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She was secure on Jake’s lap, her legs stretched across the others as they squeezed on to the sofa. They’d been on her the moment the circle could be crossed, leading her to the sofa, demanding to know if she was safe. They’d manhandled her into place until they were all touching her, but she didn’t protest, just soaked up the comfort they gave her.
“She was called Hestia, and the man who did the curse had ginger hair, really bright ginger hair.”
“Taylor,” Jonas croaked. “Philip Taylor.”
Lily remembered how they’d performed the curse, the agony he’d been in. Guilt slipped in for doubting him, regret she’d not believed him or the boys, and admiration for putting his life in danger, and on hold, for four children that he didn’t even know. She wouldn’t tell them his story though, that wasn’t hers to tell.
“When are you going to remove the curse?” Nate asked.
Drew wiped away the last of the chalk markings with a cloth. “No time like the present. I just need my box.” He got up, stretching out his back.
“Why didn’t you snap your fingers and get rid of it?” she asked.
“It’s a magic circle,” he replied. “Magic needs removing by hand, not by more magic. You’ll leave too much energy behind otherwise.” He blew out his breath, his face was weary and drawn.
She wasn’t sure now was an appropriate time, but she knew he’d want to know. “Someone else came in, after Jonas left.”
“Who?” Nate asked.
“Someone called Morris.”
“What did they talk about?” Drew asked.
“You.”
“Me?” He looked surprised.
“You were being difficult, their words. You were vocal about your distrust in them. They also said I have no magical abilities at all. Lynda testified under oath that I had no magic. She lied to protect me. Did she know? That they killed Sarah?”
“No. She still doesn’t know. I didn’t know for sure at the time. I had my suspicions, but I couldn’t prove it.”
“It wasn’t to get back at you for leaving.” She turned on Nate’s lap, facing Drew. She wasn’t sure how he was going to react to this, but he had to know.
“What? What do you mean?” Drew frowned at her, his head tilted to one side.
“Sarah was a seer, a threat to Hestia.”
“No, she wasn’t.” Drew shook his head. “No. That can’t be right. I lived with her for over four years, no way she could have hidden it. No. No.” He shook his head and walked out, closing the door behind him.
“Why did they kill Sarah?” Josh asked.
“It’s like some bad comic plot. Hestia is the current witch seer, but it would appear she doesn’t want to give the title up, not even for death. She had Sarah killed because she was next in line to take the position. After Sarah, it would be me. They’re using healers to find a way to make her immortal.” She looked up at Matt. “Whatever happens, we have to keep you away from them.”
He blanched, looking over to Jonas. “Did you know that? No, Sorry. Don’t speak.”
Drew came in looking more composed, but the flicker of pain was still in his eyes.
“It was never your fault she died.” She got up and went to him. “They were going to kill her anyway. Hestia said they should have killed the three of us and been done with it.”
He made a choked noise, and she touched his arm. He dragged her into him, holding her tightly and she wrapped her arms around him.
“Is Lily in danger?” Nate demanded.
“Yes. And so is Matt.” Drew muttered into her hair and then let her go.
“But Lynda lied to them, so they don’t think I’m a threat. That’s good, right?” she asked.
“For as long as they continue to think it. The witch-hunter would have picked it up right away. He didn’t pick any of you up. The spells are working.” He briefly looked at Jonas. “But if they ever slip, or someone finds out somehow.” He shrugged.
Jonas knocked twice on the coffee table, catching their attention. He pointed at Lily, Drew, and the box she’d brought for him.
“Yes, let’s get this done.” Drew went across to sit opposite Jonas. “Can one of you get some eggs, please?”
Nate got up and went out.
“How are you doing this? How will it work?” Lily crossed to see what Drew was doing.
“Now we have his name, we can ‘move’ the curse and the caster’ll be none the wiser.”
“Move?”
“Take it from Jonas and put it into an egg. The egg will be Jonas.”
“How on earth do you make an egg think it’s Jonas?”
“We don’t. We make the curse think the egg is Jonas,” he answered.
“How?”
“Magic.” Drew chuckled. “It’s all magic, Lily.”
“Yeah, but how do you get the magic to do that?”
“You use it. I’ve told you this before. You get an itch; your brain sends signals and you scratch it before you even know you have the itch. It’s instantaneous response to stimuli. Magic is similar. Eventually, when you’ve been doing this for years you won’t have to stand there and concentrate for the wind to come, you’ll just lift a hand and it'll happen.”
