MAYPOLE

Contract Knot: To make an unbreakable oath.

Knot Spells, The Book of the Binders

‘“With an increasing number of what can only be described as ‘unnatural’ events, police have to start looking at whether these acts are somehow related. What ritual were the Faceless Women trying to enact that night so many months ago? Were their deaths intended to unleash some kind of dark force that is now spreading outwards across the capital?” Halden Kramer, Head of Communications for the Institute for Research into Organized and Ritual Violence.’

Anna dropped the paper she’d been reading aloud from down on the table where they were sitting in the common room.

‘Sounds like a nutjob to me,’ said Rowan. ‘I mean, what’s the Institute for Research into Organized and Ritual Violence? There’s a reason the police aren’t listening to them.’

‘But people are noticing.’ The Binders are noticing! ‘They’re one step away from calling the Faceless Women’ – Anna lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper – ‘witches.’

‘Actually a lot of people are already calling them witches.’ Rowan showed Anna her phone with all of the various comments in response to Kramer’s latest statement. ‘But an equally large number are claiming they’re aliens. These are nothing more than conspiracy theories.’

‘These are sensationalist sites and papers too,’ Effie rebuffed. ‘Not exactly serious news.’

Anna picked a fly out of her food with irritation. She was not in a good mood. Whether the threats had any credibility or were the ravings of lunatics, Aunt was still tense. Anna hadn’t come any closer to solving Nana’s riddle. And school was worse than ever. Anna had hoped that the rumours might abate over the break but they had merely stored themselves up and then unleashed themselves with renewed force, fuelled by fresh whispers. Flies were flying through the corridors, teeming at the windows; dying, rotting, multiplying; filling her mind like a dark fog. Pest control couldn’t locate the source of the problem and had recommended the school be temporarily closed. It was only Headmaster Connaughty’s stubbornness keeping it open.

‘What about the school rumours?’ Anna snapped. ‘They’re not going away either.’

‘Things are finally getting interesting, if that’s what you mean,’ said Effie.

‘Did you see what Darcey wrote about us yesterday?’ said Manda.

‘No.’

‘FLIES AND LIES. FLIES AND LIES. THE WHORE. THE NOBODY. THE VIRGIN. THE BEAST. THEY ARE BEHIND IT ALL!’ Effie recited with delight.

‘Everyone just thinks she’s jealous,’ said Rowan. ‘Which she is.’

‘Did you hear Corinne’s Yoga Club has been cancelled? She kept yelling at everyone.’ Manda laughed.

‘Is that a rumour?’ asked Anna. ‘Or true? If it’s true then don’t you see, we’re not dealing with rumours any more – they’re real.’

‘Good. Darcey and Headmaster Connaughty would be hilarious. Speaking of, what is this about Karim asking you out?’ Effie elbowed Manda playfully.

Manda blushed. ‘Maybe.’

‘One hundred per cent he has. They’re going for coffee,’ Rowan confirmed.

‘I’m just worried he’s still in love with his ex,’ said Manda. ‘The last picture of them online together was only three weeks ago and she commented on something he posted two days ago, which suggests they’re still in contact. I looked through her pictures – she’s really pretty and she looks nothing like me and they’ve known each other since they were young. I found a picture of them hanging out when they were, like, twelve. How can I compete with that?’

Rowan laughed. ‘Just how many pictures of her did you look through?’

‘All of them. I looked at all of them. I think I’m in love with him. Can we cast a spell to banish her away?’

‘I can look into something,’ said Effie.

‘No!’ said Anna. ‘We can’t just go around banishing people.’

‘It seems a bit harsh. Free will and all that,’ Rowan agreed.

Manda spluttered. ‘If I recall, a few days ago you wanted to cast an infatuation spell on trumpet-boy so he’d finally take notice of you. Free will didn’t seem so important to you then.’

‘Let’s do both.’ Effie gave Anna a challenging look.

Anna held Effie’s eyes. ‘We shouldn’t be doing anything to attract more attention right now.’

‘Anna preaching from her pulpit,’ said Effie, ‘but I’ve been told today that Peter has broken up with Darcey. You certainly had a hand in that.’

Anna went quiet, processing the news. Peter’s broken up with Darcey!

‘I didn’t do anything.’

‘Oh, you didn’t think our rumour spell would result in that? Really, Anna, you aren’t that naive.’

Anna’s momentary excitement fizzled to guilt. She’s right.

Manda raised her nose. ‘Yeah, Anna, you’ve had your wish, now let me have mine.’

‘Hey, me first,’ said Rowan.

‘Rowan, you don’t need magic—’

‘Girls, girls.’ Effie raised her voice above them. ‘Look at us bickering. We’ve finally got what we wanted: the Juicers’ power decapitated, the school falling at our feet, magic at our fingertips, and all we can do is argue. This is not the time to fall apart but to come together. It’s Beltane this Friday. May Day. The festival of new beginnings. Let’s celebrate with a coven initiation ceremony, bind ourselves together as one. Forever. It’ll be fun.’

