Crow Heart (The Witch Ways Book 4)

by Helen Slavin

  “What was happening?” Emz asked.

  Charlie shrugged. “Not entirely sure. When I got to the heart of the maze, there was the white-haired woman.”

  “White… white hair?” Aurora was focused, trying to pull a thought forward but the Ways were not paying attention.

  “Like Kitty’s assailant. Like Roz’s intruder,” Anna said.

  “Was she trapped?” Emz asked.

  Charlie shook her head. “No. I think it was her maze.”

  Aurora slapped at the worktop once more. “What are you saying? Ghost? Grandma? Whose maze? I was in the maze? What is going on with the maze?”

  Charlie talked over the top of her. “There was a red thread…” The Way sisters took in this nugget of information. “I reeled it in. It seemed to affect her, and she was definitely running away from me.” The Ways were intent.

  “Hello?” Aurora couldn’t look at all of them at once.

  Winn interjected. “A white-haired woman?”

  “Yes. Out of Havoc,” Anna warned.

  Winn gave a snort. “No she isn’t.” She was definite. “She’s not out of Havoc.”

  The Ways were silenced.

  “You know her?” Charlie asked.

  Winn nodded and reached a nervous hand to her chest, felt the small pouch beneath her sweater. “Yes. Nuala Whitemain. She lives in town on Red Hat Lane. Has done for years.”

  Charlie’s eyes opened wide with revelation. Anna opened her mouth, but no sound would come out. They locked eyes.

  “Boom.” Emz was elated.

  Aurora slapped the worktop. The sound finally drew their attention.

  “I hate to rain on your parade, but how can there not be a maze when clearly there was a maze? But there can be a ghost of your grandma? How does that work? I mean, just how much did you all drink tonight?” Aurora flicked her hair to emphasise her point, but her head felt light, and she was troubled by the remembrance of the women who had been running through the maze with her. Dead squirrels. Cobwebs. She was unsure. Was she in a coma?

  “I understand. I get it.” She slapped a shaking hand on the worktop again. It wasn’t helping, and it was making her palm sore. “I’m in a coma, aren’t I? None of this happened. I’m in a coma after the car accident.”

  She felt better and worse, as if her head was filled with dead squirrels and cobwebs. Of course, memory clicked. “Oh my God, that’s exactly what is happening here. She was in the other car. The white-haired woman. She was the other driver.” A thought was chasing her.

  “The white-haired woman was in the same accident?” Charlie wanted clarity.

  Aurora nodded. “Yes. Slammed right into… This explains the dead squirrels.” Did it though? Aurora felt uncertain.

  “What are you talking about? What squirrels?” Emz asked.

  “Did you swerve to avoid a squirrel? Is that why you crashed?” Charlie asked.

  Aurora stared at her. The squirrels were worrying; they were definitely inside her head.

  “The accident was worse than I think. I’m in a coma.” Aurora was trying to rationalise. She recalled the disjointed memories of the crash, the white-haired woman getting out of the other car as if nothing had happened, and the odd look on her face when she leaned into Aurora through the smashed window.

  “She took hold of my arm.” Aurora reached up protective hands to her mane of hair. As she did so, Emz focused her Strength. She finally saw them: the women who were hidden within its strands looked out at her, weary. The one on the end yawned, revealing needle-like cat teeth. They blurred, and Emz let go.

  “You need some rest.” Anna approached Aurora, who gave a manic laugh that morphed into a gasp of fear. “We can go over this later.”

  “I’m getting too much rest. Don’t you get it? We’re not here. I’m in a coma.” She began laughing, a harsh, hysterical sound. “What is going on?” She looked at Winn. “What is happening?”

  Winn looked at the Way sisters.

  Aurora’s laugh had turned to a whimper. “What is wrong with me?”

  “Nothing.” Anna was authoritative. “You are not the only person this has happened to, okay?”

  “That’s supposed to make me feel better? What is going on?” Aurora was hyperventilating.

  “You’re not in a coma, Aurora. Everything will be alright.” Anna was struggling. “You’re in the safest house in Woodcastle.”

  Aurora shook her head. “Your mother died here. Not that safe.” The words blurted out, and Aurora looked around as if someone else had spoken them.

  “Vanessa didn’t die here.” Winn’s voice was a stone, the Way sisters unable to answer.

