The Witches of the Glass Castle (The Witches of the Glass Castle Series Book 1) (23 page)

‘Tol wasn’t always evil! And you know that,
Madeline
.’

‘Girls!’ Wendolyn stepped in. ‘Stop this, please,’ she implored them. ‘You are grown women.’

‘Oh, wake up, Cassie!’ Madeline laughed raucously, ignoring Wendolyn’s remark. ‘Tol was a soulless Hunter! Even on a good day, he was still evil.’

‘No, he wasn’t!’ Cassandra yelled.

‘Yes, he was!’

‘Girls!’ Wendolyn interjected again. ‘Enough! Please.’

Madeline folded her arms. ‘Sorry, Wennie,’ she grumbled. ‘
She
started it.’

‘
You
started it!’ Cassandra shot back.

Wendolyn raised her hand to silence them.
‘I too remember Tol as a young man,’ she reminded them. ‘He was strong-willed and ill-tempered at times, but he was not evil.’

‘But he was a Hunter,’ Madeline objected.

‘Hunters are not evil beings,’ Wendolyn set her straight as they trudged through the forest. ‘And you’ll do wise to remember that,’ she added.

‘Tol was
an evil being,’ Madeline muttered under her breath.

‘No, he wasn’t!’ Cassandra threw up her hands. ‘Not at first.’

‘I’m sorry, Madeline, but Cassandra is right,’ Wendolyn reflected. ‘Being a Hunter did not warp Tol – it was his greed and thirst for power that turned him into what he is today. I believe everyone is born equal – a blank canvas. And it’s the choices we make that will ultimately define who we will become. Not just as witches, but as men and women alike.’

‘Madeline is still a blank canvas,’ Cassandra teased. ‘Aren’t you, Maddie?’

‘Wennie! Can you fathom the way she speaks to me?’ Madeline wailed, outraged. ‘And after everything I do for her.’

‘Everything you do for me?’ Cassandra chortled at the ludicrousness. ‘You mean lounging around my house, eating my food, and making a mess
from
me
to clean up?’

‘And raising your two rug rats,’ Madeline
pouted.

Cassandra’s expression softened. She smiled warmly at her sister. ‘Oh, don’t pretend that you don’t love them as much as I do.’

Madeline turned her nose up into the air. ‘The girl, perhaps. But not that awful boy.’

‘Madeline!’ Cassandra exclaimed. ‘That’s a horrible thing to say! Take it back immediately.’

Wendolyn frowned in disappointment. ‘Maddie, that was terribly unkind.’

Madeline crossed
her arms obstinately as she walked through the pine trees. ‘He’s got a vile temper.’

‘So have you,’ Cassandra accused with a good-natured nudge.

‘Oh,
please
!’ Madeline drew out the word theatrically.

Abruptly Wendolyn stopped walking.

Cassandra and Madeline looked at one another, fearing that their bickering had pushed the older lady too far.

‘I hear him,’ Wendolyn murmured in a hypnotic voice.

Cassandra tensed. ‘Is he near?’

‘Deeper into the forest,’ Wendolyn confirmed. ‘He is searching for Dino.’

‘Dino got away!’ Madeline cheered, her obvious relief contradicting her earlier disparaging comments.

Wendolyn closed her aged eyes, listening to sounds unheard. ‘Yes. But Tol is angry.
He is determined.’

Forcefully, Madeline unstuck one of her heels from the ground. ‘Well, let’s just see who’s more determined – Tol or us!’

‘Are you sure we’re heading in the right direction?’ Madeline asked for what felt like the hundredth time. She stomped through the forest, huffing loudly at every opportunity.

‘Yes, Maddie,’ Cassandra replied tiredly. ‘We must be close, because I can sense him.’ Her stomach flipped at the realisation.

She hadn’t seen Tol since they’d banished him sixteen years ago. The day was still so vivid in her mind. It had all seemed very sudden – one moment they were happy and in love with two beautiful children, and the next she was banishing a demon from her life. It broke her heart. And somewhere deep inside, she knew that she would never love again. Tol
was
her heart.

