Ashes: Witches of Whitley Bay Book 2

by Katherine Heason

  By the end of the day, Lillith’s feet hurt from walking, and her sides hurt from laughing, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a day as good as this one. They hadn’t spoken about witchcraft, or covens, or anything. They’d just been normal, happy, young people. Lillith remembered that she hadn’t called her mam today. She vowed to do it tomorrow, instead. It was eight o clock, and the city was still buzzing.

  Street lamps and shop windows lit up the night. They were just contemplating where to eat when they bumped into Matthew and Sophie, two of the under-grounders. Lillith’s mood instantly fell. She didn’t like Matthew very much, and Sophie had seemed to dislike her last night. They were the witches Lillith had least wanted to bump into.

  “What you up to?” Sophie drawled, smiling weirdly at Tristan with cerise lips. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a high pony-tail, and it bobbed up and down.

  “Showing Lillith the sights,” Riti said.

  Lillith smiled as both Matthew and Sophie looked at her.

  “That offer still stands,” Matthew said, looking more like a rat than ever, with his beady little eyes, long nose and thin lips. Lillith’s skin crawled.

  “What offer?” Charlie asked.

  Matthew’s gaze moved from Lillith to Charlie, and back to Lillith again. “I offered to take Lillith for a ride,” he said, then paused. “At the Jorvik.”

  Tristan put his arm around Lillith. Maybe he sensed her displeasure, or maybe he was being protective. Either way, Lillith appreciated it, and leaned in towards him.

  Matthew threw his arms in the air. “Hey. It was an innocent offer,” he said.

  Sophie giggled. “He owns the museum, Lillith,” she said, as if that explained it.

  Lillith forced a smile at Sophie, then turned to Matthew, still smiling. “You did offer, didn’t you? Well, we haven’t done that yet. Maybe we could all go now.” Lillith was calling his bluff; she was hungry, and wanted to go for food. She assumed his invitation hadn’t included all of them, and hoped he would make an excuse not to take them all.

  Instead, Matthew smiled broadly. “I’d be delighted to,” he said, to her horror. Then his face fell. “Although, the museum’s closed now. Letting us all in is one thing, but starting up the ride is another. Why don’t we do it tomorrow instead?”

  Lillith breathed out with relief.

  “We’ll text you tomorrow, then,” Charlie said, bluntly, and started walking away.

  Sophie pouted, and let out a wail. “It would be so much fun to do it tonight, Matty. Can you really not get it going?” The way she asked made Lillith’s skin prickle again.

  Matthew looked to the dark sky, thinking. “Well,” he said. “Maybe I could-”

  He wasn’t able to finish as Sophie jumped on him, screeching with delight. “This is going to be awesome!” she yelled.

  Lillith groaned silently. Her stomach rumbled, but it was going to have to wait. Why had she tried to call his bluff?

  Lillith found herself back in the Jorvik Viking museum. That smell hit her on the way in again. It didn’t churn her stomach quite so much this time, but being hungry didn’t help. Matthew had gone somewhere to start up the ride. Tristan decided to get some snacks from the vending machine in the staff room, and Lillith took the opportunity to look at the dig site under her feet.

  Sophie was staying close to Lillith. Maybe she was trying to be helpful by pointing out what each dig was, but she wasn’t saying anything of interest. Lillith found it extremely annoying, and it was taking all her strength not to be rude.

  “That’s where the wall would’ve been,” Sophie said.

  Lillith raised her eyes in mock interest, but rolled them when she looked away.

  “You didn’t tell us your story yesterday,” Sophie said.

  Lillith turned to her. Where had that come from?

  Sophie continued, seeming not to notice Lillith’s angry expression. “We told you all of ours. We bared our souls, and you didn’t reveal anything.”

  Lillith shook her head. “I don’t have much to tell,” she said.

  Sophie laughed. “That’s not true.” Was that an accusing tone?

  Lillith folded her arms, and glared at Sophie. What did she know?

  Sophie laughed again. “Everyone has a story,” she said, then walked away.

  Lillith was confused. What was that all about?

  Tristan came towards her with a packet of crisps and a Twix. “To keep you going,” he said handing her the goodies. “You okay?”

