by Rhys Lawless
“Of course. Anything for you.” She winked and got up. “Now get your ass off the chair and help me open up the shop.”
After the morning rush and just when I was about to leave to take Nora out for a walk, Wade showed up at work looking miserable and in need of good company.
“I’m not staying long. I just wanted to see you,” he said to me and greeted me with a kiss.
“Don’t be stupid. I’m here. If anything happens, I can stop it.”
“What if it’s something you can’t control?”
I pursed my lips and raised my eyebrow.
“Excuse me, have you met me?” I said, and that made him chuckle.
“I have. And I’m so glad I have.”
Even when he was depressed, he knew just the right thing to tell me to make me melt inside. Being free of Christian’s control was doing wonders for him.
“Walk me home, will you?” I asked and opened the door to leave the cafe.
“See you tomorrow, Caleb. Bye, scumbag,” Lorelai said, and Wade nodded at her before closing the door behind him.
“Is she ever going to change her mind about me?”
I grinned and looked at him.
“Lorelai is a special lady. And she knows how to hold a grudge, okay? So don’t keep on hoping, but it could happen.”
He seemed to like what I’d said and nodded in appreciation.
We walked on the busy streets of London just when all the office workers were about to go on their lunch breaks, and Wade started to panic, looking at every person that came near him. I looked for the nearest side street and took us through it; I couldn’t stand seeing him like this. Living his life in fear of hurting someone and resorting to solitude because of it.
I laced my fingers around his and gave his hand a squeeze.
“Everything is going to be alright, okay? I promise you.”
He paused to look at me and only reciprocated with half a smile back.
“I believe you. But until then, what do I do?”
“I don’t know, Wade. But locking yourself away from everyone is not the solution.”
When we reached my front door, he leaned in to give me a kiss and to say goodbye, but I held onto him.
“Walk Nora with me,” I begged him.
He leaned back and looked at me as if I was a lunatic.
“Caleb, I can’t. What if something happens when I’m with her and I hurt her.”
“Don’t forget Nora is an ancient creature that can never die. But even if something happens, I’m here. I can stop you.” I put my hand on his chest and let some of my confidence flow through my hand over to him.
His body relaxed under my touch, and he succumbed to my little boost.
“I’ll go get her. Why don’t you wait out here?” I said and ran up the stairs. Five minutes later, we were back on the ground floor and Nora had just woken up, so she kept busy with the toys in her pram.
“Any more incidents?” I asked him.
He shook his head and put his hands in his pockets.
“Any luck with your search?” he asked.
“Not much. Nothing really. All I’ve got is a lot of reports with no leads. Many witches that were ignited after that night on the rooftop have gone missing, and I don’t know how or why.”
He flinched at that and stopped walking.
“What do you mean they’ve gone missing? Someone’s abducting them?”
I shrugged. “Either that or they’re going into hiding. Despite how many weeks have passed since the big blast of energy, there are still new reports coming in every day. This means that your outbursts were, in fact, connected to the ley lines and nothing to do with you,” I told him, thinking this would reassure him, but it only made the crease in his eyebrows deeper.
“Mother Red Cap said she couldn’t stop them. She said the ley lines are very strong, ancient magic, and that no one can stop it. So how are we gonna stop me?”
I reached for his hand and squeezed it.
“Wade, sweetheart, don’t take this the wrong way, but the ley lines are unstoppable, not you.”
He laughed. It was a good look on him. I liked seeing it back on his face.
“You’re right. The spells I used were just that. Spells. There’s no way they have anything to do with the force of the ley lines.”
“Exactly.”
We continued walking and entered Weavers Fields park where lots of people were sitting on benches or on the grass eating sandwiches for their lunch break, and lots more people walking their dogs.
We walked past a couple, one of whose faces I recognized. We’d worked together in the past on one of my cases for Graham and the high council. I couldn’t quite remember his name, but he was a well-respected witch in the community, so I nodded hello to him.
My kindness was met with apathy. Both he and his girlfriend flinched, and the girl even went as far as to make a disgusted face in our direction. After we’d walked past them and I’d decided to completely ignore their rudeness, I heard her make a sound and turned in time to see her spit on the spot we’d just walked on.
“Hey, what’s your fucking problem?” Wade asked, and I had to give his forearm a little jolt of calm to make sure he didn’t have another incident.
“Witch hunters for one thing,” the woman said and spat again, this time aiming right for Wade’s face.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” I growled and walked closer to her after putting the brakes on Nora’s pram.
She smiled in a sly, uptight way. This bitch thought she was better than me.
“That’s all he deserves. You deserve worse for sleeping with him,” she whispered in my face, and her boyfriend took her hand and pulled her towards him.
I laughed in her face.
“At least I know where my boyfriend puts his dick. Do you know what holes yours does?” I knew it was a low blow, but I didn’t care. She’d spat in my Wade’s face.
