by Taylor Leon
I would have loved to have known what she was thinking right at that moment.
‘Yes. I guessed it was her,’ she said. ‘But how did you find out?’
‘I pulled out the police file from the archives.’
‘Moira must have told you about her,’ she chuckled, shaking her head.
Now I did turn in my seat. ‘She is dead, isn’t she?’
‘Yes, she is.’
‘Did you kill her?’
Victoria slowly removed her sunglasses. Perhaps she felt the time for complete honesty had finally come. But her eyes narrowed and her face darkened. ‘How. Dare. You,’ she spat, and I flinched back. ‘She was one of my girls,’ she added.
‘But she wanted to leave you,’ I said.
‘Yes she did, and now so do you.’
‘Can I?’
Victoria held my look a little while longer, and then her face softened. ‘Don’t you want to know how you are able to see Desiree if she’s dead?’
‘Go on,’ I said.
‘I told you before that there are other covens, and I said some of them were bad. Very bad.’ She swallowed hard and I detected a slight tremor in her voice. ‘This power we conjure up, it can consume people. That’s what happened to Walter Madoc. He led a coven that was obsessed with bringing the dead back to life, a process would have destroyed the natural balance and forced the underworld to rise up into our world here.
There was a war between covens as some of us tried to stop him. It was violent and there were casualties of which Desiree was one. But a witch cannot kill another witch. The physical body can be destroyed, but the soul doesn’t go anywhere. It stays in purgatory, until…’
She paused.
‘Until?’ I prompted her.
‘The spirits of witches that are physically killed by other witches are kept in purgatory by our founder and one of the most powerful witches of all, Edgar Mansard.’
‘And Edgar Mansard can’t just release them from purgatory?’
‘Edgar can’t just release some of them. The door can’t be half-opened. It’s all or nothing. There are good witches and very bad witches in purgatory, including Madoc himself, and some even worse than him. If they were all set-free then there is no guarantee where they would go. It's possible some of them could return to this world. The danger and destruction some of them could cause here, doesn’t bear thinking about.’
‘So Mansard will keep them contained in purgatory forever?’
‘Until he dies. Then the bond breaks automatically and they are set free.’
The bond is breaking. That was what Desiree told me.
‘That’s right,’ Victoria nodded and she could have read my mind. ‘Mansard is getting weaker and that’s why Desiree is able to appear to you as a ghost. There will be other spirits in purgatory being seen elsewhere. This is just the start. At some point soon, when Mansard himself passes away, they will all be set free, and when that happens we really are in unknown territory.’
We sat there in silence for several more minutes until Victoria said. ‘I have to go.’
I nodded and reached for the door handle so I could climb out.
‘Wait,’ she said and I felt a small hand rest on my shoulder. ‘You asked before if you can leave. The answer is yes; you can always leave.’
I turned back around.
‘But we need you Erin,’ Victoria said. ‘You have an inner strength and passion that the other girls simply don’t have. In time, with the right training, you could be something special. Desiree knows that, which is why I think she appears to you.
There are difficult times ahead and I need good people like you alongside me. I’ve shown willing to help you make a difference in your world. I need you to help make the difference in mine.’
I turned away and climbed out.
‘Erin!’ Victoria called and I bent back down.
‘We need you,’ she said. ‘We need each other.’
I closed the door.
Epilogue
THE TIME, THE PLACE
This is my confession.
I am Anthony Norris leader of the One Identity Party.
I was once the head of the National Identity Organisation.
I have lied, I have cheated and I have murdered.
I watched him in the rear-view mirror as he came out of his house, alone. It was late and dark. He saw me. Well, he saw the car.
I have no desire to be paraded in front of the public or be cross examined in court. I have no intention of living the rest of my days behind bars.
He started walking towards the car, glancing around before he climbed into the back.
Alan Gregson of MI5 has all the proof necessary to find me guilty in abstentia. I only ask that my family, mother, sister and nephews are left alone.
He frowned when he saw me in the rear-view mirror.
‘Jason?’
I turned around and smiled.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ he snarled.
‘Jason’s not well. Something in the drink he had at the bar earlier.’
On cue the doors on either side opened. Moira and Bella climbed in, pinning him between them. Frankie jumped into the passenger seat next to me.
Please don’t look for me. There is no mystery, no conspiracy. But you will never find me.
‘You’re going to go to jail forever, Dark,’ he said.
He tried to shake Moira and Bella off, but Bella’s grip kept him pinned back in his seat.
I flipped my compact open and recited the intonation, keeping my eyes on Norris as I spoke to Jessie.
‘Is the email ready?’
‘All on his computer, ready to go.’
‘Good we have him here. Send it.’
I flipped the compact close.
‘What are you going to eh?’ he mocked, almost laughing.
Almost.
Not quite.
He suddenly surged forward, before Bella yanked him back into his seat.
‘We’ve been through this before you fucking bitch,’ he snarled.
‘He’s guilty,’ Frankie said.
He was sweating now. Not so sure.
‘What is this?’ he said.
‘This, Anthony Norris,’ I said, ‘this is dark justice.’
I glanced at Frankie, by my side, who nodded her readiness. Moira and Bella did the same.
‘Ladies, shall we?’ I closed my eyes and started chanting the damnation spell.
****
This is what we do. We’re not bad people. In fact, we are very good. We provide justice and hope where there isn’t any. We put the scum away who think they’re immune, those who believe they’ve outsmarted the law, and who have left broken lives in their wake.
We are those victims’ justice. Their vengeance.
I am Erin Dark, and we are The Coven.
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