Chapter 1 #2
The scrying witch’s amber eyes were full of so much love for Riley, and vice versa. They were so smitten, so happy to have found each other, and it was lovely to see.
One day I’d like to make kissy faces at a guy and for it not to be a fleeting fling. To find a deeper connection, to have something beyond sex.
I doubted that guy would be Ollie.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I checked it to find my agent’s name on the screen.
I’d been neglecting my modeling career. At some point, I would have to deal with Helen. She kept calling, leaving furious messages, demanding a better explanation for my lack of working other than me wanting time off.
Shit. How was I supposed to balance this new life with my old one? I couldn’t be a supermodel and The Sun. The public wasn’t aware of House Aurora’s return and wouldn’t be happy about it, given my family’s tainted past.
Should I retire? Finally cut the strings of my career? Riley had left his librarian job, but his resignation didn’t cause a media storm. Mine would.
Thank Hecate for the glamouring potion inside me, making the world see me as a witchcop.
The added bonus of the cloaking potion also hid my magical activity, although it couldn’t be relied on lately after it failed Riley when he’d been running from the Kingwoods with Drake, resulting in the High Coven finding us.
We worked with them now, which was interesting. They provided us with witchcops to help in the field and boost the mansion with an extra layer of protection.
But it didn’t remove the constant crackle of unease.
The High Coven had gone to great lengths to stop the return of House Aurora, so trusting them wasn’t exactly a breeze. I couldn’t help but wonder when the knife would finally slide into our backs.
Still, thank Hecate for this newfound freedom. No more sitting around the mansion waiting for the apocalypse to land on our doorstep.
Cheers to that.
Jake finished popping the lock, Ollie pulling the chain free and opening the gates. They squeaked as I thought they would, the sound fresh out of a horror movie.
I shook my hands, cracking my neck.
The plan was to scope the place out and see what these people were up to. Along with the other two potions sloshing away inside me, there was Rubberskin—an unreliable potion that tried to help deflect any harmful attacks.
Drake quickly sent a message to Alice and April Bramble, who were waiting as lookouts at the end of the dark entrance road, along with two extra witchcops for emergency backup.
Okay. We’re doing this.
“Come on,” Jake commanded, taking point.
Ollie gestured for us to follow him so he could make up the rear. As I did, I made brief eye contact with him, but got nothing back, of course. The pile of bricks on the other side of the gate would probably give me more emotion if I struck up a conversation with it.
Maybe drop this infatuation bullshit while working?
I clicked on my flashlight, inspecting my surroundings. I’d only use my Defensive Sunshine power when it was appropriate to, because it would get too hot and bright for Drake and the agents, but not for me and Riley. Our powers didn’t affect each other.
A mulchy carpet of dead leaves smothered the ground, trash scattered everywhere. Ticket booths rotted away beside the corpses of rusted rides and various stands where you could once shoot water pistols at targets to win prizes.
A thick sadness permeated everything in this place, the whole vibe a painful reminder of what used to be. Well, if you remembered it for what it was, I guess. Being new to the city of Coldharbour, I didn’t know anything about this place apart from it being disused and eerie as fuck.
We passed the bumper cars, Hecate Crystals growing on the stationary vehicles. The beam of my flashlight found nothing else in the arena for bumping apart from decay.
Jake and Ollie spread out a little, checking every nook and cranny. Nothing stirred, nothing showed its face, nothing sounding around me other than the wind.
I shivered, the bitter air creeping under the collar of my jacket.
My senses were on high alert, the best they’d ever been in my life, thanks to the strength of my Aurora blood. Ears attuned to every sound, eyes waiting for any sign of movement. But that didn’t stop more goosebumps breaking out across my skin.
I didn’t like the way this fairground held its breath, keeping it secrets until the opportune moment arrived to unleash them.
If something jumped out at me, I’d so be kicking its ass from here to the end of the universe. I hated surprises, and jump-scares were the worst of them all.
Riley stopped by the Ferris wheel. By Hecate, it was taller than I thought. A real metal giant, its cars rocking in the wind, squeaking and rusted at the bottom, the spokes in a terrible state.