No. My Tol is gone
, she reminded herself sternly. There was no room for weakness.

‘We’re on the right path,’ Wendolyn confirmed. ‘I only hope that William is with us by the time we reach Tol.’ She clutched the amber amulet that hung around her neck. That small orange stone was the sacred portal which would draw William to her.

‘Oh, a race against time!’ Madeline noted with a spark of excitement. ‘Russian roulette! Do you think those kids are up to it?’

Wendolyn was quiet for a moment. ‘I think they are able,’ she answered at last.

‘I don’t know…’ Madeline studied her fingernails. ‘The boy looked like a startled rabbit and the girl looked like she was one plate short of a dinner set.’

‘You’re very rude, Madeline,’ Cassandra scolded. ‘You know, you’re not so perfect yourself, little sister.’

Madeline ran her fingers along her defined cheekbone, posing for an invisible camera. ‘I’m more or less perfect,’ she uttered dreamily. ‘Besides, I wasn’t being rude. I was merely playing the odds.’

A rustle in the trees stopped the three women in their tracks. They bristled, preparing themselves for battle.

And then, in a whirlwind, Colt stood before them. He carefully placed Mia down on the ground, holding her arm to steady her.

‘Mia!’ Cassandra and Madeline hooted in delight, elated to see her alive and well.

‘You’re here!’ Mia cheered in surprise.

‘Yes, Wendolyn sent for us,’ Cassandra explained. ‘Where’s Dino? Is he with Tol?’

‘No, he’s right behind us. He’s OK, but Tol can get inside his mind and use him like a puppet.’

The women
nodded to one another. Mia had confirmed what they already knew.

‘But Dino has not yet joined Tol’s coven?’ Wendolyn checked.

‘No.’

‘So Tol hasn’t ascended?’ Madel
ine asked.

Mia looked confused.

‘No,’ Colt answered for her.

Cassandra and Madeline slowly turned to Colt. Their eyes narrowed critically.

‘You’re a Hunter,’ Madeline remarked, a hint of disapproval in her tone.

‘The very best,’ he retorted, parrying her disapproval with arrogance.

Madeline fixed him with a sarcastic smile. ‘That’s what they all say.’ She swapped a look with her sister.

‘Ha!’ Co
lt exclaimed. ‘Then
they all
are lying. And on that note, no need to thank me for saving your children from certain death…It seems that to get a thank-you from an Arcana is like pulling teeth – which, quite frankly, I’d prefer.’

Cassandra eyed him suspiciously. ‘Thank you for saving my children,’ she replied cagily. ‘May I ask why you would do such a thing?’

‘You may. I have been infected by love,’ he told her, as though it were a terminal disease that he had recently come to terms with.

Madeline’s jaw dropped open in horror. ‘Good God!’ she cried. ‘Please tell me that’s a joke!’

Colt bowed his head in commiseration. ‘I’m afraid not. I was upset about it, too. But I suppose no one is exempt.’

Cassandra turned to her daughter. ‘Mia, is this true?’ she asked gently.

Mia smiled sweetly, and an innocent dimple appeared in her cheek. ‘It’s true.’

Madeline fanned her face with her hand. ‘I feel faint,’ she d
eclared. ‘It’s like history repeating itself.’

‘Try not to judge,’ Wendolyn advised kindly.

‘I think I’m getting a stress-related aneurism,’ Madeline rambled. ‘This is what’s going to kill me, you know. Stress. I’m too young to be dealing with this.’

Mia and Colt looked at one another and shrugged.

‘Oh, don’t tell me,’ Madeline gasped, regaining an abrasive tone. ‘Please don’t tell me you’re bearing his child! I refuse to go through this again, Mia.
I refuse
!’

Mia flushed in embarrassment. ‘Of course not!’

‘Well, that’s one thing, at least,’ Madeline grumbled. ‘But that’ll be next. I’m warning you now, Cassandra, that’ll be next!’ She wagged her finger at her sister, although she wasn’t entirely sure who to direct her anger towards.

