Diane, the witch who looked like Santa’s wife, cleared her throat. “Start at the beginning,” she said. “Tell us how you met Brody, and what your relationship with him is like.”
Lillith glanced at Diane, who was obviously reading her mind. Lillith guessed that she was there as a sort of lie detector. Lillith turned to the coven and took a deep breath.
“I met Brody when I was fifteen,” she began. “He’d just moved here with his parents, and sat next to me in chemistry class.” She paused, and glanced at Brody, then turned to Mavis. “Although later I found out that he hadn’t moved here with his parents, that he’d moved here on his own, and his parents were dead. He’d move here to be closer to me, as I was his twin sister.” She looked at Brody again, who’d hung his head and was staring at the floor. “Then I found out that was a lie, too. He believes his parents are alive, and that’s what led him to betray me.” Lillith paused. She wanted to make it clear why Brody had done the things he’d done, but she just sounded bitter.
Mavis shook her head. “Can you keep to the facts as they happened, and try not to jump around? That’ll make it clearer for all of us,” she said, in quite a stern voice.
Lillith stiffened and breathed in sharply, not appreciating the harsh tone. She felt like walking out, but she looked at Brody again and softened. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and continued. “We’ve been chemistry partners for nearly three years. I’d say we were quite close. At school, at least. He did come over to mine a couple of times, but I never went to his.” Lillith hung her head. It’d never occurred to her to find that strange before. Looking back now, all the signs had been there. She lifted her head again. “When he found out I was a witch, he was supportive, and helped me to develop my powers.”
There was a small gasp from the audience.
Lillith rolled her eyes. They were still convinced that she and Brody were evil twins. How would she ever convince them otherwise? “On my birthday, he helped us to escape from Arthur.”
Mavis folded her arms and cleared her throat. “Escape from Arthur?” she said, almost growling. “Do you mean escape from us? Escape from our rules? After all, it looked like you had knocked him over. If you’d come willingly, none of this would’ve happened, and a trial would have proved your innocence.”
Lillith shook her head. “Not while Arthur was in charge, it wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have got to trial. He’d have killed me first.” She glared at Mavis, not liking her at all.
Mavis smiled a little, but it wasn’t an encouraging smile. It was more like a patronising, ‘you know nothing’ smile. She nodded for Lillith to continue.
Lillith breathed in, attempting to control her temper, then spoke through gritted teeth. “He helped Cassandra to have a vision of what was going to happen, which meant they could prepare and make…” Lillith trailed off as she saw Cassandra shaking her head from the audience, her auburn curls bouncing. What had she said wrong?
“Go on,” Mavis urged.
Lillith stared at Cassandra, trying to read her expression. What did Cassandra want her to say? Or not to say?
“She’s receiving direction from someone in the audience.” It was Diane’s voice. She was reading Lillith’s thoughts. Lillith turned sharply to Diane, who was scouring the audience. “Someone doesn’t want her to say something,” Diane said. She swung on her heel to face Lillith again. “Who was it?”
Lillith swallowed, hard. She shook her head, and tried to maintain eye contact with Diane, without thinking of Cassandra’s name or image, and without looking in her direction.
Mavis broke what seemed like an hour’s silence and staring. “Well, if there’s a conspiracy going on here, we’ll just have to declare a mis-trial, and lock Brody back up.”
Lillith spun towards Mavis. “No!” she yelled. “It’s not Brody’s fault. He had his reasons for betraying me and joining Arthur. They were stupid reasons, but he deserves to be freed.”
Mavis raised her eyebrows, anger shone in her eyes, but her voice remained calm. “You haven’t convinced me of that,” she said.
“But I will,” Lillith said, her voice calmer now. “I thought I saw someone shaking their head at me, that’s all. It was my own paranoia, because I’ve never done this before.” Lillith closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at Mavis, pleading. “Let me continue, please.”
Mavis stood for several moments, staring at Lillith. She scowled and folded her arms, apparently contemplating the suggestion. Eventually she relaxed her demeanour and breathed out. “Okay,” she said, finally. “We’ve been here for nearly a week already, and I wouldn’t want to go through that again.”
