Broken by Magic

by Rebecca Danese

  “I may be able to help with that,” Tilly says, coming back with a full pot of tea. I don’t think Lou appreciates being eavesdropped on, but she doesn’t voice her complaints.

  “Before he was a politician, Carlton was a man of science. He experimented on finding ways to improve and increase his abilities, and therefore make himself stronger.”

  “Is that why he ran a facility that nearly killed the lot of us?” Lou snaps. I wondered when that subject might surface, and the tension in the air is thick. I can hear Tilly’s breathing near me, and I imagine her trying to compose herself to give an answer.

  “Yes. I think ultimately that was his idea. I believe he had… other reasons for doing what he did, although originally his heart may have been in the right place. He was very clever, some would say too clever. His mind twisted everything, even the most innocent of requests could be warped into evil plots and plans, to the point where I was sure he’d go mad with paranoia.

  “I recall a story that Jonathan told me many years ago, from when they were younger. Carlton had been given a cat by his parents one Christmas, which had soon become almost a sidekick to him. He trained it to watch people, and Jonathan swore that it used to watch him when Carlton was out while they were at school.”

  I shiver at the thought. It reminds me alarmingly of the cat that seemed to be watching me, and now my parents, since I started going out with Ella.

  “It’s dead though now, right?” I ask suddenly.

  “Of course, Curtis. Carlton was distraught when he died, so he had it stuffed and used to keep it in their room at college.”

  “Gross,” Marco says.

  “Anyway, the point is that it didn’t matter what it was, he would find a way to use it to his advantage. Take this plan, for instance. I know that Carlton was working on Augur-enhancing substances and that he had some success before he went mad. I wonder sometimes if the reason he went off the handle was because he took too much of his own medicine…” she trails off.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute. Air!” I say, clicking my fingers at them all.

  “What?”

  “Are you feeling alright, mate?” my friends ask me as I reach into my jacket pocket and fish out the tiny vial.

  “Air! The street drug that people are using in your cousin’s club, Marco,” I thrust the vial at him and he physically recoils.

  “Air is banned, mate. There’s none of it in Enzo’s club because everyone is searched before they can come in,” he says defensively.

  “But a guy at the bar gave me this. When he thought I was an Augur, I mean,” I try to explain. The tiny vial is taken from me by invisible fingers, and Tilly holds it up to the light.

  “Interesting,” she mutters. The liquid almost sparkles when light is shone through it.

  “What are the chances that someone, who should have been searched before coming into the club, found the only Normal in the whole place and gave him one of these Air vials?” Jer asks.

  “I want to say pretty slim, but there’s no way anyone would have known that I was going to be in there, so it must just be a coincidence.”

  “This explains a lot,” Tilly says, handing the vial back to me. “Carlton must have reached some kind of breakthrough and distributed the drug long before he was locked up. Him flying off the handle suddenly makes sense to me now.”

  “In what way?” Ella ventures. She’s been quiet for so long that I’m startled to find her looking pale and tired. I take her hands in mine and notice that they are unusually cold.

  “Air, or any of these Augur Enhancing Drugs, boosts people’s abilities for a time, but they also make them erratic, removed from reality. Like all drugs really, even the types that Normals make. Your perceptions are all skewed, and you act odd or irrationally, thinking that you are doing one thing but usually doing something completely different.”

  “Like having hallucinations?”

  “Certainly. Combined with heightened power, more strength and probably some warped idea of grandeur, people become dangerous when addicted to Air. I can only hope that Edward isn’t taking it himself already, but Carlton was more than willing to put members of the Magic Circle on it when he was running them.”

  “This is bad, Curtis. A bunch of drugged-up Augurs who are all stronger than us and hell-bent on razing London to the ground is more than the five of us can handle, even with Ella at her best,” Marco says, gesturing around the table.

  “Six,” says Tilly defiantly, “I’m not going to sit by while you take on Edward. I can be of use to you all.”

