Devious Magic (32 page)

The woman fell to her knees, the power of the spell still yanking her to the circle, despite how hard she dug her nails into the floor and scrabbled for some kind of hold. The magic was too strong and it pulled her to the circle where she lay, panting. She pushed onto hands and knees, kneeling for a moment, then got to her feet. Pushing her hair back, she searched for Anders and it all seemed to click into place. There was only one person who knew all the details of the plan, of every step where we had been foiled. Then there was the phone call Auberon had curtly dismissed in front of me. It wasn’t something he missed, but a woman calling.

Rachel Kelly.

Anders stared back at her, his face completely blank but for a brief flicker of pain. He folded his arms, waiting for something.

“It’s a trick!” Rachel’s shout rang loud and clear across the barn. “They’ve tricked you. They’re tricking all of you!”

“You’re the traitor.” Anders’ words echoed in the sudden silence and I couldn’t tell if he were angry, disappointed, or sad. Probably all three.

“They’re working for the Brotherhood.” Rachel flung a hand towards us, pointing and the crowd seemed to break, leaving a clear path towards us. Suddenly aware of how vulnerable I was, I stood high up above the others. I bent over, placing my hands on Evan’s shoulders and he lifted me down, tucking me into his side as Rachel ranted. “This has been their plan all along. To lure you all out to the same location, then kill you all.”

The crowd murmured again, looking from each other, to us, and then to Rachel.

“Seriously,” whispered Étoile. “This is her defence?”

“There’s no one here but us, Rachel,” said Anders, silencing everyone again. It grew so quiet, it was like they were the only two in the room. Gradually, all attention turned to them and the silence became unnerving. “And they’re not traitors. Why? Why betray us?” He grasped her by the arms, looking down at her. “Tell us and we can help you. You don’t have to be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid.” She laughed, mocking him.

“But you are a traitor.”

“I’m an entrepreneur.”

“They killed my sister, and you’re working with them?” Anders was incredulous. “What the hell do they have over you that would make you help them?”

“I would never have hurt you. I only told them about the tunnel. They wouldn’t have hurt you, I promise. That was part of the deal.”

“Are you fucking stupid? They shot Stella. They would have killed all of us if they’d had the chance.”

“No, no, that wasn’t the deal.”

“What was the deal? Do they have someone of yours? Is it blackmail? What is it, Rachel? What prompted you make a deal with the devil?”

“Money. Enough to get me away from here forever. I hate this place.”

“Money?” Anders spat the word back at her, his face darkening.

“Everyone has a price, Anders.”

“Not I.”

Étoile pinched my arm and I looked at her quickly. “How much?” she said.

“Fifty pence?” I guessed, shushing her.

Anders stepped away from Rachel, striding several paces before wheeling around, staring at her like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She reached for him, her toe scuffing the circle as she stepped out of it.

“Why isn’t the circle holding her?” I asked.

“It’s not supposed to,” Étoile replied. We were still talking in whispers, careful not to draw attention away from Anders and Rachel. I had the feeling combustion was imminent and it would take very little to ignite the match. All we could hope for now was that Anders was very, very careful. After all, these were Rachel’s people as much as they were his, and we were just the unfortunate outsiders. “All it had to do was draw her out.”

“Then she can escape?” Looking about me, at the soft hum of the magic navigating the barn, I realised Anders had already thought of that. He trapped us all here until it ended, one way or the other. We only thought of the spell to lure her out, but he’d gone further. He left nothing to chance.

Étoile didn’t have time to reply, not that I needed her confirmation now, because Anders was speaking again, loud enough for everyone else to hear. “You have betrayed us. You put every single person in this room at risk. You cannot be trusted.” He stopped, waiting while everyone absorbed his words. “I vote to bind and banish Rachel. You will no longer have power. You will no longer be welcome in this coven or in our community. You will be dead to us.” He raised his hand, his palm flat towards us, unwavering. “All those in favour, raise your right hand.”

There was a long pause in which Rachel started to smile. Then it faded as one by one, the hands went up through the crowd, every face hostile, but this time it was directed squarely at her. Anders stared at her too, like he had never truly seen her before.

“You can’t bind me,” she hissed, fury bubbling from her. “You can’t make that decision.”

“You betrayed the coven,” Anders emphasised. The coven began to link hands, spreading in a circle around them both. “You sold us out. Turning you out with your magic would be like throwing a bomb up in the air and just standing there, waiting, while it lands. You’re dangerous.”

“You can’t turn me out. The Brotherhood will kill me.” Rachel reached for Anders’ hands, drawing him to her, but he shrugged her away, stepping back as her hands fell to her sides.

“But it’s okay to give them Stella?” he asked.

“She’s not even one of us,” Rachel hissed. “What is she to you? What are any of them to you? Come away with me, Anders, please. We’ve talked about this. Hawksley is a dead end. There’s no future for us here. I don’t know why you’ve waited so long.”

Anders stepped back, just another pace, enough to put distance between them. “Bind her,” he commanded. “Bind her magic.”

She flew at him, her fists flailing. Anders didn’t even have to touch her to push her back; the force of his magic was enough. She pleaded, then screamed as the coven worked together to bind her. They weren’t just trapping her magic inside, but suppressing it completely, binding it and leaving no way out. I’d bound a witch once, and saw what happened when another witch’s magic was restored after the binding was broken, but Anders’ coven left nothing to chance. They gave her no escape clause. Within minutes, her magic was gone, leaving her crumpled on the floor, screaming, then crying, finally, just a puddle of weak little sobs.

