Broken by Magic

by Rebecca Danese

  We’re on the sixth floor of a council estate block, and I’d take the stairs out of choice, but Marco insists on the lift.

  “Give me a break, mate. I can’t carry you down six flights, and this will be quicker. It smells, and there’s some pretty nasty graffiti inside, but you can probably cope with that,” he says, punching the button to call the lift.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” The sound of Gio’s voice coming up the stairs behind us puts me in a panic.

  Marco swears and turns to face his brother as the doors to the lift open.

  “I’m helping our friend Curtis here go see his girlfriend, Gio, how about you?”

  “You know that’s not part of the plan, little brother,” Gio says impatiently.

  “What? And keeping him hostage is? No thanks,” He retorts, bundling me into the lift.

  “What about Agnes’s vision?”

  “What about it? Just because she saw it doesn’t mean it’ll come true. Besides, Curtis wants to get Ella out of town, don’t you?” He turns to me, and I feel a little childish for letting him fight with his brother for me.

  “It’s true, Gio. I only want to get her away from all this mess. I have no intention of keeping her in London,” I say, willing him to believe me.

  “Just because you want to help her, Curtis, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do,” Gio says angrily. Then it hits me.

  “You’re jealous,” I say, finally figuring out why he’s been so keen to keep me out of the picture.

  “Jealous of you? A Normal?” Giovanni covers the distance between us in a few strides and holds the lift doors open. I try not to cower, but knowing that he’s able to incapacitate me with a touch is sending alarm bells through my brain.

  “You think that Ella is going to stay with you forever and maybe one day you’ll get married and have a family together? Really? Are you so dumb that you believe that Augurs and Normals can stay together?”

  I’ve never heard him so angry, and I worry that if he makes contact with me, I might be out for the count for even longer than before.

  “Easy now,” Marco says, holding one arm out to stop his brother coming any closer. “Gio, let’s not make a scene in front of our neighbours,” he says quietly, and I think I see the twitch of a curtain in one of the nearby windows.

  “Brother, I think you should keep out of this,” Gio replies.

  “No, bro. I think you should take a look and see that Agnes is manipulating you. She wants Curtis out of the picture, and she came to you because she knows how you feel about Ella.”

  Giovanni narrows his eyes and swears, punching the side of the lift with his fist in frustration. I’m just glad it isn’t my face. I think I’ve hit the mark on the jealousy thing, as I’ve never been able to get a rise out of him like that before. He hits it again, some kind of internal debate going on. He’s probably deciding whether to knock me out and try to keep me contained or to let me go, knowing I’d just try to escape anyway.

  “Come on, man, we’ve never been enemies,” I say placatingly. “How about we come to an agreement. If you come with us to Ella, you can show her what you saw yourself. If you show her Agnes’s vision, then maybe that will convince her to leave even more?”

  It’s actually a pretty good idea, as I don’t know if me relaying London going up in flames is enough to make her abandon ship. Nothing else has over the past three months. I look at him hopefully, willing him to consider it. It stinks in the lift, and I’d rather not hang around longer than I have to, but there’s no good being pushy. The doors try to close on us, and they protest when Gio holds them open, a loud beeping indicating that we need to get a move on.

  “Fine,” he eventually agrees, then steps into the steel carriage with us. The doors groan shut, and we descend slowly to street level.

  “We’d better take the car,” Marco adds, then hauls me round the building to a strip of garages. He leaves me standing, albeit wobbly on my feet, while he unlocks the grate and pulls it up by hand, revealing an old but loved Mini . We scramble in, and Marco drives, his phone acting as our map through the bustling but derelict-looking streets of east London.

  I sit back against the cool leather and breathe a quiet sigh of relief. Finally, and within the hour, I’ll be back with Ella.

