by Fiona Horne
‘How dare you!
’ The sky opened over our heads with a roar of thunder, and crackling shards of lightning spiked down, striking the sand behind Matt, Cassidy and Bryce. The waves grew to a crashing, hulking swarm that encroached menacingly up the beach, the spray from each thunderous thing lashing our skin in salty anger.
Yes, I was pissed off, and nature was on my side.
Cassidy went from giggling to screaming in terror, and Matt grabbed her as Bryce called out something to me. I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise of the waves and the thunder and the lightning.
I squeezed the pouch again, hard, crunching the herbs and crystals in my fist.
‘Damn you all14
’ I threw my head back, thrusting my arms into the turbulent skies. At my command, the heavens split and a torrent of water poured down on us.
The fire was extinguished with barely a hiss, and we were all thrown into darkness.
‘Vania, where are you? Are you okay?’
I could hear Bryce’s voice in the distance, but I wasn’t about to answer him.
I turned and ran into the black night.
Thirteen
‘It’s such a shame the weather turned the way it did,’ my mother said as she looked out over the rain-soaked countryside. The huge patio of the Big Yellow House was covered in leaves and debris, signs of the mighty storm from the night before, so we were sitting inside by the window.
I played with the silver star at my throat, but Bryce wasn’t there to see that I was still wearing it, even after what had happened last night. I didn’t care what had happened to Bryce or to Cassidy and Matt after I’d left them – and I definitely wasn’t giving Bryce the necklace back, either.
‘Vania, your mother and I have given it a lot of thought and decided this would be the best present for you.’ My father handed me a slim envelope.
I opened it, expecting to find a cheque for my college fund or something just as practical. Instead, it contained a single piece of paper.
‘Learn to dive with PADI,’ it said.
My heart leapt.
‘We are going to pay for you to learn to scuba dive,’ my mother said proudly.
‘This is awesome! Thank you!’ I leapt up and hugged my parents, last night temporarily forgotten. I pictured swimming in the sea, at one with the dolphins and the . . .
‘Sharks, we are worried about sharks, though,’ my mother said, as though reading my mind. ‘Apparently there are great whites breeding off the coast of Summerland.’
‘Mum, it’s natural for sharks to breed off the coast, and trust me, sharks are not the most dangerous thing in my world.’ I turned my head away as I said this, to hide the smile on my face. If only my parents knew I was casting spells, conjuring storms and having séances with witches and ghosts.
I felt a twinge of guilt about my secret life. My parents were trying to make me happy, and I was hiding things from them. But then again, if they weren’t so overprotective I wouldn’t have to hide things from them.
Or maybe I was being too negative. They had just bought me a scuba diving course and now we were out for a nice brunch for my birthday weekend. I think I was just still a bit rattled from last night. I was excited, too. I had felt immense power when I’d summoned the storm, and it had proved to me again that emotion was what really drove a spell or magical intention. How much I felt, how much I cared, was more important than which herbs or flowers or candles or even other people were involved.
I looked at my parents, who were happily tucking in to their huge plates of eggs Benedict. Mum hadn’t had to tell Dad her order, he’d already known exactly what she wanted. It must be a special feeling to be so connected to another person that you could anticipate their every desire.
I thought Bryce’s desire had been to be with me last night. Except I remembered Bryce’s action, or lack of. He had made no effort to get Cassidy off him. In fact he’d seemed to welcome her flopping all over him. He and Matt had laughed about it. And once again the awful and overwhelming feeling that I’d been made a fool of engulfed me and the feeling of rage crept up again.
The waiter stood in front of me. ‘More iced tea, miss?’ he asked, and at the distraction the rage subsided.
‘Sure.’ I pushed my glass towards him.
‘How are your eggs, honey?’ my mother asked.
I remembered that I was supposed to be enjoying myself. ‘Fantastic, thank you.’ I made my face smile. ‘How are yours?’
‘Lovely, thank you.’