  Aurora burst into tears. “Why would I say that?” She was beside herself. “What sort of a person says something like that?” She gave a wrenching sob.

  “You’re just tired.” Anna was forgiving.

  Aurora sat up straighter, determined. “I’m a BITCH,” Aurora yelled. “That’s what’s wrong with me. If I wasn’t me, I wouldn’t like myself… I don’t like myself.” She shook her head, her face crunched into dislike. “I need to call my mum.”

  With Aurora ushered into another room on the phone, the Way sisters attempted to regroup.

  “Roz. Aurora. Kitty.” Emz said. “There must be a link, something about all of them.”

  Winn remained silent, sitting in the oldest armchair by the window.

  Anna looked at her and at her sisters meaningfully, her eyebrows raised. “Winn is…” she said.

  Winn gave a serious look. “Don’t mind me,” she assured Anna.

  Charlie gave a snort. “Winn got her out of the maze, Anna. Winn knew Grandma Hettie all her life. So, carry on.”

  Anna gathered her thoughts. “They’ve all three been touched by Havoc in some way. We know about Roz. We know about Kitty. What about Aurora?”

  Winn roused herself. “I saw Nuala watching for Aurora the other day. I was walking through the woods, right at the edge by the bridge. She was in the trees. There was a little van in the layby, and Nuala was watching for her. When she made a move towards her, she twisted her ankle into a rabbit hole and the van drove off before she could right herself.”

  “Roz held her off with salt and iron,” Anna reminded them. The Way sisters considered this.

  “What is it? There’s got to be something looking right at us,” Charlie mused.

  “Oh, there’s something,” Emz said. There it was, at the edge of her memory, shuffling nearer. “I see it… them… tangled into her hair.”

  “Them?” Anna pushed.

  “Not clear. Four women. Like seeing a real face, except… it doesn’t seem like Aurora’s.”

  The sisters mulled over the thought.

  “It is something about her hair,” Charlie chipped in. “It gives off… energy.”

  “And not in a good way,” Anna added. “I don’t get it. Grandma Hettie never marked out the Foundling family for any particular watchfulness. They didn’t feature, and nor did the shop. This idea of the women… you’d think Grandma would—”

  At last, Emz’s memory pinged.

  “Oh. Back at school. Back when… Oh, when was it? Aurora had done something… hurt herself, her ankle, some sports thing…” Emz’s face crinkled with retrieval of memory.

  “And?” Charlie was impatient. “Punchline?”

  “We visited Aurora and her mum at Mimosa. Me and grandma, and I saw… the women… in her hair then. That was the first time. Grandma said they were sort of hiding, and I said I’d never tell Aurora.” Emz could taste the ice cream she had eaten sitting in the Castle all that time ago, the sense of being taken into confidence, of Grandma Hettie beside her on the bench.

  “They’ve all been Havocked; Kitty, Roz, and Aurora.” Charlie turned to Winn. “What happened to you, Winn?” She was direct.

  “Oh… er… well…” Winn’s fingers played with the slightly frayed neckline of her cashmere jumper.

  “Havoc and Leap are threaded together,” Emz suggeste
d. “It might be that.”

  “No. Something happened, didn’t it, Winn?” Charlie was forthright.

  Winn nodded. Her face had lost all its colour once more.

  “Charlie, what are you getting at?” Emz asked, protective of Winn.

  “Like I said before, Winn got Aurora out of the maze.” Charlie looked at Winn. “How? What happened to you, Winn?”

  The Way sisters looked at Winn. She let out a deep, relaxed breath as she pulled out a small leather pouch hung about her neck. It was soft and worn with age, and she looked at it for a long moment.

  “The white-haired woman — Nuala Whitemain — attacked me in Havoc Wood when I was eight.”

  They took in the information, Emz moving to sit nearer to Winn. “Your grandmother saw her off.” Winn hesitated, her fingers tight around the small leather pouch, the sweated-leather scent of it comforting. Winn was calm.

  “What did Nuala do?” Charlie pushed for detail.

  “I don’t remember all of it. Threw a stone at my head. Tried to break my arm.” The Ways exchanged a look at this. As Winn recalled it, her heart repeated the frightened rhythm it had beaten back then. “I’m not sure if she…” Winn recalled pain and Hettie Way’s careful touch on her battered arm. “It was frightening. And then your grandmother saved me.”