Nate came into the room with a box of eggs and put them on the coffee table.
Drew picked up his box and opened it. “This is an Indelebilis Plumbum.”
“Indelible lead. It’s a pencil?” Jake didn’t sound impressed.
“It’s not just any old pencil.” Drew sent him an amused smirk. “It’s magic.”
“So why couldn’t we look in the box?” Josh asked.
“Never heard of Pandora’s box?” Matt muttered.
“Exactly.” Drew took out the pen and shut the lid. “If you’d tried to use it dreadful things could happen. Another word for indelible, Nate?”
“Inexpungible.”
Drew snorted. “I was thinking of permanent, but that will do.”
“Anything drawn with it is permanent?” Lily asked. “Like a magical Sharpie?”
“With one difference; if you mark on a piece of paper with a Sharpie, you can burn the paper and the mark is gone. If you write with this and then burn the paper, the paper will have gone but whatever you drew would still remain.”
“Could you draw a big box of chocolates, burn the paper and the chocolates would still be there?” Lily asked, making him laugh.
“No, if it worked like that, I’d be drawing money on a weekly basis. It doesn’t create things. It enables the caster to permanently leave a mark, or a curse.”
“That’s a dangerous pencil,” Nate said.
“Yes, it is,” Drew agreed.
“Where did you get it?” Matt asked.
Jonas sat forward and put his hand on the egg box, stopping Drew from opening it.
The twins moved to flank Drew, while Nate and Matt moved closer to Jonas. It was a defensive/offensive move, but she wasn’t sure why they’d done it.
“Where?” Jonas’s voice was thick with pain.
“I made it myself.” He didn’t look away from Jonas. “I made it when I worked for the Council. I was climbing the ranks, and I knew it would help.”
“Blood tears.” Jonas forced it out.
“I had some. I’d been given some years before from a merrow. I’m not going into why or where, or even how she had them. It’s none of your business.”
His mother was a merrow, but she didn’t say anything. If he didn’t want them to know he had to have a reason. But she’d make sure to find out later.
“Do you know how these things work?” Drew indicated where the innocuous looking pencil lay.
Jonas nodded, pointed at them, and shook his head.
“Yeah, I’ll tell them, Lily won’t know anyway.” Drew seemed to be adapt at interpreting Jonas, while she was still confused.
“He’ll write Philip Taylor and the curse onto the egg on one side and his full real name on the other. We’ll bury the egg under the full moon on a ley line and it’ll hold the curse forever. Taylor’ll be none the wiser because the curse won’t be broken but will remain whole. Every letter he inscribes will be in his blood. It’s going to look horrible, but you can’t stop him once he starts. Do that and we’re all dead.”
“He’s got to use his blood like ink?” Horror filled her.
“He doesn’t need to cut himself, the pen will do the work. It’ll be fine, okay? He knows this and he’s not stopping, are you?” He turned to Jonas.
Jonas held out his hand for the pen in answer, and Drew gave it to him.
“Don’t stop him.” Drew took two eggs from the box and put the rest on the floor. He set the eggs on the table and sat back. “Lily, say the curse again.”
“Silent tongue shall tell no one. Words, like a knife, will end your life.”
Jonas nodded, and picking up one of the eggs, he etched the first letter onto it.
She saw the letter form on the surface of the shell. Blood seeped around his fingernails, down the shaft of the pencil, into the lead and out the point.
Drew tapped her shoulder and indicated the other egg. Every letter Jonas inscribed appeared on the other egg, but as the next word appeared, the previous word faded until it was no longer visible.
Jonas finally signed Timothy Robert Holden and then slumped in the seat.
“Excellent. You need to crack the egg you’re holding. We’ll know then if it worked.
“Crack it, I thought we had to bury it?” Matt asked.
“That’s not the egg. The second egg is the receptacle for the curse. That’s the egg we’ll bury.”
Jonas put the pen down and cracked the egg on the edge of the table, splitting it in half. The inside was jet black, no sign of the white and yellow that should have been there.
“It worked.” Drew sat back and thrust a hand through his hair. “You can heal him, Matt.”
Matt didn’t even hesitate, he laid his hand on Jonas cheek and a whoosh of air left Jonas. Blood dripped from Matt’s nose, and he took the tissue Jake had ready for him.
