IRON

Our vision is a world purged of the sin of magic – the Great Spinner unspun; the Eye closed back up. Until this is achieved, we must carry out our duties: prevent magic from being discovered, protect our hearts from sin, and bind the Unbound. The greater our number, the greater our silence.

A Binders’ Duties, The Book of the Binders

Anna remembered the sound of the stem snapping.

She had felt the sound in her body back then, when it had happened. Selene had broken one of Aunt’s closed rose heads off the rose bush. Anna’s heart had begun to pound with childlike confusion and fear, knowing that Selene had done something very wrong.

‘Don’t look so worried, matchstick.’ Selene’s voice had twinkled with her eyes. ‘I’ll cover our tracks. It’s just a little game. Your aunt won’t be back for hours – she’ll never know. Here, take it.’ Selene had held out the rose to her. Anna had been reluctant but Selene had insisted. In her hands the rose didn’t feel so scary and Selene’s smile was so encouraging …

The memory had been looping around Anna’s head all day – one of Selene’s games during her first visit, when Anna had first experienced magic.

‘Now,’ Selene had said. ‘What does that look like to you?’

‘A rose,’ Anna had replied, not knowing if she was teasing.

‘Describe it to me.’

‘Um … it’s red. Dark red. And pretty even though it’s all closed up.’

‘What does it feel like?’

Anna touched her finger along the petal. ‘It’s soft, like cotton wool, no, like Aunt’s velvet cardigan, but different, more alive …’

‘What does it smell like?’

Anna breathed it in. It was hard to know what it smelt like other than like a rose. ‘It smells sweet, like the garden in summer.’ She took another sniff. ‘But – it smells dark too, like the night, like a secret …’

‘How does it sound?’

Anna looked up at Selene, puzzled. ‘It doesn’t have a sound.’

‘Are you sure?’

Anna held the rose to her ear and – though now looking back she had no idea how she’d done it – she remembered replying: ‘It whispers, doesn’t it? Like lots of whispers all at once, like questions, like, I don’t know …’

‘How does it taste?’

Anna frowned.

Selene pulled away an outer petal and took a nibble. ‘See, perfectly fine. Go on, try some.’

Anna giggled and tried the edge of it. ‘It tastes nice actually … like strawberries and marshmallows, like …’ Anna had no words for the things she could taste. ‘Like perfume, like midnight, like love …’ She did not entirely understand what she was saying.

‘Marvellous. Now. What did the taste feel like? What did the sound look like? What did the smell feel like? What did the look feel like? What did the feel of it sound like?’

Anna’s seven-year-old mind had boggled.

‘Don’t answer out loud. Just focus on the questions. Hold them in your mind all at once, let them become one.’

Anna remembered staring at the rose, trying to hold all of its … rose-ness inside her. After a while she’d called out. ‘I can feel it! I can feel it! What is that?’

But that was where the memory began to fade. What did I feel?

‘Magic.’ Selene had clapped delightedly. ‘You found the world of the rose. You see, everything has a world inside of it.’

Had the rose begun to open in her hands? Anna had a faint recollection of petals fanning open … The memory pulled at her, but she couldn’t bring it back and she couldn’t feel what she had felt then no matter how hard she tried. There was no magic left in it.

No magic left in me.

She couldn’t remember ever being told off for the incident, which meant Aunt had not found out, and yet Anna felt that on some deeply buried level Aunt had known – that she always knew – every lie, every deception.

It was not a comforting thought as she trudged her way to her first evening of detention. The day had been hard enough – she’d had to ignore everybody commenting on her outburst in assembly, but it was the lie she’d spun Aunt that was really unsettling her. Over the weekend she’d told Aunt she wanted to attend extra study sessions after school. Aunt had only relented after Anna had insisted just how much they could put her ahead. She had a week to try them out – so long as you’re home before seven and not a moment later! Anna still couldn’t believe she’d got away with it but as she left the house that morning, she’d looked at the rose bush in the hallway, unable to shrug off the feeling that the roses were watching her. Sealed up, closed tight – but watching.

It was all Effie’s fault. That bloody magical apple! What does she want? Why did she do this? Anna didn’t want to contemplate the answers as she knocked on the door to the detention room.

‘Come in.’ A young, blonde-haired female teacher was sitting at the desk.

‘Is this detention?’

‘Yes, take a seat. Do your school work, no talking, no eating, no laughing …’ She gave Anna a pointed look. ‘You’ll be released in an hour.’

