Silence again before Aidan broke it.
“The thing is,” Aidan explained, “we’re headed to war. Man and witch, mostly, but the sides are blurred.”
Man oh man. I swallowed passed the lump in my throat.
Then I asked, “Why are we here, in London? It has to be safer at home.”
“You’re safe with me,” Ash said. “And I’d been called to London. So you had to come to London.”
“I would have been safe at The Gables.”
Ash just looked at me.
“There are protection spells… an entire coven with loads of magic,” I reminded him.
“I made a vow to keep you alive and I’m going to do that the way I think it should be done. So you’re to stay with me.”
He said it like that was it.
No discussion.
I had no choice in the matter.
I opened my mouth to say something but Aidan interjected.
“The Directors and Elders wanted to see both Wilding and I, we had to come to London. Things have changed, Matty.”
I stopped glaring at Ash and glanced at Aidan. “What things?”
“The Directors and Elders have made an alliance. Controversial but suffice it to say that, right now, the alliance is to be represented through Wilding and myself. We’re working together now.”
Holy fucking shit.
No way.
I did not think this meant good things for me.
“Working together on what?” I asked.
“On you,” Ash answered.
Ack!
Ackity ack ack.
Holy Three-Way, Batman!
“Just a second here… what does that mean ‘on me’?”
Ash again answered, “Protecting you, guarding you, helping you… whatever it takes to keep you safe and let you do your work.”
I looked at one and then the other.
The world was already changing and I was in the eye of the storm.
“Uh, this is kind of big news isn’t it? Isn’t the Institute Switzerland?” I said to Aidan.
“What?” Aidan asked.
“As in neutral, non-committal, all that?”
“Not anymore, Mathilda,” Ash answered.
“I can’t believe –” I started.
“Enough talk, eat. We’ve got work to do.” Of course, that was Ash.
“What work?”
“Eat, we’ll fill you in while we work.” Ash, being bossy, again.
“Aidan?” I asked.
I’m not beneath playing one against the other, especially when I’m being bossed around.
“Just finish your breakfast, Matty. We’ve got a busy day,” Aidan sighed.
Fucking men.
* * * * *
In the taxi to wherever-we-were-going, my mobile rang.
It was Josie.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Kind of,” she replied.
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No, thank God,” she answered and went on, “The police are here to talk to you.”
Wonderful.
“Well, I’m in London,” I told her.
“I know that, they know that, they don’t like that. When will you be home?”
“Just a sec.” I looked at Aidan. “When will I be home?”
“Soon,” he said.
That helps.
“Soon,” I said to Josie.
“I don’t think ‘soon’ is the answer they’re looking for but leave it to me.”
She disconnected and I flipped the phone shut.
I wasn’t going to save the world.
Josie was.
Wow.
Try to get your head around that.
Then my mobile rang again.
It was Nerissa.
“Hey Miss Rissa,” I answered.
“Hello Mathilda, my dear, I’m sorry to say but the police are here for you.”
Good goddess and all things leafy and flowery.
“I know, tell them I’m in London and I’ll be home soon.”
“One other thing, there’s a woman here who says she paid for a donut and she’s not leaving until she gets it.”
Oh for crap’s sake.
“Tell her I’ll be home soon too.”
“All right, dear, take care.”
The “take care” was loaded. Poor Nerissa, dealing with blue-haired old ladies and men in blue while bombs exploded in the street.
Good to know, though, that the bomb didn’t drive customers away.
But, it was England and they’d had nearly seventy years of bombs exploding.
It was the “Never Mind Mentality” in action.
You know: “The pipes have burst.” English person response: “Yes? Oh well then, never mind.”
And: “The roof has caved in.” English person Response: “Really? Never mind.”
And: “Someone blew up the road.” English person response: “Oh? That’s a shame. Never mind.”
It may sound crazy but not only is it true, it’s actually quite remarkable. English people make an art of keeping their chin up no matter what the calamity and forging ever onward. Nothing got them down. It was freaking cool.
“The police are looking for me,” I told Ash and Aidan when they both stared at me expectantly.
They both looked away as if having the police hunting you is no big deal.
Oh well then, never mind.
* * * * *
Normally, when I went to London, I went to the good places, the pretty places, like the parks, shops, palaces, museums and martini bars.
The first place we stopped wasn’t pretty except in the terms of pretty scary.
I followed Ash and Aidan into a pawn shop and not a very good one. I’d never been in a pawn shop but I still felt qualified to say that. There was lots of new and not-so-new stuff and a weasel-faced guy with greasy hair sitting behind a counter with bars protecting it.
“No,” he said when he saw Ash.
Not exactly welcoming.
I wondered if anyone pawned shampoo because the clerk could use it.
Ash threw a bit of something charred on the counter. It made a black mark as it slid across.
“No,” the clerk said to Ash again.
“You know what I want, Jack,” Ash said.
“I don’t wanna get involved. You weren’t here, he wasn’t here, she definitely wasn’t here.” He pointed at me.
Well, I am soooo sure!
