Chapter 17 #2
The last bit of light disappears, and we are enshrouded by blackness. With my vision gone, my other senses sharpen, and after a second, I realise I can no longer hear the wind. Only the quiet sounds of our breaths.
My heart pounds in my chest and my stomach clenches with trepidation, but gradually I realise the darkness is lifting. As the eclipse passes, light returns. Only now, there’s nothing but calm air and blue skies.
I suck in a slow breath.
“They did it,” I whisper.
“Just as I said they would,” he replies. “Your loyalty to them does you credit, as does your need to rush headfirst into danger for them. But sometimes you need to know when to step back and realise your path–”
“Lies in a different direction?” I say bitterly. “Alone. Like always.”
“No, you’ll never be alone.” He tilts his head as he studies me. “Have the dreams started yet?”
Although I don’t answer, he obviously sees the truth in my expression. He nods, relaxing his grip on my arms and stepping out of my personal space. “I’ll be seeing you again. But before I go, a piece of advice. One that I thoroughly encourage you to heed.”
I stare at him.
“Keep Sam close.”
“What?” I blink. “Why? What’s going to happen to Sam?”
He chuckles lightly. “He is going to be important to you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.”
I open my mouth to speak, but before I can get a word out, deep purple smoke swirls around him and then he’s gone. I blink several times as my brain catches up.
Witch smoke.
A sudden ringing in my pocket startles me from my thoughts, and I fumble for my phone before it rings off. It’s Sam.
“Hello?” My reply rushes out. “Sam? Are you okay? The others?”
“Well, hello to you too, Prickles,” he greets me, and I can hear the cheerfulness in his voice.
Honestly, it kind of makes me want to punch him in the face for one irrational moment.
Here I am, rushing across London, worrying myself sick about him—them, I mean—and having a crazy magic fight with some complete stranger in an alley, and he sounds like he’s having a grand time. “We’re all fine.”
Of course they bloody are. They don’t need me. Embarrassment washes over me. They clearly didn’t require me to come rushing to their rescue. I feel kind of stupid actually.
“Prickles? Are you still there?”
“Yeah.” I swallow the sour taste in my mouth, and all of a sudden, I just feel exhausted. “Yeah, I’m here.”
Not that you need me.
“Where are you exactly?” he asks.
“I’m at the shop,” I reply, staring at my mother’s shop not far down the alleyway ahead of me.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’m sure you’re busy with work or research, but good news, we averted the almost apocalypse.”
He thinks I mean I’m at my shop. That I didn’t come to help them, and he doesn’t even sound mad about the idea that I let them down.
“That’s…that’s good, then.” I swallow back the tears and try to sound normal. “Well done, you.”
“Well, it was a team effort. I mean, we’re all covered in Chaos goo from where all these weird black tentacles exploded.
Dusty keeps switching outfits. You should see what she’s wearing right now.
She looks like an extra from Flash Gordon.
She calls it her saving-the-world outfit.
I have to say, being around a dead drag queen is never dull. ”
“Right, well.” I clear my throat. “Um, it’s sounds like you all did a good job, so I’ll just let you get back to it.”
“Get back to what? Prickles, are you okay?” he asks, and his concern hits me somewhere I don’t want to be vulnerable.
“I’m fine, just busy.” I work to keep my tone brisk.
“Okay. Well, Chan has decided to throw a high-five-we-prevented-the-apocalypse party.”
“But I didn’t prevent the apocalypse,” I snap, trying to not show the hurt of once again being on the outside looking in.
“Uh, yes, you did,” he argues.
“No, I didn’t.” I scowl. “I didn’t do anything at all.”
“I beg to differ, you did plenty. You helped with all that research, and you made all those hex bags and helped protect Tristan’s dad. You’re part of this team, Prickles.”
“No, I–”
“Come on, Prickles, quit arguing. You’re coming to the party if I have to drive to your place and pick…” he pauses. “Oh no, wait. I don’t have my car.”
“Why? What happened to it?”
“I had a bit of an accident with it when we were racing over to the bookshop to save the world.”
I frown in concern. “A bit of an accident?”
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure,” he says breezily. “After they bang out some of the dents, anyway, I can Uber over to yours and pick you up.”
“That really isn’t necessary.”
“I think it is,” Sam says seriously. “We all want you there. In fact, I—wait a moment.” There’s a muffled voice talking to Sam and a conversation I can’t make out, then Sam comes back on the line.
“Tristan says, if you don’t show up, he’s sending Dusty over.
Apparently, she’ll keep you up all night by singing the entire soundtrack to Cabaret to you—including encores,” he adds.
I sigh loudly.
“Does that mean you’ll come?”
“I don’t know,” I murmur.
“But–”
“Look, Sam, I have to go. A customer just walked in.” I hang up the phone before he can say anything further, then go one step further and switch my phone off completely.
I need some time to process everything that’s happened today, so I head back out onto the main road, but at the last moment, I pause and look back.
There, sitting in the middle of the alley not far from me, is a fox, an incredibly rare one that I’ve only ever seen pictures of. It’s a melanistic red fox and it’s just sitting and watching me with large yellow eyes.
Its furry face is black, the sides of its head and base of its pointed ears a deep burnished red. The very tips of its ears are black, and its body and bushy tail are a mixture of black and red fur.
I don’t know how long we remain staring at each other. Finally, it gets up and takes a step towards me, then another, but before it can reach me, it dissipates into black smoke and then disappears entirely.
I blink several times, wondering if this whole day is just one of my weird vivid dreams. I even go so far as to pinch myself and wince at the pain.
Guess the fox was real. A magical disappearing fox, because why not?
Just when I thought my life couldn’t get any stranger.