9. Dark Arts
Melissa sniffed a few times, curled and uncurled her toes a few more, and then explained.
‘I ... I have a dark power, Wanda. Do you remember meeting my great great great great grandmother?’
Even as I was about to tell her that, no, I didn’t remember the woman, her face flashed across my mind. ‘Yeah! I do remember her, actually. She’s a bloody vampire!’
Melissa nodded. ‘She turned five hundred last year, and she still looks twenty-three. Anyway, no one in the family seemed to have inherited the vampire virus from her. For generations, the witch gene came out on top. But then I came along. And for some reason, I did inherit some of her vampiric abilities. I have none of the icky traits of the vampire virus, thank the stars. No urge to drink blood. But I have the power to compel – to hypnotise, the way vampires do. It was completely unexpected, and it took many years before I realised it myself. But once I did ... once I did, some things began to make sense to me.’ Melissa twirled her fingers, and a small scrying bowl and ice-cube appeared in the air. ‘I’d ... I’d already used the power before I knew I had it. I used it on you. My mother helped me search for the moment when it happened.’
‘When what happened?’
‘When I granted you your wish. Or rather, when I helped you grant your own wish.’
She dropped the ice-cube in the bowl, and a vision began to play.
≈
‘You get like this every birthday, Wanda,’ said Melissa. ‘Come and study with me. It’ll take your mind off it.’ She opened up a book called Simple Spells and Incantations for Fifth Years. That would have made us about sixteen in the vision. Instead of going to join her at the large desk in her bedroom, I ripped off my Pendant of Privilege and began stamping it into the ground.
‘I’m sick of using your books to study!’ Tears were streaming down my face. ‘I’m sick of pretending. We’re living in a human enclave, Melissa. All because of me. I’m going to a stupid human school and learning stupid human stuff, and sneaking in all the witch learning I can on the side. It’s been years. I’m sixteen today for Gretel’s sake. Sixteen! This time next year you’ll be finishing up at Riddler’s Cove School and I ... I can’t even use a training wand.’
Melissa closed her book. ‘Yeah, but once you become empowered, you’ll be miles ahead of the rest of us. You can recite every single spell and incantation known to the witching world. You know everything, Wanda. All that’s missing is the magic to put it into play. And that will come. I know it will.’
I sank to the floor, crying my heart out. ‘It won’t, Melissa. I know it won’t. I know it because you’ve been saying the same thing to me every single birthday, and nothing ever changes. You all say it to me, day after day, and yet here I am, another year gone by and I’m still an unempowered witch. I work so hard. I read all of your books, even though I’m not supposed to. Mam teaches me everything she knows, even though she could get in a lot of trouble. I’ve been putting you all in danger for years because I have this stupid need to know everything. And for what? I might know the ingredients that go into a doppelganger potion, but I don’t have the magic it would take to brew one. I might know the eight hundred word long incantation it takes to break a love spell, but again ... kind of lacking in the magic it needs to back it up. I’m putting all of you at risk, because I hope, each and every day, that it’s going to be the day when I finally feel that tingle. I have to stop it, Melissa. It hurts. It hurts like hell, but I have to stop it.’
Melissa crossed the room and sat down beside me, stroking my hair. ‘I don’t think that’s possible, Wanda. You’re a prodigy. Everyone in this coven knows it. Do you know how jealous I am of how clever you are? Of how quickly you learn things? And as jealous as I am ... I could never stop sharing my books with you. And our mothers would rather die than stop teaching you what they know. Have you never noticed how excited they get when you learn something seemingly difficult in, oh, three seconds flat?’
‘I don’t care.’ I pulled away from her, standing up and shaking my head. ‘I don’t care anymore. I don’t. I don’t need to learn all this stuff. Like I said, it’s no good to me. And it’s downright dangerous for all of you. You could all be thrown in Witchfield for teaching magical secrets to an unempowered witch.’ I turned to look out the window. ‘You know what I wish? I wish I could forget everything I know. I wish I could forget how easy all of this comes to me. Because the fact that I find all of the theory so easy, Melissa ... that’s what makes not being able to put it into practice so hard.’
