Chapter 15
Two days, and Rowan hadn’t called any of them back.
She told herself she needed time to think.
But the truth was simpler than that.
She didn’t know what to say.
She stood in the kitchen, half-dressed, her tea going cold on the counter when the buzzer cut through the silence of the flat.
She pressed the intercom.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Rowan. It’s Elspeth. Can I come up?”
Rowan frowned and buzzed her in.
She stood in the hallway for a moment, listening to the footsteps on the stairs. Her stomach tightened. She hadn’t spoken to Elspeth since the night she’d walked out of Isla’s flat without a word. Two days of silence. Two days of I trusted you sitting in her chest like a stone.
A minute later, Elspeth appeared at the front door.
“Come in, come in,” Rowan said.
Normally they would have hugged. This time, Elspeth just smiled, a small, sheepish smile, and stepped past her into the hallway. Rowan noticed she was wearing her old green jacket, the one she wore when she wasn’t going to the shop. This was personal, not business.
“Cup of tea?”
“Yeah. That’d be lovely. Thanks.”
Rowan made the tea while Elspeth settled into the armchair by the window. Neither of them spoke until Rowan came through with two mugs and sat down on the sofa opposite.
The flat was quiet. Morning light came through the sash windows and fell across the wooden floorboards in long, pale stripes. Outside, Clarence Drive was just waking up. A van reversed into a space further down the street, its warning beep carrying faintly through the glass.
Rowan looked across at Elspeth. “Is everything okay?”
Elspeth wrapped both hands around the mug and looked down at it for a moment before meeting Rowan’s eyes.
“It’s about the other night,” she said. “I was angry, Rowan.”
Rowan closed her eyes briefly. “I know. I know you were. And I understand why.”
“I haven’t come to apologise for being angry,” Elspeth said. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “But I’ve been thinking about it. A lot. And I think if I was in your situation, I think I would have done the same.”
Rowan didn’t speak. She just looked at her and waited.
“I keep thinking about when I first met Cal,” Elspeth said. “It was just the beginning stages. Everything was new. And if somebody had told me, right then, that being with him could harm the Veil in some way …” She paused. “I think I’d have still done exactly what you did.”
“I appreciate you saying that,” Rowan said quietly. “But like you said, I’m meant to be the leader of this group.”
“That doesn’t make you any less human, Rowan.”
Elspeth said it simply, the way she said everything. No drama. No performance. Just the truth, delivered gently, as if it were obvious and the only person who hadn’t seen it was Rowan.
“We’re all still learning,” Elspeth continued.
“You’re stepping into Jean’s role. I’m learning to be a witch.
We’ve only had our powers for six months.
None of us really know what we’re doing yet.
” She took a sip of tea. “And I’ve got Cal.
I’m not saying he’s the love of my life – it hasn’t gone that far yet, it’s only been a short while.
But I’m happy. Genuinely happy. If I didn’t have him …
and I met someone like that …” She shrugged. “Yeah. I’d have done the same.”
Rowan looked at Elspeth and smiled.
“But, if the Council felt that … they’re already watching us.”
Rowan felt something loosen in her chest that had been tight for days. Not relief, exactly. Something closer to being seen.
She leaned forward and held out her hand.
Elspeth smiled at her and took it.
“This is our first falling out,” Rowan said.
“I know,” Elspeth said. “And it’s not nice, is it?”
“No. Not at all.” Rowan shook her head. “And being honest, I’ve felt really, really bad since that night.”
They sat like that for a moment. Two women holding hands across a coffee table, the morning light moving slowly across the floor between them.
Then Rowan told her everything. The meeting with Callum at Café Palmer. Cutting him off. His face when she pulled her hand away. The tears she’d refused to let fall. Walking back down Hyndland Road. And then Mary walking into the shop, furious, asking what the hell Rowan had told her son.
She told Elspeth what Mary had said. What exactly have you been told? And You’ve started something you don’t understand.
Elspeth listened without interrupting, the way she always did.
When Rowan finished, Elspeth set her mug down.
“You need to tell the rest of the group, Rowan.”
“I know. I was just going to wait until Thursday.”