Lillith, who’d been holding her breath, exhaled with relief.
Mavis continued. “So as long as the person who shook their head stands up and explains why they did that, I’ll let the trial carry on.”
Lillith’s smile dropped.
Cassandra stood up. Her auburn curls bounced as she did. “It was me,” she said. “I’m sorry, I was trying to help Lillith. I was trying to make sure that she only stuck to the facts of her own story, from her point of view. Rather than saying what happened in places, when she wasn’t there.” Cassandra was wearing a white, lacy tunic, over which her large Amethyst necklace was visible.
Lillith gulped, was that really what Cassandra had been trying to tell her? She watched as Diane, who’d been staring at Cassandra while she was speaking, turned to Mavis and gave a slight nod. Lillith hoped that was a good thing.
Mavis narrowed her eyes, then turned to Cassandra. “Apparently you’re telling the truth, but it’s not your job to direct the trial, it’s mine. I’d like you and your daughter to leave for the rest of the trial.”
Cassandra stiffened and her mouth fell open to say something, but she didn’t. Instead she bowed her head, showing her acceptance. Angela was about to protest, but Cassandra silenced her with a look. They both collected their things and started moving past people to get to the end of the row of seats.
“Uma,” Mavis boomed. “It would probably be best if you left, too. Just to be on the safe side.”
Lillith’s mam glared at Mavis and narrowed her lagoon, blue eyes. She shook her head, swinging her black, shoulder length hair. “I’m going nowhere. It’s my right to sit in on this trial.”
Mavis folded her arms, a smiled played on her lips.
Uma was petite in stature, but she stood tall, squaring her shoulders. “You might be taking a lead role in coven affairs, but we’re all equals here. What makes you think you have the right to throw people out?”
Lillith thought Mavis would be angry, but she actually gave a little chuckle. “Why wouldn’t I have that right? Cassandra was influencing the girl. How could we be certain of the truth, if she’d been allowed to stay?”
“She was helping. She was encouraging Lillith to remember the truth. That’s all.”
Mavis wasn’t persuaded. “My decision is final.” She said. “But you make a good point, Uma. You’ve done nothing to make me believe you’d cause problems. As long as it continues that way, you can stay.”
Uma gave a small nod, then looked at Lillith and smiled.
Lillith smiled back. She was pleased that Uma had been allowed to stay. It was a little victory over Mavis, which relaxed her a little.
Mavis turned to Lillith, eyes narrowed. “Now, back to what you were saying. Something about Cassandra having a vision?”
“Yes, that’s right. That allowed them to plan my escape.”
“And how did they do that?”
“They simulated a fire, which caused everyone to run out of the hotel. They were able to bundle me into Cassandra’s car during the chaos.” Lillith lowered her gaze as she remembered the screaming crowd spilling out of the hotel, and being ushered to Cassandra’s car, narrowly avoiding Arthur’s out-stretched arm from the back seat of his car. The memory of Tristan slumped in the seat beside him still haunted her.
“Say it, don’t think it.”
It was Diane’s voice, and made Lillith jump. She looked towards Diane, who was looking at her over the top of her spectacles, eyebrows raised.
“I’m the only one who can read your thoughts,” Diane said.
Lillith froze. She stared at Diane for a second, then looked back towards the coven and began to tell her story as she remembered it. She told everyone about finding Arthur standing over Tristan’s unconscious body and what had happened to Tristan afterwards. She told them about her spirit walk and about the drive to Richmond hall, and about having magic fired at her. She explained about hearing noises, finding Arthur and the coven, and being threatened by Arthur. The coven had all seen the video that Angela had taken of the encounter, and there were murmurs of acknowledgment as she spoke. She added bits about how she’d felt, as much as what had happened, as those were the bits the coven didn’t know.
