Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
SALEM, PRESENT DAY
The meeting room was decorated like the cabin of an old sailing ship and for a moment Dora saw the image that sometimes haunted her dreams, of her and Ambrose standing on the deck of a clipper with two young children.
She now knew they were named Thomas and Bridget.
Maybe she would see if she could get hypnotised or a past life regression done so she could bring all these hidden memories back.
In the meeting room, there was a long table and sitting behind it were Arnie from the phone shop in Witch City Mall, Pennywise aka Brandon and a grey-haired woman with bright orange lipstick who looked almost as old as the vintage portraits adorning the walls behind her.
Dora couldn’t have been more surprised to see Arnie and Brandon.
Arnie grinned at them. ‘Ladies, it’s good to see you.’
‘Where is Lenora?’ asked the woman, cutting to the chase, no smiles or introductions given.
‘In London, she isn’t due back until tomorrow evening, Clara. We didn’t get much notice that we were desperately needed to attend a meeting until you summoned us so abruptly.’
Clara nodded. Her short grey hair and matching grey eyes were iridescent under the light.
‘That’s a fair comment.’
Brandon pointed to some chairs. ‘Please, sit down.’
Sephy sat, Dora followed her aunt.
‘May I enquire just what is the nature of this meeting?’ Sephy’s voice was bold; she wasn’t nervous, unlike Dora whose stomach was churning so fast she felt as if she was going to throw up on the carpet at any moment.
‘An incident involving a certain George Corwin has come to light and something else that we need to discuss, too.’
Brandon, who was still wearing his full Pennywise costume, was hard to look away from; it was the bloodstained, pointed teeth that held Dora’s eyes.
‘It took this long?’ Sephy was incredulous.
Clara nodded. ‘We knew something had happened, there are ripples through the equilibrium when something of that nature happens, though we weren’t sure exactly what.
Is it true what the gossips are saying? You summoned Hecate in Howard Street Cemetery, a public space, and she bound Corwin to the light? ’
Arnie winked at Dora who had managed to tear her gaze away from Brandon, and she couldn’t help smiling back at him.
‘We did. It was a matter of urgency, he gave us no time to prepare or seek counsel. It was most terrifying and Dora here fought him on her own terms with barely any protection. You know for a fact his sole mission in all his lifetimes is to annihilate the bloodline witches, especially the English women. I do not see us putting an end to him of such a great problem, especially when he was going to do far worse than upset the equilibrium, Clara.’
‘I see, but the fact that you took this upon yourselves and you chose to do this without consulting the council first is unacceptable.’
‘There wasn’t time to call a meeting, it was us or him. This time we chose us and won. Do you truly have a problem with that?’
Arnie was grinning now, and Brandon was nodding his head in agreement with Sephy until Clara turned and gave them both a glaring look that could have turned milk sour. Both sat straighter, no more smiling, their lips now set in tight, straight lines.
‘My problem, or should I say our problem, is that you or your niece had a very public battle using magic in a cemetery of all places with no concern for any innocent person who could have been caught up in the crossfire or indeed the dead that preside there. It was disrespectful and dangerous.’
Dora didn’t like Clara’s attitude. Enough was enough. She leaned towards the woman.
‘Excuse me, I’m standing in front of you, there is no need to talk about me as if I’m an inanimate object.
There were no people around living or dead.
Corwin had kidnapped my aunt Lenny, and she was being crushed to death under a heavy slab of stone.
Were we supposed to come find all three of you and ask your permission to save her life?
Because first of all I had no idea there was a council of witches or a code of conduct to adhere to and secondly, I barely even knew that I was a witch.
Trust me, no one was more surprised than I was.
So, can we chalk it up to inexperience and put all of this behind us?
I’m sure there’s no need for everyone to be so upset about it.
It’s not as if he was a good guy, I mean he’s killed me so many times I can’t even remember them all I’m so traumatised by him.
In fact, while we’re discussing this why did you not drag him in front of you all to answer to you about his questionable morals?
