Chapter Twenty-Three
With a jolt, Augustine came back to herself, falling into her own body and mind with a suddenness which was momentarily disorientating. All the blurred lines and borrowed feelings sat heavily within her, and she frantically surveyed the room, looking for Theo.
Who was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, the space he’d occupied was now empty, and the quiet of her shop stretched out in a way that echoed oddly. The disappointment was staggering, and Augustine closed her eyes.
He’d just been about to kiss me, she thought, loss bitterly running through her, before she shook her head. No, he wasn’t, she reminded herself. Because it wasn’t you, remember? In fact, you barely know him. He’s basically a stranger.
Still, she couldn’t help herself from staring at the place where he’d been, wondering if he might simply reappear if she just waited long enough.
But he didn’t.
* * *
The bell above The Priestess Reversed chimed loudly as Maddy stumbled into the shop, her coat in one hand and about four shopping bags filled to the brim with cat food in the other.
“Maddy,” Augustine intoned from behind her till, taking in her haphazard appearance. “What’s all that?”
“It’s for Bird,” Maddy announced, dumping the bags by Augustine’s feet. “It was on special offer. So cheap. I was getting a Tesco meal deal anyway, so it was no trouble.”
Augustine took in the with dismay. “Maddy, that’s enough food to sustain a small army of cats. Bird doesn’t need all that.”
“Of course he does. He’s a growing boy.” Maddy threw her coat at the stand by the door, missing the hook entirely. It slid straight to the floor, but Maddy didn’t even notice. “Also, there were different flavours. You don’t not get all the flavours.”
“He’s a cat,” Augustine reminded her. “He doesn’t care about flavours.”
“Even cats have preferences, Ags.”
“Well, Bird doesn’t. Sometimes he catches flies and eats them whole. Occasionally he drinks out of the toilet. Trust me, flavour is not on his list of priorities where his stomach is concerned.”
“So far as you know,” Maddy replied easily, not at all offended. Abruptly, she squinted her eyes at Augustine, staring at her. “Wait. Why do you look like that?”
Augustine stood. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Like you’ve just seen a ghost or something.”
Augustine froze for half a second. “I’m fine.”
Maddy narrowed her eyes. “Sure.”
“I’m fine,” Augustine said again, already turning away, gathering up the bags of cat food and placing them — neatly and pointedly — on the counter. “It’s just been a long day.”
“Mmm.” Maddy kicked off her boots and wandered further into the shop. “Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened.”
“I disagree. The vibes in this place are weird today. You’re weird today. Something definitely happened.” She paused, then added, “Was it a customer? Did someone try to haggle with you? Because I’ve told you, you have to be meaner. You have to look them in the eye and—”
“It was him,” Augustine said.
Maddy stopped. “Him?” she repeated slowly.
“The man,” Augustine clarified, crossing her arms over her chest. “The one who asked me to read the cards. He came back.”
A look flickered across Maddy’s face. A look Augustine couldn’t read.
“And we talked. It was . . .” Augustine went on hurriedly. “It was fine. Really fine. He carried a pumpkin into your salt circle without issue. He’s clean.”
Maddy didn’t look reassured. Instead, she crossed the room in two quick steps and dropped down onto the floor in front of Augustine, sitting cross-legged and looking up at her with an almost unsettling focus.
“Ags, what happened?” she asked. “Tell me everything.”
Augustine opened her mouth and then closed it again, because she didn’t quite know where to start.
I mean, how did you even begin to explain what she’d been through in the past few days?
She chewed on her lip, deliberating, before deciding to go for blunt honesty.
After all, this was Maddy, her baby sister, who always had her best interests at heart.
Besides, there was no use even trying to lie to her.
Maddy had worked as a PA too long and saw through any kind of bullshit with the inference skills of 007 on speed.
“Okay, so, um,” she began, a little weakly. “So, I read the tarot cards for him. And then I kind of accidentally possessed his girlfriend in the past and experienced their formative romantic moments from her perspective.”
“Right.” Maddy blinked. “Okay. Ags, I’m going to need you to say that again. Slower this time. Because it kind of just sounded like you said you possessed somebody today.”
“Well, today and yesterday,” Augustine confessed. “It was the tarot cards. They sent me into memories. Her memories. I . . .” She grimaced. “I became her. His girlfriend. The one from before.”
Maddy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “From before? From before what?”
Right. She’d forgotten that part.
“From before he died.”
At that, Maddy shot up from the floor and gaped at Augustine in naked shock. “He’s dead?”
“Yeah.” Augustine swallowed. “He thinks he was murdered. That’s why he came to me. For help. He’s kind of a ghost.”
Maddy was utterly silent. It was unnerving. Maddy always had something to say. Always had something to bring to the table. She was never like this.
“He thinks whoever killed him might go after his girlfriend, too,” Augustine pressed on. “If I can figure out who she is — if I can find her, warn her — then maybe . . .” Her thoughts were tangling and the faintest flicker of doubt crossed her face.
Maddy caught it immediately. “What? What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Ags.”
Augustine inhaled deeply. “It’s just, when I’m in her memories . . . She . . . she reminds me of someone.”
“Reminds you of someone?” Maddy’s brows knit together. “Who?”
Augustine looked at her. “Me. She reminds me of myself.”
There was silence, and Maddy’s expression dropped, all the colour draining from her face at once. “Augustine,” she said darkly. “Does this ghost have a name?”
Augustine hesitated, just for a second. “His name is Theo,” she said. “Theo Manford.”
“Oh, God.” Maddy’s reaction was instant.
It wasn’t just surprise, but something sharper.
Her whole body went rigid, like she’d been struck through with cold.