  The Way sisters were deep in thought as Winn lifted the pouch.

  “Afterwards, she gave me this. She told me that it was her marker. That it would protect me. I’ve worn it ever since.”

  The Way sisters looked at the pouch.

  “I’m guessing it isn’t a bundle of herbs,” Charlie said, avoiding the direct question.

  Winn shook her head.

  “It’s the little finger from her left hand,” Anna said in a soft voice. A vivid recollection of her grandmother’s hand in her mind, the neat gap which was not noticeable unless you watched those hands turn the pages of a storybook or roll out pastry or dig in a peg bag to hang out washing.

  Charlie and Emz were stilled. Winn put the pouch back inside her jumper, reassured by the weight of it on the length of leather thong that held it round her neck.

  “You were only eight?” Emz asked.

  Winn nodded. “I was on an errand up to see Mrs Massey, and I strayed off the path a bit…” Winn was glad to share her story. “Head in the trees as usual in those days. Well, in these days, too.” She gave a brief laugh. She looked suddenly tired; the wrinkles of her face deepened a little around her eyes.

  “You were eight?” Charlie repeated Emz’s question.

  Anna looked at her. “Is that significant?”

  “Yes. Winn’s how old…?”

  “Seventy.” Winn was a bit puzzled. “Nearly, at any rate. I think.”

  “The woman I saw looked late-thirties tops,” Charlie said. “But Winn’s account means this woman is older than Winn.” The sisters paused for thought.

  “How old was Nuala back then?” Emz asked.

  Winn shrugged. “That I can’t answer. She looks the same to me as she did then.” She looked at them. “Anyway, it has been quite the day. I think I need to get home and sleep it off.”

  “Stay here,” Emz offered. “There are rooms enough.”

  Winn shook her head. “No. Tonight I need my own bed. I’ll get myself off home.”

  “But it’s late… You can’t walk all the—” Emz persisted.

  “I can and I will.” Winn was set on her way. She patted her jumper. “I have your grandmother to protect me.”

  “You’re going nowhere, Winn. Grandma Hettie would never forgive us,” Charlie insisted.

  Winn seemed about to protest and then assented. “I am rather tired.”

  Emz hugged her.

  “Not surprising,” Charlie said with due seriousness, a look passing between the two women before Emz took Winn upstairs to pick a room.

  It was the small hours once again, and the Way sisters had not slept, but instead had gone over their current situation.

  “It never occurred to me she could be from town. Even when we were standing right outside the cottage. Seems so obvious,” Charlie said.

  “The cottage is a wreck. It looks abandoned,” Anna said. “There’s no reason to imagine anyone living there.”

  “It isn’t obvious. Grandma Hettie never mentioned her. We’re the Gamekeepers, not the town criers.” Emz tried to joke.

  “Grandma couldn’t get rid of her because she lives here. She’s from Woodcastle,” Anna said.

  “This white-haired woman must be really dangerous.” Emz made the thought real. “Why else would Grandma give Winn such a powerful…?” She looked to her sisters for explanation, something that wasn’t going to leave them with another Havoc monster.

  “Finger?” Emz said, and they all winced at the word.

  “Talisman. Token.” Anna soothed the idea. “It would explain it.”

  “Maybe it has to do with Winn. She protected Winn because Havoc and Hartfield are linked way, way back. We know that. Grandma told us about the history of the Whyte Harts. Winn’s roots are deep here,” Charlie said.

  “I agree with both of you,” Anna said. “She’s dangerous. Clearly, she and Grandma Hettie crossed swords in the past. It’s not a great leap that she’s just been biding her time and now Grandma is dead she’s come out of the woodwork. Takes her chances where she can.” Anna’s voice sounded dry as old leaves. She reached shaking hands up to fuss with her ponytail.

  Charlie shook her head. “There’s something more, something not obvious to us. Grandma would not stand for that.”

  Anna gave a derisory laugh. “Well, she did. Nuala is still here.”

  Emz saw reason. “She couldn’t send her out of Havoc if she didn’t come from Havoc. Who knows what the history was between them?”