  Lillith took the crisps and chocolate bar gratefully. “Yeah,” she said. “Thank you, I’m starving.”

  “What’d Sophie say to you?”

  “Nothing important.”

  Matthew appeared, a wide smile on his face. “I’ve got it working,” he said.

  Tristan put his arm around Lillith. “You’ll enjoy this ride, it’s good,” he said.

  They made their way through some doors, and down a corridor. The ride carts were blue and had six seats; three in the front and three in the back. Matthew climbed into the front, and beckoned for Lillith to join him. “I promised you a ride,” he said, jokingly.

  Lillith climbed into the seat beside him. At the same time, Sophie pushed Tristan into the back, and climbed in beside him. Lillith looked behind her. Tristan looked angry, but he remained polite. Lillith looked forward, trying not to show her annoyance. Riti sat next to Lillith, and Charlie sat next to Sophie, behind Riti.

  Riti put her hand on Lillith’s, and whispered, “I know I’m not who you really want to be sitting with, but this only lasts about fifteen minutes, so it’s not too long to be without him.”

  Lillith smiled. She liked Riti. Her annoyance, however, was more to do with Sophie than being separated from Tristan.

  The ride was good. The car circled around a re-creation of a tenth century Viking village. There were houses, and animatronic people speaking a funny language and doing trades. There were animatronic pigs and dogs, too. Sean Bean, a Yorkshire actor famous for roles such as Sharpe and Ned Stark, gave the commentary from speakers in the cart. He explained what they were seeing and hearing. Matthew chipped in, adding commentary of his own, but not revealing much more than Sean Bean.

  “Do you really own the museum?” Lillith asked Matthew, at one point.

  Matthew laughed. “No, Sophie exaggerates. The York Archaeological trust owns the museum. My dad’s on the board, and I sort of work here.”

  Lillith shook her head. “That’s a big exaggeration. Does that mean we’re breaking in right now?”

  “Technically, no, because I have keys.”

  Lillith gave a small laugh. “Okay,” she said, although she wasn’t convinced.

  “Who’s going to know, anyway? It’s underground. It’s not like anyone can see we’re here. We come here all the time. This is our meeting spot.”

  “Is that why you call yourselves under-grounders?”

  “Yep. I wanted to call us Vikings, but that wasn’t such a popular choice.”

  Lillith looked behind, and saw that Sophie was cuddling into Tristan’s arm. Tristan was looking irritated. He smiled at Lillith, and she smiled back. Sophie caught Lillith’s eye, and cuddled in even more, a look of triumph on her face. Lillith smiled, trying not to appear bothered by her blatant disrespect.

  The ride finished and everyone exited into another room. This one was more like a museum. Viking artefacts were displayed in glass cabinets around the room.

  Matthew ushered Lillith over to a large glass cabinet. “Over here, Lillith,” he said. In it was a human skeleton, presumably a Viking that had been dug up. “She’s a woman. Isn’t she fascinating?”

  Lillith looked at the bones, and read some of the notes. “She had a few things wrong with her,” she commented.

  Matthew stood so close, that Lillith could feel his breath. “Did you enjoy the ride?” he asked.

  A shiver ran down her spine. She looked behind her, and saw Sophie still linking arms with Tristan, al
most pulling him over with how tightly she was holding on. Lillith turned back to Matthew. “Yeah, it was great. Thanks for getting it going for us.” She forced a smile, then turned to walk away.

  Matthew grabbed her arm.

  Lillith shot a look at his hand on her arm, then into Matthew’s eyes. They were green, like hers, only not as bright.

  Matthew let go immediately. “There’s another skeleton over here. A man, this time,” he said quickly.

  Lillith felt her cheeks flush. She was being rude. “Okay,” she said, and followed Matthew to the next glass cabinet.

  Matthew showed Lillith everything. A knife, a comb, some bowls, a shoe, some musical instruments, some jewellery, more bones. It was interesting. Lillith was too engrossed to realise that everyone else had moved on. While reading something about cooking and eating, her stomach growled, and made her think about when they’d be going for food. It brought her mind back to the present, and made her aware of the silence behind her. Matthew was still next to her, pointing at things. She looked behind her, and saw no one. She walked back a little way. Still no one.

