Matthew turned fully towards Sophie. “You still want to do it? Are you mad? That would make us, I don’t know, murderers.”
Lillith gasped, and stopped breathing. Her heartbeat quickened. They were planning to kill her?
Sophie turned to Matthew, scowling. “We’d be ridding the world of an evil witch. We’d be heroes.”
“She’s not an evil witch. You just heard her say so.”
“And we’re supposed to believe that? Of course she’s going to try and make out that she’s good, now.”
“We haven’t seen any evidence that she’s anything else.”
“You would say that, because you fancy her.”
“And you’re just jealous because she’s with Tristan.”
“If we let her out now, she’ll kill us. Would you prefer that?”
“Why would she kill us?”
“Because we know her secret, and we’re holding her prisoner right now. She’s bound to be a little narked about that.”
Lillith watched the exchange between them, not taking much of it in. She hadn’t expected this tonight, and wasn’t prepared for it. She wondered if she was strong enough to escape this trap, but she didn’t know where to start. Matthew was defending her. That seemed to be her best chance. She stood up, and walked as close to the pair of them as possible.
“I won’t hurt you,” she called.
Both Sophie and Matthew looked startled, as if they’d forgotten she was in the room. They turned and looked at her, eyes wide.
Lillith looked Sophie in the eyes. It was her she had to convince. “I promise I won’t hurt you,” she said.
Sophie shook her head. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t, but put it this way. If I’m telling the truth about being good now, you know I wouldn’t hurt you, so it would be safe to let me go. If I’m lying about that, and then I hurt you, I prove to everyone that I’m not good, and all my enemies will come after me. So it wouldn’t be in my interests to harm you, either way.”
Sophie opened her mouth to reply, then stopped herself. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about what Lillith had said. Eventually she spoke. “So you may not hurt us now, but you might curse us, or kill us in our sleep.”
Lillith shook her head again. “People would suspect me, and come after me. So again, it’s not in my interests to do that.”
Matthew nudged Sophie. “We could use a Repulsion spell.”
Lillith swallowed. “What’s that?”
Sophie turned to Lillith. “It’ll protect us from you, and not allow you to harm us.”
“By doing what?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “In effect, it won’t allow you to direct any magic at us.”
She wasn’t planning to anyway, so it seemed like a good solution.
Sophie placed her hands on her hips and turned to Matthew. “Do you know it?”
“What?”
“The spell, stupid.”
Matthew shrugged. “I have one on my phone.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and after a few taps, he showed it to Sophie.
Sophie grinned. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
Chapter 13: The Repulsion Spell
Lillith closed her eyes, and breathed out.
Matthew angled his phone so that they could all see the spell. She was thankful that it was both short and in English. She still didn’t know the correct way to say some words in Latin, and even less in other languages.
“So me and Sophie read the first part, here,” Matthew said, pointing at the first line. “Then Lillith says the second part. Then we all read this last bit.”
Lillith stood quietly as Matthew and Sophie read the first line.
“Protect us from evil, deliver us from hell, absolve us from the effects of this witch’s spell.” Matthew held out his phone for Lillith to read the next line.
Lillith read aloud. “With this incantation, I acquiesce, that no curse of mine, nor jinx, nor hex, will touch these witches, nor have an effect.”
Lillith took a breath, and moved onto the next sentence. She heard Matthew and Sophie join in. “To this covenant, we all agree. We are bound by its rule for all eternity.”
They were all silent for several moments. Lillith expected to something to happen, but nothing did. She didn’t feel any different, either. “Did it work?” she asked, breaking the silence.
Sophie and Matthew both looked at each other. “It should have, but we should try something to make sure,” Matthew said.
“So, you’ll let me out, now?” Lillith asked, hesitantly.
Matthew faltered and looked for steer from Sophie who simply shrugged. He switched off the UV light. “Come forward,” he called to Lillith from the darkness.
Lillith edged forward slowly. There was nothing stopping her. She breathed out with relief. Her body still shaking.
Matthew turned on a main light. The room lit up, and Lillith squinted again.
“What should we try?” Matthew asked. “To prove it’s worked.”
Lillith remembered that when Tristan first gave her the protection amulet, Angela tried painting her nails to see whether it worked. That seemed like a harmless spell to try. “I could try painting your nails?” she suggested, hoping she’d remember how to do it.
“I don’t want painted nails,” Matthew said, folding his arms.
Sophie sighed. “You won’t have painted nails if the repulsion spell worked, silly.” She rolled her eyes at Matthew, then turned to Lillith. “Me, first.” She stuck out her hand. It looked soft. Her nails were already painted, and had beautiful white tips.
Lillith focused on Sophie’s nails, and willed them to change colour. Nothing happened.
Sophie smiled. “Looks like it worked,” she said.
Matthew thrust his hand towards Lillith. “It better work,” he said, a frown on his face.
Lillith tried to change Matthew’s nail colour, but again, nothing happened.
Matthew breathed a sigh of relief, and opened the door to the room. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, beckoning everyone to leave.
“Wait,” Sophie called.
Lillith froze.
“How do we know you didn’t just pretend to change our nail colour?”