He continued, “You don’t know me, I don’t know you. Find someone else.”
He pushed the charred bit back at Ash who ignored it but stated, “We’ll be back later today.”
“Mate, I ain’t gonna do it!” he shouted as we walked out.
“You trust him?” Aidan asked Ash.
“Nope,” Ash answered.
Great.
“What was that all about?” I asked as we walked down the street.
“Later,” Ash said.
“Not later, now.” I felt like stamping my foot. “I thought you told me you were going to fill me in.”
Aidan hailed a taxi, Ash gave the driver an address, we all climbed in and we were off again.
“About filling me in…” I said.
“I want you to pay attention to where we’re going. You need to remember it, it’ll be a good source for you,” Ash told me (and, incidentally, didn’t fill me in).
“A good source of what?” I asked.
“Information. It’s called The Hobgoblin. There are other Hobgoblins but not like this Hobgoblin.”
“Oh… kay.” I said.
Me… no… likey.
Hobgoblin?
“It’s a local…as in a local. Whenever you go there you’ll have to blend in or there’ll be trouble,” Aidan added.
* * * * *
In Britain, in most pubs, everyone was welcome.
Then there were pubs where most of the clientele were local (as in lived nearby and came in most every night, like “The Vic” in Easten
ders) but new folks were happily accepted into the collective.
Then there were locals – the pubs no one went into but the locals. If you weren’t local and you stumbled into a local, trust me, don’t be brave, just leave.
* * * * *
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Just pay attention, keep quiet and keep your wand at the ready,” Ash replied.
Great.
So, if pretty scary described the last place, seriously scary described this one.
The Hobgoblin was a pub and it was a dive. The English equivalent of the place Jodie Foster got gang-raped in The Accused.
I didn’t like it one bit.
There was practically no one there save two guys at a table, both who clearly hadn’t seen the sun shining in quite some time, they were so pale. One was deeply in need of vitamin E lotion as he had stretch marks all over his arms and face (how you get stretch marks on your face, I do not know, especially when you had about half a percent body fat).
There was also a faerie, a boy faerie who looked like he’d seen better days. Let’s just say quite a bit of the gossamer had gone from his wings.
“Not you,” the bartender said when he saw us.
We weren’t very popular today.
Except this guy didn’t look scared of Ash, he looked scared of Aidan.
“Derek,” Aidan greeted.
“You are not here,” Derek returned, still (obviously) unwelcoming and then looked at Ash and me. “And they are definitely not here.”
Broken record anyone?
“In fact, you’re not all here, together, not in my pub,” he declared.
Derek had a posh accent, quite like Aidan’s.
Derek also had multiple what looked like bite marks on his neck and a scar around the left side of his mouth that made him look like a lopsided Joker.
Derek was freaking me out.
“I have nothing to say,” he said before anyone asked. “Look around you, mate, no one’s coming here anymore. This business is killing me. They know you’d come here.”
Aidan just stood there, watching him.
“Mate, I’m telling you, I have nothing to say,” Derek repeated.
“You got a faerie? ‘Cause if you don’t, I’ll be your faerie.”
I jumped, the little faerie man was floating right by my head, leering at me.
He looked awful, dark circles under his eyes, his little faerie shorts hanging loosely at his waist, his little faerie ribs sticking out.
Yikes.
“Yeah, I have a…” I started but whoa! He wasn’t speaking in a high-pitched faerie screech. “Hey wait, I can understand you!”
The faerie’s eyes narrowed. Then he pointed at me, threw his head back and laughed.
“Your faerie…they haven’t…?” he didn’t finish, just more laughter.
So, BecBec was holding out.
I didn’t like to be the butt of the joke, I didn’t have time to worry about BecBec and anyway, I was missing out on the Derek interrogation.
“Dude, bugger off,” I said to the faerie.
Giggle, giggle and more pointing. Then he swooped in close to my face, all scary faerie and whispered in a spooky, echo-y voice, “I’ll take care of you.”
Ick!
And.
Yikes!
“I said bugger off.”
This was not a nice faerie and he wasn’t buggering off.
Then, faster than a snap, Ash grabbed the faerie by the legs and yanked him away from my face to hold him an inch from Ash’s face.
“What did she say?” Ash asked calmly.
“I’m gone…I’m gone,” the faerie said, pushing against Ash’s hand and when Ash let him go, he flew away.
“You saw him?” I whispered. “I thought non-magical people couldn’t see?”
Ash took my elbow and pulled me away.
“What makes you think I’m not magical?” Ash whispered back.
“Well I –”
“My mother was a witch, Mathilda, which means I come from a magical line. And I believe in magic. The dark and the light.”
Hmm. Interesting.
Just then, Aidan turned and made a sharp head jerk signal to Ash and without another word, we left.
Out on the pavement, Ash asked, “You get anything?”
“Nope,” Aidan answered.
“You believe he doesn’t know anything?” (Ash)
“Nope.” (Aidan)
Ash’s mobile rang and he walked away to answer it.
“Who was that guy?” I asked Aidan after Ash walked away.