  CHAPTER 7

  As we approach more familiar surroundings, driving through the outskirts of west London, the knot in my stomach tightens. I’m not sure if that’s from hunger or panic, but the sun has all but disappeared in the grey sky, and checking my phone, I see that it’s nearly 8 PM. I also notice that I’ve missed another call from Mum and curse myself for leaving my phone on silent. It’ll have to wait though, as Marco pulls up to a building that looks like it should belong to a celebrity.

  How Beryl has quite so much money, I’m still not sure, but right now I’m grateful that she has more than one London property at her disposal.

  As we park outside the opulent townhouse, it dawns on me that I’m going to have to face Ella and my friends, and after what I did, I’m almost having second thoughts. Ella sounded pleased on the phone, but Jer and I didn’t exactly part on the best terms, and Beryl isn’t going to welcome me with open arms after I effectively forced her out of her home.

  My legs are less shaky when I step out of the car, and I only need to put a hand on Marco’s shoulder for support as we walk up the short steps to the front door. Marble columns stand like sentinels on either side of a gloss painted front door, all black and brass, gleaming in the evening street lamps. Giovanni pushes the doorbell, and it rings deep within the house.

  The door opens, and warmth from within escapes onto the cold marble doorstep.

  “Glad you made it in one piece,” Mumbe says to us, giving the bruise on my cheek a cursory glance. “I was worried that Agnes’s other premonition might come true.”

  “Mumbe, it’s good to see you,” I say, stepping through the open door and barely thinking about what Agnes’s other vision might have been.

  “Gentlemen, I didn’t expect to find you in our company again,” he says to the Gregorio brothers. There’s a hint of emotion in his voice which I guess comes from the fact that both Marco and Gio up and left as soon as the Magic Circle attacked the restaurant.

  “Nice to see you too,” Marco replies sardonically, and follows me in. Giovanni hangs back for a minute and whispers something to Mumbe. One mind-meddler to another, I muse, thinking about Mumbe’s ability to make people hallucinate. The two aren’t that different, really.

  The patter of footsteps on the carpet is followed by the welcome sight of Ella stepping out of one of the side rooms.

  “Curtis!” She runs over and wraps her arms around me, and I take her in my own. A few hours apart was too much, I think as she runs her hands through my hair and kisses me hard. The feeling is exhilarating, and I’d keep it going if it weren’t for a loud throat clearing sound that comes from someone behind me. Probably Marco.

  “I’m fine,” I say, holding her tightly, my hands around her waist. She pulls back and examines my face at arm’s length, inspecting the bruise that I know is darkening on my right cheek.

  “You’re really okay?”

  “Yes,” I smile as she runs her thumb over my bruised face. The slap that hits the left side takes me by surprise.

  “Ow! Was that really necessary?” I ask as I rub the sting.

  “Yes. You kept secrets from me, and that’s not okay, so that was totally necessary,” she fumes.

  “I’m sorry, okay? I was stupid. I needed to get some answers, and I felt so useless that I did something terrible, and now I can’t undo it,” I babble. Her fury was what I was worried about, a concern that obviously wasn’t unfounded.

  “I know, but you need to tell me everything. How can I keep you safe if you’re running around having secret meetings with reporters and getting caught by the Magic Circle?”

  “Keep me safe? Ella, what about you? I’m supposed to be helping you, remember?�
�� We glare at each other for a moment, but I don’t really want a fight. Not right now, when I’ve been apart from her for so many hours. She senses it and shakes her head.

  “Let’s talk about this later, okay? You must be starving.”

  “Something we can agree on,” I say, shuffling behind her into the drawing room. Familiar faces surround me when I walk in, although not everyone is friendly. Jer gives me a light slap on the back, and I get a cursory hug from Beryl and Lou, but I can see that today has probably been a strain on them all.

  “Food first,” Ella announces before anyone can launch into questioning me, but their attention is pulled away as soon as Marco and Giovanni enter the spacious lounge.

  “What are you guys doing here?” Jer asks incredulously.

  “Babysitting this troublemaker,” Marco says before Gio can interject.

  “Not fair, he made it so that I had to be babysat in the first place,” I complain.