Lillith faced Sophie. “I didn’t, you have my word.” She turned and starting walking towards the open door, holding her breath.
“Try to strike me,” Sophie said. “Then I’ll know it’s worked properly.”
Lillith turned back to Sophie, hardly believing what she’d just heard.
“It’s the only way we can trust to let you out of the room,” Sophie said, folding her arms.
Lillith twisted to see Matthew blocking the way out. She turned back to Sophie. Her heart beat heavily. “Okay,” she said, nervously. Lillith remembered breaking teacups with Brody and Tristan in October. She wasn’t very successful at it until Brody had suggested using a conduit; her wand, which she no longer had. She was stronger now, but a teacup was one thing, a person another. She wasn’t sure how this would go.
Lillith focussed on Sophie and pulled her hands back. She needed to push as much energy as she could. She gave one big push and nothing happened.
Sophie folded her arms again. “Did you actually do something there?”
“Yes.”
Sophie scowled. “I know…” she reached into her pocket, pulled out a lip balm and held it up. “Do it again.”
Lillith repeated the magic. This time the lip balm was whipped out of Sophie’s hand and clattered onto the floor behind her.
Sophie picked it up. “Okay, I’m convinced,” she said.
Lillith breathed out, thankful. She turned and began to walk out of the room.
Sophie grabbed her shoulder. “One more thing,” she said. “Don’t tell anyone about this.” It was a demand, but her tone was pleading rather than commanding.
Lillith wasn’t going to promise that. She looked into Sophie’s eyes, and didn’t speak.
S
ophie scoffed. “Whatever,” she said, and walked out of the room ahead of Lillith.
Lillith followed Sophie and Matthew through two more sets of doors, and found herself back in the glass-floored room. A tear trickled down her cheek at the sight of it. They’d stuck to their promise, and let her go. She scanned the room for Tristan, but he wasn’t there.
“They’re outside,” Sophie said. “I locked them out to make sure they couldn’t come and rescue you.”
Lillith breathed in her anger. She followed Matthew up the spiral staircase, through the entrance lobby with the desk and posters and outside into the cold night. Arms engulfed her, and she smelled Tristan’s familiar smell.
“You’ve been ages. We were starting to get worried,” he said.
Lillith looked up.
“You’ve been crying?” Tristan observed. “And you look pale. What’s happened?”
“She thinks she’s seen a ghost,” Sophie answered.
Tristan looked unconvinced. “Really?”
Lillith wanted to tell him the truth, but thought that here and now would be a bad time. People were walking through the streets. Non-witch people. They didn’t need to hear a witch showdown, which she felt sure would happen. Lillith looked at Sophie, who was staring at Lillith, willing her to agree. “Something like that,” Lillith said.
A look of satisfaction crossed Sophie’s face.
Lillith looked at Tristan. “I’ll explain it all later,” she said, letting Sophie know that wasn’t the end of it.
Dinner ended up being pizza and kebabs, taken back to Charlie’s house. None of them felt like going out for a meal any more. Lillith hadn’t said much since leaving the Jorvik Viking museum. Charlie, Riti and Tristan were trying hard to cheer her up, but she just felt tired and deflated. She’d had such a good day, and had almost forgotten about her past, and her supposed dark side. It had been a harsh reminder that she was someone to be afraid of. She couldn’t escape it, even though she wanted to.
Lillith nibbled on her pizza. She’d been so hungry before, but now she just wanted to lie down and shut the world out. She closed the lid on her pizza box, the pizza inside hardly touched. “I’m going to bed,” she said, and edged forward on the settee, where she was seated between Tristan and Riti.
Tristan grabbed Lillith’s arm, preventing her from getting up. “What happened at the museum?” he asked.
Lillith shook her head. “Just a reminder, that’s all,” she said, not meaning to be cryptic.
Charlie put her kebab down on the table. “What did they say to you, Lilllith?”
Lillith looked at the floor. She wanted to tell them, but where did she start? She felt a hand touch hers, and looked up to see Riti’s warm hazel eyes looking back at her.
“I guess I can run away from Whitley Bay, but not my past,” Lillith said.
Charlie sat forward. “They knew about your past? How much?”
“Everything.”
“What did they do?” Tristan asked, anger in his voice.
Lillith breathed out and began to tell them what had happened.
“I’m going to kill them,” Charlie said angrily, when Lillith got to the part about being trapped in a pentagram. She stood up suddenly. “I’m going to kill them, now.”
Riti stood up and held Charlie by her shoulders, stopping her from going anywhere. “Let’s hear the end of the story, first. We don’t know why they did it. They may have had a good reason.”
Charlie looked at Lillith.
Lillith looked back with pleading eyes.
She sat down again.
Lillith wondered why Charlie was supporting her. After all, she was the evil witch that everyone was terrified of. Charlie had known her for a little over 24 hours, and she’d known Matthew and Sophie a lot longer. Riti was right, there was a reason. “It’s because they’re scared of me, that’s their reason,” she blurted. “And why wouldn’t they be? I would be, if I came face to face with a monster. Anyone would be.”
