Clapping my hands before we rounded the conversation in a circle. We had to move forward. “As we know little about dragons, we don’t know how to defeat them. We know the lore, the tales, but there’s nothing in stone.” I opened my arms out and my book of shadows appeared in them like I was a pedestal.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Phil said. “Lore always states, to kill the beast, you take the heart.”
“I thought it was the head,” Cass grumbled.
He rolled his eyes to the back of his head. “Sure, sometimes it is the head, but most of the time it’s the heart. The heart pumps the blood, no blood, no power—unless—” he tssked his teeth together, and sighed, squinting at me, hoping for me to finish his thought.
“Unless it’s a vampire,” I said. “With all the blood in their body, regeneration happens quickly. It’s why vampires are the most common of all, the little vampire mites get into the blood, and you’re gone.” I shuddered. “Best to go for the head of a vampire.”
Snarling her lips in disgust, Cassandra glared at both of us. “Got it,” she grumbled.
My book of shadows opened and flipped to a double-spread. “Dragons,” I read aloud. “The great dragon slayer?”
“I bet it says the heart,” Phil chuckled.
And true to a fault, it was the heart. There wasn’t much in the way of knowing whether it was their human heart, or the form of their dragon—and if that was even a thing at all. My mind was populated with pictures of cartoons and illustrations of large winged reptiles flying around.
“What do we need?” Cassandra asked, pressing a finger down on her thumb, ready to list. “We need to kill the dragon, and then—”
“Destroy the stone,” I said. “We can’t let it get out.”
“It’s a beacon of power,” Phil said, as if neither of us understood the consequences of it getting out of our hands and into the hands of someone else. “People will kill to get their hands on it.” He snapped his fingers once again. “It’s gonna be powerful. Kill two birds with one stone—literally. He can be killed using the stone.”
“We can try,” I said. “And people like the investor?”
“A witch killing another witch?” Cassandra grumbled. “Would they?”
It has happened, and often over power, for when a witch goes mad. “Let’s not bother ourselves with that,” I said. “If there was another witch here, I’m sure they would have made themselves known when we were underground.” I glanced at my dirty feet once again, I’d trailed the mud all the way inside.
“It’s important we get them both done swiftly,” Phil said. “One can go for the crystal, and the other for the dragon.”
I glanced at them both. “One for the crystal, and the rest on the dragon.” I slammed the book shut, letting it disappear into the air. “I’m going for a shower, try and get myself energized before the end of the world.”
“The potential end,” Cass added.
It wasn’t a suicide mission, I continued telling myself, but we should have listened more carefully to what Ford had to say. He knew more than all of us put together. I knew he wouldn’t have been able to tell us anything that would have changed the future, so I didn’t put weight to his words—that might have been my mistake.
Twenty minutes later, and I was much more refreshed. The stench of smoke hadn’t completely vanished from inside my nostrils, but I could breath better not having to smell the dirt around myself.
“I have an athame,” Cassandra said approaching me in the kitchen as I prepared tea. She presented me the ceremonial witch blade.
“Did you—”
“Steal it. Yes.”
I didn’t approve of theft, but given her history of powerful items, I could only smile. But also, I was still slightly ashamed for having lost all her other items. “Keep it on you for the time being.”
“Okay,” she said. “So, will I be attacking or looking for the crystal?”
My mind hadn’t got that far into the plan yet. I’d assumed I’d be the one looking for the crystal, but perhaps she had more experience, given her family background and the wealth of crystals she’d been around.
“Tea?” I asked.
We’d need to be prepared for what was to come, and tea softened the blow.
TWENTY-ONE
Jinx transformed into the arctic cat her owner had bestowed upon her and Ivory grew three times in size. We were ready and prepared with an abundance of items at our disposal. The only item we were missing was the greasy war paint to mark our cheeks.
But there was nobody outside.
With windows still boarded and paths covered in sharp objects, I wondered where everyone had gone. They couldn’t have all fit inside Mick’s house, especially if it was the same layout as mine.
“They’ve got to be somewhere,” I said. “Be aware.”
“On guard.”
“Ready.”
Jinx lead us along the path as if the leader to our pack. Ivory flittered above.
We had no reason to hide the magic as we walked towards Greg’s house, aiming to see if Mick was home, or whether he was running his underground blood drive beneath his house.
Greg’s windows were boarded up, including his letterbox. He certainly had a lot of work on his hands once all of this was over with, but the High Witch herself would probably snap her fingers and be done with the whole thing; sealing herself into a Sleeping Beauty slumber afterwards.
“Do we go inside?” Cassandra asked as we stood at the foot of the garden path.
The gate was wide open, almost inviting us inside. “Perhaps it’s a trap,” I said.
“Only one way—” Phil began, his voice drifting off as he appeared to open the front door from the inside. “No, nobody inside.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, hurrying up to him. “We just watched people march in here.”
“It’s actually quite bleak.”
I plugged my nose with a sharp pinch. The reek of cigar smoke filled my lungs. “Whatever he was doing, this smell covered it up for so long.”
“How long do you think it’s been going on for?” Cassandra asked in a squeak as no air escaped from her nose either. “Before you came back, or after?”