She rushed over to me, pulling me into her arms. ‘That’s not what you really want. It can’t be. I know it can’t. You can still be a part of our coven, Wanda. You have so much to offer. You don’t need magic to be able to work as a Wayfair.’
‘No.’ I left her grasp again. ‘That’s where you’re wrong. In our world you need magic for everything. Most of all, you need it to belong. And it’s cutting me up inside, Melissa. To know so much and be able to do nothing with it. I really do wish it – I wish I could forget everything I know about magic.’
She looked me in the eyes. Hers had gone an incredibly deep shade of green. And in the scrying bowl I could see my own eyes, focused on hers, held there by something I hadn’t noticed at the time. ‘You know what?’ she said. ‘There’s a weird part of me that almost wishes the same. Because I know it would be easier for you. I wish you could just put us out of your head. Ignore all of us, forget everything you know. Leave all of the magic of our world behind you until the day you become empowered.’
Her eyes went even greener, and I stumbled a little, holding my head and moving to the bed.
‘Are you okay?’ She rushed to my side. In the vision, I could see that her eyes were beginning to return to their normal hue.
‘I’m fine. I just went a bit weird for a second. Must be all that cake I ate at my birthday dinner. Talk about a sugar rush!’ I laughed. ‘It was really good cake, though.’
Melissa gave a confused frown. ‘Wow. You’ve cheered up really quickly.’
‘Why wouldn’t I be happy? It’s my birthday.’
She gave me a relieved smile. ‘I’m so glad. So come on, then. Let’s get back to the book.’
‘Book?’ I glanced at the text book on her desk and rolled my eyes. ‘You know what? Some of the girls from my human school are heading into town tonight. I think I might go along with them.’ I stood up, and without a second glance at Melissa, I left the room.
≈
Long after the vision faded away in the bowl, I still couldn’t look up at Melissa.
‘I’m so sorry, Wanda. You have to believe me. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know that I could do it. Not then. I thought that you’d just made a sort of resolution to yourself that day. To put us all behind you like you wanted to.’
‘I did.’ My voice was flat. ‘That’s all that happened. I chose to put the supernatural world behind me because it hurt too much.’
‘I might be able to believe that.’ Melissa pulled her feet into a Lotus position. ‘Except you forgot nearly everything. Wanda, the girl who could commit an entire text book to memory in a couple of hours. The girl who could pull a broom apart and put it back together again in a flash. You really forgot that Warren Lane existed? You actually thought it was perfectly normal for a witch – even an unempowered one – to have never heard of the Hilltop Hotel?’
I heard another creaking noise outside my bedroom door, and waved my finger over the bowl, whispering, ‘Reform.’ The Frozen Stare rose from the bowl in droplets, hardening and turning to ice. ‘You can come in and have your vision back now, Christine,’ I said. ‘And bring my mam with you, while you’re at it.’
My mother’s head appeared around the door, Christine’s just behind. ‘You have ears like a bat,’ said Christine.
Dizzy, who had been silent for some time, looked up and said, ‘Ahem.’
‘It was meant as a compliment, Dizzy.’ Christine waved a h
and in the air and the Frozen Stare disappeared. ‘I’ve sent it back to the freezer,’ she said.
Melissa gave me the big eyes. ‘I really hope that’s not where our relationship is headed, Wanda.’
‘You great big eejit.’ I pulled her into a hug. ‘Of course it’s not. But I’m still a bit confused. I mean, it’s not like I actually forgot things altogether. How can you guys even be sure that Melissa has this dark power? Or that what she said to me that day had any real effect? I mean, I wanted to forget. I wanted to leave everything magical behind me. Maybe I really am stubborn enough to make something like that happen.’
My mother and Christine sat on my little window seat, wringing their hands. They were both in their pyjamas. Christine’s were a classy, silky green; my mother’s were decorated with orange pumpkins, and she wore fluffy cat slippers on her feet.
‘We thought the same for a while,’ said my mam. ‘We believed you were just doing an incredibly good job of burying your head in the sand. Because like you say, you are definitely stubborn enough to manage such a thing. But as time went by, it became more and more obvious that something in you had changed. You didn’t so much as look at a magic book again, and as soon as you passed your Leaving Certificate, you moved out and got a job and a houseshare in a human enclave. Then, when Melissa’s dark power started to manifest a bit more often, we put two and two together.’