  I look between Jer, Lou and Marco, trying to guess what their opinions are on that. “But, Tilly, he’s your son,” I say.

  “And so, he’s my responsibility. I’m certain that if I were to keep him away from Cassie for long enough, her influence would wear off, and he’d see that this plan is insane, but I’m not going to get a chance without you. He’ll be too protected, and I’ll be snatched up or detected before I get a chance to teleport him away from her.”

  I nod along with her. It would make sense to grab Edward and for his own mother take him away. She probably wouldn’t have a problem teleporting him around the country until Cassie’s influence wore off and he came to his senses.

  “You’re sure that Cassie is the reason that he’s doing this? You don’t think that somehow Munday converted him to the cause properly and made him think that an Augur-only city was the right thing?”

  “Think about when he came to your house, Curtis. When he came to warn Ella about not trusting anyone. Did he seem like the type of person that wanted to use Ella to destroy the whole of London?”

  I think back to that morning when he shut the power off in our street just to confirm that it was really her. He didn’t like me then either, but he didn’t seem like a power-crazy lunatic that would want to take over the Magic Circle. He seemed like an abandoned twenty-something child, lost. I think about how he might’ve felt with a mother he couldn’t see, a father he couldn’t trust and a girlfriend that had just left him.

  “No, he didn’t.” I shake my head. I don’t know why I’ve ended up being the spokesperson for our group, but somehow I have. “I’m on board. I’m not going to speak for everyone else, but if we can find a way to get to Edward and for you to take him out of Cassie’s way, then we may have done everything we need to stop everything going to hell. Literally.”

  Marco nods, as do Lou and Jer. Ella says nothing, but nods in agreement. I give her a concerned look, but she shakes her head gently as if to say, ‘not now,’ so I let it lie.

  “All this talking must have made you exhausted after everything that has happened today,” Tilly says to Ella. “Let me get some proper rooms set up for you all, and we can talk more in the morning. It’ll take at least a day for the Circle to find us all the way up here, possibly more.”

  “Where exactly are we, by the way?” Marco asks.

  “The Lake District. About seven miles from Windermere.”

  “Wow.” The distance we travelled in such a short space of time impresses me, and now I understand why we all felt so tired when we came round earlier.

  “Enough questions now,” says Tilly firmly. “It’s time to rest. Tomorrow will be a big day.”

  CHAPTER 13

  “Curtis,” Ella says, waking me from a light sleep. “Are you awake?”

  “Am now,” I murmur and turn towards her. It’s too dark to see her face, but when I rest a hand on her cheek, it’s damp with tears. “What’s the matter?” I ask with surprise, pulling her towards me.

  “Curtis, I keep seeing it. Agnes’s vision,” she says, her voice sounding weak. “Every time I close my eyes, I see you dying, again and again.”

  “Sshh, I’ll be fine. Ella, we’re going to get through this,” I reassure her, running my hands through her hair and kissing her softly. She takes a shaky breath and presses her head to my chest.

  “It’s my fault, you know,” she murmurs.

  “What is?”
>
  “You being involved in this. Munday breaking your spine. Us being here. It’s all my fault.” She chokes out another sob, and I try to calm her by holding her tightly.

  “It’s not your fault, Ella. I knew what I signed on for when I told you I knew about you being an Augur. Don’t ever think that you’re the reason for any of this. I don’t believe that, and neither should you.”

  “But if you hadn’t—“

  “If I hadn’t asked you out,” I interrupt, “if I hadn’t shown up that night, or if I hadn’t confessed what I’d seen to you, I’d be the same bored loser I was three months ago. I’d be just as friendless, still avoiding my family, and I wouldn’t have the one thing that means more to me in the whole world. That’s you, by the way.” I smile, realising she probably can’t see me in the dark.

  “Who knew you could be such a romantic?” she replies, and I imagine she’s smiling too.

  “If I could make you smile every day for the rest of your life, my job would be done,” I say, kissing the top of her head.

