Joel wasn’t entirely sure what it was that Isla’s parents did that kept them so busy; it seemed to be ski trips and spa weekends. She usually left Blackheath for the holidays, so he presumed she went home to visit with them. Still, he didn’t know Isla well enough to surmise what sort of relationship she actually had with them.
“Isla, your mother has already been notified,” Ms Joy continued. “She and your father are currently out of the country, but they’ve given verbal permission for you to stay at The Continental Hotel in town. She’s wired payment for a week in advance.”
“Oh,” said Isla, glancing at Maggie. “Okay. Can Mags come too?”
“Not without permission.” Ms Joy turned to address Maggie now. “We’ve had some difficulty reaching your grandparents. Is there an alternate phone number for them?”
“No,” Maggie muttered. Joel could see her aura’s colour dim, turning cloudy grey beneath the faint gold light of Joel’s own protection spell. “They’re pretty old, so maybe they’ve croaked.”
Isla gasped. “Don’t say things like that!”
Maggie’s cheeks flushed. “Sorry, but I haven’t seen them since I was ten. That’s seven years ago. Come to think of it,” she mused, “I don’t remember if I got my seasonal phone call this year . . .”
Ms Joy held up her thin palm. “Rest assured, your grandparents are most definitely alive. The school contacts them termly for payment.”
Maggie’s eyebrow raised. “Oh, well, good. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”
“At any rate,” Ms Joy went on, “that is the situation as it stands. I’ll update you further when your grandparents get back to me.” With that, she gestured for them to return to the gym and began clip-clopping down the corridor.
Isla tugged anxiously on the end of her ponytail. “I don’t want to stay at The Continental.”
Joel’s brow creased. “Why not? It’s nice.” Actually, it was the best hotel in town. Something his own family could never have afforded.
“But it’s soulless,” Isla lamented with a sigh. “And if Mags can’t stay with me, I’ll be all on my own . . .”
“Maybe she can stay with you.” Joel glanced at Maggie, who was staring down at her PE trainers. “You heard what Ms Joy said. As soon as her grandparents call back . . .”
Isla snorted and folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah, right. Good one, Joel.”
Joel looked at Maggie again. Why wasn’t she saying anything? He wanted to put his arm around her, but he wasn’t sure if he should.
“Whatever,” Maggie muttered at last.
There was a remoteness in her voice, something Joel hadn’t heard from her in a long while. It was the tone he’d heard when she’d first moved to Blackheath—back when she was an audacious ten-year-old coming to terms with being dispatched like a return-to-sender parcel. That’s when Joel had first seen her, surrounded by a purple aura so bold he couldn’t help but stare. It was the colour of fear, which was in vast contradiction to the fearlessness she portrayed on the surface.
Or maybe it was a tone he recognised from his own voice, every time his parents jumped ship.
Either way, it was a sound of distress that he was intrinsically wired to respond to.
You can stay with me, he wanted to tell her.
“Maggie . . .” he began, swallowing.
“Anyway,” Maggie said brightly, cutting him off. “We should go back in there.” She thumbed towards the gym’s double doors, where the muffled sound of balls hitting the floor continued mercilessly. “We wouldn’t want to miss any more of Coach Crazy’s torture games.” She paused and her voice faltered for a split second. “Besides, Joyless said she’ll let me know when she hears from my grandparents.”
Isla’s shoulders relaxed and her glossy smile returned. “’K,” she said.
The girls made for the gym, but Joel hung back, lingering in the corridor.
As Isla ducked inside the double doors, Maggie stood hovering in the open doorway. She glanced back at Joel. Her dark blonde hair was tied into a ponytail that sat askew on the crown of her head.
She looked at him curiously. “What are you waiting for?”
More than ever, Joel wanted to say something—something about how great she was, or about how much he liked her. But the words seemed to get lost inside his mind. He felt his heart rate quicken. “Maggie,” he managed. “I . . . uh . . .” His mouth went dry.
Damn, he thought, frustrated. What am I trying to say?
She smiled, her jade eyes teasing. “Joel,” she said. “Come on.”