‘Beltane is my favourite,’ said Rowan, bubbly again. ‘The whole family gets garlanded up and we sow seeds in the garden until sunrise. Mum gets tipsy on hawthorn brandy and then ends up tipping it everywhere. Apparently she’s “feeding the soil”.’

‘Initiation sounds painful. Will there be pain?’ asked Manda.

‘Only the pleasurable kind. Come on, it’s going to be the best night of your lives.’

Anna did not want to back down but she couldn’t risk any kind of magical exposure, not with Aunt so close to snapping. Their spell was out of control and she couldn’t shake off the worry that her own cursed magic might be at the root of it. ‘I’ll come as long as we do something about the rumour spell.’

Effie exhaled loudly.

‘Selene?’ said Anna. ‘I’ll talk to her. Tell her what’s going on and see what she thinks.’

‘Fine! Saturday morning you’re free to speak to Selene about whatever you want.’

Only once Effie had agreed did Anna allow herself to get excited by the thought of Friday. Anna secured permission from Aunt to stay at Effie’s while Manda convinced her mum too, claiming they needed to work on a school project. Selene had been happy to lie to Mrs Richards on their behalf. Nothing was standing in their way. It was exactly what the coven needed and, after her week of control sessions, it was exactly what Anna needed too.

On Friday, they headed for the roof. The sewing room was inhospitable – the altar was littered with flies, dead and alive and somewhere between the two; the plants were dried corpses and the smoothie cups overspilling with rancid liquid; the witch ball had burst, black sludge running over the broken glass. The horns of the skull were forming a twisted spiral …

‘We’ll deal with it later,’ said Effie.

Rowan had brought a collection of May flowers with her – hawthorn blossoms, cowslips, bluebells, daisies – and they sat in the fading light threading them through each other’s hair.

Rowan handed Anna a dark bottle of something. ‘I stole some of Mum’s hawthorn brandy. May Day gold right there.’

Anna tried it. It tasted sweet and succulent, dizzyingly rich.

Effie took a swig and raised an eyebrow. ‘I fully intend to go a-maying tonight.’

‘What’s a-maying?’ said Manda.

‘Traditionally it’s when all the boys and girls went off into the woods and fields and made sweet love to celebrate the season of fertility and welcome summer in,’ Rowan explained. ‘Whole villages at it like rabbits.’

‘That’s disgusting,’ said Manda, stifling a giggle.

‘It’s sex magic. Powerful stuff.’ Effie pulled a lewd face at Manda. ‘I’ve heard the Seven draw on it annually to replenish Britain’s magic.’

Rowan sang loudly:

‘Oh, do not tell the priest our plight,

Or he would call it sin,

But we have been out in the woods all night,

A-conjuring summer in.

‘The fun was ruined eventually – all the festivities got banned, even maypoles. A maypole never hurt anybody unless it fell on them.’

‘These people were just fertilizing the crops. They were being practical,’ said Effie.

Rowan nudged her. ‘What crops are you fertilizing tonight then? Seeing as we’re in London.’

‘I’m sure there’s a crop somewhere that needs me.’

‘Can he be involved?’ Rowan asked, looking towards Attis, who was swinging himself over the railings. He was dressed in green and wearing a mask of leaves. Horns protruded from his head.

‘What beautiful May maidens stand before me. Salutations from the Green Man, plougher of fields, spreader of seed, bringer of new life.’ He dipped into a low, embellished bow.

His mask didn’t look like a mask at all, but as if the skin around his eyes had become an oak leaf. Rowan prodded at the curled horns. ‘These are deep-rooted, they’re coming out of your head! Wait, are you actually the Green Man?’

Attis considered her theory, then smiled his crooked smile, looking all the more roguish for his costume. ‘I’d love to be, but alas, this is just a very good costume, helped along with a touch of magic.’

‘The moon’s almost up! We need to get dressed,’ Effie announced. She presented each of them with a white, gauze-like piece of cloth. Anna held it up and realized it was a dress, so finely woven it was hard to know where it ended and the moonlight began.

‘Selene bought them for us. They’re skyclad dresses,’ Effie explained.

‘What are skyclad dresses?’ asked Anna.

‘Wait and see.’ Effie started to throw her clothes off.

Anna looked over at Attis, who gave her a smile and turned away. ‘I shall stand guard and protect your virtues.’

They got themselves changed, goose-pimpling in the cool spring air. Despite their different sizes and heights the dresses fitted each of them perfectly. Once they were ready Attis stepped back out of the shadows. ‘Fairer May Queens I never saw. You will end global warming with your fertility. Shall we proceed?’ He held out an arm to Effie.

‘Where are we doing this initiation anyway?’ asked Manda as they walked back through the now-empty school.

‘On the playing fields,’ Effie replied.

‘Are you crazy?’ Manda’s voice filled the corridors. ‘We’re not allowed on the school fields now.’

‘We’re only going to light a little balefire …’ said Attis.

‘FIRE? That’s against every school rule ever written.’

‘Therein lies the fun,’ said Effie.

Manda clung to Anna’s arm. ‘How do we always end up in these situations?’