“Definitely before,” I said. Mick had lived here for years, or at least that’s the impression Greg had given me. “I think us showing up was more of a happy accident.”
She nodded. “He didn’t seem bothered by us at all.”
“And the last time I met him,” I grumbled, thinking back to standing inside Greg’s kitchen, he made a remark about stealing from Greg. He stank of smoke, surrounded by a cloud of the stuff constantly. “The last time I met him, I wanted him to leave me alone immediately.”
“Didn’t you suspect him?” Phil asked.
“Suspicious?” I questioned, stepping further into the house. “Sure. I wondered why he was so odd, but that’s how some people are. They’re naturally odd, and they’re not always suspicious.”
Every single room in his one-storey house was bare. Not a single item of furniture, and yet smoke clung to every room like it owned the space—the walls were white, and not a single one stained the yellow I’d assume came from smoking so much.
“I don’t trust this place,” I said.
“It’s too clean,” Phil added.
“Ivory and Jinx don’t even want to come in,” Cassandra said. “We should get to the garden.”
“Greg complained about him burning stuff.”
“Maybe it was all his furniture,” Phil chuckled.
On the back garden, Ivory and Jinx were both circling a shed in the centre of the short grass. Dirt patches of scorched earth lay were Mick had spent time burning whatever it was dragons burnt. My thoughts flickered to bodies, perhaps he was burning bodies out here.
“Who wants to open it?” I asked.
“I volunteer Phil,” Ivory snapped.
I clapped my hands twice. “That was quick,” I said. “Go on, Phil.” I looked him ov
er as he squinted at me. “You said you owed me one, so I think this is getting part of the way there.”
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll open the door.”
He pulled the shed door open.
Nothing.
It was a boring shed with nothing inside.
“I think it’s like the one in the woods,” I said, peering inside. “But there doesn’t appear to be any stairs.” I stepped one foot inside, tapping on the dirt to see if it would move. It didn’t budge. It was solid, no trap door. “I don’t know where they went.”
“Maybe there’s a button?” Cassandra grumbled, stepping inside the shed with me. “Maybe there’s something we can press, like an elevator.”
I stepped out of the shed to look around it. Both Ivory and Jinx were gone. “Where’re the familiars?” I asked.
“No idea,” Phil said from inside the shed.
“They’re probably out on the front,” Cass said.
I approached the open gate and looked out over the front garden. There was no sign of them. I didn’t want to shout, it would only rouse Greg and he was too close for me to finish this without him getting involved.
As I walked back to the shed, the door was closed.
“Did you find anything?” I asked, knocking twice.
Silence.
“Cassandra? Philip?”
I kicked the door wide open. On the ground, Cassandra’s rings laid flat, as did the athame she’d carried at her belt. I recalled an earlier thought, crushing my brain, they were beneath all of Cottonwood, and it was only a matter of—
Whom.
I was swallowed whole at my feet.
TWENTY-TWO
Coming out the other end, I had nothing. My fingers bare, the crystals gone. My body full of dirt crumbs from the passage down. The room was still a dirt box, but brighter, illuminating the shades of brown around us.
“Evanora!” Cassandra called from behind.
Cass, Phil, Ivory, and Jinx, each of them lined against the wall. I turned on a foot, sharp to see all areas of the room we were inside once again, but then—
I saw his face.
He stared directly ahead at me. “Hello,” he cooed with a wave. “Nice to meet you. Once again.” He moved, revealing a podium made of dirt and a large opalescent crystal on display. “Like what you see?”
I couldn’t get a read on what type of gemstone it was.
“It’s from my family’s collection,” Cassandra said. “I see it now.” She tried moving, but her feet were planted firm in the soil. I wondered if he knew what we’d done last time to free ourselves. “It’s called the Queen’s Opal.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Mick scoffed, spitting out smoke into the air, wafting it around with the sharp end of his tail. “It’s being used to suck out all the energy from the underling creatures, seeking new beginnings.”
“And you want to—”
“Want to take the power, create much more vicious creatures,” he said.
My stomach hurt at the thought. I glanced to my feet, they weren’t yet planted in dirt. “Who’s your investor? Is she a witch?” I asked, approaching him.
His tail whipped at the space around my feet. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
I didn’t want to find out later. I wanted to know now. I made a run for the stone, but seconds before I could reach it, a whoosh of motion appeared before my eyes and two giant figures appeared, bulky brick figures like the man I’d taken a chunk out of in the hall.
“In line with your friends,” Mick said.
Ivory and Jinx were both muzzled inside the cages. Cassandra and Phil against the wall, their feet stuck to the ground. A man carried me, placing me at Cassandra’s side. She took my hand immediately.
‘Our powers aren’t gone,’ she told me telepathically.
‘We can absorb power through the walls,’ I replied. ‘That’s how I got us out before.’
Up to our ankles in dirt, I closed my eyes and felt around for power. It was everywhere, surging through the earth. This was possibly the worst place we could have been for Mick. This was his central base.
All this energy would’ve made Greg happy, this was great for the soil, the entire town of Cottonwood will be a constant state of bloom afterwards.