Wendolyn jumped to Colt’s defence. ‘Colt is a fine young man, and a gentleman at that.’

Colt beamed with pride. ‘Well, I’ll be damned! A gentleman. Isn’t that something! How very mundane I must be.’

Footsteps approached and Dino jogged out from the trees.

‘Cassandra!’ he smiled warmly at his mother. ‘Aunt Maddie!’

Madeline scuttled over to him and gave him an impromptu hug. ‘I’m glad to see you safe, you terrible wayward child.’

Dino hugged her back. ‘It’s good to see you, too. My God, Maddie, you’ve aged since I last saw you,’ he teased mercilessly.

‘You see!’ Madeline shrieked to Wendolyn. ‘What a horrible little pest! He’s so cruel to me, I can hardly stand it.’ She rubbed her temples for dramatic emphasis. Despite her irritation, Madeline herded Dino and Mia as closely to her side as possible.

Cassandra joined the huddle. ‘Dino, Mia, there’s something you need to know,’ she confessed in earnest.

They gave her th
eir undivided attention.

Cassandra continued, ‘You’re probably wondering why Tol has taken such an interest in you.’ She paused. ‘This may shock you, but Tol is…your father.’ She braced herself for their mortified reactions.

‘Is that it?’ Mia asked charily, as though she were waiting for another bombshell to be dropped.

Cassandra and Madeline frowned.

‘He’s your father,’ Cassandra repeated. ‘Tol. He’s your father.’

‘We know,’ Di
no replied.

Cassandra glanced at Madeline. ‘Oh. Well, there we are then.’

Colt smirked. ‘And may I just say, excellent choice in spouse. He seems like a wonderful man.’

Right on cue, a hissing, snake-like voice suddenly broke in. ‘What’s this?
A family reunion? Seems my invitation was lost.’

Madeline made a noise of revulsion. ‘
You!
’

‘How lovely to see you, Cass,’ Tol sneered. ‘You’re looking well. Or as I remember you, at least.’

‘I wish I could say the same to you,’ Cassandra replied hotly. Standing before her was a distorted version of the man she had once loved. It was like looking at a watercolour that had been ruined by a sudden shower. Time had warped him into a monster.

Tol glanced disdainfully at Madeline. ‘Cassandra, I see you still insist on bringing that troll with you everywhere you go,’ he remarked.

‘Troll?’ Madeline screamed. ‘How dare you! I’m going to enjoy watching you beg for mercy.’

‘Ah-ha,’ Tol mused. ‘So, you have a little plan up your sleeve?’ He spoke only to Cassandra now. ‘I’m sure you won’t be surprised to find that I do, too.’

‘Tol,’ Cassandra whispered remorsefully, ‘what have you become?’ Even in his toxic state, she couldn’t help but try to reach out to the human part of him – the part that still held her heart. ‘How can you harm our child?’

‘Harm him?’ Tol boomed
. ‘I will improve him!’

‘By leading him into darkness?’ Cassandra argued.
‘By taking away his life? This, what you are now, is a fate worse than death. And this is what you want for him – to live like you, a demon in the shadows?
My
Tol would never have wanted this. Not for himself, or for his son.’

‘I was never
your
Tol,’ he said scornfully. ‘I belong to the power, and the child belongs to me.’ He turned his attention to Dino. ‘Come to me,’ he commanded.

Dino robotically walked towards him, his eyes glazed over in a trancelike state.

‘No way!’ Madeline grabbed hold of Dino, hauling him back. ‘You are not taking my boy!’

‘He’s not your boy,’ Tol spat. ‘He is my son.’

‘He’s just as much my son as he is yours,’ Madeline disputed. ‘I raised him from a baby – long after you were out of the picture.’

Cassandra stole a glimpse at Wendolyn’s
pendant. The amber stone remained dormant, meaning that William Wix was not yet with them.

Come on!
she urged Blue and Kizzy silently.

Time was running out.