‘Here, have some more.’ Rowan offered them the bottle. ‘We’re going to need it.’

Anna considered the hundred repercussions there would be if they got caught but let the liquid spread and clog every sensible passageway in her brain. The lure of freedom was too much. She needed a release or she’d surely go mad.

Outside the moon was hiding its modesty behind clouds. Attis carefully laid out a pile of rowan wood he had lugged with him and struck two thin pieces of metal together. Although he was standing several feet away from the wood it burst into flame, spitting and snapping its hot fingers at the air. He laid a hefty plank across it. Effie made them all take off their shoes and the grass beneath Anna’s feet was refreshingly damp. Mammoth trees bordered the field like shadowy guarding giants; black smoke spiralled into the air above them.

They took up positions around the fire and called on their elements. It was easy with the night winds around them; the cool earth beneath their feet; the fire warm on their faces. So many threads, so many worlds. Effie stepped forward, hands outstretched towards its heat, her skin dappled with flame, black hair glowing metal-bright. ‘Ready for the initiation?’

Anna had been preparing for one initiation her whole life, to become one of the Binders – to be Knotted – the threat of being ready always hanging over her. This initiation wasn’t a question. Despite everything going on with the rumour spell, Anna would have given everything to be a member of the Dark Moon forever. She was ready.

‘I call to thee, Goddess of Spring,’ Effie began:

‘Mother and lover of the Great Horned One,

The blossom blows, the flower opens,

The earth swells under moons new.

Join us tonight and forever as one:

A coven brave, a coven true,

Bring us joy! Bring us abundance!

Bound by the fires of your womb,

May we leap through flame,

And give our hearts to you!’

She looked at them. ‘Initiates, cast your circle of protection and then you must each pass through the flames to prove your allegiance to the Coven of the Dark Moon now and forever more. The Horned One will wait on the other side to seal your fate and ensure our everlasting abundance with a five-fold kiss. Go forth with hearts brave and true!’

The fire raged, crackling and popping and releasing dark wood scents and hot sap. I have to pass through that?

Effie stepped up onto the plank with bare feet and her ghostly form disappeared into the fire, flames engulfing her. She appeared as a shadow on the other side – a horned silhouette welcoming her. The others looked nervously at one another.

‘Don’t be afraid!’ Effie yelled. ‘Cast your circle and you won’t burn!’

Rowan came forwards. ‘This is madness!’ she cried, stepping into the flames.

Anna returned to the moment and the magic, focusing on her circle and not the terror of the flames ahead. She could feel her circle around her: strong and pure; complete and impenetrable. Impenetrable enough?

‘You go next,’ Manda squeaked.

Anna nodded and stepped up onto the plank. She could feel the heat of the flames on her face. Protect me. She found Attis’s outline on the other side and focused on it. Protect me. She half closed her eyes against the flames and walked onwards, encouraged by the fact that she wasn’t currently on fire. Protect me. The flames swirled around her, beautiful and terrible. And then she was out on the other side, dizzy from the warmth but unscathed, Attis standing before her, offering her a hand. She took it and steadied herself, stepping onto the cool grass.

‘I did it,’ she said, hopping about. She could see Effie and Rowan dancing in the distance.

‘All right, May Queen, stay still and let me finish,’ Attis commanded, his eyes behind his mask in motion, spiralling, full of heat.

Anna stood still, unsure what the five-fold kiss entailed. He dropped to his knees and bent down to kiss her feet. ‘Blessed be thy feet which stepped through the flames.’

She could have sworn his lips were just as hot as the fire. They sent small sparks up her body.

He kissed her knees. ‘Blessed be thy knees that kneel before the Great Goddess.’

He raised himself up and kissed just below her belly button, through the fabric of her dress. Anna found she could not move. ‘Blessed be thy womb, bringer of life and abundance.’

He half stood so they were eye level but she could not meet his eyes. He leant forwards and kissed above each of her breasts. ‘Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty.’

He smirked and looked up at her. Before she could process what was happening, he rose to his full height and kissed her on the lips – his own a sudden flame and then gone. ‘Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the Seven Names.’

They watched each other. Anna’s breath was quick and shallow, his lips still parted where they had touched hers. ‘Forever,’ he said. The flames crackled behind them. ‘Forever a member of this coven. Run and be free, May Queen!’

Anna reminded her legs how to move. With one last look, she darted away, joining Effie and Rowan and running wild as she’d never run wild before. The school grounds seemed to stretch for miles around them. Their kingdom. They were the Queens of Summer and magic was threaded into every fibre of the air.

Effie grabbed her hands and spun her round. ‘Forever!’

‘Forever!’ Anna whooped. Effie handed her the bottle and she poured the sweet brandy down her throat, hearing Attis’s voice in the distance, coaxing Manda. Anna handed it to Rowan and then gasped, pointing at Rowan. ‘Your dress! Where’s it gone?’ Rowan stood before her in her underwear, the moon on her skin.

