Miss Hawthorne Sits for a Spell

by Katherine Hayton

  “It’s hard to kill smoke,” she taunted. “It doesn’t matter that you’ve desperately held onto the position of supreme.”

  Agnetha threw back her head and roared at the sky. Rain clouds gathered, flooding the area with a rush of water more like a rising tide than a storm.

  “What?” Wanda called out, openly mocking. “Do you believe that ghosts can’t float?” She rose above the level of the rising water, shimmering with a brilliant light.

  “Ungrateful. Little. Brat.” With each word, Agnetha sent another stream of electricity towards the ghost. Emily saw Wanda wince at the last one as though it had struck a physical blow.

  “She’s figuring out how to hurt her,” she whispered to Crystal. “We need to distract her attention before she works it all out.”

  Without waiting to see if her friend understood, Emily stepped forward, holding her arms up to her side to appear bigger. “Are you so pathetic you can only play games with Caspar the ghost? Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?”

  Agnetha turned, eyebrows raised in surprise, then burst into laughter. “What do you think you’re going to do? Psychic me to death? Your powers don’t scare me, darling. In case you haven’t worked it out, I can see the dead, too.”

  “I can do more than that!” Emily put her hands on her hips, then threw back her head and laughed.

  “What are you doing?” Harvey asked, bewildered.

  Cynthia stepped forward, standing beside Emily and facing Agnetha with her trademark scorn. “Is this seriously all a Supreme can do? Here I was thinking it would be cool to have some powers. A bit of rain and a few lightning strikes might have impressed some villagers back in the dark ages but now? You’re aware we’ve had special effects for quite some time?”

  Agnetha strode towards the group. “This isn’t some made-up light show. If I throw a bolt of electricity at your friend, it’ll kill her.” She panted and favoured her left side as she walked closer. Emily narrowed her eyes, recognising the signs of impending exhaustion.

  “Someone threw a car at my sister once,” Harvey yelled out, joining in their line-up. “It didn’t cause more than a little scratch.”

  “It did a fair sight more than that.” Agnetha advanced on Emily, her upper lip curling. “You mightn’t have realised since you’ve been gone so long, but your sister isn’t quite in the land of the living right now.” She poked a finger into the centre of Emily’s chest. “You can practically smell the death coming off her. Pretty soon, she’ll be as dead as your mum and dad.”

  “It’s just a distraction,” Cynthia said in a modulated tone. “Don’t listen to her. She must be weaker than I thought to bother with underhanded tactics like this. What do you think, Wanda? Should we take her out?”

  A bolt hit Agnetha square in the back, followed by a trilling giggle. “Bullseye!”

  Her phone buzzed in Emily’s pocket and she pulled it out, showing the screen to Harvey.

  He read it and glanced at her, despair written across his face. “It’s the police again. A text telling you if you want to say goodbye to Sheryl, you’d better hurry. They’re switching the machines off in the next few minutes.”

  As Agnetha toyed with Wanda, getting her retribution for the latest attack, Emily could feel the seconds draining away. Soon, it wouldn’t matter if they bested the Supreme or not. Sheryl only had one shot, then she’d be gone.

  “Cynthia, can you get to the hospital? Throw a couple of IVs at the wall or something? Anything you can think of to give us a stay of execution.”

  “I’m not leaving you.” The ghost’s eyes were huge, her arms folded in a defiant line. “You must be crazy. We don’t even know if the spell will work. Wanda could be fooling herself and you know it.”

  “She’s the only reason we’re out here. If Sheryl didn’t matter, do you really think Agnetha would be doing this?”

  “Sorry if I don’t think Wanda’s sister is worth losing my only friend!”

  They glared at each other, the fight going on behind them temporarily forgotten in their battle of wills. Finally, Emily smiled. “I’m your only friend?”

  “Shut up.” Cynthia turned away and looked up the road where a car with a souped-up engine was approaching. “Is that vehicle slowing down?”

  “Bad luck if they think this is a rest area.”