  “Okay, that was a bit much.” She giggles, wiping her eyes. She’s silent for a moment, and I close my eyes but snap them open again when I hear her sigh.

  “What’s up?” I ask, forgetting the idea of sleeping for now.

  “Do you think we’re doing the right thing? Running straight back to London and trying to stop Edward, I mean?”

  I turn to look at the ceiling, but out here in the countryside it’s pitch black, so I only end up looking at another patch of darkness.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. Part of me feels like it’s too risky. The other wants to stop running and see it through.”

  “Maybe we can rip the plaster off, you know? All this indecision is driving us insane, and having one solid course of action will probably put all of our minds at rest.”

  “Even if it’s the wrong thing?” she adds quietly.

  “Honestly, I don’t know if it’s the wrong thing. I don’t really know which way is up any more. Between leaving Mum and Dad, getting involved with Avers, and making us all go back to London before we were ready, I don’t know if anything I’ve done is right. The one thing that I hold onto is the thought that whatever I do, I have to be with you.”

  She runs her hand over my face and down my neck to my chest, which is surprisingly comforting.

  “Agnes used to say that it was like we were walking down a long, dark tunnel with a broken torch, which would come on occasionally and show us what was at the end, but every so often whatever was at the end would change. I guess she was describing her visions and how clueless we really all are.”

  “That’s quite an analogy. It’s a shame she didn’t tell you anything else useful before we were split up. Agnes obviously saw what she saw, but if she’d known about my dad and the hospital, I think she would have said something.”

  “Her visions are weird like that. She’s followed them religiously ever since our parents died, but I usually end up disagreeing with her in one way or another. I wonder if she’s seen anything about Tilly.” She moves her head to rest on my shoulder.

  “Well, I don’t know what she could have actually ‘seen’, but I realise we’re going to have to reunite with her at some point. I can’t imagine she’s gotten far with her plans to get Enzo and Gio to build up support against the Circle.”

  “You’d be amazed at how resourceful she can be. I just hope she’s okay,” Ella says sadly. We’ve probably not been away from her sister for this long in months, and I’m sure she misses her.

  “Maybe Marco can get in touch with Gino, give us an update?”

  “That would be good,” she agrees.

  I watch the blackness slowly turn into a weak grey and figure the sun must be trying to come up, although it makes a feeble attempt at first. I think that Ella has fallen back to sleep until I feel her hands slide under my shirt and across my stomach. I cup her face in my hands and kiss her, first on her lips and then on her neck, which makes her give a satisfying gasp. She slides on top of me and I give her a quizzical look. Now probably isn’t the right time for this, but she seems to read my expression, a smile spreading across her face in the dawn light.

  “If not now, when?” she whispers, leaning towards my ear, her warm breath sending a pleasant shiver through me.

  “I can’t argue with that logic.” I grin and pull her back down towards me and allow myself to block out everything else except her.

  *

  “Morning!” Says Marco cheerily as we enter the kitchen, which is warm with the smells of toast and coffee.

  “Sleep well, did you?” I ask, noticing how refreshed he looks.

  “Oh yeah. Those four poster beds and feather pillows, man,” he replies enthusiastically. I grin to myself at the uses that Ella and I put ours to but say nothing.

  “Tilly around?”

  “I’m right here,” she replies, scooting a plate of toast across the counter so that it stops in front of me.

  “Well, good morning. Thanks.” I take it over to the table and sit down just as Lou and Jer come in.

  “Crikey, it’s quiet here at night, isn’t it?” Jer says, gratefully taking a cup of coffee from Tilly.

  “Not like London. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face last night. It’s weird,” says Lou.

  “You get used to it,” Tilly replies, setting down coffee in front of me. “Any thoughts as to how we’re going to play this out?” she asks. I’m not sure if the question is directed at me or the room in general, but Ella answers.

