Cringing, Mia wiped her face. ‘What was that?’ she stuttered.
Dino eyed the smear of blood on her face. ‘I don’t know. He drank your blood.’
They both winced.
Dino collapsed back on to the floor with a rough breath. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked, looking up at the gold patterned ceiling.
‘I’m alive,’ she answered loosely. ‘Thanks for that.’
Dino smiled in spite of himself. He sat up and shook out his arms. ‘But that was a one-off,’ he added with a scowl.
Mia leaned over and hugged him.
Although Dino didn’t return the hug, he didn’t pull away either. He sat, staring at the wall, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder.
‘Besides,’ he added quietly, ‘Cassandra and Madeline would never let me hear the end of it if something happened to you.’
Dino had started calling his mother by her first name a long time ago. It had begun as a rebellious act, but then it had just sort of stuck. In truth, he didn’t want to call her ‘Mother’. Why should he, when he didn’t feel like her child? In fact, he didn’t feel as though he were a part of the family at all. He wondered sometimes if they resented him for being male. It wasn’t as though his mother and aunt were out-and-out feminists or anything, but they weren’t the most trusting of women. Somewhere along the line, men had become the enemy.
And sometimes, when Aunt Madeline was feeling particularly sour or when Dino was indulging in an especially bad-tempered mood, she would not spare him from telling him what a disappointment he was. She would rant on about how saddened his mother had been to find out that she was having a boy, and then how happy they both were when Mia was finally born.
To this, Dino would curtly reply, ‘You’re a poisonous old hag. You’re so bitter that no man can stand you. You’ve driven away every man in your life – your boyfriends, my uncles…’
‘How dare you!’ Madeline would scream, flapping her arms around feverishly.
But her protests would not stop Dino. ‘And you even drove away your own sister’s husband – my father!’
‘Your father was a vile man!’ Madeline would scream. ‘And you should thank us for driving him away.’
‘Thank you?’ Dino would splutter. ‘I resent you for it. If it wasn’t for you, my father would still be here. But instead I’m alone in this hellhole with you three witches!’ Little did he know at the time just how accurate his statement was.
‘I wish your father had taken you with him! I for one would be glad to see the back of you!’ Madeline would retort before storming off in a whirlwind of anger. But never more than an hour would pass before the guilt set in. She would appear at his bedroom door with a plate of cookies and a please-forgive-me expression. Of course, they would make amends and all would be forgotten – until the next time.
Dino accepted the way things were. And he supposed he was fond of his aunt in some ways. And his mother, too, for that matter. It wasn’t a question of not liking them – more that he was just distanced from them.
The irony of it all was that Dino’s detachment from his mother had stemmed from his belief that she did not love him. But as soon as his powers began to come to light, he was suddenly able to feel the true extent of her love for him. Or, more accurately, he heard it. It turned out that her love was quite insurmountable – which was a surprise to say the least. And as luck would have it, of all of the painful sounds drilling through his head, love was the mildest.
All things considered, he supposed that he loved her, too. But then there was Mia, and that was a different situation entirely. He had adored Mia from the day that she was born. Everyone did. And as soon as Dino had been able to, he would carry Mia around, introducing her to all of the wonderful things in the world that she was too young to discover for herself, like flowers, insects, and thunderstorms, and the wide blue sky.
However, as they grew older, he rebelled against her, too. She became just another female with whom he was forced to live. Although deep down, he’d never stopped adoring her. He simply couldn’t.
And now, almost completely grown, her eyes were still those same innocent grey eyes that had looked up at her first thunderstorm with curious fear. Dino hoped that she would always retain those childlike eyes, even if they lived on a woman’s face.
In the dim light of the drawing room, Dino untangled himself from the hug and looked down upon her eyes for a second. Yes, they were still the same.
‘Kizzy,’ Mia mumbled, dazed, as she recalled her friend’s presence. Shakily, she rose to her feet and hobbled across the room to where Kizzy lay.
Mia crouched down and tapped her face gently. ‘Kizzy, wake up.’
Dino knelt beside Kizzy and shook her.
‘Be careful!’ Mia scolded him.