“Thank you, Matt.” Jonas sank back, inspecting his fingers, but no sign of the blood remained on them. “Thank you, Drew.”
“I don’t want your thanks,” Drew said. “I meant it when I said I did it for Lily.”
“I know.” Jonas looked straight at him. “But I’m still thankful you did it.”
“Will you be all right burying the egg?” Drew asked him.
“Yes, I’ll do it Monday after midnight.”
“Did you know about Sarah?” Drew asked Jonas.
“No. I’d never heard of any of you before Lily arrived. I investigated you and didn’t find anything about you working for them.” He looked at the boys. “I was sent here when you were babies, not quite a year old. I knew what you were as soon as I saw you. Especially you, Matt, I knew what they’d do to you. I didn’t know about Hestia wanting immortality, but I knew they took healers and made them work for them. You were just a baby. I couldn’t do that to you, any of you. So I hid you, covered the whole area with a dampening spell so they’d never find you.”
“You did it for us,” Nate said, his voice thick with emotion.
“I did it for my conscience, and then, when you wormed your way into my heart, I did it for you. There’s a lot I need to tell you, and I will, but, Drew, I need you to leave. All you need to know is that my boys, and Lily, will never come to harm through me,”
“Fair enough.” Drew smirked. “One thing, Jonas, does the Council exist?”
Jonas snorted and stood up. “No. It doesn’t, and you will never get me to say it does. The Reformation of the One Purpose, however, is alive and well.”
“Reformation, my arse. Reformation would indicate reform, all they did was change hats, not ideals.”
“I didn’t trust you. I still don’t.” Jonas regarded him. “I thought you’d been sent by them for Matt. That Lily was a cover, an excuse, maybe even a plant.”
“You did try to scare me away! Killing my brain cells and arranging the letters on the Scrabble board.”
“I won’t apologise.” He looked at her. “There’s no line when it comes to protecting family. And these boys are my family. They’re my sons, whether we share blood or not.”
Lily went to him and going onto her tiptoes she kissed his cheek. “I saw, I heard, I know what you did. What you’ve done for them,” she whispered.
“I’d do it all again,” Jonas said, lifting his hands to her shoulders. “You love my boys, don’t you?”
“With my entire being.”
“Then you’re family too.” He kissed her forehead and looked over at Drew letting her go. “If you harm her or use her in any way you answer to me.”
Drew picked up the pen and put it back in the box. “Walk me out, sweetheart.”
“Drew.” Jonas’s voice was firm, cold as ice.
“I heard. I didn’t think such an asinine comment was worthy of a reply. She’s my daughter, you old fairy.”
Lily couldn’t help the giggle that left her lips. Nate looked at her in disbelief, but all she could do was cover her mouth with her hand.
“What?” Drew asked, looking confused. “What’s so funny?”
Lily held Nate’s eyes. “Nothing. I just got this mental image of Jonas dressed like a Flower Fairy. I’ll walk you out, Dad.”
Nate slid his fingers down her arm as she passed, and she smiled at him.
They went out to where his car was parked beside Jonas’s MG.
“Tell me what you saw and heard with Jonas,” he prompted, opening the door to put his things on the seat.
She told him briefly, how the spell had been agony for him, how they’d been surprised by his findings, but had tested him. She told him what Morris and Hestia had discussed, and he listened carefully without commenting.
“When you cast the circle, it made me feel—”
“Go on.”
“I could feel my magic waking, as if it was uncoiling somehow, like a sleeping dragon.” She snorted. “Nate would have a field day with that description.”
“You’re getting more settled with who you are, they’ll see it for themselves. But maybe mentioning dragons isn’t a great idea.” His lips twisted, and his eyes narrowed as if he was debating with himself.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wasn’t telling them, but I’ll tell you. Blood tears are produced under deep sorrow, or intense physical pain. They used to be extracted by torture until it was outlawed. One of the things the Council cracks down on that I agree with.”
“Your mum.”
“When I was fifteen my mother fell pregnant unexpectedly. It didn’t go well, the baby was stillborn, and we nearly lost my mother too. My parents were shattered, but my mother especially so. The blood tears were hers, she shed them for my brother and gave them to me. I used them to make this pen. It hasn’t always been used for good.”
“You told me you had a past with the Council, but as long as it’s the past, and stays in the past.” She hoped he knew what she meant.