“No,” Elspeth said. “Tell them now. Today.”
Rowan’s eyes widened. “Oh my God,” she laughed. “That will be the fourth meeting in a week. We can’t keep doing this.”
Elspeth started laughing too, and the sound of it – the two of them laughing together in Rowan’s quiet living room – was the best thing Rowan had felt in days. It wasn’t back to normal. She knew that. But it was better than it had been, and right now, better was enough.
And she knew it must have taken a lot for Elspeth to come here. Not to apologise. She respected that. In fact, she respected it even more that Elspeth hadn’t come to apologise. She’d come to say she understood.
* * *
After Elspeth left, Rowan didn’t sit. She paced.
Her mind kept circling back to Mary’s words.
What exactly have you been told? It implied something.
That the Council’s version wasn’t the whole truth.
That the Veil Walker side knew something the witches didn’t.
And if that was the case, then Lorna might know the answer.
She was ex-Council. She’d already told Rowan that the Council had lied about Stage Four never happening. If anyone would know, it was Lorna.
She stole a glance out of the flat window. Traffic was backed up on Clarence Drive. Temporary traffic lights again, she thought, as she looked up the road trying to find the cause of the jam.
She dialled. Two rings. Lorna answered.
“Hello,” she said, cheerily.
“Lorna, it’s Rowan again.”
“Oh, hi, Rowan. How are you doing?”
“I’m good. Listen, it’s just a quick one. Well, possibly,” Rowan said. “I’ve had conflicting information about the Veil Walkers.”
“Okay,” Lorna said, cautiously. “What conflicting information?”
“Remember you told me the other day that when a witch and a Veil Walker get together, the witch’s powers are enhanced? The Council told me that wasn’t the case. You told me otherwise.”
“Uh huh.”
“Well, I’ve spoken to a Veil Walker. A woman called Mary. And she’s advised that what I’ve been told might not be the full picture either.”
There was silence on the line for a few seconds.
“What do you mean?” Lorna said. “She told you that wasn’t the case?”
“Not exactly. She asked me what I’d been told. As if the version I’d been given – from the Council and from you – might not be the whole truth.”
“You know you shouldn’t really be talking with veil walkers, Rowan.”
“I know. It’s just everything’s going through my head right now. Something happened, and I’m trying to protect everybody, and we’re all running scared about what might come next. If the Council’s looking at our coven, that’s not a good thing.”
“Was it someone from your coven?” Lorna asked.
“No. Not that I know of. I’ve been asking around. I’ve been asking the group.”
“Okay,” Lorna said. There was a pause. When she spoke again, her tone was different. Softer. Almost gentle. “Rowan, if I’m being honest, I think I already know it’s you.”
Rowan’s breath caught.
“It’s fine,” Lorna continued. “I’m not going to say anything. And I understand. But I’d need more information to help you properly, because how the energy interacts with a Veil Walker depends on the witch.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve got a newly formed coven. Most of them haven’t even practised magick yet.
Most of them haven’t discovered their full powers, because they’ve only known about this for six months.
But you – you’ve got what, twenty years of practical magick under your belt?
That changes things. How your energy would mix with a Veil Walker’s would be different from how Elspeth’s would, or Isla’s, or anyone else’s. It depends on who it is.”
Rowan said nothing. She could feel the conversation shifting underneath her, like a current pulling her somewhere she hadn’t intended to go.
“Rowan,” Lorna said quietly. “The timing. The beacon went off the night you came back from Isla's. I was on the phone to a friend in Edinburgh when it lit up. Nine thirty-three.”
Rowan said nothing.
“And that's when you walked home from Isla's, isn't it.”
“Lorna —"
“It's fine. I told you, I'm not going to say anything.”
There was a silence between them.
Rowan waited. One second. Two. Three.
Then a click at the other end of the line.
“Lorna?” Rowan said.
Nothing.
“Lorna, you still there?”
She pulled the phone from her ear and looked at the screen. Call ended.
She must have got cut off.
Rowan dialled the number again. It rang once and went to a message: The person you are calling is not available.
She tried again. Same message.
Rowan stared at her phone.