He smiled back and followed her into the gym.
SINCE SO FEW people had made it into school that Thursday, the last lesson was an abnormally quiet Study Hall in Mr Fitzpatrick’s room. As the end of the day neared, Ms Joy appeared in the doorway.
Here comes the Grim Reaper, Maggie thought sourly from her seat in the back of the classroom.
Mr Fitzpatrick looked up from his paperwork, his thinning auburn hair stuck flat to his head. His eyes became nervous at the sight of Ms Joy.
“Maggie Ellmes,” Joyless beckoned.
Maggie put down her pen and closed the notebook she was doodling in. Then, wearily, she rose to her feet and trudged across the room. Joel glanced up as she passed his desk. His violet eyes tried to convey something to her—something she couldn’t quite decipher.
When Maggie reached the front of the classroom, Ms Joy ushered her into the corridor and closed the door behind them. They were alone now, isolated in the abandoned passageway.
“I’ve been unable to reach your guardians,” Joyless began, her wire-rimmed spectacles balanced low on her nose. Her expression was hard and tense, making Maggie wonder if Joyless was more irritated with her than with her grandparents’ illusiveness. “All of the other thirty-three live-in students have been accounted for, so it’s only you left.”
“Okay,” Maggie replied slowly. “So . . . do I just stay at the boarding house on my own?”
“Absolutely not,” said Ms Joy tightly. “All the water and gas has been turned off. It would be uninhabitable.” She paused and pressed her lips together. “I suppose you’ll have to stay under my care until we can reach your family.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. From the look on Joyless’s face, she wasn’t exactly thrilled about the prospect, either.
“You mean, stay with you?” Maggie wrinkled her nose. “Like roomies?”
Joyless looked down her nose at Maggie. “You may board with me,” she corrected.
“Maybe I could try calling them,” Maggie said, grasping at the straws. “Just in case. Maybe they’re screening or something.” She quickly withdrew her phone from her pocket and made a half-hearted attempt to walk a few paces away in search of a shred of privacy in the hollow corridor. What’s the point? she thought wryly, glancing at the teacher. Joyless knows all my business and then some.
Promptly, she scrolled through her phone’s Contacts list and selected her grandparents’ number. She pressed the call button and brought the phone to her ear. It rang, and rang, and rang . . .
There was a click on the other end of the line and then the pre-recorded message began.
“Hellooo,” came an eloquent and mature female voice. “You have reached the home of Edwina and Edmond. Do leave us a message and we will get back to you in due course. With thanks, Mrs Edwina Ellmes.”
There was a beep and Maggie cleared her throat. “Um, hi. Hello, Edwina. This is Maggie. Um, Margaret, I mean.” Maggie winced. No one called her Margaret apart from her mother and grandparents. “Margaret Ellmes,” she clarified. “Estelle’s illegitimate daughter.”
Feeling desperate, Maggie glanced over at Joyless, who was feigning interest in a wall display a few steps away.
“I’m sure you’ve already heard,” Maggie continued, “but there’s some kind of pipe-related problem at the boarding house and they need to make alternative living arrangements for us. I guess they want me to come stay with you or something.
So if you could maybe call me back—”
The machine beeped. “Your message has been recorded,” it said.
“Okay, thanks. Bye,” Maggie replied to the machine.
She raised her voice to address Joyless. “I left a message, but . . .” She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders.
“Hopefully they will get back to me before the end of the day.” Joyless adjusted her spectacles. “Back to class now,” she instructed. “And send out Mr Fitzpatrick. I’ll need to explain your situation to him.”
Numbly, Maggie returned to the classroom. Charlie was dozing on his desktop; Sleazy Dale and The Clones were listening intently to Lexi as she regaled tales of the frat party; Isla, Blonde Lauren, and Hilary were occupying their usual row at the back of the classroom, showing various states of interest in their assignments; and FitzP was absorbed in a stack of paperwork. Only Joel looked up upon her return.
Maggie flashed him a dull smile before walking over to the teacher. “Sir,” she said loudly, thumbing towards the door. “Ms Joy wants to talk to you.”