He kissed the top of her head. “It is the past.” He stepped back from her.
“Was she a seer? Did they get it wrong?”
He pulled his lips together, a muscle working along his jawline. His eyes lost the happy sparkle and sadness consumed them. She reached out, and he took her hand in his.
“If she was, she never told me, and I never guessed.”
“Maybe she didn’t know,” Lily suggested.
“She would have known, and if she did she could control it enough to hide it.” He ran his tongue along his teeth. “I don’t know why she would hide it from me.”
“Maybe she knew it could be used against you, especially when she found out who you worked for.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I love her, so it doesn’t matter. All that matters is she was killed by her own grandmother. And if she ever found out what you are, she’d try to kill you too. I messed up with Sarah, I won’t mess up with you.”
She blinked away the tears that threatened. “What did you mean? Our time will come?”
“I felt your anger, it almost equals my own. I knew you’d seen or heard something that caused such a strong emotion.”
“I’ve never been so angry. If you hadn’t pulled me back, I’d have gone for her. I wanted to kill her,” she whispered, her gaze level with the collar of his jacket.
He lowered his head until he held her gaze. His hair slid forward, blocking everything from her vision except for his liquid black eyes. She sucked in her breath at the intensity in them.
“Don’t feel guilty,” he whispered. “She killed your mother, she took you away from me. She’s caused the last eighteen years of your life to be a lie. You aren’t going to want to thank her.”
“Maybe not. If you hadn’t pulled me, I would have killed her.”
“You weren’t corporal.” He cupped her cheeks with his palms, still holding her gaze. “You’d have gone straight through her. She’s evil, Lily, she always has been. She ignored your grandad, Fitz. Starved him of love and attention because they believed he was a whinnock.”
“Whinnock? They said that, what is it?”
“Someone without any magic, it’s another name for runt.”
“Like the runt of the litter? That’s a horrible name to call them.”
“It’s the name the Council gives anyone who has no magic. They’re considered useless, weak. The word goes back centuries and is an indication to the bigotry that pervades them.”
Anger rushed over her. She’d been so cold and callous about killing Sarah, and wishing she’d killed the three of them at the same time.
“If she gets her hands on Matt, he’ll be nothing but a shell when they finish with him.” Drew’s words curled around her mind. “You, Matt, the twins, Nate, Jonas, Lynda, me? Our lives will never be as they should be. She’s the sword of Damocles that hangs over our heads. Matt’ll never be safe, you’ll never be safe. None of us will be while she lives.”
“Unless she’s stopped.”
He didn’t say anything, just smiled and kissed her forehead. His lips lingered and then he stepped away, running a hand through his hair.
Her anger drained away, leaving her exhausted.
“It’s going to be all right, Lily, I promise. We’ll talk more when you come home with me, okay?”
“Yeah, sounds good.” She pushed her hands into her jean pockets.
He studied her, his dark eyes holding hers, and then he smiled. “I’ve got something for you but don’t get cross with me.”
Intrigued, she went with him to the boot of his car where he dug through a shopping bag.
“I guess this is going to seem an odd move for a dad to make. I’d tell Sarah I was going to be the worst dad when you started dating. I was going to have a list of questions he’d have to answer. I’d have a shotgun and a baseball bat.” He straightened. “I don’t think you’d appreciate me wielding a gun around, telling them to keep a gap of six feet or more between you. I know I can’t expect the six-foot gap, no matter how much I may want to. So there’s only one thing I can do.” He shoved a hand through his long hair. It flopped straight back into his eyes, and he shook his head to move it.
“What is it? I don’t understand,” Lily admitted.
She took the bright purple and blue box he held out to her. The word ‘condom’ had heat flooding her cheeks. “I don’t—I mean, what—”
“I’m not suggesting you are, or that you should, or anything.” He shoved his hand into his hair again. “But I can’t, in all good conscience, let you go away with them and not try to make sure you’re safe.”
She didn’t look up from the box, heat still coursed through her, and she had no idea what to say.
He lifted her chin with a finger, until she met his eyes. “I can vaguely remember being eighteen.” He smiled, and she knew he was trying to make her feel better.
Emotion rushed over her and she went into him, hugging him tightly. His arms closed around her.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said, inhaling his scent and closing her eyes.
“Anything for you, Lily.”
