“The sorceress left the village to return to her own home, but not before she blessed the village, telling them that the gods would smile upon them with Augur children from that day forward.”
The mountain begins to fade, leaving the waving figures on the plateau still visible.
“So, the moral of the story could be that good always triumphs over evil, or that it only takes one truly evil person to poison an entire village, or even that Augurs are gifts from the gods,” Gus says, his face becoming more visible as the shadows gradually recede. “But I like to think that the moral of the story is that everyone has an ounce of good in them somewhere. Even the chief, who damned the people under his rule, brought the one thing that could save them right to his doorstep, despite his intentions.”
My scalp prickles, and I rub my eyes as the lights come back on, and the final image of the mother and her baby boy waving disappears. Perhaps the story moved me more than I realised.
A slow clap breaks the peace, and I turn in my seat to see a figure in the corner. Only the bottom portion of his face is visible, his lip curling into a cold smile.
“The real moral of the story is that every villain thinks they’re the hero, until the end.”
The familiarity of his voice sends a shiver up my spine as cold and as hard as a steel knifepoint.
“Hello, cousin,” he adds, stepping out of the shadows and into the light. There, fixing me with a look that sends alarm bells through my body, both hands and eyes ablaze, is Edward Clarence.
CHAPTER 13
Several things happen at once.
An eruption of confused voices breaks out in the basement, and I catch Giovanni hiss, “Cousin?” with dismay.
Without thinking, I leap over the backrest of the sofa, Algernon keeping up with me, to find Jer and Lou joining me on either side within seconds.
Lou’s hands are up, ready to blast Edward across the room without another thought, while Jer’s fists are in a guarded position, just as ready to put them to use.
But for all the backup I have, Edward simply sneers, looking me up and down while waving a flame-covered hand in front of me. If he’s concerned about the number of Augurs in the room, he doesn’t show it.
“Nice of you to give me such a warm welcome,” he says, pulling up a chair and sitting at the round table, leaving burn marks everywhere he touches.
“What the hell do you want, Edward? Did the Magic Circle kick you out?” I say, trying to keep my voice level but failing. Every single cell in my body wants to hit him.
“I wanted to see how long it would take you to figure out my father’s plan and lend a hand.”
Lou scoffs loudly. “Yeah right. You want to help us? After everything you’ve done?”
“You mean everything my father and Munday have done. I’ve just been cleaning up their messes ever since I was a child,” he spits.
“You burned down Gregorio’s restaurant,” I say, stealing a glance at Gio, who has shuffled to the front with Marco. “You stabbed Federico!”
“To get that damned information on Munday and my father! Why do you think I scheduled a meeting with Matthew Avers, Curtis? Why do you think I spent all my time trying to warn you, locating Ella to get her help?” he says fiercely. Although the flames in his eyes are extinguished, his hands are still smouldering, and I can feel the heat coming off him from here.
Could it be true?
I think about my first meeting with the reporter and how he thought I was Edward. In some twisted way, it makes sense, but it doesn’t explain the fact that he forced us out of hiding a few months ago, posing as the new leader of the Magic Circle.
I know one way to verify his story, but I’m not ready to ask yet. I want to see how much he’s willing to volunteer without using any powers on him.
“And the hospital that Cassie nearly toppled?” Jer asks.
Edward shakes his head. “After you all eluded us in Hertfordshire, my father captured me. Cassie went off on her own. She took Kai and anyone else she could control with her to try and complete our objective.”
“Which was what, exactly? Killing a bunch of innocent people to get your hands on Ella?”
“You have it all backwards, as usual,” Edward says drily. “I was trying to stop my father from getting to Ella first. He’s been obsessed with her ever since he found out about her existence. I tried to warn her,” he says, giving me a pointed look, “but it was only a matter of time before my father worked her into his plans. ‘World Augur Domination!’” He shouts dramatically, waving a smouldering hand over his head. “All I wanted was for everyone to see what he really is. What him and Munday are. You got in the way of that.” He looks at me angrily.