  “But you both just up and left without so much as a goodbye,” Jer insists.

  “We had our reasons,” Giovanni says quietly, and I don’t miss the look he gives Ella. I didn’t think I was the jealous type, but now I’m not so sure.

  “Before we discuss matters any further, can I be introduced to these newcomers?” Beryl interrupts, stepping forward. I introduce them to the lady of the house, and everything seems to be going fine until Beryl murmurs with shock when she shakes Giovanni’s hand. From the way she’s gone pale, I’m guessing she got a flash of something stuck in his head.

  “What exactly do you do, young man?” she asks him.

  He has the decency to look sheepish at the inadvertent vision he must have given her a glimpse of.

  “I can show people thoughts, transfer them, share mental image pictures, that sort of thing,” he says, glancing around the room as if looking for a sign to proceed. “Sorry, it wasn’t on purpose.”

  “It makes you feel like crap after anyway, so don’t get excited,” I say, trying to keep the room as light as possible.

  “Oh, I see,” Beryl says, withdrawing her hand from Gio quite quickly.

  David comes to the rescue with food, and I want to kiss him, I’m so grateful.

  “You’re the best, David,” I say, taking a plate with a pie on it from him.

  “I know.” He smiles and hands out food to the others.

  “So, fill us in, then,” Lou insists as we sit down on various surfaces to eat.

  “You first,” I say, not wanting to break down all my failures of the day in front of the whole room just yet.

  “You probably know most of it. After you and Jer left this morning, we were just pottering about, fixing things. Jer came back an hour later saying that he had a really bad feeling,” she says.

  “I felt Edward’s powers while I was walking back through town,” he explains. “I knew it was him the moment I felt it and that he had company with him too. There were at least two other Augur signatures in the area, so I ran all the way back to the manor to tell the others that there was trouble ahead.”

  “He’s got his girlfriend with him, who can control people with a touch, and a guy called Kai who could probably create a big enough earthquake to level a building if he wanted to,” I say, paling at the thought myself.

  “Jesus. That makes sense. Pretty much as soon as Jer came in all guns blazing, Agnes almost passed out with a vision. When she came to, she said that we had to leave immediately, and it took a lot of pressure to get her to tell us what was actually going on,” Lou adds. “She planned everything in her head before giving us a chance to argue, and we left in a panic, but Ella refused to budge.”

  “I didn’t want to leave you behind,” Ella says quietly.

  “She put up a total stink until Agnes spilled the beans, and Jer explained what you’d done,” Lou says, unsympathetically.

  “I’m really sorry, guys. I honestly just thought that Avers wanted to help me get to the bottom of who’s really messing with our lives. I thought that if I could expose the real culprit, then we’d be able to live in peace finally.” I grimace. “I didn’t expect to be set up and for Edward to be waiting for me there.”

  “You do realise that the reporter set you up, though, right?” Jer says.

  I think about it for a minute. Did Avers tell Edward where I was? After all his efforts to help?

  “Well, for some reason the Duke trusted him enough that he gave him data on FADE to put Munday behind bars. What do you make of that?” As I put my argument forward, something in the back of my mind clicks. I’ve never found out how Avers knows the Duke. How did that little arrangement even come about?

  Jer is right. I am too trusting. I don’t say anything, but I can see that I’m losing this battle.

  “I don’t believe it,” Lou says, slapping her hand on her knee. “You didn’t see that it was a total set up.”

  “I-I didn’t,” I hesitate. “Now I’m not so sure. Yeah, it could have been the two of them plotting together to trap me, but I don’t really understand why a Normal reporter would want to get involved in the Magic Circle anyway. He seemed more interested in exposing who was behind FADE—"

  “Curtis! How can you be so naive? He was playing you.” Jer’s voice rises, and again I see the angry streak I hadn’t known he had until today.