Miranda was already working in the front row, a squadron of highlighter pens laid out on the desk. She studiously ignored Anna as she passed, raising her snub nose in the other direction.

Rowan swung the door open with a bang. ‘Sorry, Miss Pinson.’ She was out of breath. ‘My last class overran and I didn’t want to be late but then I needed the loo so I had to find a toilet – detention is not exactly a common occurrence for me. I mean I’ve had a few lunch ones over the years but not for anything serious. Once was for trying to take the school hamster home, but I wasn’t stealing it, it just looked lonely and—’

Miss Pinson put a finger to her temple. ‘Please take a seat.’

‘Yes. I brought books. Wow, I am sweating.’

‘No talking.’

‘No talking.’ Rowan dropped into the desk next to Anna.

Effie arrived late. Her black hair had grown quickly since she chopped it off, almost past her shoulders again.

‘The starting time of detention is not a suggestion.’ Miss Pinson glared. ‘If you’re late tomorrow we will extend your detention by another week.’

Effie turned around and smiled at them. Anna felt her anger subside a little, but then she saw what was in Effie’s hand: an apple. She took a bite out of it with a crunch and sat down.

‘No eating, Miss Fawkes.’

Effie placed the bitten apple at the end of her desk. Rowan and Anna looked at each other. This is all just a game to her.

The first few minutes passed in slow, seething silence, the only sounds the ticking of the clock and the scratch of Miranda’s pens. Then, without warning, there was a loud thump. Anna looked up to find Miss Pinson’s head slumped on the desk.

‘Oh my God.’ Anna jumped out of her seat and ran forwards. Effie started to laugh. Miranda started to scream.

Rowan took out her phone. ‘I’ll call an ambulance.’

Anna studied her. ‘I think she’s asleep.’ The teacher was definitely breathing. Her eyes were shut and she murmured under her breath as if dreaming. Anna shook her shoulder lightly but she didn’t wake up.

‘She’s going to be that way for at least the next hour,’ said Effie, taking another bite of the apple.

‘You …’ Anna spun round to Effie. She did this! In front of others – non-witches! It would have been one thing if it had just been them in the room together, but this was unthinkable! Every Binders’ tenet she’d ever been taught began screaming at her in her head.

She tried to keep calm. ‘Look, we can just carry on with detention until she wakes up—’

‘Oh, good idea,’ said Effie. ‘The teacher is sleeping, but let’s just carry on like good little girls. Wait. I have another idea. We could do magic.’

Anna froze. Effie had said magic. Out loud. The word hung awkwardly in the air, at odds with the dull, institutional surroundings of the classroom. She made desperate eyes at her – What the hell are you doing? Even Selene would be mad. There were rules – you couldn’t just go around talking openly about magic. Rowan shifted uncomfortably. Miranda, still holding a highlighter in her hand, looked terrified.

‘Ice-breaker.’ Effie laughed. ‘You’re all witches here. No secrets, nothing spoilt. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get us all in detention together. Can’t say it wasn’t fun though.’

Silence followed. Anna’s heart hammering in her chest. They surveyed one another. Can it be true? Perhaps Rowan, but Miranda? A witch? She’d once branded someone a follower of the Antichrist for swearing in class.

‘Come on,’ Effie rallied. ‘You all want it; I know you do. You bit the apples after all …’

‘We didn’t choose that. You enchanted them!’ Rowan folded her arms.

‘Oh, but you did choose. You bit deep into the fruit of hidden knowledge. It seemed fitting.’

‘You could have got us expelled!’

‘It was just a little cantrip.’ Effie sat herself atop one of the desks.

‘Those apples – magic—’ Miranda’s voice shook. ‘What’s going on?’

Effie exhaled loudly. ‘I’ve been watching you all closely. Rowan, you’re a witch, from a family of witches, am I not right? Miranda, you’ve been upping all those desperate prayers in church because you suspect you have the Devil in you. Congratulations, you don’t! You’re just a witch. Anna, you might be one of the most subdued witches I’ve ever met but you are one. You know I know so you have nowhere to hide.’ Effie twisted a finger at her. ‘Now we’ve cleared all that up, shall we discuss the details of starting a coven?’

They were silent again. The teacher murmured under her breath. Eventually Rowan shrugged. ‘Fine, I’m a witch, big whoop.’ She looked at Anna apologetically.

