Loch Nessa

by Clare Kauter

  I didn’t answer.

  “The coven.”

  Silence.

  “Of witches.”

  I groaned. “Fine, yes. Yes I did. I joined a coven.”

  “What on earth possessed you to do that?”

  “It was that or go on another quest.”

  “Or just embrace your renegade nature and do magic illegally.”

  “Some of us don’t want to go on the run, Ed,” I said. “Some of us want a normal life.”

  “Yes, because bonding yourself to a coven for eternity definitely sounds like the key to living a normal life.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Do you think I care about your opinion, Ed?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I know you do. Now, you say you joined so that you didn’t need to go on another quest. Does that mean they’ve got you on a learners’ permit?”

  I knew he’d keep asking until I answered, so with an exaggerated eye roll I said, “Yes, I’m a learner. I have to be supervised. Yes, I should have done my research before I performed a blood pact. No, I don’t want to hear your opinion on this.”

  “So you went from being The Department’s pawn to being a lackey for the coven. Great. Sounds like you definitely reclaimed your freedom there.”

  “So I have to be supervised while I do magic – who cares? I can work now, and I’ll get my full licence soon enough. Attending coven meetings is a small price to pay for that, and at least I don’t have The Department breathing down my neck.”

  Ed snorted. “You really think that all you have to do is attend coven meetings?” He shook his head in disbelief. “You’re so naive.”

  I plucked another plant from the ground so hard that rather than snap off at the stem the whole root system came up. “I’d hardly call myself that.”

  “Well, as naive as a mass murderer can be.”

  “I am not a mass murderer!” I growled, rounding on him.

  He floated back sharply, the ghost equivalent of stepping back in fear. “Guess I hit a nerve there,” he said.

  “I’ve only ever hurt people in self-defence,” I hissed. “And I don’t want to talk about it here. Anyone could be listening.”

  “Oh, please. We’d sense their energy long before they could get close enough to listen to us. We’re safe to talk.”

  “I don’t actually want to talk to you,” I said.

  “Too bad,” he said. “You’re not going to get rid of me until we’ve discussed your decision to join the coven.”

  “You say that now, but all I’d have to do is get into trouble and you’d disappear in a flash.”

  He rolled his eyes. I turned back to the herbs, picked up my basket and stood. I walked on through the woods in search of more supplies, Ed trailing along behind me.

  “You can’t tell me you think that they’re just going to give you your licence and let that be the end of it,” he said.

  “Why wouldn’t they?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer immediately, and when I glanced back at him he was shaking his head in disbelief. “Don’t you know what the coven does?” he asked finally.

  “Spells? Potions? General witchy stuff?”

  “Yes, but apart from that. They dabble in necromancy.”

  I glanced at him. He was well aware that I myself had dabbled in necromancy in my younger days.

  “I don’t mean to say that there’s anything wrong with that,” he said quickly. “My point is that they’re not ordinary light witches. Practising dark magic like that does weird things to light dwellers.”

  I thought back to the night before when I’d noticed that the witches’ energy had seemed a bit off. I guessed that kind of made sense. Light dwellers didn’t typically perform a lot of dark rituals. It did seem out of place for the Green Wattle Coven. Of course, they claimed they did it for good reasons – to help grieving families come to terms with their loss – but it still seemed a bit off. Maybe Ed had a point. Of course, I wasn’t going to admit that to his face.

  “Not to mention,” Ed continued, “they run the police station in Gretchen. The witches all have to do shifts at the station. Do you think you’ll be exempt from that?”

  I frowned. I hadn’t really thought about that. The police station also functioned as a café-slash-occult-bookstore-slash-magical-supplies-shop, and it was staffed by various members of the coven.

  “Do you think they pay well?”

  Ed shrugged. “Well, I’d imagine it would be more than minimum wage given that it’s technically a government job, so – wait, why are you smiling?”

  “I’m not,” I said.