Silence lingered in the room for several seconds. Riti sat back down on the settee, and held Lilith’s hands again. “That’s not what I meant,” she said. “What they did was wrong. Even if they were scared because they found out about your past, the way they dealt with it wasn’t the right way. They’re two of the silliest people I know, and they’re dangerous because of it.”
Lillith looked into Riti’s eyes again. “You know about my past, too?” she asked.
Riti nodded. “Charlie told me. Sorry.”
“Then why aren’t you afraid of me?”
Riti chuckled. “Because I can see who you really are. Who you are now, that is. I didn’t know past Lillith.”
“Sometimes I wonder whether I’ll turn into that witch,” Lillith said.
Riti smiled and frowned at the same time. “You know what might help?” she said.
Lillith shrugged, and shook her head.
“People aren’t born evil. There’s usually a reason for it. If we could find out something about past Lillith, find out why she turned dark, and then compare that with you, it might put your mind at rest about whether you’ll turn dark, too.”
It was a good idea, and something that Lillith had wanted to do anyway, but where would she start?
“Start with your mam,” Riti said, as if reading her thoughts.
Lillith focussed on Riti. “Can you read minds?” she asked.
Riti shook her head and laughed. “Unfortunately not,” she said. “Now, why don’t you finish the story? I’m intrigued to hear about why they trapped you, and why they let you go again.”
Lillith told them everything. About her plea, her thoughts, trying to destroy the UV light on the wall, about their intentions to kill her, and about the repulsion spell. Tristan was next to her. He was trying to stay calm, but she could tell he was angry. His body had stiffened, and his breathing had quickened.
“They were going to kill you?” he said, through gritted teeth.
“That’s what they said.”
“Then they should have had us all quote the repulsion spell, because I’m with Charlie. Let’s go and pay them a visit.” Tristan stood up.
Charlie stood up with him.
“What’s that going to do?” Riti said, raising her voice to be heard. “Just cause trouble, when trouble’s already been avoided.”
“We can’t just let this go,” Charlie said. “They can’t get away with doing stuff like this.”
Riti stood up to face Charlie. She was half a foot smaller, but she managed to look her in the eye. “I agree, but if you march over there now, you’ll be as bad as them.”
Charlie dropped back onto the chair she’d been sitting on, and reached around Riti to retrieve her kebab off the table. “Fine,” she said, taking a large bite of kebab. “What do you suggest we do?”
Riti sat down, too, followed by Tristan.
Lillith had been listening to them get angry, but it had happened to her, not them. “Nothing,” she said. “It’s sorted with the repulsion spell. They won’t do anything to me again, and I don’t want to come in-between you and your friends.”
Charlie scoffed. “Friends. Hardly.”
“Under-grounder members, then.” Lillith breathed in, deeply. “I can understand, to be honest. Not what they did, but where it came from. People do silly things when they’re scared.”
“They don’t kill people,” Tristan said.
Lillith looking into Tristan’s eyes. “They didn’t kill me,” she said. “But what if I was a dark, powerful witch, who was going to kill everyone? You might be looking at what they did differently, then. You might even consider them to be heroes.”
Tristan shook his head vehemently, but she’d given him food for thought. His eyes flicked to the side as he considered what she’d said.
Lillith turned to Charlie. “I say we do nothing to Matthew and Sophie.”
Charlie’s chest went up and down as she breathed angrily, but she was listening and looked like she was calming down.
“Riti’s right. I can’t run away from my past; I have to face it head on. I can’t keep thinking I have some ominous future where I suddenly turn dark. I have to ask my mam, and the coven, about who Lilly was.” She turned to Tristan. “You want me to be free to be who I’m supposed to be. I think this is the only way. It’s time to go home,” she said.
Tristan dipped his head. “Okay. We can leave in the morning.”
“You should stay for New Year, first,” Charlie said.
Lillith shook her head. “Maybe next year,” she said, smiling at the offer.
Charlie grinned. “If you’re still alive, then,” she said.
Lillith noticed Charlie’s breathing was getting back to normal, and was relieved. “Thank you,” she said, turning to everyone in the room. “Thank you for everything. I’ve found these couple of days very enlightening. I actually feel like I know what to do, for the first time since I became a witch.” It was the truth. She no longer felt like she was on a spinning Waltzer, and she had something to focus on. She reached out, grabbed her pizza, sat back and ate hungrily.
Chapter 14: Home from York
Lillith entered her house. It was quiet. Was her mam at work? She slid her case at the bottom of the stairs, and took off her coat, hat, scarf and gloves.
“Hello,” she called out. “Anyone home?”
There were footsteps in the kitchen. Uma appeared at the kitchen doorway. “You’re home,” she said.
Lillith wanted to run over to her mam and hug her, but she held back.
Uma wore a stern expression. “Did it help? Going to York, I mean?”
Lillith nodded.
“Good, then it was all worth it.”
“I’m sorry to have run off without telling you,” Lillith said. “I was just a bit mixed up.”
Uma’s face softened. “I know,” she said. “I know all of this is hard. I guess I’m used to you telling me all about it, rather than shutting me out, that’s all.”
Ashes: Witches of Whitley Bay Book 2 Page 10