  Even Agnetha seemed to realise something wasn’t right. She’d been trying to strike Wanda with her magic force as the ghost hovered above her like an angel. Now, her attention focused on the approaching car, a look of absolute fury twisting her face.

  “Jake!”

  Their small group was forgotten as Agnetha stormed towards the road, flapping her arms to cause a cloud of mud and branches to float before her.

  “What have you done with my brother?”

  The car slowed to a halt, the lights still turned to high-beam, blinding the crowd that stood there. Even Agnetha raised a hand to shield her eyes, the mud cloud slumping to the ground with a wet thud.

  A car door slammed, and a strange figure emerged. Emily’s mind tried to resolve it into human form, this thing with four arms, four legs, and two heads.

  Two people.

  Jake the Snake bared his teeth at Agnetha as he approached, holding Terrence in an arm-lock.

  “Remember our agreement, Aggie? The one you broke when you robbed me of the book I needed?” He twisted his hand, revealing the long blade he was holding tightly up to Terrence’s throat. “I think it’s time to renegotiate.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  As Emily stared at Jake, pieces of the puzzle she’d been chasing for the past few days began to slot into place. “You sent the message,” she said, wanting to step towards him but scared it would place Terrence in more jeopardy. “You pretended to be Terrence.”

  Jake laughed. “After going to so much trouble to locate the spell book, I was hardly going to let it go to waste. You should have answered me.” He spat in the ground and snarled at Agnetha. “This one was never going to help you out. She can’t even cast a proper love spell.”

  Wanda’s mouth fell open and she switched her gaze from Jake to Emily in disbelief.

  “How much did you hate that Sheryl genuinely fell in love with Terrence?” Emily took a step forward, keeping watch on the position of the knife from the corner of her eyes. “The only way you could get her attention was by forcing her.”

  “But that’s—” Wanda swallowed and shot a glance full of daggers at Agnetha. “That’s against the coven rules, not to mention the law.”

  “I think Agnetha’s been doing a lot of things against the law,” Emily said. “What did she promise you, Jake? That if you worked together to get hold of the spell book and puzzle, Sheryl could be all yours? When did you work out you couldn’t trust her?”

  “She didn’t want you.” Wanda raised her hand to her forehead, rubbing hard. “That’s why we let the rent run through on our flat. That’s why we were headed out of town, to check out houses in Christchurch.”

  The scales fell from Emily’s eyes. “You ran them off the road. Of course! That’s why you’ve got the burn marks up half your arm. Sheryl tried to run away and you’re so shallow and nasty you wouldn’t let her go. You’d rather she died than be with the man she truly loved. At least you and Agnetha had that in common.”

  “Stop it!” Jake turned, dragging Terrence with him to face Agnetha, Wanda, and Emily in turn. “I want the spell book and the puzzle. If you don’t give them to me, I’m killing Terrence right here and now.”

  “No!” Agnetha stepped forward, holding her hands out and shaking. “Please. I’ll make it right with you. Just let my brother go.”

  “Why isn’t she sending a bolt to kill him?” Cynthia whispered to Wanda. Emily saw the problem as soon as she asked. Jake held Terrence in such a tight grip that if Agnetha hit one, she’d hit both.

  “I don’t believe you,” Jake shouted back at Agnetha. “You sent someone in to steal from me after we made our agreement. Do
you take me for a fool?”

  “It was Belinda.” Emily glanced at Terrence who gave the faintest nod. “She stole the book.”

  Jake growled and span to face her. “Who the hell is that?”

  “No, she didn’t.” Agnetha stared in confusion at Emily. With fear morphing her face, she didn’t look like the Supreme any longer. She was a scared old woman.

  Well, join the club.

  “Honestly, Jake. All I did was ask Belinda to check and see you really had the book. With the mix-up over the puzzle, I needed to make sure you were telling me the truth, but she couldn’t find it.” Agnetha still held her hands out in a placating gesture but her lip curled. “You were the one lying to me!”

  Emily thought of what the redhead had told her. A lie. It had been so quick, she should have realised its basis was in truth. But it wasn’t Agnetha that Belinda had been pounding on the door, demanding to see. It was Terrence.

