The Witching Elm (A Memento Mori Witch Novel, Book 1)

by C. N. Crawford

  He fiddled with the locket of Eden’s hair at his neck. With a twinge of guilt, he realized that he hadn’t been thinking about her as much. Maybe she’d moved on, too. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes to peek at Fiona one last time before sinking into a dreamless sleep.

  * * *

  Screeching from within Mather Academy startled Tobias. Alarmed, he looked over at Fiona to find her already awake and upright, her hair snaking around her head.

  “What the hell is that noise?” Across the room, Thomas rubbed his eyes.

  Fiona blinked. “I think it’s the fire alarm.”

  A faint smell of smoke filled the room. Tobias sat up, trying to clear the fatigue from his head.

  “I’m going to see what’s happening.” Thomas sprang up.

  They followed him down the stone stairwell into the Caldwell Library, and the smell of smoke grew stronger. Screaming pierced through the walls. As Tobias reached the library exit, Connor knocked into him, falling backward on the landing. His lower lip quivered as he stared up at Tobias from the floor.

  “What’s happening?” asked Tobias.

  “As if you didn’t know!” A few drops of spit erupted from his mouth as he spoke, scrambling to his feet again. His eyes blazed. “Witch! Witch!”

  Tobias shook his head. “What?”

  “Calm down.” Thomas stepped forward. “What’s going on?”

  Tears sprung into Connor’s eyes and his cheeks reddened as he shouted. “Calm down? Are you crazy? The witches are outside. They killed all the police and lit the school on fire.” His eyes darted around the stairwell. “I’m not going outside. I don’t care if the school burns to the ground. I’m not getting my head cut off.”

  Tobias turned to Thomas and Fiona. “Can you two get the other girls? We’ll meet up back in the Adepti room.”

  “Will you be all right on your own?” said Thomas.

  “I’ll be fine,” said Tobias, already hurrying toward the boys’ wing. A few students ran up and down the stairs in a panic, many on their phones with their parents. Connor screamed for Munroe over and over in the stairwell.

  In the hallway, Tobias covered his nose with his shirt as the smell of smoke grew thicker, stinging his eyes. He rushed to his room as a couple of straggling students bumped into him.

  “There you are!” Alan shouted as he pushed the door open. “The building is on fire, but the Harvesters are killing people as they come out.”

  Tobias glanced out the window and saw the tapered hats and vined clothing of Harvesters on the other side of the gate. Some hurled fireballs toward the school, while others shot students with muskets as they escaped the flames. Tobias could see one of his classmates—Jared—lying on the ground. He writhed, clutching his bleeding stomach. Mulligan’s sagging body hung from the gates in a noose next to Grunshaw’s.

  Tobias’s heart hammered in his chest. “They must be after the jawbone. It’s up in the tower room. We have everything we need for the spell now. Bess can get me to Maremount through the tunnel.”

  “Get us to Maremount,” said Alan, leaping up.

  “It’s too dangerous for us all to go.”

  Alan threw his hands up. “Are you kidding me? We’re about two minutes away from death by supernatural army. My parents have been calling me nonstop convinced that I’m about to die, which I probably am. Have you seen our teachers?”

  He had a point. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  He opened the door and coughed as smoke swirled into the room from the hallway, but he stalled in the entryway. Coming toward him were Munroe, Connor, Sadie, and a dozen other students. Connor clutched a baseball bat, while Munroe gripped a knife in her right hand, her fiery hair streaming behind her as they approached.

  “Tell them to call off the attack!” Munroe screamed at Tobias, breaking into a run.

  He edged backward. “I’m not on their—”

  Before he could finish, Munroe yanked him out of the doorway and pushed him against the wall, pressing the knife to his throat. He felt a sliver of pain where the blade jabbed his skin.

  Her gray eyes were inches from his face. “Tell them to call off the attack,” she said in a low voice.

  For a second, he considered transforming, but he balked at using a spell in front of an angry mob of witch hunters.

  “He’s not a witch!” Alan shouted, pulling on Munroe’s arm.