The words stuck in her throat when she got to the point in the story where she realised Brody had betrayed her. She glanced in his direction. He was still hanging his head and staring at the floor, much as he had that day. Lillith breathed in and continued to explain what had happened next. All the way past rescuing Tristan, bringing back his memory, visiting Brody and receiving his letter.
When she was finished, all of the coven were staring at her. No-one was moving or talking to each other. No-one was getting a cup of tea, or popping to the toilet. Lillith looked back, wondering if she’d said something wrong. She looked towards her mam. Uma’s face wore a look of concern, and maybe a little bit of sympathy.
Mavis was the first to speak. “Brody is an Assan?” she asked, her voice uncharacteristically low.
Lillith nodded slowly.
Mavis looked at Diane, who tipped her head to confirm it. Mavis turned her gaze towards Brody and looked at him as if she’d never seen him before. Brody was looking a little shell-shocked. Then Mavis turned to Uma. “You knew?” she guessed.
It was Uma’s turn to nod.
Lillith looked to the floor. How had the coven not known that? How had no one mentioned that they didn’t know? She closed her eyes and sighed inwardly as she realised that’s why Cassandra had shaken her head.
Chapter 2: The Verdict
Assans were rare. They had no active powers of their own, but they could accelerate other witches’ powers, and even help to do things that weren’t usually considered to be possible. Cassandra had once said that she thought they were an urban legend, because she’d heard of them, but never known anyone who’d come across one. Their rareness, and their power, made them extremely coveted. People knowing that Brody was an Assan was dangerous for him. Lillith should’ve known that. She should’ve realised that it was to be kept secret. How could she be so stupid? A tear sprang from her eye and rolled down her cheek. She could have just ruined everything.
“Well, that explains a lot,” Mavis said.
Lillith looked up. Her eyes were blurry with tears, but Mavis appeared to be smiling. She blinked a few times and saw that Mavis was smiling.
A soft murmuring fluttered through the coven, and grew louder and louder. Lillith scanned the faces in the room. She saw witches become animated as they got flashes of realisation. Then saw them turn to their neighbours and chat in a lively manner. What was going on?
Lillith glanced at Brody. He seemed as confused as she was. She looked at her mam. She seemed to know what was happening. Her face was turned to the witch sitting next to her and she was nodding, but her expression was angry. The witch next to her didn’t seem to notice that, but Lillith knew her mam’s expressions.
Mavis cleared her throat and waved her hands, and the excited chatter died down. All eyes turned towards her. “This explains what happened on 31st October, eighteen years ago.”
Lillith’s attention was piqued. That was hers and Brody’s birthday.
“We all thought it was our collective power that caused the Regression,” Mavis continued. “Now we know.”
Lillith’s head pounded and her heart drummed a steady beat. She wasn’t making sense of any of this.
“You haven’t told her?” Diane asked, loudly.
Lillith shot a look at Diane, to see that she was glaring at Uma. Lillith followed her gaze and eyed her mam. Told me what? She thought.
Uma lifted her eyes from the floor. She glanced at Lillith, then looked directly at Diane. “No,” Uma said.
Lillith wasn’t sure where her confidence came from, but something surged through her and made her speak up. “Told me what? What could possibly have happened with the help of Brody?” She pointed at him. “On the day we were born?” She looked between Uma, Mavis and Diane, waiting for one of them to answer.
Mavis ignored her question. “And this explains why Arthur wanted him.”
Lillith shook her head. She stared at her mam, willing her to answer.
Mavis was still speaking, still ignoring Lillith. “I think this gives Brody a defence,” she said. “I think we’ve heard enough, and I vote we set him free.”
Lillith stopped. Her body stiffened. Did she hear right? Brody also sat up in his chair. He looked optimistic, for the first time since before any of this happened. Agreement resounded around the room.
Mavis turned to Brody. “You’re free to go,” she said, then turned to Lillith. “Thank you, Lillith. You’ve been most helpful.”
Lillith sat for a moment, not quite believing the verdict.
Mavis continued to look at her expectantly.