‘What do you mean? I’m wearing my dress!’ Rowan looked down and cried out, covering herself with her arms. ‘I’m naked! How the – No, look, I’m still wearing it.’ Rowan moved the fabric and parts of it shimmered, barely there at all. ‘Anna, you’re naked too!’

Effie laughed thickly. ‘They’re skyclad dresses.’ She pointed up to the moon, which had come out from behind the clouds. ‘They disappear when the moon comes out.’ Anna looked down and saw that she was just as exposed.

‘Effie!’

‘You both look like radiant wood nymphs.’

Rowan laughed. ‘I’m a bloody radiant wood mushroom over here.’

Anna took another swig and decided to embrace it. They cheered as Manda finally stepped through the fire, looking as if she was about to faint into Attis’s arms.

‘You did it!’ Effie whooped. ‘Drink and be merry! Let’s dance!’

They formed a moving circle around the fire, dancing like flames; the smoke tangling itself in Anna’s hair; the moon drifting in and out from behind clouds, covering them up and stripping them bare. Attis dancing bare-chested, iron tattoo glinting, howling at the moon. It didn’t seem to matter out here, under the stars, the earth charged beneath their feet – four shadows and one horned creature, moving as if the earth moved around them.

‘Everyone call down the first rains of May!’ Effie called out. ‘Think of rain! Dance as if you are rain! The first rain of May keeps you young and beautiful all year!’

Anna imagined the rain on her skin. She let water fill up her bones and moved like liquid, slipping and sliding, hair like a storm, stamping her feet like raindrops. Be the rain! She was assured by the fact that everyone else looked like a lunatic too.

And then the rain came. A small and very localized shower just above them. They raised their faces to it, let it run over them. Attis howled. The fire sizzled out and they danced, soaked to their bones, covered in falling silver rain as if the moon itself were dissolving above them.

Somewhere between dancing in the rain, Effie handing her a new outfit to wear and several further swigs of hawthorn brandy, Anna found herself agreeing to go out. She couldn’t stop herself – she didn’t want to stop herself. It wasn’t as though she was at Selene’s, so if Aunt checked on her she would be dead anyway. May as well die having fun.

They took the tube to Oxford Circus. They wove through the crowded streets, handfuls of flowers in their arms, handing them out to confused and wary passers-by. ‘Take a flower, make a wish! Flowers for wishes!’

‘May love equals free love!’ Effie shouted, throwing a bunch of blossoms over three middle-aged women who scattered in fear.

Anna gave a flower to a homeless man and told him to make a wish. It bloomed under her touch and he looked up at her as if she truly was a magical wood nymph. Make his wish come true, she whispered to the night.

‘Where are we going?’ asked Manda.

Effie jumped on Attis’s back and pointed. ‘To Mayfair, of course!’

‘Mayfair was where they used to hold the huge May Fair in London every year, hence the name. Until it got cancelled,’ said Rowan.

‘Cancelled for cowans, not for us,’ Effie bellowed.

They turned down a small alleyway between an Italian restaurant and a dark-windowed building that looked like offices shut up for the night. There was a wooden door, smaller than Attis. He ran his hands down the wood. ‘An Elder Door. They’re made of elder wood and are all over London, all over the country. They interconnect, so if you pass through an Elder Door you are entering an Elder Door elsewhere. Somewhere else. Only witches can pass through so they’re extra secure.’

There were no signs above it, nothing to suggest it was even open, and yet it opened at their touch. Anna walked through and found herself abruptly in a nightclub, although whether the club was in the building she’d stepped into she wasn’t sure.

‘Equinox,’ Effie shouted over the sudden wall of music. ‘One of the best witch clubs in the city and it goes all out for festival days.’

‘I can’t believe I’m in Equinox!’ Rowan yelled. ‘My brother has talked about this place but even he can’t get in.’

‘I think this might be the first time I’ve felt cool in my life!’ Manda laughed giddily.

Anna had dreamt about the freedoms of the magical world for so long and now here they were before her. The room was huge and bell-shaped, garlanded everywhere with flowers and vines. Around its edges were cushioned areas and cosy alcoves in which groups and couples lounged. Dominating its centre was an enormous maypole, reaching all the way up to the high ceiling. Scantily clad men and women were dancing around it, weaving its brightly coloured ribbons into complex, mesmerizing patterns.

‘Honeysuckle cocktail?’ A woman with iridescent blue hair offered Anna a glass of amber liquid from a tray. Anna took one and sipped, suddenly understanding why bees liked climbing inside flowers so much – the drink was sweet nectar.

She looked more closely at the flowers camouflaging the walls – liquid was dripping from their centres, running down to the floor, which was soft and earth-like beneath her feet. Some of the liquid ran into ornate dishes along the wall. Rowan dipped her finger in one. ‘Weird …’

‘What’s this?’ Effie asked a guy leaning against it.

‘Dew face wash, for beauty. Not that you need it, what’s your name?’

‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

‘For beauty?’ said Rowan, splashing it on her face. ‘I’m going to need a vat.’