But Kizzy blearily opened her eyes. She glanced around, confused. ‘What happened?’
‘I think you hit your head,’ Mia told her. She glanced up to the crack in the wall that illustrated just how hard the blow had been.
‘Ow!’ Kizzy moaned as she rubbed at her bruised scalp. ‘The Athame,’ she murmured. ‘What happened to the Athame?’
‘Everything’s fine,’ Mia assured her, not wishing to delve straight into the details.
Kizzy’s eyes fell upon Dino. ‘Is this your brother?’ she drowsily asked Mia.
Dino edged away self-consciously. He could sense the girl’s wariness of him. But for some reason it wasn’t screaming quite so stridently anymore. It was now merely an awareness.
‘Yes,’ Mia replied significantly. ‘He’s my brother.’
That night Mia crawled into bed. The sheets felt new and stiff – not like the soft, worn sheets she was used to at home. She wondered if the lavish bedchamber would ever feel like home.
Resting her head on the duck-feather pillow, she peered out through a gap in her bed curtains. Dino paced around the room rigidly. His hands were balled into fists and his breathing was ragged.
‘What’s the matter?’ she asked quietly.
‘For God’s sake!’ he snapped. ‘Don’t pity me! It’s a horrible sound.’
Mia couldn’t begin to comprehend the severity of what he was saying. In fact, she had absolutely no idea what he was going through.
Dino’s pain had lessened greatly throughout the day. But now, alone in the room with Mia, he had lost his control over it and it devoured him once more.
In temper, he picked up an oil lamp and threw it across the room. The glass casing shattered upon impact with the floor.
Mia gasped. ‘Have you lost your mind?’
‘No!’ he shouted. ‘I’ve gained yours!’
Mia sat up in bed, the blankets pulled up around her. ‘What?’
He pressed his knuckles to his mouth. ‘Your mind is…deafening.’
‘You can hear my thoughts?’ She suddenly felt very exposed.
‘No,’ he said in frustration. ‘I can hear your feelings.’
Mia frowned. ‘How do you mean?’
‘There’s no other way to explain it!’ he exclaimed. ‘You feel happy, I hear it. You feel sad, I hear it. You feel scared, I hear it. It’s like the annoyance of having to talk to you without the luxury of escape!’
‘Wow. So that’s your power?’
‘It’s not a power,’ Dino spat. ‘There are no benefits to it.’
‘I’m sure there–’
‘Shut up, Mia!’ he interrupted her. ‘Just shut up.’
Mia closed the gap in the bed curtains and pulled the covers up over her head. Much to her dismay, she could feel a lump forming in her throat.
Beneath the thin white bed sheets, she noted the bedroom candlelight dimming. She lay there for a while in the darkness, listening to the sound of Dino pacing back and forth, and then eventually retreat to his bed. She heard the drapes being drawn and that was the last thing she remembered before falling asleep.
Mia’s sleep was not a restful one. Images of Hunters haunted her dreams, warping them into nightmares.
She saw Colt’s eyes blazing as he morphed into a grotesque, gnarled monster. And then his eyes grew larger and larger until eventually the deep-green colour blended and distorted into the forest. Mia watched herself step inside the bottomless pupil, which had now transformed into a tunnel leading through the forest. A portal leading into a merciless unknown land.
She felt the air close in around her throat, just as it had done in the drawing room. But this time it wasn’t choking her – it simply settled on her neck like a dog’s collar. She was being dragged by an invisible leash further along the tunnel.
And then she heard a strange whispering in her ear. The words were indistinguishable, but the voice was familiar. Where had she heard that menacing voice before? The whispers grew louder, more commanding. Gradually it became clear. It was Lotan.
‘Come to me,’ Lotan said firmly.
Mia opened her eyes with a jolt. The room was dark and silent, just as she remembered it. But now, her cotton pyjamas were drenched in sweat and her hands were clenched together so tightly that her fingernails had pierced the skin on her palms.
‘Come to me,’ he commanded again.