  Munroe ripped the chalice off her neck with her left hand and pressed it against Tobias’s cheek. “I know someone killed Sully with magic,” she hissed. “Was it you?”

  He held her eyes with a steady gaze. “No.”

  She stared at his cheek, and her lower lip trembled. “Are you in league with the witches outside?”

  “No. I’m not with them.”

  Her brow crinkled in confusion, and she pulled the pendant away from his face, lowering the knife. “He’s telling the truth.” She raised the necklace in her hand. “This would’ve burned him if he’d lied. He’s not with them. Someone else killed Sully.” Tobias saw the fear in her eyes as she stepped away.

  “If it’s not him, then who killed Sully?” Connor screamed.

  “I don’t know,” she stammered.

  Tobias wasn’t with the Harvesters, but he knew what they wanted. What would happen to Munroe and the others if he left them there to be slaughtered?

  “What’s going on?” Thomas approached them through the hall, followed by the girls.

  Celia covered her mouth with her arm. Mariana doubled over, coughing in the acrid smoke.

  Fiona pulled her shirt up over her nose, her eyes streaming. “We need to get out of here! The building’s going to collapse around us.”

  Sadie rushed toward Munroe, gripping her arm. “Are you sure Tobias’s not with the witches outside? He can’t stop them?”

  “He’s not the Mather Witch,” barked Munroe.

  Sadie shouted, “What about Celia?” As Celia approached, Sadie’s freckled cheeks flushed. “Lucas said you refused to talk about your family. No one even knows where you come from.”

  Celia’s nostrils flared, and she crossed her arms, muttering something under her breath.

  Tobias held out his hands. “Everyone, stop. I have an idea. Just let me get up to the library.”

  As Munroe looked on, Sadie prowled toward Celia, narrowing her eyes. “Did you curse Sully? Did you bring the witches—” She blanched, suddenly stumbling back.

  Golden hair sprouted from Celia’s limbs as feline features transformed her face. Her back lurched forward over muscular, leonine legs. As the transformation spell was completed, light glinted off her sharp teeth. She growled at Sadie.

  The witch hunters shrieked, and Connor readied his baseball bat, tears in his eyes. They’d found their witch.

  Tobias’s fists clenched. “What are you doing?”

  “Celia’s the witch!” Munroe pointed her knife toward the mountain lion. “She never liked Sully.”

  The ceiling heaved and cracked above them. It was now unbearably hot in the hallway.

  “We need to get out,” said Thomas. His voice was muffled as he shielded his nose with his shirt. “Let’s go. Now.”

  A beam crashed at the end of the hall with a great boom, and a cloud of cinder and sparks erupted into the air. Someone pulled on Tobias’s arm—it was Thomas, dragging him toward the stairwell with the rest of the coven. Mariana coughed uncontrollably, trying to use the walls to steady herself, but they were too hot to touch. Fiona wrapped Mariana’s arm around her shoulder and dragged her along toward the library.

  Smoke stung Tobias’s eyes as they descended the stairs. What in the gods’ names was Celia up to? He pulled his shirt up over his face as they hurried through the smoldering library. There was a yelp as they reached the memorial plaque. It had burned Mariana’s hands as she opened it.

  Behind the rest of the coven, Tobias climbed the stairs into the Adepti room. The air was a little clearer, and Tobias caught his breath. The duffel bag of minister’s bones la
y in the corner, the King’s skull resting on top.

  Mariana gasped for breath between coughs. “What happened to Celia?”

  “I don’t know what she was doing,” said Tobias, running his hand through his hair. “I think we should just give them the skull. We’re condemning people to death if we don’t.”

  Fiona grabbed him by the shoulders. “Tobias—think about the big picture here. I know you don’t want our schoolmates to die, but if we can destroy the Harvesters, we’ll prevent a lot more deaths. Right? Otherwise they’ll just keep killing.”

  “You think that’s what we should do?” He rubbed his forehead with his palms, staring at the floor. “Fine. Maybe the other students will find a way out safely. We need more cakes for Bess.”

  “And the preacher’s bones.” Thomas held up the duffel bag.