Anna rinsed her face with the cool water. She hadn’t really expected it to do anything but when Rowan and Manda turned around they looked the same and yet not the same at all. They looked unreal, as if the reality of them had been stripped away, leaving something luminous – skin like rippling water, lips glowing dewy, eyes shining.

‘Anna, your eyes are so green!’ Rowan pointed at them, mesmerized.

Anna grabbed Rowan’s face. ‘You look incredible!’ They weaved into the crowd. Attis had disappeared, as usual. Doesn’t matter.

The centre of the club was a riot of colour, full of people in May Day outfits – faces painted and masked, wearing towering flower headdresses or antlers or fairy masks and wings, fluttering of their own accord. The ends of the hair of the girl next to her appeared to be on fire; there were more Green Men than she could count. Lights dappled colours over all of it, turning like sunlight through the petals of a flower. Are these my people? She realized with head-spinning wonder just how cut off she’d been, how blinkered her vision because of the Binders. Their world was dark but this one was full of light.

Anna danced, finding everything more vivid than it had ever been before – the people, the music, the colours. If these are my people I never want to leave! They were friendly, decking them with flower garlands and offering drinks and sweets: ginger strawberries, sugared bluebells and little maypoles made out of liquorice. Someone handed out glasses of champagne ‘filled with the bubbles of clean spring winds’.

Effie joined them and Anna couldn’t quite remember how but within an hour they were dancing on a table, a crowd cheering them on below – the maypole spinning around them or they were spinning around the maypole. Everything is spinning. Effie grabbed her and pointed. ‘Do you see them?’

In a room of unbounded ostentation a medley of people had just entered, who somehow – impossibly – managed to stand out more than the rest. Anna wondered what it was. Their costumes were certainly more outrageous, the way they moved through the crowd bolder and more brazen, yet it was something else – they all had that same look about them, of mischief and mayhem, of people who don’t live life quite where everyone else does, but instead at its edges, existing purely to test its limits.

‘Who are they?’ Anna asked, entranced.

‘The Wild Hunt,’ said Effie. ‘One of the more unconventional groves. Everyone’s young, everyone’s mad.’

‘What’s their magical language?’

‘Hedonism. Pure unbridled hedonism.’ Effie cackled. ‘I like to play with them. Now which one shall I have fun with tonight?’

‘Which one?’

‘I have several Wild Hunt lovers – see him there, Jeudon, he doesn’t speak but he’s an animal on the dance floor. Or Emilia, she looks sweet, right? She’s not, she terrifies me. It’s always fun though. But then there’s Ivor, the one that looks like he could break a brick with his bare hands.’ She pointed to a hulking blond man dressed in a floor-length green coat with gigantic antlers jutting from his head. ‘Hmmm.’ Effie began to move her finger between them. ‘Entry, mentry, cutrie, corn, apple seed and apple thorn. Crossroads dirt and casket lock, seven geese flying in a flock.’ It landed on Jeudon. She moved it across to Ivor and shrugged. ‘Who am I kidding? He’s my favourite. Come on.’

Effie jumped off the table, pulling Anna, who was thankfully prevented from falling on her face by the crowd. They approached the motley crew, Effie tapping Ivor on the shoulder.

‘Effie,’ said Ivor in a low rumble of a voice, looking her up and down. ‘I could kiss you, you look so good.’ He pulled her into his arms and did exactly that and then turned to Anna. ‘Will that line work twice?’

‘No,’ Anna replied, laughing.

‘This is my friend Anna,’ said Effie. ‘Now kiss me again.’

‘Disgusting,’ said a voice from behind them. Anna turned around to find a handsome, black-haired man with a smile that ran from ear to ear. He was wearing an unbuttoned gold shirt, red trousers and a crown sitting at a jaunty angle on his head. ‘Get an alcove!’ he shouted at them and then looked back to Anna, smiling. The smile felt genuine but his eyes were thick with trickery. ‘Oliver Moridi, at your service.’ He gave a deep bow. ‘I am somewhere between an Iranian prince and an Iranian pauper and I’ve never seen a girl with such beautiful hair in all my life. Did you walk right out of Oz?’ There was something androgynous about his movements; they were a little theatrical and strangely sexy.

‘Good to meet you, Oliver,’ she shouted. ‘I’m Anna. Are you in this Wild Hunt too?’

‘I am, sweet Dorothy. We pursue life’s pleasures and drink of their marrows deep. I ask you now, in great seriousness, will you come and play games with me?’

‘What does this game involve?’ Anna raised an eyebrow as she’d seen Effie do, her head still light from the drink and Oliver’s attention making her feel bolder than she normally would. It was strangely thrilling.

‘Well, you choose—’ He produced a die between his fingers. ‘Roll it and see.’

Anna took the die from him with a wry look and assessed the options: Drink. Play. Dance. Feast. Fly. Leave. She rolled it on the table next to them.

The dice stopped on Kiss.

‘Wait, that was not one of the options—’

‘Fate has spoken; we cannot deny it.’ He put a hand on his heart.

Anna laughed. ‘Not fair. It’s a trick die!’

‘Trickery is exceptionally fair.’

Anna rolled it again. It read: Slap.