He was allowed to cause hurt to innocent people, lifetime after lifetime and bore no consequences for that.
It seems to me you’re picking on the wrong people. ’
Clara’s eyes narrowed into two slits, and Dora, who had always been good at reading people, knew the woman was furious and stopped herself from saying anything else.
Arnie intervened. ‘Clara, she has a point. Why have we never brought Corwin in to question him or put a stop to his abhorrent behaviour towards women of a witchy disposition?’
Clara snapped her head in his direction.
‘Because he’s not a witch, he does not answer to us, he answers to no one.
We have never had control over that man; he has walked his own path for a very long time.
Don’t forget I’ve only dealt with him in this life; perhaps blame my ancestors for not leaving enough notes. ’
Brandon gave Dora a quick shrug. ‘She is right though, why have we let him get away with persecuting women for so many centuries? What if it was you or your family he was hunting down every lifetime?’
Clara let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Yes, I would want to stop him, but I would have spoken with the council first.’
Arnie shook his head. ‘Look, Clara, what’s done is done.
Nobody got hurt except for Corwin, who has been a pain in our ass since the seventeenth century.
And you’ve made your point. Can we focus on the other matter then it can all be put to bed and everyone can go home?
Brandon hasn’t even had time to take that damn awful make-up off yet. ’
The woman nodded. ‘The matter of Corwin is finished. If he rears his ugly head again, next time you must come and speak with us first before doing anything rash. Is that understood?’
Sephy bowed her head and nodded. ‘Yes, Clara, it is fully understood.’ She elbowed Dora gently in the ribs.
‘Yes, we will. Sorry.’
‘Apologies accepted.’ Arnie smiled at them. ‘Now, what I want to know is where did you find the lost book of spells, Dora? Is it the same one that you’ve all been hunting for hundreds of years?’
‘Yes, it is. I finally remembered where we—’ She paused not sure she should be dragging Ambrose into this. ‘I remembered where I hid it in 1692. It was in a wooden shack in the forest that we called the bookstore during our first lifetime.’
Clara was leaning forward, her elbows on the table in front of her. ‘A hidden bookstore? Well, I never. How did you find it?’
Dora glanced at Sephy who smiled at her encouragingly. ‘I asked the trees and flowers to show me the way.’
‘And they did? Interesting, I wonder why this time and not any other?’ Clara’s silvery eyes were piercing right through into the depths of Dora’s green eyes.
‘I don’t know, but I’m glad they did. I was able to find it and the spell book. I used it to summon Hecate and to cast the binding spell.’
‘Where is this bookstore now? Is it still in the forest?’
‘I don’t know, I suppose, yes, it is, technically it should be.’
‘I still don’t understand how it was hidden for all this time.’
‘I prayed so hard for it to vanish from sight the night Corwin and his men came to find me, I think I unintentionally cast a spell over it and managed to hide it so well for a very long time. I wasn’t aware of the powers I held back then, just like I wasn’t aware of them in this lifetime until I came home with Lenny. ’
Clara nodded again. ‘So, you used magic that you weren’t aware you had to conceal it for hundreds of years.
Then you used the magic to find it again.
Tell me, what did you do with it when you left?
Did you leave it open for all of Salem to find or did you vanish it away again?
Because I’d be very interested to visit this bookstore for myself. ’
Dora had to swallow the bile that had risen up her throat. She felt the back of her neck go cold and clammy. She had been so busy after the fight in the cemetery, coping with losing her mom and then finalising her affairs in London, that she hadn’t even given the bookstore a passing thought.
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know what?’ Clara had clasped her long, slender fingers, and the pointed orange nails looked more like claws than fingers.
Dora could see the horror on Sephy’s face as she was coming to the same conclusion.
Anyone could get into the bookstore, and although as far as Dora knew there was only Lucine’s spell book in there, what if Corwin or someone else had found it after her?
