thought for her owner and wished the pair the same happy reunion I’d had with Hemlock. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t help thinking about the monsters who poked their claws and nails through the thin places, grasping for anything they could get their teeth into. I hoped Mitzy had not wandered into Wormwood Forest.
“Terrible business, isn’t it?” Mrs Crook, an elderly witch I often delivered medicinal herbs to, greeted me, looking up at the poster. “It’s black magic, of course. We haven’t had this kind of problem in Wormwood since I was a child, but here we are again. It’s all going to rack and ruin.”
I nodded sagely, before frowning at what she’d said. “Black magic?”
“Ooh, yes,” she said, wickedly delighted that she’d been asked. “Surely you know the old legend about black cat bones and a deal made at a crossroads at midnight?” She sighed - far too happily for my liking. “Terribly romantic, isn’t it? I wonder if someone’s making deals.”
I kept my face a blank slate. That ship had certainly sailed in Wormwood, and no black cats had met nasty ends to facilitate it. I made a mental note to triple check that Jesse wasn’t up to his old tricks, but I was pretty sure that this was a normal case of a lost cat.
“Powerful creatures, our cats,” Mrs Crook continued. “It’s just terrible when we betray them like that.”
I wished the old witch a good evening and hastily continued, putting all thoughts of missing cats and black magic behind me. It wasn’t long before I reached the outskirts of town and felt the barrier snap into place. It was like walking into a big rubber band that got harder to stretch the further you pulled it. Something inside me whispered that it would be easy enough to cut my way through by opening a small gateway of my own, but my more sensible self advised that this would be an exceedingly bad idea. I risked letting far more than just myself through to the road beyond Wormwood.
Broken-down cars littered the no-man’s land I was attempting to power through. It would appear that the barrier had moved beyond mind games towards actual mechanical failure. I sighed and continued my efforts, certain that it was going to get better soon… and it did.
I breathed a sigh of relief when the dreadful pulling sensation stopped. I sensed that it was only my strong sense of purpose beyond the town’s boundary that had made it possible for me to pass through when the barrier hadn’t wanted me to leave. I couldn’t imagine how bad it would be for someone like Sean Admiral, whose non-magical mind wouldn’t even be able to comprehend what was happening to it.
I turned back and looked at the town behind me, almost expecting to see a shimmering dome surrounding the place - like something out of a Stephen King novel - but Wormwood looked as quiet and quaint as ever.
For one crazy second, I considered walking away and not coming back.
The idea faded as soon as I’d had it. I had too many ties to Wormwood to leave it to its fate. My friends, the family I cared about, my coven, and my pets all lived in the town… not to mention my happiest memories. There was no way I could let it all be forgotten, swallowed up by a ravenous void. Even if I was doomed to failure, I still had to try. It was for Wormwood and for all of us who loved our weird little town.
I turned back around to face the long, winding road that led towards Witchwood and then every destination after it. I had a long walk ahead of me, and the sand was moving more quickly through the hourglass with every passing day.
“I’m advising you to reconsider,” I told Constantine from my position on the other side of a steel table.
“Hazel, my dear… you don’t know what you’re asking. Surely you knew I just wrote all of that stuff and nonsense in that letter to persuade you to come here and rescue me? Now that you’ve made it abundantly clear that there is no rescue on the cards I don’t need to lie any longer.” The magical handcuffs around my great-uncle Constantine’s wrists glowed for a second, probably detecting a rise in aggression, even though his magic had been stripped from him.
“You’re lying right now,” I told him, knowing I was correct. Constantine barely possessed the ability to tell the truth. He was always up to his neck in conspiracies and schemes. I had no reason to believe that anything had changed due to his incarceration. He would try to manipulate me any way he could.
“My father, Constantine. You know where he is, don’t you?” I pressed, feeling my magic crackle to the surface as I started to lose control of my temper.
“I have absolutely no idea! I’m not even sure that I ever met the man.”
It was too late, a small spark of my magic jumped across and landed on his hand, making him jump and try to shake it off.
“Have you really turned into someone who’d use torture against her own flesh and blood? I don’t think you’re that person, Hazel. You don’t have it in you.” There was a flicker of sick excitement in his dark eyes. I ignored both the flicker and the whispering voices inside me that said I was capable of it. More than that… I might even enjoy it.
“The woman who showed me here said that you’ve been treated well. Your living quarters are dry and clean. I could ask for a downgrade…”
Constantine rolled his eyes and smirked. “I’m going to be here until either someone comes and breaks me out, or the Witch Council falls. I don’t think that will be too long coming, so why would I tell you anything, even if I did know something?” He looked genuinely curious. And that was how I realised I knew how to get to him.
“Because if you stay quiet you’ll never know the truth,” I said, gambling that I was right.
The smirk remained in place. “What truth might that be?”
“About my father and my mother. There was more to their relationship than met the eye, wasn’t there?” I was fishing, but my hook seemed to look pretty inviting to Constantine.
“Aren’t you a slippery one? You get that from your dear old great-uncle, you know.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I suppose I could give you a hint. Not that it will do you any good…”
I waited patiently for him to finish his phoney indecision. I already knew that whatever he was thinking of sharing with me was unlikely to be of much use at all, which was why he was so gleeful, but I wanted to hear it all the same. At this point, I was willing to consider even the crumbs beneath the table when it came to following the
trail of my father.
“I was telling the truth when I said I hope to see him again soon. I’m almost certain that he is still alive. At least… he was when I saw him packing his bags to flee from the people who were after him,” Constantine said, drawing this out for all he was worth. “He seemed in a hurry to disappear. Something bad must have happened… bad enough that he was willing to abandon his lovely wife and his new-born daughter.” Constantine tutted. “He even came to me to ask if the Salems would take care of her, now that he was out of the way. I told him we’d keep a close eye on you, even though our family could never approve their relationship. That was long before he officially disappeared, of course. Your mother kept his identity a secret from you, didn’t she? It was supposed to protect you, should his hunters come calling. Your father’s disappearance may only have become official ten years ago, but he’d been running for much longer than that.”
“Pffft!” I said, crossing my arms. In truth, I was glad that Constantine hadn’t broken the habit of a lifetime and honoured his word about keeping a close eye. Who knows what kind of influence he might have held over me if he’d entered my life when I’d been young and impressionable? At least now I was old and smart enough to realise this man enjoyed spinning stories… just like he was attempting to do right now.
“Do you know anything at all useful?” I said in a bored drawl, glancing towards the door as if I was considering walking out.
“Oh-ho! I haven’t got to the good part yet. As I was the last person he saw before running, he entrusted me with the secret to finding him again, should the need ever arise.” Constantine folded his arms and looked satisfied with himself. “I was in the right place at the right time, I suppose. That, or he knew people would imagine I was the last person he’d confide in after I’d excommunicated your dear mother over her poor choice of partner. Although, he did turn out to be useful in the end…” he added cryptically.