As witches, we weren’t natural aggressors, we had abilities, but we weren’t trained to use them to attack, only to defend ourselves.
The more power I pulled in, encouraging Cassandra to do the same, the more I knew we’d have to be quick. The way he was acting and singing to himself was unbearable, it was like he’d already got away with it.
“Now,” I said.
Telekinetically throwing the two lumps of clay men around, like bulls, barging into everything, sending shockwaves and damage through the room. They collided with the walls, they vibrated through the ground with their stomping, breaking the bonds that caged the familiars.
Jinx was already on Mick, jumping at him, catching her claws in his thick beard.
Ivory sent sound through the ground, freeing the grasp it had on our feet.
“We need to get to the gemstone,” I said.
Cassandra hurried forward for it. As the youngest and most energetic, the role suited her very well. She made a direct line for it.
Thump.
Two more clay monsters appeared in place, tackling Cassandra to the ground.
Homing in on more energy, I sent a spiral of telekinetic energy at them, blowing chunks out of their bodies and freeing Cassandra from their grasp.
“Quick!” I shouted.
Mick was occupied with Jinx as she tore at his beard.
This box of dirt wasn’t big enough for a dragon, if he could even transform into such a beast. Nobody would survive if he did.
The clay monsters beat themselves up as Ivory blasted bolts of sound at them, cutting like knives through their bodies.
“Cassandra, now,” I said.
She was at the podium, staring down at the gemstone.
It flashed, sending bright lights through the room.
She was transfixed.
“Meowww!” a howl came from Jinx as she was thrown across the room, hitting the wall and landing on the dirt ground.
“Cass, no—”
She was gone, she ran to Jinx.
“I can’t,” Phil said from my side. “I can’t touch it.”
He was right. He couldn’t. It was draining monsters of their powers. It was killing them. This was done by a witch. It was hexed to perform as an energy draining device, and the dragon was nothing but a guard dog, sitting outside its owner’s fence on a leash.
“Teleport me.”
“I can’t. My powers don’t—”
I hooked a hand around his waist. “Now.”
Within the millisecond, we were at the gem.
My hands on it, I felt its warmth, its power. My body shivered with the aggressive ripple of energy. I pulled it up into my hands, heaving it against my chest.
Heavy with all the souls it had taken.
Thwap.
A laser-precise tail whacked my wrist, forcing the stone from my hand into the dirt.
“Not today,” Mick laughed.
Holding my wrist, I smirked in his direction.
He couldn’t touch it either.
I dropped to my knees and grabbed at the stone, but it was slipping, it was sinking into the dirt, falling deeper and deeper. I dug with my nails, clawing it out as fast as I could, as hard as I could.
The faster I dug, the hotter the crystal became.
Phil ran off, but I was focused on my fingers, pooling up clumps of dirt from the earth. I had to get this out. I had to get this out before it dropped into someone else’s hands, someone more dangerous than Mick.
“Let me help,” Ivory snapped, landing with a thud at my side. “Close your ears.”
I pressed muddy fingers into my ears as Ivory screamed, softening the dirt around the gem. I removed my fingers and dug harder, but it made the gem sink faster. H
ooking my fingers, deep, I scooped.
It was out.
The heat was growing. Gnawing at my hands like a hot plate.
My next move hadn’t been planned. There was nowhere to go. But I knew Mick couldn’t handle it. And if I kept a hold of it, it would burn right through my skin. There was no winning. There was nothing to tell me what to do next.
“Nora!” Phil shouted. “From inside.” He gestured to Mick, laying on the ground as Jinx, larger than before, pawed at his face.
Bundled in my arms, I chased with my feet and the heat of the crystal, rushing to Mick as he laid on the ground.
“Open his mouth!” I snapped, juggling the gem from hand to hand. “Open it wider!”
Once Mick’s mouth was open wide, I looked him in the eyes, they were smiling, his tail still in the floor. He knew what was coming next, and he didn’t mind. He didn’t fear it happening.
“Do it!” Cassandra said.
“Neco,” I whispered to the stone. The Latin word for kill, to murder, like an explosive. It was dark. The stone grew hotter in my hands, sweating my palms.
I dropped it into his mouth, getting stuck at the teeth.
“It won’t go in,” Cass said. “It’ll exp—”
“I’ve got it,” Phil said. “We have what—seconds?”
“No!”
Phil jumped across Mick’s face, securing the stone.
We were pushed back.
A whoosh exploded, forcing us into the dirt against the wall, sticking us still like bugs. Dust warped around the room like a tornado of dirt. I closed my eyes, screwing them shut. It flung into my face and battered against my glasses, sure they’d smashed them.
Then, it stopped altogether.
TWENTY-THREE
I woke to a breeze and something sharp aching into my leg. I didn’t know how long I’d been down. A bright light ate at my eyelids. My eyes flickered open, but the world around me was a blur. Had we lost?
Through my broken glasses, I saw only fragments of scorched earth around me, and directly ahead, strands of grass dances wildly.
The ache hit once again.
“Up you come,” a voice spoke, it was quiet but squeaky.
The Enigma on Eden Road Page 8