The colour that had already drained from her face seemed to vanish entirely, leaving her pale and stricken in a way Augustine had never seen before.
“Maddy?”
“You have to stop this,” Maddy said, leaping to her feet, and her voice was tight and entirely controlled. A little too controlled. “Right now,” her sister carried on. “You stop it, right now.”
Augustine blinked. “What?”
“Whatever he wants,” Maddy went on quickly, shaking her head like she was trying to dislodge the very idea, “whatever he’s asking you to do . . . you need to stop. End it. Send him away. Banish him. Exorcize him. Whatever it takes. Just stop it.”
“I can’t just turn this off,” Augustine snapped, thrown. “It’s not a tap. I didn’t turn it on; I can’t just stop it now.”
“You have to,” Maddy insisted.
“Why?” Augustine demanded. “What is going on with you?”
Maddy didn’t answer. She just shook her head again, a little too quickly. “It’s not right. This whole situation . . . none of this is right. It wasn’t meant to happen.”
“What wasn’t meant to happen?” Augustine demanded. “Do you know him or something?”
“No!” Maddy said immediately. Too immediately. “No. No, not at all. It’s just—” She was visibly forcing herself to stay calm. “This has to stop. Please, Ags. Just . . . put an end to it.”
Augustine frowned, because this wasn’t like her. Maddy was many things — dramatic, chaotic, occasionally reckless — but she wasn’t like this. Not tense, and certainly never afraid. Something wasn’t adding up.
“I can’t,” Augustine said, more slowly now. “Not yet.”
Maddy gave her a look that was made of part disapproval, part anger.
“I need to help him,” Augustine went on. “And besides . . . there’s something else.”
Maddy’s shoulders tightened. “What?”
Augustine searched for the words, her unease growing as she spoke them aloud. “I feel like I know him. Like we’ve met before but I can’t remember it.” Her eyes flicked to Maddy’s. “And then there’s Bird.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
“What about Bird?” Maddy finally asked.
Augustine looked at her, a flicker of unease passing over her face. “Do you know how I got him? Because I don’t. I can’t remember, Mads. I can’t remember where I got my own cat from.”
Maddy shrugged, a little too quickly. “He was a gift.”
“From who?”
Maddy simply shrugged again. She chewed on her thumbnail for a beat, before she seemed to realize what she was doing and grimaced. “You never said.”
“Okay, but then Theo . . .” Augustine continued, her gaze sharpening as she looked back at her sister. “He can’t remember his own girlfriend. It’s like there’s a block there.” She held Maddy’s gaze for a long moment. “Is this magic, do you think?”
Maddy shifted, visibly uncomfortable now. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Augustine echoed. “Come on, Maddy. Be real. It has to be magic. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Maddy shrugged again, but it wasn’t careless now. There was tension. Hesitation. “Maybe,” she said again. “You and I have both heard of it happening before. But it would take a witch of enormous power to cast something like that.”
Augustine nodded slowly. “I know. The risk to the witch would be huge. None of us would be stupid enough to go near magic like that.”
Maddy looked away.
“But someone has,” Augustine added. “And I need to find out who.”
“No, you don’t,” Maddy insisted, looking back. “Ags. You have to stop it,” she said again, but there was something different in her voice this time. Not just urgency, but fear. “Please,” she added. “Please. The next time he appears — corporealizes, whatever, just . . . stop it. Send him away.”
Augustine opened her mouth to argue, but Maddy saw it coming.
Her sister took a breath, steadying herself, and stepped closer. “Augustine, please.”
“I just—”
“It’s what Mum would have said,” Maddy said flatly, cutting her off, and Augustine stopped. “Mum would have told you the same thing. We’re careful first, right? Always and forever, we’re careful first.” Maddy paused. “You need to be careful now. And not just for your sake. For all of our sakes.”
Augustine opened her mouth to argue — and then stopped, staring at her sister.
There was something off here, she realized.
Something in the way Maddy spoke . . . it didn’t sit right, and it wasn’t the words themselves.
Those made sense. Careful first. Always and forever.
That had been drilled into them since they were children.
No. It wasn’t the words. It was her.
The tension in Maddy’s shoulders. The way she wouldn’t quite meet Augustine’s eyes for too long. The speed with which she’d denied knowing Theo. Too fast, and far too neat.
Augustine felt a slow, uneasy clarity begin to settle.
Maddy isn’t telling me something. But it’s Maddy. Why would she lie?
Augustine’s gaze sharpened, studying her sister in a new light.
Theo Manford. It was when I said his name.
That had been the moment everything changed.
A small, cold certainty slid into place and Augustine went rigid.
She knows him — or of him. And knows enough to be afraid. Enough to tell me to stop. Augustine’s mind was turning, pulling at threads she didn’t yet understand. She knows him . . . and doesn’t want to tell me why.
That, more than anything, made her pulse quicken. Something was wrong here, and she needed to find out what. Not like this, though. Not with Maddy watching her like she might shatter at any moment.
Augustine let out a slow breath, forcing her expression to soften, to ease back into something familiar. “All right,” she said quietly, the lie all too easy on her tongue. “I’ll stop it. Stop him.”
Maddy’s shoulders dropped, not completely — but enough. Relief flickered across her face, cautious and fragile. “Okay,” she said. “Okay. Good.”
Augustine nodded, already turning away, clearing her throat as she moved back towards the counter. “Right,” she said, a touch too brisk. “So. Cat food. Did you really buy twelve tins of salmon mousse?”
“Sixteen,” Maddy corrected automatically. “I told you, they were on offer. So cheap.”
“Right.”
They were talking cat food but underneath, Augustine’s mind was already moving as her fingers tightened slightly around the tin.
I’m not letting this go. I’ll find out the truth for myself.