  Mariana pulled out her phone. “Oh, thank God. Lucas made it out past the Harvesters. My family keeps calling me.”

  Tobias dove into Fiona’s stash of treats on one of the shelves. It felt like he hadn’t slept in a week. He filled the crook of his arm with half a dozen packaged cupcakes.

  As he stood, the door swung open. Celia tumbled in, covered in soot.

  “Thank God you’re okay,” said Mariana. “What happened to everyone else?”

  Clutched in Celia’s hands was a small plastic knife-block containing four kitchen knives. “This was all I could find in the kitchen. We might need weapons in Maremount, right?” She picked up Fiona’s backpack and shoved it in.

  Tobias shook his head. “Why did you have to transform just then?”

  “Let’s get going.” Celia frowned. “We can talk in the tunnel.”

  Thomas stepped forward, holding out his hand. “I’ll feel better at least if you let me carry the weapons.”

  “Fine.” She handed over the backpack, picking up the skull and jawbone. “I’ll take these.” She picked up Fiona’s large, cloth handbag, placing them inside.

  Laden with cake, bones, and kitchen knives, they stumbled down the hot-walled stairwell. Parts of the building cracked around them as they descended. Despite the musty air, Tobias breathed easier as they entered the cool passage below ground, marching toward Bess.

  The crone eyed them over the remains of a chocolate cupcake. “Back so soon?”

  “We need to get to Maremount,” said Tobias.

  “Also, you should probably know that the building’s burning down,” added Thomas.

  “What a muddle young people get themselves into.” Bess sighed.

  “We brought more cake for you.” Tobias unloaded an armful of cupcakes into her eager hands. “Can you say the Angelic spell for us?”

  “Not Angelic. Just English. I guess you’ll need it done now. Always in a hurry.” Bess tutted as she stood, rubbing the small of her back with her hand. “Follow me.”

  As they moved among the rows of bone-lined shelves, Tobias could hear Mariana’s labored breathing behind him.

  “What’s wrong with her breathing?” Bess asked. “Has she got the consumption?”

  “There was a lot of smoke,” said Mariana. “There are people trying to kill us upstairs.”

  “Well, don’t worry.” Bess fought with the plastic packaging of a cupcake as she walked. “There’s not much to fear down here, except old Claw-fingered Jack, of course.” She ripped the package open and shoved a pink cupcake in her mouth.

  Claw-fingered Jack. Hopefully that was just Bess’s sense of humor. Finally, they arrived at a wall at the end of the passage. A high dirt ceiling curved over their heads, and artfully arranged bones were embedded in the walls. Lines of skulls formed columns and crosses. In the center of it all, ribs and femurs created a rounded door shape.

  Bess turned to face them. “You’re sure you want to go?” She had a smear of pink frosting across her chin.

  “We’re sure. We’ll die if we don’t,” said Tobias.

  “You’ll die no matter what!” She let out a wheezy laugh. When no one returned the laughter, she cleared her throat and faced the bone-wall. She recited:

  See saw, sacradown, sacradown,

  Which is the way to Maremount Town?

  One foot up, the other foot down.

  That is the way to Maremount Town.

  And just the same, over dale and hill,

  Is also the way to wherever you will.

  Within the door, the femurs and ribs trembled. A few popped out onto the ground before each row of bones rattled down in a cloud of dirt, exposing an opening over six feet high. Coughing, Tobias stepped back from the heap of bones, staring into the doorway. Though it was large enough to climb through, it was difficult to see where it led.

  Tobias turned to her. “Will we be able to come back?”

  “Just say it again, but with Boston.” She turned, hobbling away.

  “Thank you,” he said, and he stepped over the pile of bones and through the entrance, followed closely by the others.

  “Tobias?” Bess croaked.

  He turned to see her striding toward him. “Yes?”

  She stood just inches from his face now, and she dropped her cake. A gnarled hand grasped his shoulder, and her filmy eyes opened wide, clouding over. Her jaw unhinged, and she screamed her piercing and melodious scream. Tobias’s stomach clenched at the sound.

  “Who?” Tobias demanded, as she unlatched her hand from his shoulder. “Who is going to die?”