“How long until this falls down, do you think?” I asked, pointing my beam at the center of the wheel.
“Hopefully not tonight,” Riley answered.
Hearing the slight crack in his voice stopped me cold. Memories of his death landed on my shores again, as they liked to do a lot.
He’d been killed by Daniel, our real father, and brought back to life by the Rainbow Stones. He was fine, all good, but cruel flashes of his corpse still crept into my mind.
For a moment, he’d been gone.
For a moment, my world began to collapse.
What if he’d stayed dead? What if I’d lost him? Knowing each other for a short space of time didn’t matter. We’d bonded, we were brothers, and now that he was in my life, I couldn’t imagine a world without him.
He was the brother I needed, unlike the one I’d grown up with.
Okay, no thinking about my family. The lid stayed closed on that box. None of them had been in touch with me since the big Christmas incident last year.
Good.
I linked my arm with Riley’s, just to feel him there.
He triggered every protective instinct, making me want to be his big brother.
It didn’t matter if we were born on the same day.
I came first, and so I carried the weight of responsibility I probably shouldn’t be putting on my shoulders.
But since his brief death, I couldn’t help it.
I wanted to be there for him, to keep him safe.
He gave me a squeeze. “Feeling okay?”
Maybe I should talk to him about this stuff. “All good, little brother.”
I checked a grubby popcorn stand, finding nothing but rot and mold and faded red and white stripes painted on its outside.
Ollie moved past me, inspecting a shooting range. I caught him looking at me before he stepped out of the pool of light made by our flashlights.
Uh-huh.
Movement sounded to my right.
Shit.
Jake’s flashlight beam spun toward the ghost train at the same time as mine. I unlinked my arm from Riley’s, moving forward. My sunshine power tingled in my fingers, ready to be unleashed.
Jake approached, holding his gun with his flashlight. The lights of his surgical steel witchcop bangle flashed green, indicating danger, and allowing access to spells for defense.
Mine did the same, offering me eight spells: Trip, Deflect, Hide, Taser, Seize, Blur, Freeze, Light.
We’d had our civilian bangles replaced for extra power.
Ollie joined Agent Jake in the same stance, but with his spells ready rather than his gun.
There were more sounds in the dark, the shuffling of feet, something like a twig snapping under a foot. I made out the silhouette of a figure hidden in the shadows of the ghost train’s torn awning jutting over its entrance.
“Come out with your hands up!” Jake barked, aiming his flashlight into the face of a man dressed in black. A shimmer witch, his bronze civilian bangle glinting in the beam.
Shadow witches didn’t wear bangles, but that didn’t mean this guy wasn’t dangerous.
I inched closer as a second man appeared.
“Hands up! Now!” Ollie chimed in, his rich baritone cracking like sexy thunder. Blue magical energy rippled in his fingers, a spell about to be clapped out.
The men obeyed, another guy and two women appearing. Shimmer witches too, they formed a line, their hands in the air.
But one of the women held something tightly in her right hand.
A Hecate Crystal. What the fuck? No one ever touched the crystals for fear of depleting their energy. They were precious, the source of all magic on Earth.
Why would any witch willingly break one free?
“Put it down,” Jake demanded.
Her lips spread into a wicked smile, anger broiling in my guts from her smugness.
“I don’t know if I can get it off her safely,” Riley said, his Tidal Pull power kind of like telekinesis. But only by pulling something and then pushing it, so he was right. It might end up making things worse if he flung the crystal into a wall, breaking it.
Best let the real witchcops in our group try their thing first.
“We won’t tell you again,” Ollie warned.
The woman laughed. “Or what?”
“Don’t test us,” Jake retorted.
Her sneer scraped along my irritation, my hands balling into tight fists. I wanted to stomp over there and show them my power.
A series of brief yet painful pulses sparked in my skull. My left eye twitched, the rest of me hungry for violence.
Only when necessary, I told myself.
Be cool.
Be cool.
Be cool.
I clenched my hands, staying calm.
“Put it down!” Ollie yelled.
More smugness from the woman, her eyes wide with what looked like triumph.
“If you insist,” she answered, and flung the crystal to the ground.