Destiny of the Witch (The Other Witch #4)

4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Dick insisted on total privacy, so of course Frogmatch scurried into his house to create havoc. I watched with a faint frown as his forked tail disappeared through an open window. ‘I’m beginning to think I have no control over his actions.’

Bastion grinned. ‘What was your first clue?’

I sighed. Benji and Oscar were far more obedient and happily stayed in the car. They were listening to some classic rock and Oscar was teaching Benji to play air guitar. Their burgeoning friendship was as unlikely as my friendship with Benji, but no less beautiful. Oscar didn’t have many friends; as my guard and enforcer, he had to stay at arm’s length from most of my Coven. For all he was a wizard, everyone knew that he had my ear.

The stress of the visit with Mum was still visible on his face, but the tension started to loosen in his shoulders as he talked animatedly with Benji and a smile crept in. I was beginning to realise that friendship is one of life’s greatest treasures; I’d been a fool to avoid it for so long.

I was about to knock on Dick’s door when my phone rang. I didn’t recognise the number but I swiped to answer the call. ‘DeLea.’

‘Amber!’

I instantly recognised Jinx’s exuberant tone and the dark shadow over my heart lifted a little. ‘Jinx, how are you?’

‘I’m good,’ she answered warmly. ‘How are you?’

I opened my mouth and imagined telling her all about the evil Coven and Abigay and my ascension to Crone-hood. Then I closed it again. She was on her honeymoon; she deserved to relax for once.

Mindful of her truth-seeking abilities, which extended to talking to people over electronic devices, I cleared my throat and said, ‘I’m okay. Things have been turbulent, but there have been some really positive developments.’

‘Any positive developments with Bastion?’ Her voice was lightly teasing.

‘Yes. We’ve had sex,’ I blurted out. Next to me Bastion’s shoulders started to shake with silent laughter .

‘Oh, Amber, I’m so happy for you! I mean … this is good sex, not angry sex, right? You’ve come through your differences?’

‘Yes, good sex. Great sex.’ I felt my cheeks redden and cut myself off before I used the word ‘phenomenal’. Bastion’s ego was big enough already. Amongst other things.

I realised I’d better tell her about removing the curse from him. It felt like a lifetime ago, but it had only been a matter of weeks. ‘I’ve lifted the witch’s curse from him,’ I said.

‘Oh, thank God. Thank you, Amber!’ Her relief was explosive and I felt another prickle on my conscience. Bastion was like an adopted uncle to her and she really cared about him. Though not in the way I did, that was for sure.

‘There’s more to tell you,’ I said gruffly, thinking of Jake. ‘But maybe not over the phone.’

‘Sure, I have stuff to tell you, too. We’re heading back in the next few days. Let’s have a coffee, a blueberry muffin and a catch-up when I’m home,’ she suggested enthusiastically.

I smiled. ‘I’d love that.’

‘Good. Amber?’

‘Yes? ’

‘This is me, calling just to say hi. I haven’t had my phone on me for most of my holiday – we’re trying to stay unplugged as much as possible – but I’ve been thinking of you.’

‘Thanks, Jinx. I appreciate that.’ I was about to hang up when Bastion held out his hand. I passed him my phone.

‘Jessica Sharp,’ he greeted her. ‘Emory is looking after you?’ I didn’t hear her response but Bastion smiled. ‘Good. See you when you’re home.’ He hung up.

‘You didn’t even say goodbye!’ I said, exasperated. ‘You have terrible phone manners.’

He smirked. ‘I don’t want to burst your bubble but I have terrible everything manners. You’re the only one I say please and thank you to.’

I didn’t know what it said about me that I felt a little surge of desire at that. His smile widened: he’d felt it.

The front door was flung open and Dick glowered at us. ‘If you’re quite done lolling about on my doorstep, get in!’

Bastion’s head shifted in a purely eagle movement and his eyes flashed gold as he glared back. Dick retreated, swallowed hard and suddenly looked a little less certain of himself. ‘Please,’ he added lamely.

I kept the grin off my face with herculean effort.

We walked into the water elemental’s home, not to his lounge as I’d expected but down some stairs to a wine cellar. It was cool and dimly lit, and the tinkle of a water fountain added to the damp, dark ambience. As a water elemental, Dick could call forth his element from nothing but it was a lot easier to pull water from nearby a source such as the fountain.

In the centre of the room was a man tied to a chair. He was soaking wet and shivering, but his eyes were defiant. I grimaced. Walking into a scenario like this always made me feel like the bad guy. I tried to not let that show; displaying your morals in the Other realm is like showing a wolf your jugular – highly inadvisable.

‘Who have we got here?’ I asked coolly, gesturing to the bound man. I didn’t recognise him.

‘Miles Turner,’ Dick replied just as coolly. ‘It seems he is part of a mercenary band of elemental renegades that call themselves Unity. There are four of them.’

‘There were four of usI’d thought,’ Miles glared at me, ‘until you killed Keith.’

I hadn’t killed many men in my life, but one was still unnamed: the fire elemental I’d killed when he’d attacked me. ‘Fire elemental?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow .

Miles pressed his lips together, refusing to speak further. Now, that was a problem. I could paint truth runes on him until the potion boiled, but if he didn’t speak all we’d get was a whole lot of truthful silence. A truth-seeker like Jinx could compel him to speak but I didn’t have that weapon in my arsenal.

That, however, was Dick’s problem, not mine. I opened my bag, snapped on my gloves and opened the jar of truth potion. At the sight of it, Miles started to thrash violently and tug against his restraints. He was going to ruin my runes if he did that while I painted them on.

‘Stay still,’ I said sharply. ‘If you make me bungle the runes, the effects could be deadly.’ I wasn’t even lying.

He stilled. Sensible man. I painted a large truth rune on his forehead, then ran my magic through to activate it.

‘You can go,’ Dick grunted.

‘I don’t think so,’ I said primly. ‘This is my rune work and I want to ask him about the fire elemental.’ I didn’t want to call the fire elemental by his name because it felt too personal; it made him a man rather than a deadly enemy that I had been forced to smite. The nightmares already bothered me; I didn’t need to make it worse.

Dick frowned. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’

I drew myself up to my full height and levelled a look at him that would have made most grown men pee their pants. ‘I am the Crone. I will question this man or I will end my rune work here and now and you can forget your damned favour.’

He blanched. ‘Crone? I hadn’t heard.’ He gave me a little bow. ‘Of course, you go ahead, Crone.’

I didn’t bother to acknowledge his sudden fawning but turned instead to Miles. ‘As part of your group, you have an earth elemental. Yes?’

He glared at me.

‘Bastion, rip a finger off for every question he doesn’t answer,’ I instructed calmly. ‘When we run out of fingers, we can use toes.’ I really hoped the threat would be enough, because Bastion wouldn’t have any issue with pulling off body parts if it got me the results I wanted. I really didn’t want to be responsible for Miles’ maiming – though I supposed I could heal him after Bastion’s mutilation so he wouldn’t be harmed long term.

I grimaced. It would be okay, as long as I didn’t use Miles’ pain to bolster my magic. Therein lay the dark side. Morals all squared off, I met his gaze and let him know I meant business.

He blanched. ‘They’ll kill me if I talk,’ he said finally.

‘We’ll kill you if you don’t,’ Bastion growled. ‘You’ re between a rock and a hard place, but the difference is that I’m here right now.’ For emphasis, he shifted his hands into claws.

Miles paled.

‘So,’ I started again. ‘Earth elemental… Yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Name?’

‘Gareth Clark.’

‘He attacked my mum?’ I demanded.

Miles licked his lips before nodding.

‘And who is the air elemental in your little group?’

‘Simon Morris.’

‘Excellent. And who hired you all to attack me and my mum?’

‘The black Coven.’

‘And you have no issue with that?’

‘No. We’re mercenaries .’ He sneered at me, as if I were an idiot for not understanding what that meant.

‘Even mercenaries can have a moral code,’ I snapped back.

He smirked. ‘Not us. We’ll do any job if the price is right.’

‘Lovely,’ I said drily. I was feeling better about my annihilation of the aforementioned Keith. If this group had no moral code, who knew how many lives they’d already destroyed? ‘Who was your contact at the Coven?’ I asked.

He opened his mouth to talk, then abruptly black threads started to spider out from his eyes. The threads continued to grow at a speed faster than I’d ever seen before. He started to convulse; it looked like black mordis poisoning on steroids.

‘Get him out of the ropes!’ I ordered Bastion hastily as I wrenched open my tote and looked for the stasis potion. I found it, grabbed a fresh paintbrush and dunked it in the jar.

‘Get his shirt off!’ I barked. Bastion cut away Miles’s shirt and I started to paint frantically: isa , algiz and sowilo .

Miles was being poisoned. I had Whole Remedy with me, which would heal eighty percent of poisonings – but not black mordis. Still, it was worth a shot if I could stabilise him first – this wasn’t black mordis so maybe Whole Remedy would work. I painted runes as fast as I could.

He was convulsing violently and starting to foam at the mouth. Despite my efforts, he had one last seizure and I knew instantly that I couldn’t save him.

‘He’s gone,’ Bastion said a moment later.

I dropped the paintbrush on the cellar floor and clenched my teeth. ‘That’s not just black mordis,’ I said finally. ‘That happened way too fast, faster even than it did for our girl.’ I didn’t name Ria because Dick was listening.

I tidied up after myself and tried to keep my face calm, but inwardly I was raging. The evil Coven’s reach was terrifyingly far. I had no idea how they had killed Miles from a distance. An embedded curse that activated under a specific set of circumstances seemed likely, but that was incredibly complex rune work. I could think of only five witches in the whole of the UK who could do something like that.

Either way, Miles was dead and Dick didn’t look too pissed off with the outcome. ‘Why aren’t you more annoyed?’ I snapped.

He grinned. ‘The water elemental part of Unity is dead so officially Unity is no longer my problem. I’ll deal with the body. Thanks for the favour – it turned out even better than I’d hoped.’

What a complete donkey-butt. I hoped Frogmatch had wreaked havoc on his home. At the very least, I hoped the imp had swapped his salt and sugar round and tied his shoelaces in elaborate knots .

I’d love to screw with Dick further, but quite frankly nature had already handled that.