I managed to relax a little . . . until I went to the bathroom. As I stood at the sink washing my hands, the flowered wallpaper suddenly came alive. The green vines started twisting and twirling around each other, and the pink-and-white flowers started opening and closing. I was wondering if the waiter had put something in my iced tea when the three witches from the séance appeared in the mirror, screeching and cackling.
‘Beware! Danger is close at hand
One, two, three, rhymes with tree
Four, five, sparrow, rhymes with narrow.’
‘Go away!’ I cried and thrust my hands towards the mirror to get rid of them. When I touched the surface it rippled like water. Then, as quickly as it had begun, everything was normal again. I was completely alone.
Brenda had said the incense we’d used in the séance would stop the spirits and ghosts we conjured up from haunting us later, but it seemed like a portal had been opened. I was in a haunted restaurant, after all. And it sounded like another riddle that the witches had garbled at me – as if what they’d said during the séance last night hadn’t been confusing enough. Danger was close at hand, according to them. I had known about some elusive impending danger since the twins’ mother had read my tea-leaves. Were the witches talking about my chemistry teacher? Were they talking about the woman of Queen’s Cross mystery? Were they talking about me slipping in the mud after all the rain I’d conjured up?
I returned to my seat ashen-faced.
‘Vania! You’re not coming down with anything, are you?’ My mother brushed my hair out of my eyes, concerned.
‘No, Mum, I’m just really full – and ready to go home and relax,’ I said, smiling weakly.
When our car pulled up to our house there was a visitor waiting.
My mother turned to me. ‘Who is this?’
‘Umm, it’s Bryce.’
My mother leapt out of the car to greet him, but I wasn’t in such a hurry.
‘Bryce! What a pleasure to finally meet you in person – Vania speaks so highly of you.’ My mother turned to me, smilingly enthusiastically, but when she saw the dark look on my face she quickly looked away and gestured to my father instead.
‘Keith, this is Vania’s friend Bryce.’
My father grunted and nodded, extending his hand for Bryce to shake.
‘Nice to finally meet you, Mr and Mrs Thorn,’ said Bryce. He looked over at me standing by the car. ‘Umm, I was hoping Vania would let me take her for a walk along the cliffs.’
‘You can walk off that big breakfast, darling.’ My mother smiled and nodded at me with a knowing look in her eyes.
‘Sure.’ I shrugged and kicked at the ground, scuffing the toes of my Doc Martens, my fists clenching and unclenching in my pockets.
‘I freaked out when you ran away like that last night, Vania,’ Bryce said as soon as we were out of earshot.
‘Well, what was I supposed to do?’ I said. ‘Stand around in the rain watching you make out with Cassidy? Gross.’
‘Look, I tried to get her off, but she was all over me. She’s a loser getting that wasted. And if you remember correctly, I had suggested that we leave.’
He had said that – before he made out with her.
‘And then you conjured up that storm,’ he continued, shaking his head. ‘Cassidy got stuck. A wave came up and knocked her over. Matt and I had to jump in to find her. It was freezing.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry to have caused y
ou discomfort,’ I said, rolling my eyes.
‘Listen, I’ve tried to apologise,’ Bryce said, stopping to look at me, ‘but if you don’t want to hear it I’m not going to waste any more of your time – or mine.’ He turned to walk off.
‘Bryce, wait.’ My fingers went to the chain at my throat. I realised I wasn’t actually all that angry anymore; I’d been partly punishing Bryce for making me feel jealous. I’d poured all my rage into that storm. All of a sudden his side of things had become clear to me, and it would be crazy to throw our friendship away over Cassidy’s drunken behaviour. ‘I do appreciate you saying sorry. To be honest, my whole birthday kind of freaked me out, with the séance, and then Cassidy and Matt being drunk. It was all a bit of a downer.’ I didn’t mention Brenda’s vision about him.
His expression softened. ‘Yeah, I hear you.’ He nodded sympathetically.
‘But I love the necklace you gave me.’ I smiled.
‘I’m glad.’ He smiled back at me, and I shivered as our eyes connected.