Automatically, she climbed out of bed and strode to the bedroom door. Somewhere in the back of her consciousness a voice screamed at her not to go. But it was out of her hands. She realised that the warning voice was her own, but it was eclipsed by the much stronger voice of Lotan. She was going; the only thing that she didn’t know was where.
Barefoot, she padded down the staircase and stepped out into the courtyard. The stones and gravel dug into her feet, but she hardly noticed. She carried on walking, beneath the hedge archway and out into the gardens. As she moved, her body felt weightless, almost as though it no longer belonged to her. It was like she was being carried. Or pulled.
In the dead of night everything about the gardens seemed different. No longer were they beautiful and inviting. Now, under the ebony sky, the neat topiary hedges looked like looming demons.
But they were of no concern to Mia; her fate was elsewhere. She continued marching on, closing in on the wall of mist that cloaked the pine trees. However, that night the mist wasn’t the translucent grey that she had witnessed before. It was now an opaque purple – just like the strange smoke that had engorged the basement of her home.
As Mia descended the grassy embankment, a breeze swirled through her silken hair. It swept the strands back from her face, exposing an ethereal beauty – an ageless beauty that seemed to be exuded directly from her soul.
With each stride she took, the breeze seemed to play with her, toying with her hair and wrapping itself around her legs and arms.
When she reached the mist, Mia hesitated. The breeze subsided and the night felt unnaturally still. Everything was quiet.
But, although she heard no sound, Lotan still called to her.
‘Come to me.’
Mia outstretched her arm, touching the purple mist with her fingertips. Seductively it took her hand, urging her in further. And she obliged, stepping into it until it swallowed her.
She walked mechanically until something dived in front of her path. Its deep-green eyes were visible even through the dense mist.
Mia opened her mouth to scream. But the sound caught in her throat as Colt plummeted his hand through the mist, causing an immense ripple of air to catapult her backwards. She hit the ground with a smack and kept rolling, as though she had been thrown from a moving vehicle.
The impact sobered her at once. ‘Ow,’ she groaned, her face pressed into the dewy grass.
‘Mia!’ another familiar voice called her name. ‘What on earth are you doing out here?’ It was Wendolyn, dressed in a nightgown and shawl, her white hair plaited to the side.
Mia blinked. Out where? she wondered. It took her several seconds to realise that she was in fact outside. But for the life of her she couldn’t understand why. The memory of walking out into the gardens was vague, but present nonetheless. What she couldn’t fathom, however, was what had possibly motivated her to do such a thing.
She looked down at her muddy bare feet, and then looked to the thick mist that shrouded the forest. Considering the distance between her and the mist, it was almost unfeasible that she had ever stepped into it. Could a blast of air have really thrown her so far away from it? A part of her wondered if she had been sleepwalking and imagined the whole thing.
‘Mia!’ Wendolyn said as she helped her to her feet. ‘Why are you out here?’ she repeated the question, now with a note of urgency.
‘I don’t know,’ Mia stammered.
‘Let me take you back inside.’ Wendolyn gently but hastily guided Mia up the embankment and back towards the castle.
Clearly troubled, Wendolyn led Mia to the library and urged her to take a seat. Mia willingly cooperated.
‘My dear,’ Wendolyn began, ‘what made you go outside? Were you heading for the forest?’
‘I think so,’ Mia admitted weakly.
‘But you know that it’s not safe,’ the older woman said.
‘I know. I’m sorry.’ There wasn’t much more that she could say.
‘Just like your mother!’ Wendolyn chuckled with a trace of uneasiness. ‘Always getting up to mischief!’
Mia frowned. ‘My mother?’ That didn’t sound much like her mother at all. In fact, Cassandra was notoriously sensible and prudent. ‘Don’t you mean my aunt?’
‘Oh, well, I suppose that Madeline was no saint, either! But Maddie was more noncompliant whereas your mother…well, she was a free spirit in search of adventure.’
‘I’m not looking for adventure,’ Mia explained. ‘I really don’t know why I went to the forest.’
‘Oh, I believe you,’ Wendolyn reassured her. ‘You’ll have to excuse me; I was simply indulging in my memories.’
Mia smiled. ‘Actually, it’s interesting to find out what my mother was like at my age.’