She looked up and he bent forwards, puckering his lips. She slapped him playfully.

‘Red-haired and feisty, my favourite.’

‘Ollie.’ Attis appeared from nowhere. ‘You getting yourself slapped by girls again?’

‘Not any girl, the most beautiful Dorothy I have ever met. She slaps so well.’

‘I have yet to receive the pleasure,’ said Attis. ‘Although it has been threatened, often.’

‘You two know each other?’ said Oliver. ‘I should have known. Where there’s a beautiful woman, Attis is never far away. He’s both my nemesis and my hero.’

‘Well, I thought you were doing just fine on your own,’ said Anna.

Oliver held out a hand. ‘Shall we dance?’

‘I think we shall.’ Anna took it, glancing back at Attis with a playful look of her own.

She danced with Oliver, surrounded by the Wild Hunt, who were bedecked in ostentatious, bejewelled outfits and a ridiculous selection of hats and horns. Oliver spun around her, jigging and laughing and pulling her into swift, dizzying embraces until she barely knew which way was up or down. Effie disappeared to one of the alcoves with Ivor. Rowan danced her way between them all looking like a child in a sweet shop. ‘Manda’s gone a-maying,’ she laughed in Anna’s ear. ‘Or at least she’s kissing some guy over there. This bunch are great, aren’t they? So bloody dapper. I like the one in the antlered top hat, but, Anna, I’ve had too much to drink and I’m not even sure if what I’m doing can be classified as dancing any more …’

Anna laughed. ‘I’ll get us some water.’ She wasn’t sure where exactly to find water – she hadn’t seen a bar anywhere.

She wove back through the crowd and asked one of the people serving cocktails. They ran off and returned with two bottles of water which didn’t taste like water, but faintly like the inside of a plant stem: crisp and clean. Whatever it was, it cleared her head. She looked back to the dance floor but couldn’t locate Rowan. She walked up a curling stairway to a balcony overlooking the room and searched the crowd.

‘Look who’s returned from her soirée with the Wild Hunt.’ Attis stepped forward from the balcony, swaying gently, a hazy look in his normally arrow-sharp eyes, a lazy smile on his face. ‘You should beware, Oliver is quite the seducer.’

‘It takes one to know one,’ said Anna.

‘Touché,’ said Attis, trying to shoot his fingers at her but failing.

‘Are you drunk?’ Anna smirked.

‘I don’t know. I’ve forgotten.’

‘This’ll be fun to watch.’ Anna folded her arms, assessing him.

‘I know what you’re thinking.’ He sighed. ‘What if he’s so drunk he can’t dance any more? I can see the anxiety in your eyes. Fear not, the more drunk I get, the better I dance.’ He did a little tap step with his feet, one of which suddenly found itself tangled in the other. He fell against the wall beside her.

Anna giggled. ‘Smooth.’

‘Hey, you mean girl.’ He twisted towards her with an exaggerated sad face. Anna laughed again before realizing how close they were, their faces almost touching, so close she could make out the freckles on the bridge of his nose. She thought of the warmth of his lips on the playing field. She turned away, trying to find Rowan in the crowd again.

‘You have a lovely neck,’ he said and she could feel his breath on it tickling the strands of hair there. Her own breath caught in her throat. She turned back to find his eyes tracing her. ‘The way it curves,’ he said distractedly. He moved a hand out as if to touch it but stopped himself.

‘You’re drunk,’ she said, moving her hand over her neck self-consciously.

‘And you’re impossible to work out, Anna Everdell.’

‘I wasn’t aware you were trying to work me out.’

‘So self-contained, closed up.’ He made an inarticulate gesture with his hands, lost in thought. ‘Like a flower in winter. This was all meant to be simple, but it’s not any more.’

‘What was meant to be simple?’

He turned his eyes on her, two mirrors, revealing something behind them. ‘You.’

Anna was perturbed by what she saw, or what she didn’t see. ‘Hey, I’m not the one who can’t stand up straight. If anyone is simple here—’

He took her by the shoulders suddenly. ‘You should go. Escape. Leave your aunt and go. Don’t come back.’

‘Attis,’ cried Anna, flinging his arms off her. ‘What are you on about?’

His jaw tensed. ‘Nothing.’ He leant towards her but she turned to look out over the balcony, her heart beating with several emotions she couldn’t pinpoint.

‘Can you spot the others?’ She would not look back at him. She would not.

‘There.’ Attis pointed. ‘There’s Rowan and there’s Effie and – Ivor.’

‘Doesn’t that bother you?’

‘Not really. Nobody owns Effie and I wouldn’t want to, but we belong to each other anyway.’

‘I’ll never understand you two,’ she said, more scathingly than intended.

‘It’s best not to try.’

‘I won’t, don’t worry.’ She wanted to shake him, wondering why, when pushed on anything he cared about, he always shrugged and pretended as though everything was fine. ‘I need to go rehydrate Rowan. See you later.’

He didn’t say goodbye, but she felt his eyes on her as she left and could still feel the grip of his hands, telling her to go, to leave. Escape. She wasn’t sure she’d ever understand him.