What if he had left a spell book of his own for someone else to find?
Someone who might use the magic to bring him back.
She couldn’t say this out loud, she might be panicking over nothing, but the thought had popped into her head as if it had every right to be there and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
It was Sephy who answered. ‘There was a lot going on, Clara. Lucine died, we were grieving and as far as we knew the bookstore had no other magical books inside except for Lucine’s. We will see if we can find it tomorrow and make sure it’s cloaked and hidden again.’
‘What if it isn’t there?’ Clara had a sly smile on her face, and Dora thought that it would be a blessing if it wasn’t. It would mean she was panicking over nothing.
‘Then there is no issue, is there? And if it is, I will let your good selves know immediately. I can’t say or do anything fairer than that.’
Arnie and Brandon both nodded again at the same time.
Clara finally tore her gaze away from them and began to write in a huge, leatherbound book.
‘You are dismissed; I will note down that you were under great duress, but mark my words the both of you, no more fighting with anyone unless you have cleared it with the council.’
Brandon rolled his eyes in Clara’s direction, and Dora lowered her head; they had been well and truly put in their place.
‘Thank you, it won’t happen again unless we have no choice, Clara, and then you can stick that broomstick you use to look down on the rest of us up your ass. My family will always come first,’ said Sephy who then turned and ushered Dora out of the room and into the corridor.
* * *
Sephy mimed lifting a glass to her lips and Dora, who was so shocked at her usually gentle aunt’s parting words, couldn’t agree more.
The polished gold doors of the elevator slid open as if it had been waiting for them and they went back down to The Tavern, where Sephy took the table in the furthest corner away from any other guests.
It was so cosy inside. Dora rolled her head and felt the tension drain from the back of neck and shoulders for the first time in hours.
She opened her mouth to speak but Sephy lifted a finger to her lips as the bartender came over to take their order.
‘Double vodka on the rocks. What would you like, Dora?’
‘The same, please.’
When they had been given their drinks and left alone, Sephy threw back her head and took a long gulp.
‘You know Clara’s family has always been jealous of us English women, but she’d never admit it.
None of them ever would. She loves any chance to reprimand us because she knows fine well our powers combined are enough to send fifty Corwins to the light now that we’ve figured out how to finally do it, and it scares her. ’
Dora took a large glug of the clear liquid that burned all the way down her throat making her cough. When she’d composed herself, she smiled at Sephy. ‘Lenny would have eaten her alive, but you did a pretty good job too of putting her in her place.’
This made Sephy laugh a little too loud.
‘Yes, dear, she certainly would. Perhaps it’s just as well that your aunt Lenny missed this little interrogation.
Hopefully, we were contrite just enough to keep her off our backs for the time being.
I should not have parted with those words, but she irked my soul.
The last thing I want is Clara turning up at the house or the shop unannounced; my nerves couldn’t take that, dear. ’
‘Sephy, I’m scared I’ve messed up big time.’
‘How so?’
Dora thought that nobody could speak as gentle and beautifully as her aunt Sephy.
‘I never thought about hiding the bookstore again, and I have this awful feeling that Corwin could have found it. I used to feel as if I was being followed by an invisible force. What if he had a book of spells more powerful than Lucine’s, and what if he left it there for someone to find and they use it to bring him back?
The feeling that he might have had a contingency plan is always there, hovering at the back of my mind. ’
‘That is a lot of what ifs, Dora. I don’t think so, or I don’t feel that way.
I mean we would know about it by now, surely.
Why don’t we see if we can find it tomorrow?
If it’s still there lingering in the forest, you can hide it again.
You did it once, and you can do it again.
I’m sure Corwin had no idea about the bookstore, surely, he didn’t. ’
Dora knew Sephy was trying to make her feel better, but she couldn’t help thinking that she was right.
Corwin wouldn’t have given up so easily without a backup plan and this thought terrified her beyond belief.
She never wanted to fight him again, at least not in this lifetime. Once was more than enough for her.