Melissa hung her head. ‘Yeah. When one or two of my boyfriends did exactly what I told them to, it was kind of hard to ignore the unicorn in the room.’
‘Like what, exactly?’ I knew there were more important things for me to focus on right now, but I really wanted to know what Melissa did to her boyfriends.
Her face was bright red. ‘You can tell her, Mam,’ she mumbled.
Christine nodded. ‘Fine, if you want me to. Well, I suppose one of the first truly obvious signs was when the vainest boy in Melissa’s class suddenly started to believe he was ugly. I mean, he was, but he’d never been able to see it himself until Melissa pointed it out. He started wearing a mask every day, poor thing. He still doesn’t come out in public without it. Another one jumped into a lake, just because she told him to. Thankfully he was a good swimmer. Another went one further and jumped off a cliff.’
‘I had my broom with me that day, luckily,’ Melissa added. ‘I managed to save him.’ Her mouth twitched a little bit. ‘Although I might have left it until the very last moment.’
‘Well, he had two timed you,’ Christine pointed out. ‘Not that I’m condoning chucking boyfriends off of cliffs. But you reap what you sow, and he certainly sowed himself everywhere he could.’
Melissa shuddered. ‘I haven’t driven anyone over the edge for a while, thank the stars. But I’m still not exactly delighted to have a power like this. I mean, I wonder every day if I’m compelling people without knowing. Do any of my boyfriends actually fancy me, or do I just convince them they do?’
‘Yeah, right.’ I snorted. ‘Have you seen you?
Dizzy let out a delightful little bat giggle. ‘Maybe Melissa doesn’t really look like that. Maybe she’s just used her vamp powers to convince us she’s good-looking.’
Melissa tapped her nose. ‘That is a possibility. But I’m not telling you, either way.’
The atmosphere in the room was lifting, thank the goddess. Or thank the bat. I was beginning to accept what I’d just been told. And it made so much more sense than anything had before. Because of course my mother wouldn’t have just sat aside and let me have no magical education. She wasn’t really a roll over sort of witch. Neither was Christine, nor Melissa.
And even if I’d never been to Warren Lane before I ventured there back in June, I really should have remembered it. It was where Crooked College was. The Wyrd Court. A place as famous as Warren Lane should have stuck to my mind like super glue. Melissa was right. She had compelled me. And now there was a danger that a few too many memory holes remained.
But even though I was beginning to process what I was being told, there were still some things I didn’t quite understand. ‘So ... how come you’ve all waited until now, though? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I was happy not knowing, in a weird way. I think it really was a blessing. I was still sore as hell about not being empowered. But I can remember it so vividly now that I’ve seen the Frozen Stare. I remember how it felt to be filled with magical knowledge, but completely impotent. It was the most horrible feeling in the world. I’m grateful that I was spared a few years of that, at least.’
Melissa swallowed. ‘Really? So I didn’t mess your life up?’ She shook her head and rolled her eyes. ‘Listen to me. Totally self-involved. You wanted to know why we’re telling you now?’ She glanced at my mother. ‘Beatrice? Maybe you should explain.’
My mother took a deep breath. ‘Like you say, you were happier forgetting how much you knew. So even though it hurt us when you moved away from us, we only wanted the best for you. Oh, we still missed you like mad. Well, you know that, seeing as we turned up in every single human enclave you moved into, just to be near you. We had this feeling, this certainty, that you would become empowered, and we wanted to be near you when you did.’ She shook her head. ‘But I’m veering off the point here, amn’t I? When you eventually did become empowered, and you started to recall the things you’d learned about magic slowly but surely, we thought it was a good thing.’
Christine nodded. ‘Melissa wanted to try and undo her hypnotism, but we thought it was better to let things take their natural course. Rather than having it all rush back into your mind and overwhelm you. So we answered all of your questions when you had them, but other than that we let you take your time.’
‘And then you aced Tall Tales,’ said Melissa. ‘We were positive that we’d made the right decision. It seemed like my hypnotism had fully left you.’