Mr Fitzpatrick sat bolt upright and his fingers tightened around his coffee cup. “Right,” he said, swallowing. After a few seconds of sitting there motionless, he stood up and strode rigidly out of the classroom.
Maggie started towards her seat, but Joel stopped her as she passed his desk.
“What happened?” he asked.
“They decided that I . . .” Maggie began, then lowered her voice. “That I have to stay with Joyless.”
Suddenly everyone’s attention seemed to be on Maggie.
“No!” Isla gasped in horror, waking Charlie from his nap.
The sound of stifled laughter came from where Lexi and The Clones were sitting.
“You have to live with Ms Joy?” Lexi squealed, flipping her long red hair. “That’s so sad!”
Maggie scowled and folded her arms across her chest.
“I’m so glad my parents would never allow that to happen to me,” Lexi breathed. She touched her pink manicured fingernails to her heart and batted her false eyelashes in false sympathy.
Maggie cringed inside. “I’m sure my parents won’t let that happen, either. To me, I mean,” she floundered, hearing the lie prickle in her voice.
The Clones sniggered behind their iPhones.
“Stay with me,” Joel said abruptly.
The classroom fell silent.
Maggie stared at him, speechless for a moment. “What?”
“What?” Lexi repeated in alarm.
“Stay at my house,” Joel said, threading his fingers together on his desk and leaning in towards Maggie. “If you want to.”
A hush fell over the classroom again as everyone waited with bated breath to hear what Maggie would say.
“She can’t stay with you,” Lexi interrupted from across the room. “She’s staying with Ms Joy.”
“I’ll sort that out,” Joel told Maggie, looking up at her from his seat. “Stay with me.”
Maggie bit her lower lip. “But . . . what about your brothers? Wouldn’t you need to ask them first?” She lowered her voice even further. “And Cheer-Demon is right, Joyless would never allow it.”
“Like I said, I’ll sort it,” replied Joel.
Before Maggie could say anything else, he stood up from his desk and slipped passed her.
By the time he reached the door, Isla had jumped to her feet.
“Joel!” she called excitedly. “Can you ask about me, too?” She clasped her hands together pleadingly. “I really don’t want to stay at The Continental on my own.” She fluttered her long, dark eyelashes at him. “Please?”
“No!” Lexi wailed. “Isla, just stay at the hotel like you’re supposed to.” Her expression hardened and she fixed her most seductive stare on Joel. “I know you feel sorry for them, Joel, but you don’t owe them anything. Ms Joy has already made arrangements.”
Joel scratched his head. “But . . . uh . . .”
“Please,” Isla begged, squeezing her hands together even tighter and then tugging them into her chest. “I want to stay at The Witch House.” Maggie glared at her, and she hastily reworded. “I mean, at your house. With Mags. And you, obviously.” She let out a nervous laugh.
Joel pursed his lips. “Okay,” he said uncertainly.
Maggie noticed Lexi’s hands ball into fists on top of her desk.
“Awesome!” Isla cheered. “You’re the best, Joel!”
He frowned and moved toward the door again.
“J-Dog!” Charlie yelled, his voice still bleary from his afternoon nap. “I got an idea!” He slapped his hand to his buzz cut. “Oh man, this must have, like, come to me in a dream or something . . .” He stood up, punching his knuckles together as he held the attention of the class. “We gotta have a party.”
A hum of chatter began to creep through the room, and Lexi seemed to brighten at the prospect.
Charlie was nodding enthusiastically at his own pronouncement. “Party.” He pointed both index fingers at Joel. “Your place. Tomorrow night. Everyone’s invited.”
“What?” Joel half-laughed. “No way! My place isn’t party proof.”
“So?” Charlie exclaimed.
“So, no,” Joel said simply.
Charlie let out a distressed breath. “Your place is the place, J-Dog!”
Joel blinked at him.
“Please. Hear me out,” Charlie begged, holding up his palms. “Just hear me out, okay?”
Joel gestured for him to continue. “Fine. I’m listening.”