  “Do you actually want to work for the police?” he asked. “Seriously? You think that’s a good idea?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s just, you know, money. It’s been such a long time since I could afford to buy… well, anything.”

  “So take up pick-pocketing like a normal person,” said Ed. “You can’t become a cop. If they ask you to start helping them find the Doomstone –”

  “I doubt they will,” I said. “I’m still a learner.”

  “You’re only a learner so they can keep an eye on you. Hecate and Daisy have seen you perform more than enough magic to just give you your full licence already. They just want to keep you on a leash.”

  “No they don’t.”

  “Yes they do,” he retorted. “It’s the exact same thing as the quests.”

  “It is not!” I said, though I wasn’t feeling quite as confident as I had earlier.

  He shook his head. “I just can’t believe that you of all people would put up with this.”

  “You mean because I’m the king?”

  Ed’s eyes widened. “You know?”

  Of course – I hadn’t seen him since I figured that out a couple of months ago, shortly before I exploded Dick. (As in, a centaur named Richard. Not… never mind.)

  I shrugged. “I know I’m the king. I still don’t know what I’m the king of.”

  Ed looked like he was fighting back an eye twitch. “Come on.”

  “What?”

  “Work with me here. I’ve been hinting for months about what you are. You’re one step away from finding out what it is and you can’t even be bothered researching enough to figure it out?”

  “I’ve been busy,” I lied.

  In reality, I hadn’t been busy at all. For the first week or so after I’d found out, I’d spent most of my time worrying that I was going to be arrested for murder. After enough time passed, however, I started to think that maybe Henry wasn’t going to turn me in. At least not yet. Maybe he was taking his time collecting proof of my misdeeds to build a case against me. I’d been told he was away from The Department ‘on assignment’ which could easily mean he was in Hell gathering evidence about what I’d done to Dick. (Again, talking about the centaur. Just keep your mind out of the gutter.)

  Anyway, I’d been kind of preoccupied with worrying about being arrested, then worrying about starving, then wondering if maybe I should confess and go to jail so that at the very least I’d be fed. Then Daisy had approached me with her offer and I’d spent all my time deciding whether or not to join the coven. Somehow I hadn’t had a chance to research this whole ‘king’ thing. (OK, I’d just been lazy. Fine. Shut up.)

  “Yeah, right,” said Ed. He shook his head. “I don’t know why I bother with you.”

  Coming across a patch of mushrooms, I knelt and began to pick them.

  “You bother with me because I can make the Doomstone work and you can’t,” I said.

  Ed laughed quietly. “Partly, yes.”

  “Entirely,” I countered.

  He sighed. “Unfortunately for me, I’ve somehow grown slightly attached to you.”

  “Unfortunately for you? Imagine how I must feel!” I said. “I hope that wasn’t supposed to be flattering or something.”

  “Of course not,” said Ed. “We both know you have no feelings for me whatsoever.”

  “Oh, I have plenty of feelings for you,” I snapp
ed. “Fury, disgust, repulsion –”

  He nodded with fake sincerity. “Of course. We both know you’re really in love with your animal play thing, Henry.”

  At the mention of Henry’s name, I gulped. Ed noticed my reaction.

  “No biting reply?” he said, frowning. “Oh dear. Is there trouble in paradise?”

  “Please leave, Ed.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That bad?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “You know me well enough to know that I won’t leave without an answer. What’s going on with you and Henry?”

  I groaned. “Why are you so annoying?”

  He shrugged. “I find that if you’re persistent enough, you can pretty much get whatever you want.”

  “And if you can’t get it by being annoying, you can just murder the people that stand in your way, right?”

  “Are we talking about me or you?”

  “I don’t just kill people who get in my way,” I said. “Not on purpose.”

  “You’re right. It’s much better if you can’t control your murderous impulses.”

  Looping my arm through the handle of my basket, I stood.