That was when Miranda began to panic. She grabbed at the pens on her desk and started stuffing them into her bag. ‘You’re freaks! Freaks, the lot of you! What is this? Some kind of sick joke?’ Her voice oscillated like the leg of a mouse in a trap, her mouth trembling. She looked over at the teacher fearfully, obviously torn between her desperation to leave and an inbuilt reservation about leaving without permission. ‘If anyone has the Devil in them, IT’S YOU!’ Miranda pointed at Effie, storming towards the door. The handle turned but it didn’t open. She twisted at it frantically.

Effie made eyes at Anna and Rowan.

‘What have you done?’ Miranda cried, banging against the door. ‘We’re locked in here, it’s locked! HELP! HELP!’

‘Let her out, Effie, you’ve had your fun,’ said Anna.

‘But I really haven’t. Let’s give her a moment until she calms down.’

‘WE’RE TRAPPED! THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME! HEEEEEELP!’ Miranda ran over to the windows and started banging on them, but they were three floors up.

‘Come on, Effie, this is ridiculous.’ Rowan had obviously never tried to sound angry before – it didn’t suit her.

‘All I’m asking is that you hear me out,’ said Effie, sounding entirely reasonable even though she’d just locked them in a room with an unconscious teacher.

‘Miranda, Miranda.’ Rowan went over to her. ‘Stop freaking out. Let’s just listen, then we can all go home.’

Miranda slumped against the wall and started to cry. ‘Not if she kills us first.’

‘No one is going to die,’ said Anna, joining them. ‘Let’s not blow this out of proportion.’

‘But she’s doing it, she’s locked us all in here with her satanic arts. She’s going to force us to sell our souls to her!’

‘I don’t want your souls.’ Effie stood up. ‘I just want your attention.’

‘I could think of a hundred more civilized ways you could have achieved that,’ Rowan muttered.

‘Isn’t this fun though? Our first adventure as a coven.’

‘We’re not in a coven! I’m not a witch!’ Miranda cried.

‘Look.’ Effie attempted to speak softly. ‘Based on my observations I believe each of you is a witch. I could be wrong but it’s unlikely. However, it’s not the only reason I’ve brought us together. You aren’t just witches – you’re outcasts. The friendless. The forgotten. The ones who don’t fit.’

‘Why thanks, Effie, I’ll make that my online bio,’ said Rowan.

‘Rowan, you’re bullied for your weight and your …’ Effie made an inarticulate gesture. ‘… general oddness.’ She turned to Miranda. ‘You’re the Bible freak of the school, plus no one likes you.’ She looked at Anna. ‘You’re just nobody at all.’

Anna knew it was true, that she’d purposefully made it so, but still, it wasn’t easy to hear coming out of Effie’s mouth. The others all had a reason for being the odd ones out, strong personalities that didn’t fit into the school’s popularity hierarchy, but hers was an absence. A space in the air.

‘And I’m’ – Effie put a hand to her chest – ‘the one everyone’s afraid of.’

‘I’m not afraid of you!’ Miranda shouted.

‘Oh really?’ Effie clicked her fingers and the lights went out.

Miranda screamed and started praying. Effie laughed.

‘Effie, you’re really not helping your case here,’ said Rowan through the darkness.

The lights clicked back on. ‘So as I explained: we don’t fit. Maybe because we’re witches or maybe because we’re all just a bit messed up. Either way we’ve got nowhere else to go. But together – we could be part of something. We could help each other.’ Effie was on a roll, as impassioned as Aunt speaking about the Binders. They both had a way of commanding attention while hardly moving at all, simply increasing the intensity in their voice, the depth of emotion in their eyes.

She moved towards them. ‘Miranda, I know you’re scared. You’re scared of the things you’ve done, the times things have happened around you that you can’t explain, but I can help you. I’m not asking you to turn away from your religion, I’m just asking you to take a moment to look at the other parts of who you are. If you decide you don’t like it, you can just leave. I know we’re all frightened but we’re curious too and there’s nothing like the curiosity of a witch …’

‘I’m not a witch,’ said Miranda quietly.

‘I know that you like how it feels when magic courses through your body.’

‘I’m not a witch.’ Miranda pulled her head up. Her face was contorted with anger, her hair coming loose from its ponytail.

‘Prove it and you’re free to go.’

‘I don’t have to prove anything to you!’

Effie sighed. ‘Then it’s going to be a long night.’

‘How do we prove it?’ said Anna.

‘Iron.’ Effie pulled at one of the many necklaces around her neck, selecting one with a star pendant on the end. ‘It’s iron. Attis made it for me.’

‘Iron is the seeing eye.

It sizzles when the witches cry.

Red as blood, black as hell.