“But you were working as a double agent for him in the Magic Circle, weren’t you?” Lou puts her hands on her hips and gives him one of her best ‘not buying it’ looks.
“Cassie brainwashed me, for God’s sake!” He looks at me, knowing that I have firsthand experience of what that feels like. “I honestly don’t know half of what I’ve done. Apparently, I became leader of the Magic Circle for a short while.”
He did look edgy and spaced out when I last saw him. I just took it for bravado and an addiction to Air, but apparently I was wrong.
Edward sighs and rubs his eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m explaining myself to you. You’ve all changed sides in this fight more than I can count. Even you, cousin.”
There’s that word again. I suppress a shiver at hearing it from his lips and shake my head.
“How long have you known?” I say through gritted teeth.
“Same as you, pretty much,” he says, suddenly lowering his voice. “Can’t say I was best pleased at that revelation.”
“So, you’re serious,” Gio blurts, unable to contain himself any longer. “This…this stronso is really related to you?” He looks between me and Edward, a mixture of fury and disgust on his face.
“Half-cousin, courtesy of my half-aunt, who I thought was dead until a few months ago. Turns out she was married to the Duke, before having an affair with Munday and getting herself turned invisible. She was the one who helped the Duke kidnap Ella.” My voice turns icy as I say it, and I glance at Edward, who looks uncomfortable for the first time since getting here.
Mentioning his mother’s affair is probably cruel, but I don’t care. Every one of her decisions, from having an affair to getting caught up in Munday’s research to cure her, has affected us.
“About that,” he says, rubbing his hands together. Now that the flames are all but gone, I can make out the tiny scars that cover the backs of them, which, paired with the one across his face, give him a more sinister edge to his usual pretty-boy look. “She only came to him when my father took me. He threatened her if she didn’t assist him.”
“Oh sure, that makes total sense,” I reply sarcastically, looking to Jer and Lou, who are equally as skeptical as I am. “What the hell could he threaten an invisible, teleporting Augur with? He doesn’t even have any powers anymore.”
“He offered her something that she’s been after for a very long time, to gain her cooperation, and then said he’d destroy it if she didn’t help,” he replies quietly.
“The cure.” It’s a statement rather than a question. My aunt is a complicated woman, and the one thing that has stopped her son from being able to see her his whole life, prevented her from being able to go out in public, and has forced her to be alone, is her invisibility. Yet, despite understanding all of that, I’m still angry.
“You know the Duke blamed your mother for the Facility experiments? Said that she used all their money to fund Munday to find a cure?”
Edward nods, the smugness slowly dissipating out of him. “Until recently, I believed it too. He painted her to be a monster, and for a long time, I thought that was true.”
I try to think how Tilly felt. She was guilty for not being there to raise Edward, I remember that. She felt like everything he did was her responsibility. But I can�
�t find any sympathy for her after what she did.
“She’s not perfect, but she isn’t evil,” Edward adds, fixing me with his grey-blue eyes, just like his father’s. I wonder how much of my aunt’s features were passed along to him. We maybe share the high cheekbones passed down from my paternal grandmother, but other than that, we couldn’t be more different.
“She’s here, isn’t she?” Jer says, sniffing the air.
I turn to look at him in alarm, but he’s already peering around the room, trying to trace the source of her magic.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Giovanni says as Jer points to a spot at the back of the room, which suddenly whimpers.
“Come out, Mother. The Irish bloodhound found you,” Edward says, turning around.
“Tilly?” I peer into the recess of the staircase and sense movement. After spending two decades being invisible, I suppose you become very good at staying silent, too. The only indication that she’s joined the group is the place where her hand rests on Edward’s shoulder, pressing down his jacket in the shape of her fingers. Knowing that she’s here sends a course of emotions through me, but I force myself not to lose it in front of the team.