  “I’m going to the church now to meet with my coven,” I said. “You’re welcome to follow, but as you rightly pointed out, the coven is full of police officers. Personally I’d like to see you take your chances with Daisy and Hecate after what you’ve put them through, but I suspect you’ll run away instead.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll go home,” he said. “But I will find out what happened with Henry.”

  “Whatever.”

  “For the record, I always told you it wouldn’t work.”

  “Are you jealous, Ed?”

  “Oh, totally,” said Ed. “My love for you is well-documented, after all. Some would even describe it as undying.”

  I scowled as he grinned at his own joke. “Leave.”

  “Until next time, my love,” he said, before turning and walking back into the forest. He was heading back to the nearby tree that had an unregistered portal connecting my forest to his bedroom. Just my luck that Ed would have his own private passageway between his home in Hell and the woods next to my house. (More experienced ghosts could just ‘pop’ between Hell and Heaven and earth, but it took a lot of energy for them. Using a crack in reality was a lot easier, and since Ed was just a baby as ghosts go, that was his preferred mode of travel.)

  I didn’t know how Ed had managed to score his own private portal between earth and the underworld. Unregistered cracks in reality were notoriously rare – mostly because as soon as anyone found one the government jumped on it and started regulating movement through it. Ed wasn’t a strong enough magician to create a crack. As far as I knew, the only people who could create portals were Satan and Death… and Dick, actually, after he’d munched a few demons.

  Frowning, I wondered if maybe Ed had been getting ideas from Dick’s diabolical schemes. But how could he? No one except me, Satan and Death knew what had really happened with Dick.

  Well, except maybe Henry.

  CHAPTER 5

  EVEN THOUGH IT was still early, when I neared the church I noticed that many of the witches had already arrived. They were bustling around outside, and as I drew closer I realised that they were putting safety measures in place to protect the church against vampire attack. Daisy was leading some of the witches in casting wards over the area. More members of the coven were hanging braids of garlic on every possible entry to the building, while others walked around with garlic crushers, leaving minced garlic in a circle around the perimeter. Others still were patrolling the churchyard with watering cans filled with what I assumed was holy water (I guess they must have replenished their supplies), stopping to water any patches of ground that didn’t seem to be protected by garlic.

  At the sight of them, I smiled. I’d been a little worried that Pierre would come back for a second go tonight, and since I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d gotten rid of him the first time, I wasn’t ultra keen to try it again. With all these protective measures in place, I wouldn’t have to. Well, I hoped I wouldn’t. Of course, his magic was unlike anything else I’d ever seen, so there was a chance that he wouldn’t be affected by the usual vampire repellants and he’d simply stride into the church and maul us all to death anyway, but I decided not to dwell on that thought.

  The sun was beginning to set now, so I joined the witches who were casting wards to help make the spells stronger before we all headed inside, where I (naturally) headed straight for the snacks table. Today there was bread with hummus, so I immediately picked up a slice in each hand and got to snacking. Maude spotted me from across the room and shuffled towards me. I groaned internally. What, did she think we were friends now? I briefly considered running away from her – after all, I’d only have to walk at a normal pace to outrun her – but decided against it. That would be rude, and besides, I didn’t want to leave the food table. Instead, I opted to just block out everything she said while I focused on shovelling food into my mouth.

  Ten minutes into my feast, I came back to reality and heard Maude say, “… and while I’m excited to see what she finds, I just don’t think it’s right for a witch to travel alone like that.”

  I didn’t know who we were talking about, but I decided instantly that I liked her better than I liked Maude. “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” I said. “She’s very talented. I can’t believe you’d sell her so short, Maude. You should have more confidence in your sisters.”

  Maude’s face turned red. “Of course I have faith in her!” she backtracked. “It’s not that. It’s just that she’s so young and new to the field. Yes, she’s talented, but she’s not like me – she doesn’t have any magical blood running through her veins.”