  She’d worked as a double agent. Telling Agnetha the book was gone as she handed it to Terrence.

  Jake dug the tip of his knife a little deeper, drawing blood. “Why did you go after the puzzle box, then? That was when I really understood what you were up to. If you didn’t want to restore Sheryl as a treat for your little brother, why did you burgle her house?” He jerked his chin at Emily.

  “I didn’t. It was just some weird story she told the police.”

  “It was obviously Terrence, you dolt. Like it matters!” Wanda thundered. “Even if you revived my sister, she’s certainly not going to spend the rest of her days with you.”

  But Jake couldn’t hear the ghost’s protests.

  Emily stamped her foot in frustration. “Sheryl was never going to choose you. Not after you ran her off the road. You killed her sister. You put her in a coma and thanks to this one”—she flapped a hand at Agnetha—“her machines are about to be turned off.”

  Jake’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  Agnetha’s eyes opened wide. “No, it’s a mistake. I was just trying to—”

  “It’s a mistake that just cost your brother his life.” Jake tightened the muscles of his arm, shifting his grip on the knife.

  “It’s too hot for you to hold.” Wanda moved close to Jake and stared at his face. He winced away, eyes flicking to and fro, able to sense her presence but unable to see her. “The knife blade is on fire. It’s burning through the handle.”

  Jake cried out and dropped the weapon, at the same time tightening his hold on Terrence’s neck. “Who did that?”

  Agnetha was shaking so hard from fear, she dropped to her knees. “I swear, I had nothing to do with it. Please, let my brother go.”

  Wanda glanced over to Cynthia and winked. She sent out a curving line of electricity, zapping along the knife’s edge, then whipping it back and into her hand.

  “What’s happening?” Jake’s voice moved into a register so high, only dogs and children could hear it. “I’ll hurt Terrence if you do anything else.”

  “Please, Wanda. Stop now. We can talk it out.” Agnetha tried to scramble to her feet but slipped in the mud. “Don’t let my brother get hurt.”

  The ghost shook her head. “I’d care about that statement if you hadn’t signed a death warrant on my sister.” She lifted the knife up, using the electricity as a substitute for a physical body. Jake stared at the weapon, entranced.

  Emily remembered what Pete and Gregory had told her—Terrence liked to take risks. With Jake’s focus temporarily elsewhere, she gave the captive man a nod, and he drove his elbow hard into his captor’s belly.

  As Jake bent double, he loosened his grip enough for Terrence to spin free of his grasp. A few more steps and he’d danced out of harm’s way.

  “Don’t kill Jake,” Cynthia called out to Wanda and Emily turned to her in surprise. “You don’t want to have his wretched personality filling up the afterlife a second before it has to.”

  Wanda laughed once, then threw the knife in a curving parabola, slicing through the air. Its handle landed with a meaty thump on Jake’s forehead, leaving a dent, and she pulled it back to her.

  As the man’s eyes rolled up into his head and his knees sagged, she sent the blade careening through the air again. It landed, another bullseye, digging into the thick denim at Jake’s crotch and skewering him to the ground.

  “Ouch,” Harvey said, wincing, and Emily wondered at the capacity of men to feel for each other, even when one of them was a maniac.

  “Don’t worry,” she called out, relaying Wanda’s explanation. “It didn’t get him anywhere that’ll leave a scar.” She moved over and checked Jake’s blank face. “It looks like it’s knocked him out cold, though.”

  “Come here,” Agnetha called, holding her arms open for Terrence to run into.

  Instead, he scowled and shook his head. “You killed my girlfriend.”

  “It was for your own good.”

  A light split open the air behind Wanda, glowing with an intensity that was hard to look at for long. Emily shielded her eyes, recognising the doorway. Crystal gasped in wonder, also having seen it before.

  “What’s going on?” Wanda stared at the opening as though it was a gateway to hell.

  Cynthia grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her forward. “Time to go, Witchy-poo.”

  “But my sister!”