‘I can’t find it!’ Kizzy wailed in despair. ‘We’ve searched every gravestone here and none of them are William Wix’s!’

She and Blue raced frantically around the moonlit cemetery in a mad hunt for the grave. The wind chimes clattered in cheerful fashion, mocking their failure.

‘It’s got to be here somewhere,’ Blue reasoned. ‘This is the only g-graveyard.’

‘But we’ve checked every stone, and we’re running out of time!’

Blue ran his hands through his hair. ‘Then we must have missed one.’ In his arms he cradled four white candles and a scroll of yellowed paper.

Kizzy hopped up and down on the spot manically. ‘We don’t have time to search again!’

‘Well, we’re going to have to,’ Blue told her. ‘You take the north side, I’ll take the south side.’

Kizzy chewed on her thumbna
il. ‘OK.’

As Blue spun around to leave, a candle fell from his arms and rolled across the moss.
He bent down to pick it up from where it lay at the foot of a gravestone. Blue looked up at the stone slab.

‘
Spangles
,’ he read aloud. ‘Wait…’ he murmured. Setting the other candles down, he peeled back the weeds growing at the base of the gravestone. And there, in tiny slanted writing, was the name William Wix.

‘I found it!’ Blue cheered. ‘Spangles was William’s nickname! This is it!’

‘Here lies William Wix,’ Kizzy recited the words that were etched into the stone. ‘May he rest in peace.’ She smiled satirically at her companion. ‘Time to wake up, Spangles!’

She and Blue dropped to the ground on either side of the grave and set to work arranging the candles at the north, south, east and west points.

Kizzy beamed joyfully at Blue, and he returned the look.

Then there was an extended pause.

‘Go ahead,’ Kizzy said at last.

‘Go ahead with what?’

‘Light the candles.’

Blue scratched his head. ‘I don’t have the matches. You’ve got them.’

Kizzy’s smile vanished. ‘No, I haven’t. You’ve got them.’

‘Oh, no!’ Blue bellowed. ‘We have to go back to the castle.’

‘We don’t have time!’

‘But we have to light the candles! The spell won’t work without them lit.’

Kizzy sucked in her breath. ‘Blue,’ she said, ‘you’re a Conjurer. Can’t you, maybe, conjure us some matches? Maybe?’

He cringed. ‘I only make buttons
.’

‘No,’ Kizzy contested, ‘that’s not true. You’re a Conjurer,’ she enunciated the title with profound emphasis. ‘You’re one of the most powerful and rare witches around.’

‘I’m not a Conjurer,’ Blue replied apologetically. ‘I’m a button factory.’

‘I disagree.’

‘How can you disagree? You’ve seen it with your own eyes. And you hear what they all call me – Benny Buttons.’

‘Forget them.’ Kizzy glowered at the memory of the taunts. ‘You’re not Benny Buttons, you’re Benny Blue. And you’re a
Conjurer
.’

Blue closed his honey-brown eyes, already accepting defeat.

‘Blue,’ Kizzy implored, crawling across the grave and plonking herself down beside him. ‘I know you can do it.’ She took hold of his hand and kissed him on the cheek.

He opened his eyes and cast his gaze upon her. ‘I don’t want to let you down, Kizzy. I don’t want to let anyone down.’

‘Forget them!’ Kizzy exclaimed.

‘I can’t,’ Blue whispered.

‘Benny, it’s OK if you make buttons. That’s still a power to be proud of.’

Blue snort
ed bitterly. ‘Tell that to my f-family.’

‘Are they Conjurers, too?’

‘My great-grandfather was. He passed away before I was born, but they say he was one of the most powerful witches of his era. I suppose everyone in my family wanted to be born with the Conjurer gene, but I was the only one. My parents expect me to be fantastic – as good as my great-grandfather – and I guess they’re kind of disappointed that I’m n-not.’ He hesitated for a moment, looking up to the purple sky. ‘I’ve been coming to the Glass Castle for a year, Kizzy. I’ve read practically every book in the library and I work on my power every day…It’s just not going to happen for me.’