‘Ah, but then I was a total mess at Simple Spells and Incantations, so you changed your mind again and decided to tell me?’
My mother snorted. ‘Nonsense! Everyone takes a bit of time to get used to a wand. But ... we are worried. Melissa was inexperienced when she compelled you. And some things are taking longer to come back to you than others. Oh, you’re remembering your skills, creating incantations just like you used to when you were a child. Making potions that impress even Ronnie. But ... you’re still taking your time with other things. Melissa is worried that she might have done long term damage.’
Melissa buried her head in her feet, reminding me that I still hadn’t gone to a yoga class with her. Probably just as well – I wasn’t sure I wanted to be able to get that close to my own feet.
‘But Christine and I think that things are working their way out in their own time,’ my mother added. ‘So we’ll leave the decision up to you. Do you want to let things come back the way they are – slowly but surely – or do you want Melissa to try and counter what she did back then?’
Dizzy cuddled into me while I looked around at them all. I could feel his little heart beating, making me feel safe. ‘I think ... I think I’d love to let things come back naturally. If I had the time. But if I really knew all of these things, I need to know them again. Quickly. Because in a couple of days I’ll be in Carmel Plimpton’s class again. And she is not going to make my exam easy.’ I looked at Melissa. ‘You can do it, right? Or ... undo it?’
She nodded confidently. ‘I’ve had a lot of practice since then. I think it’s for the best to undo the hypnotism. I was so inexperienced when I compelled you, and I think that’s why everything hasn’t returned to you all at once. I think it’s safer all round if I give you a jolt. But only if you’re absolutely sure.’
‘One hundred percent,’ I said. ‘Do your stuff.’
She jumped off the bed and knelt down in front of me. ‘Okay. So you need to look into my eyes.’
I met her gaze. Her big green eyes took on an odd, soft stare and I found myself unable to look away.
‘You used to know so much,’ she said softly. ‘You were the cleverest wi
tch I’ve ever known. I want you to know it all again. I want it to rush back into your mind, like it was never gone. I want you to welcome it, Wanda. Be happy for it. I want you to be exactly what you were always meant to be.’
Her hand slipped out of mine, and her eyes returned to normal. ‘That’s it?’ I gawked at her. ‘That didn’t sound very official. I mean, your voice was kind of husky and weird but ... whoa!’ I put my hand to my head. It felt like the whole room was swirling. ‘How come I feel dizzy even though I’m sitting down?’
‘It’ll pass,’ Melissa assured me.
No sooner had she said the words, than the feeling left me, to be replaced by ... nothing. ‘I feel completely normal,’ I said in confusion. ‘I don’t feel like you’ve done any weird vampire mojo at all.’
‘Oh yeah? Melissa smirked at me. ‘So you don’t suddenly remember the travelling coordinates for the nearest beach?’
I gulped. ‘Three pigs by four eels.’ I smacked a hand to my mouth. ‘Oh my stars! I haven’t learned how to travel by coordinates yet.’
‘No.’ My mother laughed. ‘But you had pretty much every major coordinate committed to memory when you were a child, because you couldn’t wait to be able to snap your fingers and go to the Eiffel Tower.’
‘Two hundred grouse by eighty cows. Wait. Why do we use animals to mark coordinates? Oh, no ... hang on a minute. I know that too. It’s because that’s how many poor unfortunate creatures used to get sacrificed for each journey back when witches convinced themselves they needed to do that sort of thing.’ I shuddered. ‘And I do know the anti love-spell incantation!’
Melissa laughed. ‘Of course you do. That’s what we’re telling you, Wanda. You are now, and always have been, the biggest nerd in the world.’
10. Witchfield
The next morning, Max decided to take Wolfie to the stall to work with him and Lassie for the day. I wasn’t sure how helpful an enormous dog could be, but Wolfie would certainly enjoy it more than being cooped up with three cats and a bat who hated him. It was a nice morning, so I decided to walk there with them. As we neared the stall, the smell of fresh-baked doughnuts drifted out from Caulfield’s.
A Trick for a Treat (A Wayfair Witches' Cozy Mystery #3) Page 7
