Bryony and Ivy walked into the Charm Police reception area and found it alive with activity, officers dashing from desk to desk, and the waiting area full of people.
Ivy stalked to the reception desk. “Who’s been poisoned?”
Suki Cobra glanced up from the papers she was reviewing, her almond shaped purple eyes narrowing as she saw Ivy. “How do you know there’s been another poisoning?”
“We heard talk of it in the village,” said Bryony. “What happened?”
“That’s impossible,” said Suki. “The victim was only brought in ten minutes ago.”
Chad appeared behind Suki and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Everything okay here?”
“We’re here to find out about the latest poisoning,” said Ivy.
“And to see how Gabriel’s doing,” said Bryony quickly.
“We can’t give out confidential information about staff members,” said Suki.
“It’s okay. Gabriel is fine with them knowing about his condition.” Chad gestured to Bryony and Ivy and led them past the reception area and into a small office. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, his tired gaze dancing around the room as the girls watched him.
“You’re going to tell me bad news,” said Bryony. “Are we too late?”
Chad let out a sigh. “The news I have isn’t good. Gabriel is only just holding on. The poison has almost reached his heart. We are working around the clock to find the final element in the poison, but so far nothing.”
“We can help with that,” said Ivy. “We found a way to get the poison out of Gabriel.”
“You have?” Chad stared in disbelief at Ivy. “Have you found the antidote?”
“Not quite,” said Bryony. “But we’ve found someone who is willing to siphon the poison and keep Gabriel alive.”
“No one in Old Sarum can do that and survive,” said Chad. “It’s impossible. We’ve got people on the team who can siphon spells, but they had limited success with Gabriel.”
“Not when you combine powers it isn’t,” said Ivy. “And we’ve done that.”
“An exchange of powers,” said Chad. “You’re both powerful witches, but even with your combined powers, I still can’t think of anyone who would be willing to take such a risk. There’s a high probability if anybody siphoned the poison from Gabriel it would kill them.”
“It’s Kristoff Dash,” said Bryony.
“Kristoff wants to help Gabriel.” Chad's mouth dropped open in shock. “I don’t believe that.”
“Believe it or not,” said Ivy. “But that’s what’s happened. Kristoff is willing to siphon the poison from Gabriel.”
“And what did he take from you before he agreed to that?” asked Chad.
“Our arrangement is none of your business,” said Ivy. “But if you want Gabriel to live you’d better take us up on the offer.”
Chad scratched his hands through his hair. “I need to speak to Gabriel. He won’t be happy knowing what you’ve done.”
“We don’t care if he’s happy or not,” said Ivy. “For some reason, my sister wants him to stay alive. Therefore, he’s going to live.”
Chad grinned at Bryony. “It must be nice having a sister who cares about you so much.”
Bryony nodded as worry ran through her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“And what about this other poisoning?” asked Ivy. “Who’s the latest victim?”
“Before I answer that, how do you know there’s been another poisoning?” asked Chad.
“When Kristoff agreed to assist us, we asked him to create a circle of protection around the victims the poisoner may target next,” said Bryony.
“And you know who they are?”
“We have a theory that former beauty and magic pageant contestants are being targeted,” said Bryony. “We got a list of entrants from Samara Renegade. Kristoff created the circle of protection around all of them. He realized someone had been poisoned because he experienced pain when the poison entered their system.”
“That’s clever,” said Chad. “But dangerous. There must be hundreds of pageant entrants to protect.”
“Kristoff is a half demon,” said Ivy. “He’s got power to spare.”
Chad shook his head. “I still can’t believe you’ve convinced Kristoff to help you.”
“You're wasting our time. Who’s been poisoned?” Ivy folded her arms over her chest.
“I really shouldn’t say,” said Chad. “If Angelica hears I’ve been passing information to you, I’ll get in serious trouble. She is gunning for the two of you.”
“You know we aren’t the poisoners,” said Bryony.
Chad blinked his eyes a few times. “Don’t pull your Little Miss Innocent routine on me. I can sense your power, even if you have let Kristoff take some of it.”
Bryony’s eyes widened. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“It would be in your best interest if you did tell us,” said Ivy.
“We only want to help, if we can,” said Bryony.
“You may as well know,” said Chad. “Word will get out soon enough. It’s Claudia Fleetfoot.”
“Isn’t she dating that barman from the Bubbling Brews?” asked Bryony.
Chad nodded. “She’s been seeing Ollie Ogden for a few months.”
Ivy snorted. “Ollie has a bad mouth and a foul temper.”
“Could he have poisoned Claudia?” asked Bryony.
“Is Claudia still alive?” Ivy asked Chad.
“Very much so,” said Chad. “She arrived at the station with a black tongue. She was almost hysterical with worry.”
“Something she ate?” asked Ivy.
“Claudia said she discovered some chocolates,” said Chad. “She assumed they were a present from Ollie. She only ate a few before she felt unwell. Then she looked at her tongue and discovered it had changed color. She rushed to the station straightaway, knowing that others had been poisoned and this was one of the symptoms.”
“Claudia won’t last long if she’s eaten the poison,” said Bryony. “Lizzie didn’t last a day.”
“Probably no more than an hour,” said Ivy. She looked at Chad. “Have you spoken to Ollie?”
“We’re sending someone to see him,” said Chad. “Claudia is convinced he gave her the chocolates.”
“We should speak to him,” said Ivy. “See what he knows.”
“Leave that to us,” said Chad.
“I can make him talk faster than you can,” said Ivy.
“We’re not even convinced Ollie is capable of creating this kind of magic,” said Chad. “He’s a third rate warlock at best.”
“But you need to arrest him,” said Ivy. “I've seen Ollie when he's been drinking, and he gets mean. He could poison someone else before you get to him.”