We continued to walk towards the cliffs, and my mind went back to the séance.
‘Bryce, when your great-grandmother came through you like that, it made me wonder – do all the ghosts you communicate with do it that way?’
‘No, usually they just stand in front of me. I think it’s because I have a family connection to Bessie that she can enter my body like that. I’ve only talked to a few ghosts, though, so I’m not really sure.’
‘What about those witches? Don’t they count?’
‘I don’t think they were ghosts. I think they were spirits,’ he said.
‘What’s the difference?’
‘Spirits have never lived in a human body. They exist in a parallel world – a world that isn’t solid, and that’s a projection of our thoughts.’
‘Why do you think they came to us?’ I asked.
‘I keep thinking about that riddle. I reckon they were trying to tell us something about the woman of Queen’s Cross mystery, but I can’t figure out what. Hopefully Dean will have some idea.’
‘Bryce . . . I saw them again.’
He turned and looked at me incredulously. ‘When?’
‘At the cafe this morning, in a mirror.’
I explained to him what they’d said.
‘You know, it sounds like it could be the second half of the riddle they told us last night.’
‘Maybe it’s an extra clue,’ I said. ‘But I don’t know what trees and birds and a nursery rhyme have to do with danger.’ I laughed a little as I said this. It really did sound ridiculous.
We’d reached the cliffs. It was soothing to look out over the slate-grey sea. Today it was smooth like silk, but on the sand were tangled knots of kelp and seaweed, dumped there by the storm. My storm.
‘My parents are going to let me learn to scuba dive,’ I said. ‘They gave me lessons for my birthday.’ I turned to him, beaming.
‘Awesome! You can hang out with the great whites!’ he said.
‘You know, that is less scary to me than what happened last night.’
He smiled and nodded. ‘Cool storm, by the way.’
And we stood there staring out to sea together. I was finally really enjoying my sixteenth birthday.
On Sunday Dean and I met at the Purple Raven for lunch and a meeting. Brenda had a day off, so we ordered sandwiches and shakes from a girl I didn’t know.
‘So, I did some research online and I was able to find part of the rhyme the witches told us,’ Dean said proudly. He pulled out the parchment and a stack of printouts.
‘Nice!’ I said.
‘It was actually originally spoken in Latin. I was researching old witches’ curses and when I translated some of them to English, there it was. It’s a warning, implying that someone is waiting for the right time to strike,’ he said. ‘And I think the part that says “the devil plays with his nettle” refers to an old English herb called devil’s nettle. It was used in folklore magic, and this article says that it’s also known as yarrow.’ He showed me a picture of a small flowered plant. The caption said, ‘Achillea millefolium: for treatment of cuts and abrasions.’
‘It sounds more like a medicinal herb than a magical one,’ I said.
Dean nodded. ‘Yes, but all the magical herbs have medicinal qualities, too.’ Yarrow is also used to get rid of headaches . . . and demons, apparently.’
‘Okay, but what’s yarrow got to do with us? And what does this scary bit here mean – “When night becomes day blood will be shed”?’ I pointed at the parchment.
‘The jury is still out on that.’ Dean shook his head.
‘I don’t like the idea of blood being shed. No more than is necessary, anyway,’ I added, remembering when I had cut my hand for the spell to enchant Matt.
‘Not to freak you out or anything, but I think the last line has something to do with someone dying. “Time you do not have.” I think it means time has run out.’
‘That’s full-on,’ I said. ‘You’re telling me someone’s going to die?’
‘Maybe. Although I do have another theory. It could be a reference to the woman who has already died – the woman of Queen’s Cross.’
‘Hmm, maybe! Um, listen, Dean, I told Bryce and I have to tell you now: the witches appeared to me again yesterday.’
His eyes widened as I handed him a piece of paper on which I’d written the second rhyme.
‘Trees and sparrows?’ He shook his head. ‘What do they expect us to do? Go bird-watching?’
