by Ruby Loren
“You haven’t seen any other hellhounds around?” He sounded genuinely surprised.
“Oh!” he finished and then stayed silent.
“Jesse…” I warned him.
“There’s a pack circling the town. That’s why I haven’t been letting Hecate run as freely as normal. I don’t know who they answer to, or why they’re here,” he said. Yet again, I wasn’t sure that I believed him.
“Maybe they’re something to do with the young but amazingly impressive lawyer with eyes just like yours and mine who’s suddenly turned up in town,” I said, watching Jesse for any signs of reaction.
He gulped visibly. “Maybe. Did you, uh, catch her name?”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Is she a friend of yours?”
“Heck no! I don’t do friends or even colleagues.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” I sniped.
Jesse pulled a face at me. “I just mean I’m not part of the devil club, not really. They’re out to bleed everyone dry.”
I raised my eyebrows even higher.
“Hey!” he protested.
“I saw a female devil making what looked like a deal with the mayor. I didn’t get a good look at her, but what are the odds that she and this hotshot lawyer working for Emma Kirkus are one and the same?”
“I knew the mayor made a fresh deal. I didn’t think she’d stick around in town. Hang on… Emma Kirkus? The witch that Sean and I caught redhanded?”
My eyebrows wouldn’t go any higher, so I just kept them up. It was Sean now was it? “This lawyer was apparently on the brink of getting her released anyway, but she almost certainly will get out now, given what Sean and I found.”
“So that’s why you were sniffing around Sarah May’s house with our dear Detective Admiral. I thought you two were up to something else.”
I couldn’t decide if Jesse looked disappointed or pleased.
“How do you know I was there?” I said, stupidly. At my feet, Hecate whined. I finally put two and two together. “She spies on people for you?!”
“Multi-purpose hellhound.”
“You already have Hedge doing your dirty work!” I protested.
“Exactly. Hecate wasn’t watching you. She stalks the detective, making sure I stay one step ahead in the case.” He tapped the side of his head. “There’s a reason why I’m a professional private detective.”
“How do you define ‘professional’?” I sniped back. I was seriously peeved with Jesse Heathen and his stalky ways. Part of me wanted to tell him to keep his nose out of everyone else’s business, but I knew telling him anything straight never worked. If I wanted to make an impact, I’d do a better job if I figured out a way to keep Detective Admiral hellhound free. Heck, if I could find an anti-hellhound charm or potion, it could keep a lot of people safe - if there really was a pack of hellhounds stalking the town.
“I’m sorry Hecate, you had zero luck when they assigned you,” I told the hellhound at my feet, figuring she was the smartest company in the room with me right now. Her dark tail thumped on the ground in response.
“Stop talking to my hound. She’s mean and nasty and will rip you to shreds at my command.”
I looked down at the hound, who’d opened her glowing red eyes a fraction. “Do you fancy eating Jesse? I’d be a much better owner,” I said, only half-joking.
To my eternal surprise, she got to her feet and tilted her head, considering her master.
“Hey! Whoa now. Come on, don’t be like that.” There was a genuine note of panic in Jesse’s voice.
“I’m joking,” I quickly said to the hound and she settled down again, giving her tail a single thump. “Even your pets find you annoying to work with,” I told Jesse.
He folded his arms, looking seriously peeved. “That is not okay! I don’t know what kind of magic you used, but it’s unfair.” A smile returned to his face. “Speaking of magic, I’ve been working on mine! Hedge has been helping.” He gestured to the area behind the shop counter where a small bookshelf now stood.
I squinted at the spines. “Hey! Those are mine!” I was going to have to have words with that thieving cat!
“Mi casa es su casa, am I right?” Jesse gave a nonchalant shrug.
Honestly, I had no idea why I even bothered to talk to him. I supposed the only reason I hung around was because I suspected he had more answers to my questions… he just wasn’t going to share them with me. “I think it’s time Hedge moved in with you, now that you’ve got this lovely shop all to yourself.” I’d kept the cat as a favour to Jesse, but if this was how he was going to repay me…
“But he likes you and Hemlock so much! Sure, he tells me what you’re up to, but, just between us, I think he likes you more than he likes me.”
“Shocking,” I said, dryly. I wasn’t convinced by this false attempt at flattery.
“Anyway… don’t you want to know what I can do?”
I squinted as his blue magic flared out around him - magic I knew he’d been skilfully hiding from me since we’d met. He muttered some words and it shot around the room, forming glowing sigils in the air before connecting to itself. Jesse and I were now standing in some kind of magical dome.
“It’s a shield,” I realised, reading the sigils for what they were - protective.
“I’ve been experimenting, but this kind of magic seems to be my forte. I didn’t see it coming, to be honest,” Jesse said, letting the dome fade away.
I snorted before I could help myself. “Let’s see… the man who can slither out of giving a straight answer to just about any question specialises in magic that means he can block other magic and slither away from confrontation. It would have been my first guess.”
“I don’t slither. I stride,” Jesse said, brushing his dark hair back from his face.