  “Has everyone gone?” she asked Matthew.

  He looked behind him, seeming to notice their absence for the first time. “They’ve probably just gone back to the staff room. They’ve seen all this stuff before.”

  Lillith breathed in deeply. Why hadn’t anyone told her where they were going? She certainly wouldn’t have stayed on her own with Matthew if she’d known. “How do we get there?”

  “Just through those doors,” Matthew said, pointing at a light, blue double door up a slight ramp.

  “Should we join them?”

  Matthew shrugged, but followed Lillith through the doors. She’d expected to find the staff room, or at least the glass-floored room, but neither lay behind that door. Instead she found herself in a fairly small, fairly dark room, and the others were nowhere to be seen. The only light was coming from the room they’d just left, and that was only because Matthew was still holding it open on his way in. “Can we turn on a light?” Lillith asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll find it. Just move forward a bit.”

  Lillith found his request a little strange, but she did as she was asked. Matthew let the door swing closed, and disappeared into the darkness. Lillith blinked a few times, but it made no difference; she still couldn’t see. Her heartbeat quickened, and she felt silly to be afraid of the dark.

  “Have you found the light switch, yet?” she called out, trying not to let her voice give away her nervousness. There was no reply. Lillith turned around to see if she could see light from another door. If the others had come this way, there must be another way out of here. She saw nothing. Her breathing was shallow. What was Matthew up to? “Seriously Matthew, are you trying to scare me?” she called. This time, her voice betrayed her. It was higher than normal, and quivered a little.

  There was a crackling noise, and light stabbed at her eyes. She narrowed them, and covered them with her hand. “Yay, you found the light switch. Now maybe we can find the exit, find the others, and get out of here.” She was pleased to hear that her voice sounded ordinary, again. She uncovered her eyes and squinted. The light was funny; not actually that bright, after all, and with a bluey tinge. Lillith made out a shadow by the wall, and started walking towards it, assuming it was Matthew. She’d only walked a couple of steps, when a physical force stopped her from walking any further.

  Chapter 12: Trapped in a Pentagram

  It was a strange sensation. Not like walking into a wall, or a pane of glass. More like walking into a great gust of wind, blowing her way and stopping just in front of her. It was so strong it took her breath away. She stepped back, feeling lightheaded. Something definitely wasn’t right. Then she heard a voice. Sophie’s voice. It was smug and syrupy.

  “Don’t try to escape, you won’t be able to,” Sophie said. When had she come into the room?

  Lillith opened her eyes wide, and scanned the room. Two shadows stood side by side. Unmistakably, they were Sophie and Matthew. She blinked a few times, waiting for her eyes to adjust. When they did, she was able to make out their expressions. They both wore smiles of self-satisfaction.

  “What’s going on?” Lillith asked. Her voice was quivering again. She hated that they’d hear fear in her voice.

  Sophie scoffed. “You’re in a trap,” she said, pointing at the brown, hard-wood floor. “A pentagram, to be exact.”

  Lillith looked at the floor. She made out some luminous triangles – five of them, and she was at the centre. “Is this part of the tour?” she asked, trying to lighten the mood. She was still hoping that this was Sophie and Matthew’s attempt at humour.

  Matthew shook his head. “This is what we witches use to catch demons,” he said.

  Lillith attempted to smile. “Okay,” she said. “Good joke. Now let me out.”

  “It’s not a joke,” Matthew said. “We know who you are. Who you really are.”

  Lillith shuddered, and goose bumps broke out over her skin. She shook her head.

  “We know you’re actually the most evil witch that ever existed,” Sophie said.

  Lillith swallowed. Did they know? Did they really know? Or was this all a big joke?

  “Where’s Tristan?” she asked. He couldn’t know they were doing this, even if it was a joke.

  Sophie giggled. “Somewhere safe, away from you,” she said.

  Lillith took her phone out of her pocket. No signal.

  “That won’t work down here,” Matthew said.

  “I don’t know what you think you know, but I’m not an evil witch,” Lillith said.