  “We’re going back to London, if you can take us. We’ll go to the busiest part of town we possibly can. Oxford Street or something. Practically announce where we are. That will lure Edward out, I’m sure. Then, just as we get there, Tilly will grab him, teleport him out of there and hopefully be able to hole him up here until Cassie’s juju wears off him.” She leans back with her cup and sips it with satisfaction.

  “Hang on,” I say, shocked at the change in her view since just an hour ago. “First of all, if we stood in the middle of Piccadilly or something, we could end up potentially harming hundreds of people, particularly if Kai is there.

  “Secondly, we don’t even know if Edward is actually with Cassie at the moment. He wasn’t at the hospital,” I protest. I don’t understand the logic behind her complete change of tune, but the phrase ‘ripping the plaster off’ comes to mind.

  “He’s got a point, Ella,” Lou says, taking my side for once.

  “Well, what’s your big idea? Every day that we don’t take action, we’re going to wind up with the Circle hurting people just to find us. Think about all those brainwashed Normals in A&E that had been tasked with finding me.”

  “I think we have two courses of action,” Lou says, unflinching at Ella’s agitation. “Other than your crazy plan, I say we find the Duke. Before you jump down my throat, Curtis,” she says as I prepare to do just that, “apart from Edward’s own mother who we already have on our side, if we can get the resources and help from the Duke, we’ll be half way there. I bet if we told him about Munday’s Air idea, he’d know how we could destroy it, for starters.”

  “I don’t know that that’s any less risky than standing in Piccadilly Circus with a neon sign saying, ‘Magic Circle, we’re over here,’” Marco says.

  “What’s your bright idea then?” Lou asks him, frowning.

  “Well, as much as I know Curtis isn’t going to like this idea either, I think we should go back to the club. We’ll have the support of hundreds of Augurs right there, plus my cousin and brother, who aren’t to be messed with, and hopefully you’ll be reunited with your sister,” he adds, nodding to Ella.

  I don’t like that much more than seeing the Duke, if I’m honest, but I keep my mouth shut. If Ella is back in the presence of Agnes, then she might not worry so much. Or Agnes might try to have me kidnapped again and taken away from her. It’s 50-50 at best as to what she’ll do when she sees me.

  “That’s all very well, Marco,
but how do we know we can trust all of the people there?” Jer asks.

  “Enzo would only pick Augurs that he can completely rely on. He runs an Augur club for Gods sakes. People listen to him, and as Agnes pointed out, if things go tits up, he can manipulate water and put out any fires that Edward might throw at us. Literally.”

  “I like that idea,” says Ella, chomping on a piece of lukewarm toast, as if we were talking about going to the park or the seaside and not risking our lives by going back to London.

  “Is there an option four?” I ask hopefully.

  A loud chiming sound that reverberates through the house takes me moment to place before I realise it’s an extremely noisy doorbell.

  “Who could that be? I never have visitors,” Tilly says, making me jump as I forgot she was there.

  “Want me to get it?” I offer.

  “Just a moment,” she says. There’s a moment’s pause before she speaks again, sounding a little breathless. “It’s a man and woman. She looks to be in charge as she was just fishing out a badge from her coat pocket. All looks rather official.”

  I realise that she must have teleported outside and back in within a few seconds just as the bell chimes again.

  “Curtis, come with me. People usually don’t take kindly to having the door opened by someone invisible,” she says, and I lead the way into the front hall. She directs me as to what locks to undo and tells me to leave the chain on so that I can peer through the gap before committing to opening the door fully. What I see both shocks and surprises me. Standing expectantly on the doorstep is a tired but ever-businesslike Miss Banks of the Anti-Terror Unit, with her henchman Steve just a few feet behind her.

  “Morning, Curtis. I hope I didn’t wake you?” she says politely, although the way she fidgets with her badge, I get the sense that she’s more agitated than she looks.

  “Miss Banks!” I say as loudly as I can in the hopes that everyone in the kitchen is eavesdropping. “This is unexpected.” I look around in the hopes that Tilly will give me a sign that it’s okay to let her in and get a gentle nudge on my elbow in reply.