  “She’ll be following you along soon enough if she isn’t there already.” Mrs Pettigrew stamped her foot when Wanda continued to resist. “You can’t ignore the doorway. This isn’t something that goes away.”

  “But—”

  “We tracked down your killer,” Emily said, her voice low. “It must be the reason you were still here, even if you thought it was to save your sister. I’m sorry.” She reached out, feeling her heart leap from the comfort of Harvey sliding his fingers into her hand.

  “I can’t go.” Tears streamed down Wanda’s face. “Sheryl needs me.”

  “Judging from the figures I can see moving about in there, she’s already waiting for you.” Cynthia’s voice was the kindest Emily had heard from the woman. Even though she didn’t understand the reasoning behind the pool of light—if there was reason to be had in something so mysterious—she believed it must be a sign for her witchy companion to go.

  “You can come back if you need to,” she called out. “Cynthia can show you how.”

  “Just as soon as you show me your other tricks,” Mrs Pettigrew agreed, taking a firmer grip on Wanda’s arm and dragging her farther into the glowing light.

  Emily had to turn away as it grew even brighter. Tears fell from her eyes, from the brightness, from the sorrow. The doorway to another realm might have appeared, but she had most certainly failed.

  “Well,” Agnetha clapped her hands together. “Wasn’t that a lovely ending? Now, Terrence, I can’t offer you a lift home but I’m hoping Jake won’t mind if we steal his car.”

  “I told you I wasn’t going anywhere with you.” Terrence shook his head, staring at his sister in disbelief. “After everything you’ve done, how can you believe that I’d come home and live with you.” He swallowed, his voice thicker than usual. “You’ve killed the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

  Agnetha’s smile stayed in place for a full minute. When it caved, it did so in degrees, leaving her eyes, her cheeks, her lips, leaving only a mask of rage.

  “You’ll do what I tell you, young man. Our parents left me in charge of your welfare and like it or not, I’m looking out for you. Now get into Jake’s car before I have to force you. I don’t want you to appear like a spoiled brat in front of such low company.”

  When he still didn’t move, she forced a calm expression onto her face.

  “Come on now, Terrence. Remember what fun we used to have when you were little. We’d play battleships or hide and seek. It can all be like that again.”

  “You. Killed. My. Girlfriend.”

  “She wasn’t your girlfriend. She was an ungrateful brat who never had the decency to thank me for everything I did for h
er. Sheryl might have twisted you around her little finger with her flattery and her curves but it’s all a lie. She dropped you like a hot potato the first time Jake showed an interest.”

  “You put her under a compulsion.” Terrence walked up to his sister and pointed his finger into her face. “That’s the only reason she turned away from me. Even then, even with all your powers as Supreme, you couldn’t keep the charade up. When that idiot drove her off the road, she was driving to be with me!”

  “I’ve done everything in my life to protect you and this isn’t any different. She’s a dirty girl. She wasn’t fit to be your partner. You should drop down onto your knees and thank me for looking out for you. Can you imagine what life would be like if you’d knocked her up?”

  “Heaven.” Terrence’s voice broke. “It would have been heaven. I’ve never felt so blessed as in the time I spend with Sheryl. I don’t care what your opinion is of her—I’ve never sought your counsel and I never will.”

  “Do what I say!” Agnetha sent a bolt of lightning spiralling out of her fist. It headed straight for Terrence’s face, then at the last moment, diverted and hit the ground near Jake’s head.

  “I would rather die than spend another minute in your company.”

  Agnetha gnashed her teeth, frustration spilling out of her as pure static energy. “Fine,” she shouted. “If you want to die, I’ll take everyone out here along as a favour. Is that what you want?”

  Emily held her breath, her body turning to ice as she watched Terrence nod. The light behind her was fading away, closing up the entrance between worlds. Leaving her stuck in the land of the living with a madwoman.

  With a gasp, Emily pulled her hand out of her brother’s and leapt toward the shrinking door of light.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “You can’t be here,” Cynthia called out. She ran at Emily, trying to push her back but it was too late. The doorway sealed. The battle of sibling wills unfolding by the side of the road disappeared. “What have you done?”