  Sophie shook her head. “Maybe not now, not yet anyway. But you were.” She accented the word ‘were’, and narrowed her eyes. “I knew I didn’t trust you last night, so today I did some research on you.” She paused, allowing that to sink in before continuing, “Lilly? Wasn’t that what you were known as before the regression spell?” She smiled again. A sickly-sweet, self-important smile.

  Lillith froze, her mouth agape. With those few words, Sophie had let Lillith know that she knew everything. Sophie was still smiling, her eyes bright and filled with hatred.

  Lillith composed herself. “What’re you planning to do with me, then, now that you’ve trapped me?”

  Sophie and Matthew looked at each other, as if they hadn’t thought of that. They huddled together and started talking. Lillith looked down at the pentagram. It looked like it was drawn in ultraviolet pen, the kind of pen that only showed up in ultraviolet light. Was that why the light was so strange? Lillith searched the room with her eyes, and found the source of light: a single strip on the wall, along from Sophie and Matthew. She stared at it for several seconds, and wondered. Did the pentagram need to be visible to work? Or could she destroy the light and escape the trap?

  Lillith had no time to decide. She focused her attention on the light, willing it to break. She held up her hands, and pushed magic forward. The magic she shot from her hands slammed into the invisible force-field, making a loud boom sound. The entire floor shuddered, and Lillith was thrown backwards. She hit the force-field on the other side of the pentagram and was pushed forwards again, landing on the floor with a bump.

  She groaned. Every part of her throbbed. The light was still intact, untouched, and Sophie and Matthew were laughing. She sat up, and stared in their direction. Her heart pounded, with anger rather than fear, this time.

  Sophie stopped laughing and glared at Lillith. “It’s a trap. Do you suppose it would make a good one, if the person inside was able to strike you with their magic?”

  Lillith breathed deeply through her nose. Anger bubbled inside of her. It was obvious. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to do magic whilst in a pentagram. Another feeling overcame her; one of hopelessness. If she couldn’t get out of this using magic, what could she do? She looked at Sophie. Her expression was hard, and unrelenting. She looked at Matthew. He wasn’t looking quite so strong. She’d imagined he had a soft spot
for her yesterday. Perhaps she could use that.

  Lillith was still on the floor; a good position to look weak. She looked directly at Matthew, and blinked a couple of times. “I can’t speak for my former self,” she began. “From what I’ve been told, I was evil.” A real tear welled in her eye. “I struggled with that when I first found out,” she said. “It threw me. I didn’t know who I was anymore, and I wondered if I was going to turn evil again.” She stopped to take a breath, and looked down. “I wondered if I should be here. Be alive, I mean.” She looked up and into Matthew’s eyes. “I contemplated killing myself at one point.” It was the truth. She hadn’t admitted that to anyone, but it felt freeing to let it go now, even if it was to her captors.

  Lillith continued. “If it wasn’t for Tristan and my mam, I might have. They made me see that I wasn’t that person. I, me now, this me, has never been that witch. I may have been regressed rather than reborn, but I was still given a new chance. A different beginning, and a chance to become a different witch.” Lillith moved her gaze to Sophie, and saw that her expression had softened. She felt hopeful. “I am a different witch. I’m new to my powers, and I sense how strong they are, and I want to find out just how powerful they are, but I have no desire to misuse them like my former self did. I don’t have dark thoughts or dark desires. I just want to live a happy life.”

  Sophie folded her arms.

  Matthew breathed in deeply and turned to Sophie. “What do we do now?” he said.

  Lillith remained silent, and as still as possible. Her speech had been the truth, and from the heart. Surely, they believed her.

  Sophie looked from Lillith to Matthew, and back again. “I think we stick to the original plan,” she said.

  Lillith wondered what that was. She didn’t know much about these witches, or what they were capable of. They weren’t as powerful, or as malicious, as Arthur, which was a good thing, but they also weren’t as prepared or as controlled. If one of them became angry, anything could happen, even if it wasn’t intended. Lillith attempted to control her breathing, but her chest shook with every breath. Her mouth was dry, her palms were clammy, and beads of sweat trickled down her face.