Rowan downed the bottle of water in one go and then dragged Anna off to find Manda, who appeared to have lost the man she’d been kissing. ‘WHERE IS HE?’ she shouted into the crowd. ‘HENRY? Wait, was his name Henry or Harry? I don’t know but I think he might be the love of my life. I need to find him …’ She stumbled and fell against Anna.

‘I think we need to get you home. Come on.’

They found Effie and disentangled her from Ivor. ‘The Wild Hunt have invited us back to their after-party. Want to go a-maying?’

‘I need to go home, my mum is going to kill me,’ said Rowan. ‘And Manda is – well …’

Manda was stopping random people and asking them if they knew a Hugo. Attis appeared just in time. ‘Come on, Manda, let’s get you some fresh air. Meet outside in five?’

Effie rolled her eyes. ‘FINE.’

‘Goodbye, sweet Dorothy,’ said a voice in Anna’s ear. Oliver took her hand and kissed it. ‘May we meet again.’

‘You get that die fixed, OK?’ She laughed and waved goodbye; his crown glinted under the lights.

They stumbled back out of the Elder Door and into the dark, abandoned alleyway. They looked a mess – faces sweaty, make-up running, hair everywhere. It had been the best night of Anna’s life.

Attis went with Rowan to make sure she got home safely. ‘Better make sure, she’s a bit drunk,’ he slurred. Anna bundled into a taxi with the others, recounting every detail of the night until Manda fell asleep. Back at Selene’s they put her to bed and then danced around the kitchen, still soaring on the night’s energy.

‘So,’ said Effie. ‘You like Ollie? He seemed to like you.’

‘He was – charming. I don’t know …’

‘No Peter, hey?’

Anna laughed. ‘What about you and Ivor?’

‘Ah yes, my Viking. I always go back to him.’

‘Maybe you guys are meant to be.’

Effie burst out laughing. ‘Meant to be! You’re always so … romantic Anna. I’m not meant to be with anyone. Except Attis, of course.’

Anna wasn’t sure if Effie was joking or serious or just drunk. ‘I don’t get you two,’ she said carefully, ‘you say you’re just friends, or like brother and sister …’

‘I think we all know that’s not true. If there is such a thing as a meant to be – he’s it. He’s mine. But we’re young, we want to be free. We have our own arrangement. All the girls fall in love with him but he belongs to me.’

Their eyes met and Anna wasn’t sure what to say. It was true. He was Effie’s. She’d known it all along but it still felt strange to hear it said out loud.

‘Is he – human?’ she asked. ‘He said he wasn’t a witch when he took the berries …’

Effie laughed dismissively. ‘He was just messing with us. I mean, did you actually see him eat one of the berries? He won’t have, he’s not the opening-up type, but I’ve seen Attis and believe me he’s all man.’

Anna thought of the noises she’d heard in the house at night, the giggling, the moans. She imagined Attis and Effie’s bodies fitting together as if they’d always been two parts of the same whole. It was hard to remove the images from her mind.

‘Come on. Let’s dance,’ said Effie, grabbing Anna’s hands and pulling her up.

When Attis arrived home – damp and considerably less drunk – he found them singing at the top of their lungs and forcing a piece of pizza into the toaster.

‘What’s happening here?’

‘We wanted to see if you can toast pizza. ’S gone cold …’ Effie prodded at it.

He smiled, walking over and removing the knife from her hands. ‘I’ll warm it.’

They talked and ate and laughed and didn’t leave the kitchen until the sun started to rise; only then did it seem right to go upstairs to bed – Effie led them to her room. It was in its usual state – black, postered walls, the floor covered with mountains of clothes and make-up and jewellery, a large magical painting hung up behind the bed, its chaos of colours moving in slow, hypnotic waves.

‘SUMMER’S HERE,’ Effie declared, pulling up the blinds. A soft pink light was rising from behind the houses, seeping daylight into the night above. ‘I love sun and snow and nothing in between. Let’s do magic.’ She turned and gave them that look, that implacable look.

Attis gave her his own indulgent look in return. ‘What do you have in mind?’

Effie bit her lip. ‘Blood magic.’

‘No, Effie. It’s late—’

‘The night is not yet over. Can’t you feel it? The world is waiting for us to do magic!’

‘I really don’t think blood magic is a good idea.’

Effie ignored him. ‘Anna, you’re in, right? Blood is a powerful language. It contains the keys to a witch’s magic.’

Anna felt herself grow excited at the energy building in Effie’s eyes. She looked at Attis, who was willing her to say no, but she found she wasn’t willing to give him what he wanted. Not tonight. ‘Let’s do it.’

Effie hooted. ‘Anna and I are going to do it anyway, Attis, so you can either join or leave us be.’

He exhaled gruffly. ‘Fine. Seeing as you’re both equally mad.’

‘Wait there.’ Effie disappeared from the room.

Anna and Attis surveyed one another.

‘I thought you were the sensible one, Dr Everdell,’ he said.

‘Sorry to have misled you.’

