Chapter 7 #2
I glance up to see that we’ve reached the long driveway that leads up to the old coven house. It’s lined with trees that are mostly bare of leaves at this time of year, which means we have a pretty good view of the house right as we walk up to it.
Reva reaches down and squeezes my hand, causing warmth to course through me from where our flesh meets. A tingle rushes through me right the way up to the mark on my forearm. She doesn’t pull her hand away either, keeping it linked with mine until we reach the end of the driveway.
The old manor is one you can tell used to be splendid in days gone by. Now though, it’s certainly seen better days. The windows are smeared and dirty, and the steps leading up to the front door are an absolute deathtrap, broken with weeds growing through.
I head for the nearest window, peering through, but the grime is thick and impossible to see through. Not to mention, it’s dark inside.
“No one should be here, right?” Reva calls from where she’s picking her way up the steps by the front door.
“It’s been abandoned for a while,” I reply, heading over to her. “Why?”
She gives the door a nudge with her foot, and it creaks open. “It was ajar.” Without a moment’s hesitation, she steps inside before turning to me with a grin. “At least you’d be able to sense if this place was cursed.”
I trip over the top step as I hurry after her. “Curses, sure,” I reply before wrapping an arm around her so she can’t go any further. “But if there are defensive spells or wards, I can’t see them without help.”
It’s dim inside the house, the weak winter sunlight struggling to fight against the layers of grime and what look like greasy fingermarks all over the glass.
“Hello?” Reva calls. Her voice echoes through the entranceway, bouncing off the wooden floors and bare walls.
But there’s no reply.
I pull out the special pair of spectacles I thankfully thought to put in my pocket. Slipping them onto Reva’s nose, her face breaks into a slow smile.
“Very fetching,” I tell her. “Now, can you see any strange lights anywhere? They should detect any wards.”
She doesn’t seem to mind when I keep my arm around her. Rather than stepping away, she twists on the spot, peering around from floor to ceiling.
“No lights,” she says before tapping the metal frames of the spectacles. “These are handy. Where did you get them from?”
“One of Finch’s crewmates gave me them,” I reply. “Not sure where he acquired them, but they’ve gotten me out of more than one bind in the past.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like the place is magically booby-trapped,” Reva says, stepping away and reaching out to grab my hand. “Let’s explore, shall we?”
We’re inside a kind of entrance hall, one devoid of any furniture with a curved staircase covered in faded red carpet. Reva tugs me along toward a closed door, which she flings open and then makes a show of peering around with the spectacles before grinning at me.
“No lights in here either.” Her nose wrinkles. “Although it stinks.”
She’s right. There’s a kind of musty scent in the air, like it’s been shut up for too long. But beneath that, there’s something faintly metallic.
“It smells like sex in here.”
“Sounds about right,” I murmur, as we make our way around the room. There’s not much to look at here, either. Right in the middle of the room sits an old table that’s seen better days, while an empty dresser rests against the wall.
“Did you ever come along to the orgies?”
I snort, shaking my head. “Not my thing, sweetheart. I’m not a fan of strangers watching. Plus, townspeople weren’t invited. Didn’t I mention that?”
Her cheeks go pink at my words, and my own cheeks heat at the thought of what might have gone on here.
I wouldn’t want to see the results of a revealing spell in this room, or the rest of this house.
“Let’s avoid touching anything if we can help it.”
“What do you mean the town wasn’t invited? I thought people complained to the council about the witches having orgies up here.”
I smirk at her. “What they complained about was that they weren’t invited.”
She stops and barks out a laugh at that, and I have to stop for a moment and savour it, wishing I could bottle up the sound and carry it around with me for dull days.
“So, what are we looking for here? Signs of Hilde’s missing customer, or I guess... bad magic? Skulls and whatever else sorcerers use in their nasty potions.”
I nod. “And anywhere that Aster might have been held.”
That drains the levity from the air. Nice work, Kit.
We head through to a sitting room, which has cushion-covered sofas that have seen better days. In the corner, there is a pile of blankets and yet more cushions left abandoned, and Reva wrinkles her nose.