Her boyfriend’s eyes widened, and his face went red, staring at me, but he dragged her away from us without another word.
“Did you really sleep with him?” Wade asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
I turned to him and saw him wipe his face with the hem of his shirt.
“Of course not. Did you see his face?” I laughed. “But the stripper incubi in Soho probably have a different story.”
Wade chuckled and turned back to Nora.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
“I’m fine,” he said, not sounding convincing. “Are you?”
Was I okay? I was fucking pissed. How dare anyone tell me how to live my life. When the fuck did they get to decide who I slept with and why? Who were they to pass judgment on me for sleeping with a witch hunter?
“No, I’m not okay, but I’ll be okay,” I told him and grabbed Nora’s pram to continue the walk.
I wasn’t going to let those assholes dictate my life. And if they thought I was going to be afraid of a little confrontation, they were sorely mistaken.
It had taken me years to find a tribe I wanted to belong to and that wanted me, and I’d thought being part of the coven would do that for me. But if that’s the attitude I was going to get for falling for a beautiful man who had made mistakes in his past like everyone else I knew, including myself, then perhaps the coven wasn’t my tribe at all.
It was fine. If I couldn’t belong to any other tribe, I could make my own. And I had one already. Annabel, Nora, Lorelai, and Hew. And Wade, of course. They were all my tribe, and I was going to do everything in my power to protect them.
Six
Wade
I didn’t like going behind Caleb’s back, but I couldn’t put this on him. I had to find a way to help the situation without putting any more pressure on him. After what had happened at the park the other day, I couldn’t let him get more involved with me. I wasn’t going to break up with him because of what the witches said, but I could at least keep my business to myself.
He might wake up one
day and realize he was giving up everything he had for me. I didn’t want him to do that. He’d had a life before me, and I couldn’t expect him to sacrifice it all for me.
I waited for him to leave early in the morning, watched him from a fruit stall, and once he was out of sight, I approached his front door. I knew it was early, and I hoped Annabel was not going to be too upset with me for waking her up, but I knocked on the door.
A few moments later, Annabel barreled down the stairs and opened the front door. She was wearing slippers and bunny-print pajamas. She didn’t look like the strong Annabel who didn’t take any bullshit. She looked like a normal girl. I knew she wasn’t.
“Did you forget your keys again?” she said, and then she saw me and placed her hand on her hip to give me a look I was more used to.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m sorry to wake you—“
“You didn’t wake me. Nora did,” she said and stepped aside to let me in.
“You look annoyed. Did Nora stay up all night again?”
She started climbing the stairs, and I followed.
“No. If she was back to her old, adult self, I would kill her for doing this to me. But no, she won’t let us sleep. I think she’s taking revenge on Caleb, and I am taking the thick of it.”
I couldn’t imagine having to stay at home all day with a baby for five years. No wonder Annabel was upset.
“What do you do? Do you work?” I asked her.
It had never occurred to me to ask. I’d just assumed she stayed at home looking after Nora while Caleb went to work for the high council. It probably had been presumptuous of me to assume she was staying at home because she had no job other than looking after Nora, but surely she wouldn’t let Caleb, or any man, dictate her life. I didn’t know her well, but that much I knew about her.
“I’m a graphic designer. Why are you asking? I don’t have any positions.”
I was about to tell her I wasn’t asking for a job when I noticed the smirk on her face.
“Annabel, are you actually warming up to me?” I asked, and the smile disappeared.
“Don’t push it, mister,” she said and opened the door at the top of the stairs and walked to the kitchen to put the kettle on to boil.
“Tea all right with you?” she asked and took two cups out of the cupboard.
Tea was her signature drink, as I’d come to learn. Annabel had this special blend that was the perfect companion to any sort of conversation. Whether you were hurt and in need of a friend, or just having a lively chat with a friend, her tea was complimentary to everything. So it was no wonder that I accepted the offer.
I sat at the dining table and waited for her to sit with me. When she did, she offered me a cup with a cartoon mouse printed on it.
“What do you want to talk about? I can’t imagine I will be much help, but I am curious what you think I can do for you.”
I curled my fingers around the mug and warmed my hands, giving her an innocent smile.
“How do you know I need help with something?”
“Well, I don’t imagine you came to my house at six in the morning to ask me how I’m feeling and if I need a night out.”
“You got me. But really, are you okay? Do you need a night out?”
She rolled her eyes, but I could detect a grin trying to make an appearance.
“I’m fine, Wade. Nora may be driving me crazy, but I have been doing this for years, so I’m good. It’s your boyfriend you should worry about.”
“Why? Has he said something?”
Annabel shook her head. “He doesn’t have to. I know him pretty well. And I know that he is not himself. He’s probably blaming himself for what’s happening to the witches.”
“I know. I told him it’s not his fault, but—“
“It’s not your fault, either. I think you both are forgetting that monster manipulated both of you. You actually saved lives, okay?”
It meant a lot coming from her, but I couldn’t help feeling that this was a pep talk rather than the truth.