What secrets shall the iron tell …’

Rowan recited the verse, then said, ‘It’s one of the old songs.’

‘Indeed.’ Effie nodded. ‘Iron was used as a method of detecting witches back when they were hunted. Any bodily fluid will work – blood, saliva, tears, urine. If you’re a witch it will make the iron spit and sizzle—’

‘I told you she’d kill us! We’re going to burn!’

‘Get a grip, girl.’ Rowan put a hand on Miranda’s shoulder. She flinched away. ‘You just have to spit on the iron. If you’re a normal human nothing is going to happen.’

Miranda looked at the necklace as if it had been mined and forged in the depths of hell itself. Anna remembered her visit to the doctor’s all those years ago, when Dr Webber had dropped her blood onto that metal disk – was it iron? It had sizzled.

‘If you’re not a witch, you’re free to go,’ Effie confirmed.

‘I’ll go first,’ Rowan volunteered. Effie nodded and placed the pendant on the desk. ‘I’d love to make this all dramatic and draw a knife down my palm, but …’ Rowan leant forwards and spat on it. The moment her spit touched the iron it began to sizzle, rising up as steam. ‘Yes.’ She fist-pumped. ‘Still got it.’

‘Anna.’ Effie nodded at the necklace.

Anna stood frozen. She couldn’t just go over there and spit on the necklace. It was against the rules. It was dangerous. It was terrifying, but for the wrong reason …

What if she spat on it and nothing happened? There’s no magic left in me any more, remember?

‘Anna …’

It was impossible to think straight under Effie’s unrelenting stare. Anna walked over to the desk, trying to reason sensibly with herself – if nothing happened that was a good thing, wasn’t it? Effie would leave her alone and magic could forever be kept at a safe distance – an Aunt-approved distance.

‘Come on,’ Effie prompted. ‘What have you got to lose?’

Everything, Anna thought as she leant over the necklace and spat.

It sizzled. Loud and clear and definitive. Magic. It was buried somewhere inside of her, still. Relief washed over her before she felt the shame, the stupidity, of her actions – revealing herself to a group of witches she didn’t know and certainly couldn’t trust. Aunt would kill her.

‘Good, good.’ Effie smiled a smile that Anna was not sure was for her benefit. She turned to Miranda.

‘Just get it over and done with.’ Rowan gave Miranda a gentle nudge on the back.

‘You’re all going to be sorry.’ Miranda went over to the desk, tearing up again. Anna felt bad for her. ‘You’ll all see.’ She bent her head over the pendant, went to spit but stopped herself, shook her head, then bent over again and released a small sliver of saliva onto it. The pendant sizzled. Miranda jumped back, more shocked than anyone else. ‘A trick!’ she cried. ‘It probably does that no matter whose spit touches it!’

Effie picked up the necklace and walked over to the sleeping teacher who was snoring peacefully. She stuck her finger in her mouth and wiped it on the necklace. Nothing happened. Miranda’s mouth gaped.

‘Also I saw you do a spell two days ago,’ said Effie. ‘Corinne made fun of you for doing an extra homework assignment. You wrote her name on a piece of paper and stabbed your pencil through it and she got a terrible migraine during class and had to go and see the nurse.’

‘I did not!’ Miranda yelled and then looked ashamed. ‘I just wrote her stupid name on a piece of paper. Anyway, I can’t be a witch, no one in my family is magical.’

‘You sure about that?’ said Effie.

‘Yes,’ Miranda snapped. ‘My dad’s family are from a small town in Shropshire and find anything beyond the realms of a magazine horoscope a bit too out there; my mum’s from Richmond and basically runs the local Evangelical church. Her parents came here from Nigeria, but they brought over Bibles and crosses, not broomsticks and voodoo dolls! There’s never even been the faintest suggestion—’

‘Magical abilities are not necessarily inherited,’ Effie interrupted. ‘It does run in families, but not always. Sometimes it just finds you. Aren’t you lucky?’

Anna wasn’t sure if Miranda was going to start crying again. Rowan flung an arm around her. ‘Come on, Manda.’

She sniffed. ‘It’s Miranda.’

‘We’re not so bad. My whole family practises magic and they’re honestly a nice bunch of people, except my grandma on my dad’s side, she’s meaner than a bramble in winter but she can barely string a spell together any more.’

‘I’m not going to force anyone to join this coven, but I invite you to consider it,’ said Effie.

‘Why would you even want to hang out with us?’ Miranda scowled. ‘As you said, we’re the outcasts of the school.’