“It stinks even worse in here.”
Her sense of smell is stronger than mine, so I’ll take her word for it. To me, it just smells musty and like it could do with a good airing.
“They didn’t exactly take care of the place.”
“It was empty for a long time before the coven took over. The council was thrilled that anyone would be willing to pay rent for it.”
Reva hums, eyes flicking up to the unlit chandelier that’s caked in dust. The only halfway shiny thing in the room.
“You fancy moving in?” I tease. “I’m sure the council would give you a good deal.”
She snorts, shaking her head. “No, thanks. Even with a deep clean, this place still feels weird. It’s got an atmosphere to it.”
I push my luck, slinging my arm around her waist, and am pathetically pleased when she doesn’t shove me off. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a few little ghosties.”
This time, when she chuckles and shakes her head again, I narrowly avoid a mouthful of hair. “Not ghosts. The air just feels weirdly thick, like the walls are listening.” She cocks her head to one side. “Or maybe I’m losing it. It’s been quite the day, and it’s barely lunchtime.”
Now that she mentions it, I have to agree. There are so many dark corners, it feels as though anyone could be sitting there, waiting and listening.
“I forgot to look at your cursed safe.” The words come out right as I have the revelation. Reva came to me for help, and I completely forgot why.
“It can wait.”
“Right, of course.” Now that I’m more aware of the darkness and the atmosphere she mentioned, the air seems even thicker somehow.
“This place is giving me the willies.” I mutter. “Let’s do a quick tour and get out.”
We’ve barely stepped beyond the room’s threshold when there’s a slam from somewhere deeper inside the house. The two of us freeze, and my heart gallops in my chest like a runaway horse.
Reva grimaces as she peers up at me. “We left the front door open. Probably just the wind.”
Let’s hope so.
The kitchen has more remnants of life in it than any of the previous rooms. Crumbs. An abandoned mug. A stray head of garlic on the scrubbed wooden counter. But the large hearth is filled with ash, and the copper kettle hanging over it is cold.
There’s a tinkling of broken glass to my left, and Reva shifts her foot, making the glass clink and crunch. “Ugh, what’s that?”
Stepping closer, I peer down at the floor beside her feet. There’s a dark stain on the tiled floor.
“Is that—”
“I don’t think it’s blood.” She smears it around, and I can see she’s right. It’s too gloopy and thick to be blood. “Still no sign of Hilde’s missing customer or anything else. If anything, it just shows the witches that were here were slobs.”
There’s another ominous creak. This time it sounds like it’s coming from upstairs, and we freeze, sharing a wide-eyed glance.
“The wind again?” I murmur.
“Or Hilde’s missing customer?” Reva whispers back, although she doesn’t sound all that convinced. “Uh, Kit, why is your pocket glowing purple?”
Now that she mentions it, it feels rather hot. I shove my hand into the pocket of my trousers and pull a small circular device that’s giving off an eerie purple light.
Damn. Seems we’ll need to draw our investigation short.
“What’s that?”
“Someone’s calling me on the scrying glass back at the house.” I hold out my hand, palm up, and Reva peers down at it. It’s imbued with just enough magic to let me know when someone’s trying to contact me.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I shrug. “A gift from Finch, so that I’m always contactable when he wants me. Although he’s a nightmare when I want to contact him.” It glows even brighter, and I shove it back into my pocket with a sigh.
“From experience, he won’t let up, and it’s going to get brighter until it starts to vibrate.”
She eyes my gleaming pocket. “And you can’t just... answer the scrying glass with that thing?”
I chuckle. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.” Although Finch would be even more insufferable if he could contact me at all times of day wherever I happened to be. “I’m fairly sure he only gave me the device to annoy me, but it’s come in handy a few times when he needed help in a pinch.”
“Well then, I guess we’d better head back,” she says, giving a rueful look around the house. “I can’t say I’m too sad to be getting out of here.”
Nor am I. The heaviness in the air seems to follow us as we head out of the front door again, not abating until we’re partway up the lane and the manor is out of sight.