“So, that’s how you got in here. You teleported,” Marco says, looking at Edward.
“She can teleport?” Gio asks, looking perplexed. We nod collectively and he looks impressed. “She’d be a valuable asset if we really do want to stop the Duke.”
“I don’t want her help,” I say abruptly. “Edward, maybe, but not her.” I glare at the patch of air where I think she’s standing.
“Curtis, please—" she begins to say.
“NO!” I shout before I can stop myself. “You took her from me, Tilly. You didn’t even bother to tell me who you really were, though you had dozens of opportunities to give me the truth. We trusted you, and you betrayed us.” The words are bitter in my mouth, and I want to get them all out, even though I know each one hurts her.
“Just listen to her, Curtis,” Edward pleads, which is so unlike him I almost want to cooperate.
I shake my head and open my mouth to sling another accusation at her, but she moves forward and places a hand on my chest, which sends a numb feeling through my torso. I take a step back, but I’m blocked off by the back of the sofa behind me.
“Curtis, listen. Jonathan threatened to kill you if I didn’t help him get Ella out of there. His original plan had been to fatally poison you and take her. He had Edward. I wasn’t about to allow him to harm you, too. He already has Ella’s cooperation—I came here to warn you.”
I shake my head fiercely, but her hand on my chest holds tighter. I look down and see that I’m starting to fade, just like outside Hampstead Hospital.
“I wouldn’t have risked coming here if it wasn’t important. You need us, and we need you,” she says almost apologetically.
The cold spreads through me, and already my arms have disappeared.
“What are you doing?” I ask, horrified.
“Showing you what you need to see. Whatever you do, don’t say anything, and don’t let go of me,” she says as my entire body tingles, and I disappear.
*
I try to force my eyes open. Through the shock of being teleported, I try to make sense of my surroundings. The white light that blinded me was quickly followed by darkness, which eventually evens out into grey shapes swimming through my vision.
Metal tables and stools that look like they’re straight out of a science lab line the room, with technical equipment I can’t name all around us. Whatever all this stuff is, it looks expensive. Men in lab coats bend over microscopes, and vials of liquid are racked up along the walls and on the benches around us. The vice-like grip on my arm and chest hasn’t eased up, and I realise I’m somehow still invisible, or at least partially so. I almost form a question to ask where we are, what’s going on, and why I still can’t see my body, but I’m cut off by Tilly dragging me backwards roughly into a corner of the room, tucking us behind a pile of boxes that hold supplies. If anyone notices the sound of scuffling, they don’t show it.
There are four figures in the room, all in the long white coats of scientists except one. Even with his back turned to me, the sight of him sends an ache through my spine. Somehow, my body responds to being near the cause of its pain, and when Carlton Munday turns around to speak to one of the others, a spasm of fear catches me in the chest.
“Tell them we need more blood,” he says, his rattling voice sounding like metal being dragged across gravel. His eyes are still pools of black, but he looks cleaner and more put together than when he escaped with Mulberry only a day ago.
I don’t know why Tilly brought me here, or what she expected me to do when I got here, but the realisation that Ella must be somewhere in this building gives me a moment of relief. I could be in touching distance of her if I could just break away from my aunt.
As if in answer to my thoughts, Ella walks into the lab, with Mulberry and the Duke behind her and a lab assistant nudging her from behind. I freeze.
She’s really here. After two months of aching to see her face again, I could walk just a few steps and pull her into my arms.
Tilly’s hand releases my arm and clamps over my mouth before I can say anything, just as Ella shrugs off her cardigan and sits down on a stool. I scan her up and down. She looks tired and thin, her eyes slightly deeper set, and the clothes she wears are loose fitting, but otherwise she seems unhurt. I look for the telltale sign of a bump, some indication that our baby is still alive and growing. I try to swallow my disappointment when I don’t glimpse anything.