  Charlie nodded. “Grandma did something to Nuala though. She’s bound or restricted in some way. That’s definite. She failed in her attacks on Kitty and Roz, and she failed with Aurora.” She placed emphasis on the failure. “In the maze, there was a red thread, like a line leading me to her, and it was woven about the maze as if it was trying to rein in what she was doing. Working against her.” Charlie recalled the tension she had felt. It made some kind of sense.

  “Red thread.” Emz picked up the logic. “It’s a binding. Remember Grandma and the thread? That’s why I brought some to the Castle when we faced off Mrs Fyfe.”

  Charlie nodded. “Red Wrangle. That’s what’s kept her quiet all this time. And now that this thin man has come for her, she needs to not be wrangled.” Charlie looked at them. “D’you think?”

  “So that is what she wants from them all?” Emz asked. “Enough power to break the Wrangle?”

  “Yes. To fight back, take back the power Grandma denied her,” Charlie said.

  “And she’s finally doing it now because Grandma is dead,” Anna concluded. Thoughts fizzed and burst.

  “But all those years ago, what did she want from Winn? Was Nuala Red Wrangled back then? Winn didn’t have anything; she was just a child. She didn’t attack her to steal Grandma’s marker. That came after the attack,” Emz said.

  Anna’s face uncreased. “The first attack on Kitty was after that, too. Did Grandma Red Wrangle her then?” Anna was haunted by the image of the lightning-lit bridge.

  “Whenever, whatever. I think what kept her quiet was Grandma.” Charlie was sure. “She wanted bone magic. It’s that simple. She wanted power.”

  “I think Emz is right. Roz and Aurora have both been affected by Havoc and maybe that makes them easier prey. I think it’s a power grab. It’s always been about power for her. Now she just sees there’s no threat from Hettie so she’s taking her chances.” Anna frowned.

  “She doesn’t rate us then?” Charlie said.

  “Not yet.” Emz was serious. “This is definitely about power and we have to stand our ground. The ground of Havoc.”

  Charlie nodded agreement and looked across at Anna.

  “Anna? You okay?”
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br />   Anna was intent on her thoughts. “There’s something extra that we aren’t…”

  She could only focus on the images shown by the crackle. She felt poised on an edge, darkness falling away behind her. “I have to tell you something.” Her throat was dry. “Before the wedding. On my patrol. The crackle outside the cottage…” She paused. “I saw… There was something reflected in it. Lightning. And the Knightstone Bridge.” She couldn’t say anything for a moment.

  Charlie’s face was the colour of ash. Emz was still as a stone.

  “Then,” Anna felt the lightning score her insides, “then I saw Grandma’s face. She said, ‘Don’t do this’.” The silence was deep.

  “You think she’s warning us?” Charlie asked.

  Anna shrugged. “I don’t know what it means. Any of it.”

  “The bridge. At Knightstone.” Emz’s voice was tremulous. They no longer felt certain of anything.

  “It was hidden inside the crackle. I don’t know why,” Anna said.

  “Like a Flickerbook?” Charlie suggested.

  Anna shrugged. “Possibly.” She regrouped. “The crackle isn’t the same as if I could actually touch Nuala. It might be a deception. A distraction from what she’s actually doing.”

  Charlie nodded. “‘Don’t do this.’ Maybe Grandma warned Nuala not to do this once before. With Winn? With Kitty?” Charlie was clutching at ideas. “That might make sense. She warned her she’d be wrangled.”

  “And Nuala did it anyway.”

  Anna had a further thought. “But why now? I mean, Winn’s incident was what… sixty-odd years ago. Kitty’s first encounter was fifty years ago… I don’t…” Lightning crackled across Anna’s head. She felt afraid.

  “Grandma Hettie was here.” Charlie felt sure of it. Emz nodded.

  Anna was shaking her head. “But Roz and Mrs Fyfe was last October. Grandma was already gone by then. You’d think Nuala might have acted sooner. Why not go for Mrs Fyfe when she was in town? If she wanted power…”

  “She couldn’t? Maybe Mrs Fyfe was too much?” Emz suggested.

  Charlie looked up, her eyes bright and cunning as she felt all the strands of red thread tighten. “The Trespasser. He’s the catalyst. I think we were right before when we said it’s his arrival in town that’s set this off. He showed up, set off the Beacon, and he’s the one who has pushed her over the edge. She’s desperate.”