Lillith stood up. Could she really take Brody home? She was still in shock, but she wanted to take Brody, before they changed their mind. She walked towards him and as she did she smelled him. He smelled like he hadn’t washed during the whole time he’d been imprisoned. Lillith wrinkled her nose.
Brody stood as she approached him. He had tears in his eyes. He was taller than Lillith, but looked so frail that she just wanted to carry him out of there. Lillith saw Brody swallow and try to speak. She shook her head; there was no need for words between them. She reached out and took Brody’s hand in hers. It felt rough. She guided him out of the room and into the lobby, where the red and gold Christmas tree stood in the corner.
Cassandra, Angela and Tristan were sitting in the lobby, waiting for the trial to end. When they saw Lillith and Brody stumble through the door, their faces lit up. They stood at once and almost ran towards them, arms out.
Cassandra immediately grabbed Brody, supporting his weight, even though she was probably a foot shorter than him, and guided him to a chair,.
Tristan engulfed Lillith as soon as she was free of Brody and pulled her into his chest. He was warm, and he smelled so good. She rested her cheek on his torso and felt the pounding of his heart. She closed her eyes and breathed, enjoying the closeness.
“How did it go?” Lillith heard her best friend, Angela, ask from nearby.
Lillith opened her eyes and pulled out of Tristan’s embrace. She realised her eyes were wet. Angela was standing next to her wearing a figure hugging jumper and jeans with knee-length boots over. Her long, blonde hair was tied up, and she was wearing very little makeup; maybe just a touch around her grey eyes and some highlighter on her high cheekbones. She still looked exquisite. She was tall and slim, with curves in all the right places. She didn’t need makeup to look good.
Lillith pointed towards Brody. “He’s free,” she said.
Angela smiled, and a look of relief crossed her face. “That’s great.”
It was great, but for some reason she didn’t think it was over. He’d been freed too quickly, which made her suspicious. Also, none of the coven had followed her out of the trial room, which made her even more suspicious.
Cassandra looked up. She was sitting next to Brody, with her arm around him, supporting his head on her shoulder. He looked exhausted. “We need to get Brody home,” she said. “He needs sleep, food and a shower.”
Lillith agreed. He definitely needed a shower, but something else was on her mind. “Why did you shake your head?” Lillith asked Cassandra
.
Cassandra looked at Lillith with wide eyes.
“Was it to stop me revealing Brody was an Assan?”
Cassandra looked at Lillith hesitantly. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to.
Lillith sighed. “It didn’t work. I revealed it.”
Cassandra’s head fell to the side and she looked at Lillith with sympathy.
“It’s why they set him free,” Lillith said.
Cassandra’s expression changed. Her brows furrowed in confusion, then she looked at the door. “Where’s Uma?”
“Still in there,” Lillith said.
Cassandra looked worried. “They’re possibly summarising, and planning the next trial. I should be allowed to go back in.” She began to walk towards the door then turned back. “Tristan, would you mind taking everyone back to Lillith’s? I’ll bring Uma home once we’re finished here.”
Tristan nodded.
Angela followed her mam. “I’m coming back in with you.”
Cassandra hesitated, then beckoned her daughter to follow her and they headed through the double doors.
By the time Uma, Cassandra and Angela arrived home, Lillith had managed to feed Brody some soup, show him how to use the shower, and put him to bed in the spare room at the back of their Victorian-era house, by the sea. Tristan had popped to his caravan at the Whitley Bay caravan park, only a mile away and brought Brody some clean pyjamas. His dirty clothes were in the washing machine on a high temperature.
Lillith and Tristan were snuggled together on the large, cream sofa in the sitting room. The real-flame gas fire was lit, casting a warm glow around the room that was decorated brightly with off-white walls. Tinsel was draped over pictures and baubles hung from the light fittings. A Christmas tree stood in the bay window, and white lights twinkled merrily at passers-by. Lillith had told Tristan all about the trial, and about her concerns over telling them Brody was an Assan, and how quickly it had confirmed their decision to free him.
“Do you think they’re after his powers, too?” Tristan asked.
Ashes: Witches of Whitley Bay Book 2 Page 2