He laughed. ‘I never really believed it anyway.’

‘So am I about to be bled in some sort of May Day sacrifice?’ Anna asked.

‘I don’t think so but I can’t be one hundred per cent sure. Effie is drunk.’

At that moment, Effie appeared back through the door with a knife.

‘Effie, you know you have to ask before you can touch my knife,’ said Attis.

‘I never normally have to.’ She raised a provocative eyebrow and ushered them into a circle on the floor. ‘We need the needle blade.’ She handed it to Attis.

‘I’d advise the painless blade.’

‘No. The needle blade. What’s the point in a blood pact without pain?’

Attis moved the knife through the air, spelling out a specific symbol, and a thin, fine blade appeared from the base. Its tip was glistening sharp.

‘Perfect,’ said Effie. ‘Right, let’s sit.’ She cleared a space on the floor for them, kicking away the debris that covered it. ‘Now, palms into the centre. Attis, I want you to carve the symbol for power into our palms.’

‘I’d rather not hurt you.’

‘Attis. Do we look like we can’t handle ourselves?’

Anna tried to look as sure and strong as Effie, although the words blood pact and carve were going round her head.

‘It’ll be worse if I try and do it,’ Effie threatened.

Attis shook his head and reached out, taking Effie’s palm in his own. The blade was fine, but even so, as he began to draw the symbol across her palm the mark he left was finer still, fine as a needle, a whisper along the surface of her hand, but deep enough for the blood to well up in its path – the symbol bold and fluid and beautiful. Effie looked at it with ravenous delight.

Attis moved and put his hand beneath Anna’s lightly. He drew the blade across her palm so gently that she only felt a slight sting, nothing compared to Aunt’s punishments.

‘I’ll do yours,’ said Effie, taking the blade and copying the symbol across Attis’s palm. His blood rose up, the same deep raspberry red of his lips. Anna winced at the sight.

‘Feel the power of your blood,’ Effie commanded.

Anna didn’t need to look at her hand to feel it – the warmth and vitality of her blood, the pain of the cut, the thrill of the moment, its unsettling intimacy. Magic was in the air and in her body, absolute and unquestionable, as steady and powerful as the beats of her heart.

‘Now we join our hands—’

‘Wait,’ said Anna, her heart stuttering. ‘I’m not sure we should blend our blood. I mean, not mine. I might … infect you guys – you know something might be wrong with my magic.’

Effie laughed. ‘Stop stressing. It’s hardly a lot and, anyway, we’re in this together. That’s the whole point.’

‘But we don’t yet understand—’

Effie grabbed her hand before Anna could protest any further. ‘Together.’ She pulled Attis’s hand to wrap around theirs, their blood trickling to mingle with each other’s.

Anna looked up into Attis’s eyes and could see conflict there too, but he said the words with rough intensity: ‘Together.’

‘Together,’ Anna replied, her heart welling over as the blood had done. They belonged to each other, but somehow – inexplicably – she was part of them too.

They released their hands, the symbol on their palms smeared, but the blood that had trickled onto the floor had begun to form its own pattern – spiralling into circles … the curse mark. Anna looked up, wild-eyed.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Effie. ‘That was likely to happen. We know your magic is connected to the symbol.’ Anna went to speak but Effie stopped her. ‘Do not even mention the word infected or I’ll get bored and I don’t do boredom in the early hours of the morning. Can’t you feel the power of the magic?’

Anna tore her eyes away from the pattern of blood on the floor and tried to block out the fear. She wouldn’t ruin the whole evening; it had all been too perfect. Instead she let herself relax back into the feeling of magic from only moments ago – the feeling that had been on the edge of all things, where everything had felt possible, where they had felt invincible. Together. The sun rose like a blood spot over the rooftops, drenching the room in light. They danced wildly until they had nothing left to give, falling onto the bed, finally tired, nothing but the sound of their breaths and thudding hearts.

‘I’m gonna go,’ said Attis, lifting himself up.

‘No, stay with us,’ Effie commanded. She patted the bed seductively next to her and Anna. Anna realized how much of herself was revealed in her dress. ‘We could have some more fun …’

He looked at them for a moment, fiercely, and then laughed. ‘The most tempting offer I’ve ever received but no. Get some sleep.’ He closed the door.

Anna remembered his breath on her neck in Equinox.

‘No fun,’ Effie called after him. She turned towards Anna so they were face to face, eye to eye. ‘Well, I’m not tired,’ she said, her eyelids drooping.

Anna smiled and they found each other’s hands and knotted their fingers together, the blood still on their palms.

‘We’re officially a coven now. We’re going to do great things together. I just know it.’

‘We will.’ Anna wanted it to be true. She wanted to belong to the magical world forever. To Effie’s world.

‘You know, I feel like I’ve always known you.’ Effie smiled sleepily, eyes half-closed, lined with a woodland of dark lashes.

‘Me too.’

‘I’m glad we found each other.’

‘Yes,’ said Anna, holding her hand and holding back tears. ‘I love you, Effie.’

But Effie was already asleep.