I rolled my eyes in response. Jesse’s magic was something of a mystery in itself. He claimed he’d been made a devil, rather than born one, as the result of a foolish deal he’d made. He would have been a magician if it weren’t for the deal, and his magic had still put in an appearance.
“What are you going to do about the other hellhounds… and this lawyer?” I added, trying to get this meeting back on track.
Jesse shrugged. “Nothing, I suppose. She must have some business in town, and there’s nothing I can do about that. It sounds like she’s made a deal with your criminal witch, but that’s standard devilry and is between her and her client. It’s not cool that she’s moved in on my turf, but as you just pointed out, I’m not a fan of conflict.” He examined his spotless fingernails.
I ground my teeth together, knowing he was being deliberately difficult. “But don’t you feel that something bad has come to this town?”
Jesse looked at me straight in the eye, our amber orbs meeting and some kind of understanding passing between us. “Yes. It still feels like there is a storm gathering and we are right at ground zero. But it hasn’t hit yet.”
“Its probably working up to it,” I muttered, before thinking back to the night when Jesse and I had first felt the sensation of a cloud hanging over Wormwood.
“What does it actually cost to make a deal with a devil?” I asked Jesse, hoping that he could give me a generic answer at least.
“That’s a complicated question with a complicated answer.”
“Of course it is,” I said, resisting the urge to punch something.
“I just mean, it’s an answer that changes. It depends on how much you’re asking and how much a devil thinks you can afford. Or alternatively… it depends on what they want from you.” There was more than a hint of bitterness in his voice when he said the last part.
“What did you ask for?” I enquired, figuring that, whilst devils weren’t allowed to talk about their deals, the deal makers might not be bound by the same rules.
I wasn’t surprised when Jesse smiled and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. It was a mistake that I’ll have to pay for forever. Just know that devils always have an ulterior m
otive when they make a deal. They always hold all of the cards, and you will always find out too late the real cost of whatever deal you made. The price is pre-agreed and you can’t weasel out of it. If you try to, we set our debt collectors on you.” He nodded in the direction of Hecate, who let out a sleepy whine.
I remembered the passage I’d read in the black magic spell book. ‘Never cross a devil once a deal has been made, lest you want all of hell’s fury on your tail!’ It made sense now.
“What about…”
“…the mayor,” Jesse finished for me. “That’s private and complicated.” His thinning lips were the only sign I had that he was frustrated by the situation he’d found himself in. “He’ll get what’s coming to him… one way or another.”
And that was all he’d say about it.
“I don’t suppose your spies spotted what happened to Sarah and Helen when they went missing?” I asked, hesitating in the doorway of the agency.
“If they had, you’d have been the first to know. Well… you and the rest of the town. I’d be shouting about solving a case like this from the rooftops! I need all the publicity I can get. Don’t forget you’re chronicling my adventures.”
I made a sound of disgust before addressing Hecate. “If you ever want to get away from this narcissist, my home is always open,” I told her.
She wagged her tail.
I was friends with a hellhound.
It was another thing I had in common with the local devils.
“We’re going to rescue her tonight,” my aunt announced when I walked back into the apothecary.
“Aunt Linda?” I said, my brain struggling to catch up with what was happening.
“Unless you know someone else who needs rescuing?” my aunt replied. “The Council will think that we’ve given up by now. If they had anything to do with sending the Salems to come for you, it will have only further convinced them that we won’t be focusing on anything like a rescue mission.”
“I’ll pack my grappling hook,” Hemlock said from beneath the counter.
10
Jailbreak
Oxford was certainly beautiful at night. The old, sand coloured buildings of its prestigious colleges and chapels were softly lit when we walked past them on our way to… somewhere. When Aunt Minerva had announced our mission, I’d expected to find myself in the middle of nowhere at some secret army-style base. Concrete walls and barbed wire were what came to mind when I summoned up an idea of what a detention camp would look like. Instead, we were wandering through the oldest part of Oxford, where I doubted planning permission for a bunker would ever see the light of day.
“We’re here,” Minerva announced, stopping outside a nondescript wooden door in the side of a sandstone wall.
“Thank goodness. I was about to give up and become a stray. Anything to keep from walking any further!” Hemlock groused from by my feet. “You should have carried me so I could save my strength.”
“You needed the exercise,” I told my soft and squishy familiar.
“Hey! I don’t judge you when you raid the cookie jar every time something goes wrong in your life. On a completely unrelated topic, I notice we’re almost out of the end-of-the-world stockpile-sized biscuit selection you bought just last week.”
“Thanks a bunch,” I muttered, scarcely able to believe I was being biscuit-shamed by a cat.
“You’re welcome,” Hemlock said, his tail upright in the air the way it always looked when he was smug about something.
“Where is ‘here’?” I asked my aunt, hoping that she would have a sensible answer for me.
“This is the entrance to the Council’s headquarters… and the location of their detention centre.” Her face looked drawn when she said the last part. I noticed the way her hands were clenched and knuckles white with tension. My Aunt Minerva had never struck me as a rule breaker. I was impressed that we were even standing here. “The Council members are great subscribers to the old saying - keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. That, and they love to torture their prisoners,” she added.
Great.