“That’s why I’m here,” I told her.
“What? You gonna try to guilt-trip me into thinking this is my fault?” She chuckled.
I shook my head. “No. I need help from someone who knows their magic shit. I need to talk to Graham.”
Annabel looked at me as if I’d said the devil’s name in a church. She put her tea down and pierced me with her eyes.
“Why on earth would you want to do that?”
“Because there’s something going on, and I need his expertise.”
“Did you forget that he is a douchebag who betrayed hundreds of witches for you guys to hunt and kill?”
I shook my head.
“Good, I just wanted to check. Have you lost your mind?”
“I need to talk to him.”
“Why don’t you go to that Mother Red, whatever her name is, the one Nora sent you to? Why do you want to talk to that asshole?”
“I tried that, and she was unable to help. Caleb has told me about Graham’s power, and, I don’t know, maybe he can help.”
“Help with what?”
“Nothing.”
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with a burned bed, would it?” She glanced in the direction of Caleb’s room.
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“What’s going on?”
I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t want to freak her out. She loved Nora as much as Caleb did, but unlike him, she wasn’t a witch, and she couldn’t stop me if anything happened. I was actually putting her in danger by being here. But I didn’t know where else to turn. I didn’t know what else to try. I had to do something.
“I just need to talk to him. Can you please tell me where he lives?”
It took a few phone calls and a lot of convincing, but when the door finally opened at Graham’s house, I was met with what I expected. Disdain and a little bit of hatred. Or a lot of hatred. I didn’t know. This guy was a mystery to me. He had let the high council take advantage of his power and his position, yet he was upset about me killing them, so who knew what he felt like.
“What can I do for you, witch hunter?”
I liked a man that cut to the chase as much as the next person, and I couldn’t say I expected anything less, but I wasn’t going to have this conversation outside.
“This is a delicate matter. Can I come in?” I asked, making sure to add enough authority in my voice to let him know that I didn’t care who he was and what he thought of me.
“Of course,” he said with an extra bit of joviality in his voice that was nowhere to be seen in his face.
I walked into what looked like a mansion to me. My preference had always been apartments. I’d never been much into houses or anything too big, but this was something else. Caleb had told me Graham was loaded, and the area he lived in should have given me a hint of how rich he was, but I did not expect a house like this.
Every surface was covered in either gold, silver, or granite. Every wooden surface seemed to be ancient and preserved. And every trinket seemed to contain a gemstone, although knowing him, they were probably spells.
He led me through the hallway into the lounge and offered me a seat on a chaise longue that could have belonged to Marie Antoinette from the looks of it. He sat in an armchair opposite, looking regal and imposing. He knew how to play mind games very well. I could give him that.
“You have to understand I am only doing this for Caleb,” he said.
“I know. So am I. That’s why I wanted to meet you.”
“What’s going on? Why do you need my help?”
I laced my fingers together and thought of how to phrase what I needed to ask.
Had I made a mistake coming to him? Was I better off riding it out like Mother Red Cap had suggested? Did I really need the help of a conspirator to murder?
“I can’t go into specifics, but do you think you’d be able to create a spell to block other spells from going off?”
He narrowed his eyes and stared right down at me. He stayed quiet for a few moments before he actually spoke.
“If I’m going to make a spell for you, I need to know exactly what it’s for.”
That was a fair point. Too bad I couldn’t tell him.
“Let’s say you had a witch who didn’t know how to control her natural power. And you needed to protect her and everyone else around her. What spell would you give her to make her power harmless?”
Caleb had explained to me how Graham’s powers worked. It was all about altering and manipulating energy. Which was why he could create a spell from anything, unlike Mother Red Cap and other witches who were also dabbling in alchemy. Usually, you needed a selection of ingredients to create a spell, but for Graham, it was as simple as putting together two grains of salt, and he could create any sort of spell he desired. Of course, he had his limitations, but according to Caleb, more often than not, those limitations were easily manipulated with some proper alchemy.
“I would train her hard until she dropped. I wouldn’t cast a spell on her.”
I chuckled.
“Good one. And I would never kill a witch,” I said. “You can’t fool me, and I really need your help. So cut the crap.”
My cursing seemed to put him on edge as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest protectively.
“I might be able to craft something. But how do you plan on activating it? You’re not a witch.”
“Leave me to worry about that.”
“How much?” he asked.
“How much, what?”
“How much are you willing to pay for this spell?”
I had to bite down the urge to laugh in his face. Was he being serious? Did he actually think I’d pay to use his services?
“I’ll tell you what. Let’s call it even for what you did to Caleb. How does that sound?”
He didn’t like the answer, and it showed in the way his posture changed again. He crossed his legs and took the glasses off the crown of his head and put them on.
“Fine. You can sit here while I get it ready,” he said and rushed to get up. “Don’t touch anything,” he hissed before disappearing into his kitchen, and I was left alone.