“Ex-watcher. Banished,” Aidan answered.
Ah, that explained the posh accent.
“Why was he banished?”
“He got a little addicted to the underworld.”
Yikes.
“You think he knows something, don’t you?” I asked.
“A lot of folk go there. Warlocks, exiled faeries, there was a werewolf and vampire in there just now,” Aidan explained. “Derek is a trained watcher; he sees things and hears things others might not.”
Whoa.
A werewolf and a vampire?
Holy crap.
“A bomb is a pretty powerful message… I can’t imagine no one’s been talking about it,” Aidan went on.
Ash whistled, he was about twenty feet away and he had a taxi.
Aidan turned toward him.
I guess we were leaving.
I hesitated.
Then I turned toward The Hobgoblin and went back in.
Don’t ask me why, I just did.
The werewolf man (stretch marks explained) and vampire looked up when I entered. The faerie was diving into a pint of stout.
I walked up to Derek.
“You know who I am?” I asked.
Derek just looked at me.
I turned to the werewolf man and vampire. “Do you know who I am?” I asked.
The vampire pushed his chair back, reclined further into it and stretched his legs in front of him, ready for the show.
The werewolf man shrugged.
I pulled my wand out of the back waistband of my jeans and then shoved it back in at the front, making it visible outside my t-shirt.
But I wasn’t going to use it.
I heard Aidan and Ash come in as I lifted my hand, palm up and watched as I made a small ball of shell pink form then bands of silver wrapped around it.
“You got something to say to me?” I asked Derek while I watched the sphere form.
I don’t know what I was going for… I think Al Pacino in Serpico.
It didn’t seem to be working as Derek still just stared at me.
The silver disappeared as a violet coating surged up from my palm and wrapped around the orb.
“You’re a good witch,” Derek said not staring at me but at my palm. “You wouldn’t –”
A sparkling electric blue film appeared around the violet, I threw the sphere up and it hovered in mid-air.
I looked questioningly at Derek, raising my brows.
Nothing.
I flicked my fingers and it exploded in a gorgeous firework that was really just for show, a little fright was all it was meant to be. But it made little silver and shell pink sparks snake lazily around the room. A few exploded near the glasses, taking a couple with them, one overturned a chair.
Derek breathed a sigh of relief.
I lifted up my palm.
“You got something to say to me?” I asked again.
The sphere was creating itself again.
Derek said nothing.
The faerie burped.
I threw up the sphere and the firework was bigger and more brilliant this time. The sparks rocketed around the room much faster. More glasses bit the dust… as did a bottle of whiskey. A chair exploded.
I lifted up my palm again.
“You know who I am too,” Derek said. “I know witches… I even know about you. You can’t keep that up… even you don’t have the power withou
t a wand.”
The sphere went into triple time, creating itself in seconds before I threw it up and the firework was three times the size, the rockets of sparks were not only silver and shell pink but also violet and brilliant blue and they shot around the room like bullets.
Rows of liquor and glasses exploded with fragments flying everywhere. A table and three chairs blew up, their wood and splinters scattering. More furniture overturned or flew across the room. The faerie flew under the bar and the vampire and werewolf dove for cover.
I controlled every last spark. Aidan, Ash and myself were untouched. It was taking a lot out of me but I’d be damned if I was going to let on.
Derek had hidden under the bar.
When he straightened up again, there was another sphere in my hand.
“Feel like talking yet?” I asked.
Aidan and Ash had come closer because the werewolf and vampire were up and had brushed the glass and splinters off their clothes. They didn’t look just interested anymore, they looked pissed off. The faerie hovered over his overturned glass staring at the dripping stout with despair.
There was silence.
All hell was gonna break loose, any second.
Cripes!
“Okay, okay,” Derek said (thank the goddess) as I threw the sphere up and it waited, hovering. “Whatever they’re up to, it’s too big, no one’s talking, like I said.”
I flexed my fingers.
“Wait!” Derek shouted. “Bligh’s been here. He’s been everywhere. Talk to him. He knows something.”
Who on this lush, green earth was Bligh?
I kept the sphere hovering when Aidan leaned into my ear and whispered, “Banish it, Matty, we’ve got what we need. Let’s go.”
I swept my hand up and around and absorbed the sphere back into my palm.
Still courteous, of course, I said to Derek, “Thank you.”
He just stared.
I smiled and nodded to the werewolf and vampire. “Sorry, guys,” I said.
The vampire relaxed and smiled too, nice and slow (must say, he was kinda cute… like, really kinda cute, in a thin, pale, dangerous, sexy David Tennant kind of way. I hesitated and smiled back then I put my hand on my hip going into my flirty pose when Aidan grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door).
The werewolf man just righted his chair and sat down again.
“You sure you don’t need a faerie?” the little guy called while we walked out.
The taxi was waiting, Ash shoved me in.
Nothing.
Not a word.
Total silence.
And then Aidan asked Ash, “You get a confirmation on Islington?”
Mathilda, SuperWitch Page 23