We definitely weren’t walking straight into the lion’s den.
“Are the Witch Council still using this place?” I asked, unconvinced by the plain door and the cobwebs I could see clinging to the corners.
“Of course they are. Why else would it look so abandoned?” Aunt Minerva said, as if it made perfect sense. “Stop asking questions and get ready to fight for your life.” She whispered some words and I saw her deep blue magic shoot from her fingertips. I heard the sound of a lock sliding across. The door swung open in the gentle breeze that drifted through the Oxford streets on this mild April evening.
Aunt Minerva turned to me. “This isn’t your fight, you know. We may all end up like Linda, or worse.”
“You’re my family,” I told my aunt firmly.
She looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead, she gave a single curt nod and turned back towards the door. I followed her inside the building, not knowing what we were going to find inside.
“Sheesh! What a dump,” Hemlock muttered as we walked along dusty corridors filled with paintings with slashed canvases and floors that would make a vacuum cleaner commit suicide.
I shot an uncertain look at my aunt, but she remained focused on the path ahead of us. Even though this place looked like it had been abandoned for decades, she clearly believed that all was not as it appeared.
And when we turned another corner, I was forced to agree with her. Strips of razor-sharp magic crisscrossed the next corridor, glowing bright white in my witch sight.
“The Council don’t take kindly to uninvited guests,” Minerva said.
“I could cut through them,” I offered.
She shook her head. “They’re more than just razor wire spells. They’ll trigger if anything touches them. Think of a spider feeling a fly caught up in its web. The person who cast this spell will sense interference in the same way.”
I waited for her to offer up a solution.
When a minute had passed, I was about to ask again when I finally saw what was happening. The wires were dissolving. It was happening slowly, but the lines of concentration on my aunt’s forehead told me that she was the one responsible. Another minute passed and the corridor was clear. We were through to the inner sanctum of the Council. With a bit of luck, Aunt Linda wasn’t much further away.
There were no other traps down the corridors we walked along. I presumed it was either that the Council believed their primary defence would be strong enough to keep out intruders or, more likely, they didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to wander into their stronghold and challenge them.
I hoped it didn’t come to challenging anyone, because I certainly didn’t feel ready to face the Council. Heck, I didn’t even know who the Council were - beyond a mysterious governing body that every magic user seemed to fear.
I wished I’d been able to find out more about them. Now, I was wondering if I’d live to regret it. Or die to regret it. Was that a thing?
“She’s near,” Minerva said, breaking the silence that had fallen whilst we’d navigated the maze of corridors, taking twists and turns seemingly at random. If it weren’t for the fact that I trusted my pragmatic aunt, I would have said we were lost in a labyrinth. I definitely should have packed some snacks.
“How do you know?” I asked. I’d been watching everything using witch sight, but ever since the razor wires, there’d been no signs of magic at all.
“When you’ve been stuck with your Aunt Linda as long as I have, you know the signs.” Aunt Minerva pointed to a deep gouge mark in the sandstone wall. “No one does a giant spider curse quite like her. That was definitely a mandible of death.”
We turned another corner and all of a sudden, the corridor was alive with tiny black spiders, dropping down from the many webs they’d spun.
“No one does a tiny spider curse like Aunt Linda?” I suggested.
“Yo
u should have told me there’d be snacks! I might not have cursed your bubble bath in revenge for you confiscating my cheese snacks.” Hemlock said, trotting past us and launching headfirst into the webs. There were horrible crunching and slurping noises that I hadn’t previously known a cat could make.
I made a mental note to bin all of my bath products. And probably the shower ones, too. I wasn’t certain that Hemlock knew the difference between them. I also wasn’t certain that I could trust him to not have cursed them all. I had a shrewd idea that Hemlock was disappointed I wasn’t some kind of super villain, with him as my evil sidekick. I think it would have made him happy.
Minerva and I exchanged a good luck look before we pushed through the webs and spiders, hoping that Linda was somewhere on the other side of it all.
“This is more like it!” Minerva said when we made it through the nightmare webs. We were standing in another corridor, but this one had cell doors down the left hand side. Was Aunt Linda waiting behind one of them?
“You took your time. We expected you a month ago,” a cool female voice said from nowhere.
I looked around like a fool, but I couldn’t see anyone or anything - not even with witch sight. The air in front of us suddenly shimmered. A woman with jet black hair, straighter than a ruler, and with eyes that turned up slightly at the corners - accented by a fine line of eyeliner - appeared.
“Kimberly,” Minerva said, looking as though she’d swallowed something particularly foul tasting.
“You never change. Not triggering my webs is smart, but you should have known that I would be able to feel their absence.” She straightened her pure white suit. “The Council wanted to lock you up after your trial, but I persuaded them it was better to let you go. I knew you’d try something like this… and then it would be a death sentence, rather than life imprisonment.” She smiled and her tiny white teeth clinked together.
“I’d like to see you try,” Minerva replied, her eyes turning to steel.
If I wasn’t about to be caught up in a magical battle to the death, this would have been the coolest thing ever. I’d never expected my conservative aunt to be such a tough nut.