“That won’t happen,” said Chad. “Like I said, we’ve got someone on the way to his home now. They will bring him into the station and we'll talk to him here. And if he’s not involved, he may not even know about Claudia. We need to tell him about that and see what his reaction is.”
“Shall we bring Kristoff to the station and get him to help with Gabriel?” asked Bryony. “The sooner Kristoff can siphon the poison the better.”
“Agreed,” said Chad. “Get Kristoff here. I’ll speak with Gabriel and make sure he understands what’s going on.”
“It’s not a complicated proposition,” said Ivy.
“It’s straightforward enough,” said Chad. “But Gabriel is lapsing into unconsciousness at times.”
Bryony gasped. “I didn’t know he was so ill. Can I see him?”
“No, you really won’t like seeing him,” said Chad. “The poison has crept into most of his body. It’s only through the use of continual magic that we've been able to prevent it getting to his heart and killing him.”
Bryony’s eyes filled with tears. “He said he’d have longer.”
“We all thought he would,” said Chad. “It’s a shock to us as well. He’s a strong angel, if anybody can fight this, Gabriel can. But he needs all the help we can get. Get Kristoff here and we’ll see if that helps.”
“I’ll get Kristoff,” said Ivy to Bryony. “You stay here. See what else you can find out about Claudia and Ollie.”
“Are you sure?” asked Bryony.
“You need to be near Gabriel.” Ivy yanked her sister into a brief hug. “I get to decide when Gabriel leaves Old Sarum.”
Chad opened the door. “Ask for me when you get back to the station with Kristoff, and I’ll let you in to see Gabriel.”
The sound of someone sobbing could be heard along the corridor as they walked out of the room.
A tall pale woman, with long blonde hair, stood at the end of the corridor, one hand covering her face as the other wiped tears from her cheeks.
“That’s Claudia Fleetfoot,” said Bryony.
“Claudia, you shouldn’t be out of your room.” Chad hurried towards her.
Ivy pushed past Chad before he could reach Claudia. “Was it Ollie who poisoned you?”
Claudia’s head whipped up and she stared at Ivy. “I’m not sure. I can’t think of anyone else who would leave me chocolate.”
“Have you been arguing?” asked Ivy.
“No, nothing like that,” said Claudia.
Chad placed a hand on Ivy’s arm. “It’s not appropriate for you to interview Claudia. She needs to rest and we need to run some tests on her.”
“You know what the tests will show.” Ivy shook Chad’s hand from her arm. “She’s been poisoned with the same thing as everyone else. If we can find out who poisoned her we can fix that.”
“I can’t think why Ollie would want to poison me,” said Claudia. “Or any of the others.”
“How about pageants?” asked Bryony. “Have you ever been involved in any of the pageants Samara Renegade runs?”
“Oh, well, yes I have,” said Claudia. “I haven’t been in one for a year or two, but I used to take part. It was mainly a fun thing to do with some girlfriends. Gave us a chance to get dressed up and show off to each other. It was nothing serious, though.”
“Ladies—” Chad flew back against the wall, struggling against the spell Ivy shot at him.
“Ivy, that wasn’t such a good idea,” said Bryony. “He’ll arrest you.”
“He has to get free first.” Ivy focused on Claudia. “What did Ollie think of you taking part in the pageants? Was he jealous?”
“We’ve not been dating long,” said Claudia. “Four or five months at the most. He does have a bit of a temper on him, though. And he doesn’t like any other man looking at me.”
“Did you tell him about the pageants you used to enter?” asked Bryony.
Claudia’s eyes widened. “I did! In fact, we were talking about them just the other day. He was saying how ridiculous it is that women do that to themselves, and he wouldn’t have any girlfriend of his parading around. I told him I’d retired from all that business. When you get past a certain age, things aren’t quite as pert as they used to be.”
“That isn’t reason enough for him to poison you,” said Bryony. “He may be the jealous type, but I can’t see why he would want to do you harm for something that happened before you were dating.”
“I did mention that I was thinking of entering a new pageant,” said Claudia. “Samara is planning pageants for different age categories. She’s putting one on for the over thirties for the first time next year. I only said it in jest. I didn’t really want to take part. It’s such hard work. But when I mentioned it to Ollie, he wasn’t happy.”
“It has to be him,” said Ivy. “He thinks his girlfriend is going to make an exhibition of herself and decides to put a stop to it.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” said Claudia. “The pageants are dignified.”
Ivy laughed derisively. “He must have poisoned the other women for the same reason. Do you know Ollie’s dating history?”
“You think he’s dated the other women who have been poisoned?” Claudia’s eyes widened and a tear tracked down one cheek.
“It’s a possibility,” said Bryony. “Maybe once he’s been involved with a woman, he doesn’t want anybody else to date her.”
“He has a jealous streak,” said Claudia. “But he’s not evil.”
“We need to hunt down Ollie,” said Ivy. “If it is him, we have to get him to reverse the magic before it’s too late.”
“I’ll find Ollie,” said Bryony. “You go and get Kristoff and bring him here to help Gabriel.” She glanced over at Chad who was still struggling against Ivy’s magic. “Better let him go. You’ll have to hope he doesn’t arrest you.”
“I’d like to see him try.” Ivy glowered at Chad. “Behave yourself when I let you down.”
Chad returned Ivy’s glare but then gave a shrug and nodded.
Ivy backed along the corridor, her hands raised towards Chad. “I’ll release the magic as soon as I get out of the station. I’ll be back with Kristoff as soon as I can.”
“Hurry,” said Bryony. “We don’t have much time.”
“You too,” said Ivy. “And don’t let Ollie get away. Use whatever magic you have to make him confess and reverse the poison.”
Bryony’s hands balled into fists. “I will. He’s not going to get away with this.”