“I don’t need an entourage, you know,” she snaps to the people around her. Her voice is like actual music to my ears, even though she sounds irritable and weary.
“My dear, we are so close now, thanks to your help. We all just want to be here when the big moment happens,” the Duke coos, placing a hand on her shoulder, which she tries to shrug off.
“I told you I’d help you,” she says coldly. “I haven’t given you any trouble for weeks. I’ve done everything you’ve asked and didn’t even argue when you posted a guard outside my room,” she complains, rolling up the sleeve of her top. When Munday approaches her with a syringe, I stifle a growl.
“Promise me you’ll stay silent,” Tilly whispers almost inaudibly in my ear. I nod once, and the clammy hand on my mouth drops, moving back to my arm.
Munday takes a vial of blood from Ella’s arm, distributing it, drop by drop, into a tray of vials that an assistant is holding out for him.
“That’s it, Jonathan. Just a moment in the centrifuge, and it’s ready,” Munday croaks proudly.
“Enough for the city?” The Duke asks, his beady eyes shining as he looks at the lab.
“Enough to make a dent,” Munday concedes. To hear them talking as if they don’t hate each other’s guts is bizarre. Somehow, the desire to cause pain and destruction across the city has helped them to bury the hatchet, at least for now.
“Excellent. Find Tilly,” he says to Mulberry. “We’ll need her for the distribution.” Mulberry shoots a disgusted look at a leering Munday before storming out. “Perhaps my son would be willing to cooperate if we free him from his prison in exchange for his help in contacting the rest of the Magic Circle?” The Duke muses. Munday grins grotesquely but shakes his head.
“Unlike Ella here, Edward fails to see the bigger picture. Let’s face it, Jonathan: We’ve all ruined him beyond any hope. He’ll never understand the cause, and he’s too narrow minded to see sense.”
The Duke bristles and puffs his large chest out. “Don’t talk about my son like that,” he says coldly. Ah, there’s the bickering, spiteful Duke I know.
“Are we done here?” Ella says impatiently, causing the Duke to interrupt his heated glare at Munday with a superficial smile.
Wait. There. When she turns her body to the side, I see her hand slip down to her stomach, the smallest bump visible under her loose shirt. I try to calm my alr
eady hammering heart. I had told myself not to hope or to even think about it. Agnes told me as much, but now that I’m just feet away from both of them, I feel like I’m about to burst. Tilly’s grip on me tightens, and I force myself not to move.
“Yes, we are all finished, my dear. I’ll escort you back to your room,” the Duke says, gesturing to the door.
“No need.” She hops off the stool and turns to leave, but the Duke grabs her arm.
“I will escort you back to your room,” he repeats firmly. “Remember what I said I would do to Curtis if you showed an ounce of rebellion?”
Ella narrows her eyes at him and yanks her arm away. She laughs, a hollow, humourless sound. “And I told you I don’t care. Do what you like to him. Just leave me alone.”
I feel like the wind has been knocked out of my lungs. My vision begins to blur at the edges, and for a moment I think that the shock of hearing Ella speak like that is making me faint. Somewhere in the back of my mind, between the hurt of what I’ve just heard, I register Tilly placing her other hand back on my chest. We must be teleporting again.
I want to call out, to tell the stupid Duke, still staring after Ella, and disgusting Munday, smirking with his demonic black eyes, that I’m here to end them once and for all. The idea of pulling free from Tilly and running after Ella flits through my mind, but my body is already disappearing.
My final thought before everything fades is Ella’s laugh. Not the musical one that used to make me feel lightheaded when I told her a joke, but the cold, mirthless laugh that she gave the Duke at the mention of my name. She doesn’t love me anymore.
CHAPTER 14
How can someone so beautiful be so capable of breaking me? I’ve just lived one of my nightmares: finding out that Ella doesn’t feel the way I do about her. I didn’t think it was possible, not really. Angry tears form in the corners of my closed eyes.
Shattered by Magic Page 17