There was a pause. “Well, I kind of said it already.”
“Oh,” Joel replied. “No, then.”
“Tomlins!” Charlie wailed. “Listen. You’re just not seeing the vision. Maybe I’m not telling it right.” He glanced around the classroom for backup. “Picture this,” he began, spreading his arms out before him. “Me, you, Ev-o, a couple of the guys and a couple of the ladies . . . Just everyone in this room and their nearest and dearest. Not even a party. Just a thing.” He shrugged his meaty shoulders. “No big thing.”
Joel let out a puff of air. “Can we just deal with one crazy idea at a time, please? I gotta go talk to Joy.”
“Party, though?” Charlie urged eagerly. “Yes? No? Maybe?”
Before Joel could say anything else, the classroom door opened and Mr FitzP reappeared, looking entirely frazzled.
“Maybe,” answered Joel as he ducked through the open door into the hallway.
“Yes!” Charlie hooted, punching his arm in the air triumphantly. “That’s a definite yes!”
JOEL PACED ALONG the corridor towards the school’s front office. He could see Ms Joy behind the office’s hatch window; her eyes were cast downwards and her tight bun was fastened at the crown of her head.
Joel ran a hand through his own hair, smoothing out some of the wayward strands. A rush of nervous energy fluttered in his stomach.
Mind control, he thought. I need to control my own mind before I try controlling hers. He drew in a deep breath.
He’d never done anything like it before, but he knew he could do it. It was there inside of him, just waiting to be used. Maximus had done it. Evan had, too. And Joel’s powers were getting stronger all the time—or, at the very least, he was beginning to understand their strengths and limitations better.
Taking another steady breath as he reached the office’s hatch window, he quietened his mind. His gaze bore into Ms Joy’s narrow eyes, seeking the path beyond them. Seeing beyond. That was how it was described in Maximus’s spell book, anyway.
He held her focus and looked deeper until he spotted something that was almost within his reach. And then, he spoke.
“Hello, Ms Joy,” he said in one breath. The words sounded tinny in his ears.
“Hello, Joel,” she replied robotically.
She was hooked, he realised. The hold on her was instant, like a clamp locking down on her very being. Joel’s hands began to tremble as the power built inside of him, tingling just
beneath his skin. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold such a forceful spell for; he already felt dizzy with its intensity. “Maggie will be staying with me,” he murmured. He spoke quickly, fluidly, never breaking his stare. “At my house. My father is home and he will take care of her. And you’re fine with it.”
She stared back at him, not saying anything.
Come on, Joel willed. The pressure in his veins began to build. He pressed his fingers into his palms, determined to hold onto the enchantment.
“Agree with me,” Joel told her. “Agree that Maggie will stay with me and my family. And Isla will stay with us, too,” he added, somewhat reluctantly. One human in a witch house was shady enough, but two was asking for trouble.
Ms Joy blinked back at him silently, her eyes never leaving his gaze.
“Do you understand me?”
Finally Ms Joy answered him. “Yes,” she said, her dark eyes glazed.
“Say that it’s fine,” Joel encouraged. “And believe it.”
“It’s fine,” she echoed.
For a second, he was taken aback. It had actually worked.
He released his hold and shivered as he felt himself almost slither from the place inside her mind where he had been. At once, the connection fractured. Only a slight ringing in his ears remained.
“Okay, thanks, Ms Joy,” he said quickly. She took off her glasses and blinked at him.
“See ya,” he added before turning away from the hatch window and jogging back down the corridor. All he could do now was hope he got Maggie and Isla out of school before the teacher came to her senses.
He flung open the door to Mr Fitzpatrick’s classroom just as the final bell sounded.
“Come on,” he said as he gestured to Maggie and Isla. “Let’s go. Now.”
Without missing a beat, they bundled their books together and took off after Joel.
“Go get what you need from the boarding house,” Joel told them as they paced swiftly along the hallway. “Ms Joy said you can stay at my place, but she thinks my dad is going to be there.”
Blackheath Resurrection (The Blackheath Witches Book 2) Page 4