‘I see a lot of her character present in you,’ Wendolyn divulged. ‘And in your brother, too.’
‘Really?’
‘Very much so.’ Wendolyn paused for a moment. ‘Mia,’ she said, ‘you must not go out to the forest again.’
‘I won’t,’ Mia replied, hoping that she would be able to keep her promise.
‘You’re unsure?’
‘You read my thoughts?’ Mia guessed.
Wendolyn chortled. ‘No. Sometimes I don’t need to.’
‘Oh.’ Mia blushed.
‘The reason why I ask for you to stay away is for your own safety. Do you understand?’
Mia nodded her head.
‘Now more than ever you must exert caution,’ Wendolyn went on, her voice grave. ‘I’ve detected an intruder presence around the forest boundaries. Hunters. A coven, I believe.’
The hairs on Mia’s arms bristled. ‘Lotan and Colt?’
‘No, no.’ Wendolyn shook her head. ‘Lotan and Colt are a part of the Glass Castle just as much as the Arcana. In fact, the forest is their domain. What I’ve picked up on is activity just beyond our forestland.’
‘More Hunters?’ Mia exclaimed in dismay.
‘Perhaps. Their presence is imprecise.’
‘Why are they here?’
‘I can’t be sure,’ Wendolyn mused. ‘Try not to fret. They’ll be no concern to you. They’re simply unwelcome guests. I imagine they’re here out of curiosity more than anything. But while the threat is at large, you must be extra vigilant.’
‘Do you think they’ll leave on their own?’ Mia asked.
‘Eventually, I’m sure. Once I’ve located them, I will find a way to exile them.’ She smiled at Mia. ‘Try not to worry,’ she said again. ‘They’re not here for you.’
Chapter Five
The Language of the Rain
Over the next few days the rain began. And it didn’t stop. It lashed down constantly in a barrage of bulging raindrops. It was as though someone had pulled the plug from the sky and there was no way of resealing it.
As it happened, the misera
ble weather was an apt reflection of Mia’s mood. No longer did she possess the naive hope that her power would eventually come to her. Now, she was surer than ever that a mistake had been made. And to top things off, she and Dino had drifted even further apart. Their argument in the bedchamber days before had sparked a chain of quarrels, which gradually escalated to the point of their scarcely speaking at all.
Mia sighed as she ambled into the drawing room. Imprisoned by the rain, the Arcana had come to depend on the drawing room as a port in the storm, so to speak.
Keen to avoid socialising, Mia awkwardly dragged a hefty armchair over to the window, deliberately closing herself off from the rest of the room. She curled up on the chair and watched the rain as it blanketed the courtyard. Cosily wrapped in her soft cream jumper and a pair of jeans, she gazed up at the black rain clouds, amazed by how such swollen, heavy things could float so effortlessly in the moody sky.
The drawing-room door burst open and Kizzy trudged in. Her canary-yellow raincoat was fastened to the top and rainwater from her blonde hair dripped steadily on to the carpet. She grabbed an unoccupied armchair and hauled it to the window, arranging it beside Mia.
‘You call this summer?’ she remarked huffily, clambering into the chair.
‘Hmm,’ Mia agreed distantly.
Kizzy unbuttoned her raincoat and wriggled out of it. ‘Still no luck with the power?’
‘Nope.’
‘Have you talked to Wendolyn?’ Kizzy asked.
‘Yep.’
‘And?’
Mia shrugged. ‘She says to look inside my heart.’
Kizzy rolled her eyes. ‘I hate it when people say that. It doesn’t even make any sense!’
‘Tell me about it.’ Mia forced a weak smile. All things considered, she didn’t feel much like talking. Not to Wendolyn, not to Kizzy, not to anyone.
Blissfully oblivious, Kizzy shook the water from her coat and then discarded it on to the floor. ‘Is there anything I can do to cheer you up?’
Mia’s smile was genuine this time. ‘No, I’m fine,’ she replied. ‘How’s your Seer ability coming along?’ She pried her attention away from the window. Even if her own power was non-existent, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t be happy for her friend.
The Witches of the Glass Castle Page 6