I hitched my bag higher up over my shoulder as I walked home. It was heavy with books. I’d borrowed three from the town library after I’d seen Dean – chemistry books that I needed to get through to be ready for an upcoming test. Monday was going to be a full moon, too – a good night to do some magic, which I also wanted to do some research for – so Dean had lent me one of his books on herb magic.
It was getting dark, and with my heavy load I stumbled off the kerb as I went to cross the street. I hit the tar hard, and books went spilling everywhere. Sitting up slowly, I saw that my jeans were torn and blood was seeping from one of my knees. As I gathered up the books there was a white flash of lights. A large van barrelled down the street towards me. Its lights were on high beam, blinding me. I froze.
At the last second it swerved, missing me by inches.
I leapt to my feet and stood there shaking in the dark. As my eyes adjusted again, a faint gloom over the land became apparent. The crescent moon was growing as it waxed towards full. And it hit me – ‘When night becomes day’ meant when the full moon rose in the sky. The witches were warning us that on the night of the full moon, someone would die. Maybe I needed the protection amulet more than Bryce did, though, after this near miss.
The next day at school I told my coven what had happened. They were freaked out that I’d nearly got hit by a car, of course, but they were more excited by my partial decoding of the riddle.
‘Of course!’ Dean smacked his forehead. ‘The full moon affects the tide, too, which would explain “The ocean flows before it ebbs”.’
‘I wonder if it was a full moon the night the woman of Queen’s Cross died,’ Amelia said.
‘That’s easy to find out,’ said Bryce, taking out his iPhone. ‘Can anyone remember the exact date?’
‘I have it here,’ I said, pulling a photocopy of the first newspaper article we’d found from my bag.
‘The article was published on 21 July 1997, which means she probably died the day before, on the twentieth.’
Bryce tapped away on his phone for a minute before raising his head triumphantly. ‘According to the Griffith Observatory Sky Report, 20 July 1997 was a full moon!’
‘And we all know magic is cast more effectively on a full moon, which adds more weight to the idea that the objects she was found with were being used in a witchcraft ritual,’ I said.
Everyone nodded.
‘So the witches’ riddle is telling us that the woman of Queen’s Cross was a wit
ch?’ said Amelia.
‘What about that herb, yarrow, you were telling us about this morning, Dean?’ Alyssa asked. ‘Obviously that has something to do with it. If it cures headaches then maybe they’re warning that one of us is going to get knocked on the head!’ She laughed.
The second bell sounded as we were talking, but none of us seemed to be in a rush to get to class.
‘What subjects do you guys have?’ I asked. ‘Maybe we could skip first period and go to the cafe to talk to Brenda about all of this? From what the witches said, we don’t have much time.’
‘Vania Thorn!’ Mr Barrow’s voice thundered from behind me. My stomach lurched at the now familiar, nasty tone in his voice. ‘Did I just hear you encouraging your friends to skip school?’
‘No, Mr Barrow,’ I lied. Had he been around the corner listening to us the whole time? ‘We were actually discussing a class project we’re working on together and were planning to do additional research for it,’ I said.
‘The woman of Queen’s Cross,’ Alyssa chimed in. ‘We’re solving the mystery for Friday’s elective!’
Mr Barrow’s eyes narrowed, and then suddenly he burst out laughing. It was almost more creepy than when he had been shouting at us. ‘Very well, children,’ he snorted between laughs, ‘run along now.’
We backed away from him. But then his beady eyes focused solely on me.
‘And you, Vania Thorn, come with me,’ he said, all trace of laughter gone.
The others stepped forward and stood around me as if forming a shield, but I meekly obeyed. ‘Yes, Mr Barrow.’
He turned on his heel, and after acknowledging the sympathetic looks from my coven I followed him down the hall, not sure where we were going until he turned right and stopped in front of the principal’s office.
My heart sank.
He knocked and I could hear Mrs Stinson’s faint but stern voice: ‘Enter.’
Mr Barrow opened the door and indicated with his head that I should go in ahead of him. I inched past him, doing my best not to brush against him as I moved through the narrow doorway.