Effie shrugged. ‘Witches are always outcasts, still better than being a cowan.’

‘What’s a cowan?’ asked Miranda.

‘An ordinary person,’ Rowan explained as if it was obvious.

‘Plus, four witches are better than one.’ Effie smiled. ‘Together we can discover new languages, hone our skills. It’ll be like a support group for the magically inclined. Weekly therapy. Holistic life-coaching with the odd ritual thrown in.’

Rowan laughed and Anna smiled. It felt good after the intensity of the past forty minutes.

‘Friday’s detention can be our first proper coven-meet. We won’t cast any spells, just get to know one another. Who’s in?’

‘What the Mother Holle,’ said Rowan. ‘It’s not like my social calendar is brimming.’

Effie looked at Anna. All she had to do was say no. Just say no. Why can’t I say no?

‘I’ll see how Friday goes,’ she said, realizing she’d been holding her breath. She was in detention anyway and had already lied to Aunt – what does one more lie matter? She could indulge Effie for now and then, once the week was up, find a way to stay away from her forever.

Effie smiled briefly and then looked to Miranda.

‘Of course not! You really think after all this and THAT’ – Miranda gestured towards the unconscious teacher – ‘AND THAT’ – the locked door – ‘that I’m going to join you freaks? I’m not a witch.’

‘OK, Miss In-Denial, you’re free to go.’ Miranda rushed towards the door. ‘But one last thing – I’ve recorded this little meeting of ours.’ Effie pointed at a phone which was balanced against the apple on her desk. ‘Out of genuine concern, I might have to send the video to your parents. My, my, they’re going to be quite shocked. Did someone say exorcism?’

Miranda’s hand quivered over the handle. She turned around, eyes aflame with hatred, chin dimple wobbling. ‘You wouldn’t …’

‘Come to our next meeting and you’ll never have to find out.’

A bang on the door made Miranda jump. A face appeared in the glass: Attis.

‘Let me out,’ she cried hysterically. ‘Help! Oh help!’

Attis opened the door, assessing the screaming girl with interest. He held it open for her. Miranda stayed where she was.

‘So how was the first coven-meet?’ He smiled.

Miranda’s eyes widened as she realized he was in on it too. ‘You’re the Devil come to lead us into hell!’

‘I just brought snacks.’ He held up a tub of chocolate rolls. Rowan started to giggle. The rest of them joined in. Anna thought she saw the hint of a smile appear at the side of Miranda’s mouth, but if it had been there it quickly disappeared.

‘Feed me.’ Effie slouched back into her seat. ‘This has not been easy.’

He strode over and began to massage her shoulders.

‘I suggest you sit down,’ Effie advised. ‘The teacher is going to be waking up any minute.’

Miranda scurried back to her desk. Attis took a seat next to Effie, cramming several chocolate rolls into his mouth at once. ‘Want one?’ he asked through a full mouth, thrusting the tub in Anna’s direction. She shook her head although she was starving.

Miss Pinson made a murmuring noise, then jolted upright, a thin line of drool running down her chin. ‘Whaoaap,’ she said incoherently. Everyone was working quietly. ‘Must have nodded off for a moment …’ She registered the time on the clock with surprise. Her eyes fell on Attis. ‘What are you doing in here?’

‘I’m giving Effie a ride home.’

‘Well, wait outside.’

He stood up, offering her some chocolate. ‘Um, no thanks.’ Miss Pinson wiped the drool off her chin self-consciously. ‘Right. It’s six, you can all go.’

Effie jumped up. ‘See you all tomorrow.’ She smiled and waved her phone at Miranda before leaving with Attis. Miranda dashed off to meet her mum, and Rowan and Anna made their way back down the corridor together.

‘Well, that was interesting,’ said Rowan. The school was eerily quiet after hours, the classrooms dark beyond their doors. ‘A coven could be fun though and if he pops in and out every week in his training kit – well, I’m all in.’

Anna laughed, barely able to wrap her head around the fact they were openly discussing magic.

‘I had sort of begun to suspect about you,’ said Rowan.

‘Really?’ Anna replied, taken aback.

‘I just kind of had a feeling. Did you not have an inkling about me?’

‘Maybe. I don’t know. My witch skills are not very honed,’ Anna admitted.

‘Well, now you have a full-on support group to help you.’

‘I’m not so sure it’s going to be the quiet support group Effie has sold us.’ Anna gave Rowan a sceptical look.

Rowan nodded. ‘I do suspect we have sold our souls.’