  I fought back an eye roll. Why had Daisy never told Maude she wasn’t fae? It was annoying me and I’d only met her properly yesterday. I could only imagine how unbearable it would be as an actual faery to hear this day after day, week after week.

  Our conversation was interrupted by Hecate calling us to the cauldron as she’d done the night before. Unlike last night, however, I didn’t have to go up the front and overreact to a small cut before my new witchy sisters – today I remained in the crowd while Hecate and Daisy stood by the cauldron to make announcements.

  “OK, the new rosters are done for next week,” said Hecate as Daisy began to hand out sheets of paper to everyone. She didn’t hand one to me, but I took a peek at Lavinia’s. There were two separate rosters – one for cop duty and one for working in the café/bookshop. There didn’t seem to be any overlap between the folks who worked in the two different areas, even though the station was located in the same building as the café. My guess was that the more talented witches were given the policing jobs while the others were given shifts in the bookstore. My name wasn’t on the roster yet, probably because I was still a rookie.

  “Excuse me,” called Maude. “I just noticed my name isn’t on here.”

  “Of course, Maude,” Hecate replied. “You’re watching Nessa this week.”

  My eye began to twitch at the very thought of spending more time with Maude. Maybe I didn’t need my magical licence after all. Maybe I should give up on my ghost whispering business and get a job at a supermarket. Sure, it wouldn’t be glamorous, but at least there would be no Maude. Although knowing her she’d probably come and visit the supermarket just to annoy me.

  “Oh, lovely,” said Maude, smiling warmly.

  “Now, today we’re going to be checking on Alora,” said Daisy.

  The crowd murmured their approval.

  “I was wondering how she was doing,” Maude said loudly. “I was just telling Nessa how confident I am in her abilities.”

  Right, so Alora was the witch that Maude thought wasn’t capable of travelling alone.

  “Yes, of course,” said Daisy. “We’re all very proud of what Alora’s achieved. Before she left, we promised to check in with her weekly, as I’m sure
some of you remember.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “So today we’re going to scry her!” Hecate finished for Daisy, making a sweeping gesture towards the cauldron. Unlike yesterday, the liquid inside the cauldron wasn’t thick and soupy. (Yesterday’s brew had, in fact, turned out to be soup, and I’d taken a mug of it home with me.) Today it looked much like water, except it occasionally shimmered with pinks and blues, and when bubbles burst on its surface small puffs of blue and pink steam rose into the air. I assumed that whatever liquid was in the cauldron contained ingredients to amplify spells, so that when we attempted to scry Alora we’d be able to reach her more easily.

  Scrying is like magical Skype, where you look into a pool of water and see the other person reflected on its surface. There are a lot of magical methods to contact people across the globe, but scrying is one of the more popular because it doesn’t take too much energy provided you have a circle, and the water makes for a very high-definition viewing experience.

  An excited chatter rose from the witches as we all took our places in the circle, ready to channel our energy into the cauldron so we could contact Alora. Somehow I found myself sandwiched between Maude and Lavinia. I assumed that they’d intentionally inserted themselves next to me to judge first hand how strong my magic was. I fought back a smile. They were in for a shock. Daisy eyed us with concern from across the circle, but seemed to decide it was best not to intervene. This was something Maude and Lavinia had to learn the hard way: not to underestimate me.

  “Sisters, join hands,” Hecate commanded.

  We all did as we were told and I was pleasantly surprised by the small hum of magic that I felt flowing around the circle even before we’d begun to cast. OK, so maybe these witches did have something going for them. Maybe Ed had been right when he’d said that their magic had been impacted by their practising necromancy. I knew that Daisy and Hecate were powerful, but there were definitely a couple of others with some magical talent in this circle. I paid extra attention to Maude’s energy to my left, but I didn’t notice anything special about it. Lavinia’s was slightly stronger, but I still couldn’t tell exactly what was strange about it. The coven’s witches’ brand of power was something new to me.