  “Hang on, I thought Munday was behind FADE?” David chimes in, and I’m grateful for the distraction. I didn’t tell them about that last document on the USB stick. It would have only rubbed everyone up the wrong way.

  “There was some paperwork to do with funding. Munday was running the Facility, but someone was paying him to do it. I think that they’d been trying to find Ella the whole time,” I explain. A ripple of murmurs reverberates around the room. I look at Ella sitting beside me, but she doesn’t meet my gaze, staring at her hands and staying tight lipped. I had mentioned it once, around Christmas time, but she hadn’t wanted to talk about it then, and it’s obvious she’s still reluctant.

  “I still think you should have just let it go,” Jer says, the wind taken out of his sails a bit now that everyone has learned of my shortcomings.

  “You’re right. I should have, Jer. I’m sorry I put you in an awkward position,” I say earnestly. He studies me for a moment and then nods, apology accepted for now.

  “So how did you end up bumping into the lads here?” Lou says, gesturing to Marco and Gio who have, until now, stayed quiet.

  “Agnes brought him to our club,” Gio says with a little annoyance.

  “It’s Augurs only, and she snuck me in,” I add quietly. Jer raises an amused eyebrow at me with a look that says, ‘you’re telling me about that later’.

  “She had a vision and needed our help, along with our cousin.”

  “Which one?” Mumbe, normally silent, asks.

  “Lorenzo.”

  David gives a low whistle, and Lou and Jer both seem to be surprised by that information.

  “What? Why is that so surprising?” I ask.

  “They used to have a thing,” David says. A thing? Agnes having a thing with anyone is hard for me to grasp, but I shut my mouth and try not to laugh.

  “So, it was bad enough that she went to Lorenzo. If you’re here you obviously know what she said,” says Lou.

  “She showed me her vision, and I don’t think anyone is going to like it,” Giovanni says sadly.

  “Come on then,” Lou is the first to volunteer and stands up.

  “No. I don’t want to do this repeatedly if I can help it. It doesn’t feel so great.” He pulls a face. If it made me feel like roadkill, then I have no idea what reaction he must get when he relives it over and over again. “I hoped Mumbe might be able to help.” He looks over at the African, who gives a single nod in reply.

  It’s a clever idea, and when Mumbe and David touch foreheads, the room goes silent, waiting to see what happens.

  I look at Ella, hoping her reaction will be to want to run away as soon as possible once she sees it, but she still won’
t look at me. I think I’m going to need more than a public apology to make it up to her by the looks of things.

  Mumbe gasps when the two of them break apart and stumbles for a moment.

  “How come he didn’t pass out like I did?” I ask.

  “Because he’s done it before,” Marco explains. I notice that he’s been almost silent since we arrived, like I remember him back at the restaurant. Maybe he doesn’t like big groups of people. Or maybe he lets his big brother do all the talking usually, which I suspect is the real answer.

  Mumbe takes each and every person in the room through the hallucination, other than Beryl who excuses herself.

  “That little preview from Giovanni was quite enough for me, thank you,” she says as she leaves the room. I follow her out of the drawing room and into the kitchen, feeling like I should apologise to her first.

  “Beryl!” I call after her as she walks into a capacious kitchen and puts the kettle on.

  “Curtis, dear. It’s good to have you back,” she smiles.

  “Thank you. It’s good to be back.”

  “Want me to fix that bruise of yours?” She nods at my face. I touch it gingerly and shake my head.

  “No thanks. It’ll serve as a reminder for me. I wanted to apologise to you personally. I feel like such an idiot for getting everyone tangled up in this mess, particularly you. You didn’t ask us to come and invade your life, and you’ve been so kind.”

  “Nonsense. It’s been nice having you all around,” she says politely.

  “Well, that may be, but I had you kicked out of your home. I just want you to know that I didn’t want for any of this to happen,” I say, sitting down on a stool at the marble island in the middle of the kitchen.

  “I know, dear. Not to worry, it’ll all work out in the end,” she says cheerily, giving me a little pat on the shoulder.