Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
SALEM, PRESENT DAY
Dora had no choice but to head back to Sephy’s, unless she went to the Hawthorne to see if her aunts were there.
She could, but surely the council of witches only met once a month and didn’t hang out there all the time.
Clara must live somewhere in Salem. Lenny was already fuming with her, so she headed back to wait for them.
They were already in the kitchen when she got there, both drinking tall glasses of the black magic cocktail.
Sephy jumped up when Dora slammed the front door a little too loud, managing to knock the black cherry vodka-infused drink all over the table.
‘I am such a klutz,’ she muttered.
Dora looked from one aunt to the other.
‘What’s the rush, why was it imperative I left Morana’s apartment? Did you find Clara?’
‘So many questions with so few answers. We didn’t find Clara and we didn’t want you putting yourself at risk from that woman.
She is clearly spiralling out of her own witchy control.
It’s dangerous to be around her with all this untapped energy she is putting out into the world.
Why did you not tell us that’s where you were heading? ’ Lenny’s tone was accusatory.
‘I didn’t know I’d find her; it was just a hunch. She hasn’t got the book anyway. I told you, Clara has it.’
Sephy, who had been mopping up her spillage, looked up at her. ‘Clara has the book, how so?’
‘She found Morana and asked her for it and said it was too dangerous for her, so it seems she’s well ahead of us and on top of her job. We can forget about it now huh?’
Lenny shook her head. ‘It’s not that simple.’
Dora sighed, took a glass out of the cupboard and poured herself some black magic. ‘No, it never is. I mean do our lives really need to be so complicated?’
‘How did this Morana get the book in the first place?’ Lenny asked. ‘And what is Clara going to do with it? I’ve never trusted her, as she’s always been so envious of us all.’
‘Said some crazy lady brought it to her because her name was inside the front cover along with Lucine’s, and she told her she owed her five hundred bucks for it.
Morana said she tried to give it back, even threw it in the trash but it reappeared on her table, so not only is it magical it’s haunted. ’
‘Don’t be stupid, Dora, it’s not haunted.’ Lenny tutted loudly.
‘Oh, I’m being stupid by saying it’s haunted, but you’re not by saying it’s not? How else do you explain it?’
‘Semantics.’
‘Why are you both in such a state over this book?’
Sephy refilled her glass and took a huge gulp of it.
‘This Morana managed to kill her best friend without doing much more than think a very cruel thought about her, that means it’s pretty powerful, even more so than when Lucine wrote in it.
I don’t understand how Morana can finish the spells though, as it has to be a direct descendant, and she is not that I know of connected to us English women in any way, shape or form. ’
‘Yes, how is this possible? Even more unsettling is how did Clara know about it?’ Lenny was shaking her head.
‘Same way we did, we could see the darkness spreading in from the wharf and we knew something was off.’ Sephy took another huge mouthful.
‘What is Clara going to do with it, do you think?’ Dora asked.
‘Use it.’ Lenny shrugged, making both Dora and Sephy stare at her.
‘Use it to do what?’
‘I don’t know, but she is cunning and has always been jealous of us English women. Maybe she will use it to make herself more important,’ Sephy said.
‘More powerful? Her magic is mediocre at best. She hides behind her position so she can keep everyone else under control,’ Lenny said.
‘Then we’re screwed,’ Dora said.
Both her aunts laughed. ‘Not yet, we have time to figure this out, for as long as the spells are unfinished it won’t hold any power for Clara.
If Morana has finished more of them than she told you, though, then we have a problem because once a descendant has completed them anyone can use them.
Maybe if we tell Clara we know about it, she won’t be able to do anything.
In the meantime, what are we doing about Morana?
Is she aware of the power she has unleashed, Dora? ’
‘I think so, she caused an accident that seriously hurt her neighbour and another that killed her best friend, so I’d say she’s pretty aware of the mess she’s caused.’
‘Not directly killed them, no, but the danger caused by dabbling in things you have no idea about is the reason we don’t want you to have your mom’s book just yet, and it will stay in our keeping until the time is right.
That girl will be having a dark night of the soul over her lovely friend’s death.
Her friend seemed so sweet and worried about Morana when she came to see me for a burn on her hand literally moments before it happened.
’ Sephy smiled at her. ‘It worries me I did not see the darkness about to take her life.’
‘Maybe when her friend was with you, Morana hadn’t decided her fate.
I think it was a spur of the moment thing that she is regretting wholeheartedly.
She was saging the shit out of her apartment when I got there.
I think we need to help her and as much as I don’t think she deserves it or is a very nice person, there must be something redeeming about her because Hades seems to like her a lot. ’
Lenny rolled her eyes. ‘That bird is a pain in the ass. Why did he get involved in the first place? He’s too inquisitive for his own good at times.’
Dora was trying to think. ‘Why did she get the book?’
‘You already told us that she said a crazy lady gave it to her because her name was inside of it, dear.’ Sephy tipped back her glass and finished the last drops of the cocktail.
‘I know, I mean it all comes back to why is her name in the book? Who put it in there in the first place? Did either of you do that or was it Lucine, and if it was Mom, how did she know about her three hundred years ago?’
Lenny waved a hand in Dora’s direction. ‘Enough for one night, let’s get some sleep and think about it with clear heads in the morning.’ She stood up and swayed so much Dora thought she was going to topple over.
Sephy giggled. ‘You are a disgrace, Lenora. You are positively plastered.’
Sephy stood up and did the same, swaying even more than Lenny.
‘The pair of you are such a bad influence. You’re both drunk. Do you need me to help you up to bed?’
They shook their heads in unison. ‘No, thank you, we are quite capable of doing that. Dora can you please try not to get yourself into any bother tonight. I’m too tipsy to think straight.’
Dora opened her mouth to answer Lenny then snapped it shut again. She was too tired to do anything other than sleep. Tomorrow, they would figure it all out.