  Bess glanced around for her cake, and she brushed off the dirt as she picked it up off the ground. “I don’t know that, dear.”

  Tobias stared at her as she took a deep breath and shuffled off, seemingly exhausted from her work.

  “Maybe it’s just a grandmother or something,” Alan offered.

  “I don’t have a grandmother,” said Tobias.

  “Probably Munroe,” Mariana said. “Or Connor, or Sadie, or any of the others.”

  “They were trying to climb down the vines outside when I left them,” said Celia. “They might’ve made it out with Munroe’s magic blood. Let’s go.”

  “Maybe we should have taken them to Maremount,” said Fiona as they began trudging through the tunnel.

  “I don’t think you understand.” Tobias called up an orb to guide them through the darkness, and it cast a faint light on glistening mud walls. “Maremount won’t be any safer.”

  41

  Tobias

  There were no bones in this tunnel, just the dirt and the damp. Tobias envisioned the earthen ceiling crumbling and caving in on them, burying them in between worlds. He swallowed. He had a terrible feeling that he would be the one to die.

  Fiona walked beside him. “You don’t think it’s going to be one of us, do you?”

  He took a deep breath. “We just need to stick together when we get there. You’ll be okay. We’ve got the invisibility spell.”

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, frowning at it. “I don’t know what happened to Jack.”

  Tobias bit his lip. “Well, at least you know he escaped the Harvesters once before. He seems to know how to take care of himself.”

  “I guess so.” She sighed, shoving her phone back in her pocket.

  They walked through the dank tunnel air, and the ceiling got lower as they pressed on.

  “Celia,” Tobias began. “Are you going to tell us why you decided to transform into a lion in front of our schoolmates?”

  Celia sighed. “Sadie made me angry, for one thing. Going on about Lucas.”

  “And for another?” Tobias frowned.

  “You said you had a plan to end the attack and needed to get to the library. I didn’t want you to give up the skull.” She sounded annoyed.

  “Because you wanted to get the Harvesters out of Boston for good?” said Fiona. “I agree.”

  “It’s not just that. I want Rawhed out of Maremount.”

  Tobias found it hard to breathe in the soggy tunnel air. “Why do you care so much about Maremount?”

  Celia spoke in a small voice. “Because it’s
my home.”

  Tobias stopped walking, and Celia bumped into his back. He pivoted to face her.

  “Wait—what?” Fiona turned to her friend.

  Tobias’s mind reeled. From Maremount? “What are you doing here?” He stepped toward her. “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

  She took a step back, almost as if scared. “I was sent to Boston when I was five. When my father executed my mom.” She trailed her fingers over the handbag containing the skull. “Boston is where exiled members of the royal family have always been sent. To Mather Academy.”

  Tobias’s mouth hung open. Is she joking?

  “There used to be a man who’d come to check on me,” she continued. “I called him Uncle Perkins. But he stopped coming after Rawhed took over. And you said the royal family have been imprisoned.”

  “Who are you?” His voice was a harsh whisper.

  “Lady Celestine Throcknell. But I used to be a princess,” she said with a note of sadness.

  “You’re the missing princess?” Thomas’s asked incredulously. “I saw your family tree.”

  Tobias couldn’t believe what he was hearing. So this was why she’d been so interested in all the royal gossip.

  Celia lifted the handbag and sighed. “Can we go now? I still want to kill Rawhed. My father may have exiled me, but my cousins are in Maremount. They’re the only family I have.”

  As Mariana and Alan looked on, open-mouthed with shock, Tobias shook his head. “You’ve been lying to us. How do I know we can we trust you?”

  Celia looked down at the ground in frustration. “Look, I couldn’t tell anyone. Perkins told me Rawhed was rounding up royals. And I know Tobias was here in secret, but it’s different for him. He’s just a Tatter.” She looked over at him. “No offense. I mean, you speak very well and everything. But it’s not like anyone will really care what happens to you.”

  “Celia!” cried Fiona.

  “That came out wrong.” Celia’s eyes welled up. “I just meant he’s not a political target or whatever.”