Anders took one last look at Rachel. “Get rid of her,” he told someone to his right. “I don’t want to see her in Hawksley ever again.” He walked away, the barn doors flying open in front of him. Behind him, a man and a woman hauled her up and walked quickly towards the doors. Rachel, at last, was silent. She looked stunned, too stunned to speak, like she could hardly believe what had just happened.

“I hope it was worth it,” muttered Étoile, turning her back.

“If this was pack, she wouldn’t have walked out alive,” said Gage, ignoring Annalise when she shushed him. “She should be grateful Anders showed her mercy.”

“I’m going to see if he’s okay,” I said, sliding out from under Evan’s arm, starting to make my way through the still crowd. Turning back, I said, “Give me five minutes, okay?” and waited just long enough to see Evan nod.

No one seemed to know what to do once Anders strode out and Rachel had been taken away. I had to make my way past the milling people to get outside. The sun was just beginning to rise far away over the fields and somewhere a rooster crowed. As I scanned the yard, trying to find Anders, a pair of headlights flicked on and a car pulled out. I could just make out Rachel in the back seat. She stared straight ahead, not even bothering to struggle as the car approached the gates then swung out onto the road. I didn’t wait to watch it go; instead, I turned back to the yard.

For the first time, I got to see Anders’ home properly and, although the light wasn’t great, it was chocolate box pretty farmhouse with small windows and a slate roof. Someone had planted bushes in beds all around the garden. Now they were dusted slightly with the early morning frost. A long gravel driveway swept around the side of the house and I could just see my rental car parked in the shade of the barn. A long road stretched past the house from both directions at the front. I couldn’t see Anders, so I walked further around the back, observing everything. The driveway ended in a big courtyard with fields beyond, stretching far into the half-light. It was rural and very peaceful. I couldn’t imagine an odder place for magic to exist.

Spotting Anders sitting on a low wall at the junction of the house and garden, I crossed over to him, passing through the small garden gate and crossing the lawn. He was sitting slightly hunched over, hands folded under his arms for warmth and staring off into the distance.

“Are you all right?” I asked, stepping over the wall and settling down next to him.

“Three bloody years I’ve been with that woman and she would have sold us all out.”

I didn’t quite know what to say to that. We sat in silence for a while until I said, “I’m sorry.”

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for.” A sudden noise behind us made him glance back. Checking over my shoulder, I noticed people filing from the barn, some getting into cars and leaving, some aiming for the house. Anders hopped down from the wall, holding his hand out to me. “Come on. Let’s walk a while.”

Anders led us along a path by the side of the house and down to another field where he rested his hands over the top of a wall. I propped myself up against him, wincing at the exercise. My wound might look healed, but it was going to take a few days for it to feel right inside. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll live.” We stood there, thinking about that before I said, “If I hadn’t come here, you could have kept your eye on the Brotherhood. We might have had the opportunity to find out more.” I trailed off when Anders made a sceptical noise.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that you’re here. Perhaps it’s time we made the Council listen.”

“Étoile is the right person to talk to about that.”

“Do you know anything about this?” Anders reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He studied it for a moment before passing it to me. When I opened it, a familiar card slid out. A summons.

“I got one a week ago. Étoile, too,” I told him.

“Do you know who’s running for the Council?”

I shook my head. “Don’t know. I’m not exactly at the top of the Council’s secret phone tree.”

Anders huffed. When he turned to me, he was sober as a judge when I asked, “You ever thought of running?”

“For the Council or away?”

“Away.”

I thought of Georgia Thomas’ face the last time I saw her. Having her as Council leader didn’t even bear thinking about. I doubted there was much I could do to change that, but I could, at least, make my vote count in a different direction, assuming the summons meant I got one. “You have got to be kidding,” I said. “Running away does no good for anyone.” I gulped when I realised Anders might take that as a huge criticism of Rachel’s actions. A decision to run hadn’t helped her either, or anyone else.

“How did they know to send you a summons?” I asked.

“Perhaps they’re not as ignorant as I thought,” mused Anders. “Or maybe it’s just magic.

“Just magic.” I smiled. Anders turned to me and surprised me by smiling too, repeating my words with a laugh. “Never thought I’d say that.”

“So this summit... You are going?” Anders pressed.

“Yes.”

“Then I suppose I’ll see you there.”

“I suppose you will.”

“It’s cold, Stella, and I don’t like to keep you out when you’ve been hurt. Wouldn’t want you to get ill.”

“I don’t mind sitting with you, if you want the company.” I knew a dismissal when I heard one, but I offered anyway.

“Thanks, but I’ll take some alone time. I like the early mornings, the sunsets. Rachel never did, she never really liked the life here.” He stared out at the dawn.

“You’ll be okay,” I whispered.

He didn’t turn his head. “I know.”

I left Anders there to enjoy watching the sun rise, hoping that it would help ease his first steps towards putting Rachel behind him, not that things are ever easy. But seeing the beauty in something natural, after something so ugly, was always a good start.

The nymphs were the first to go, disappearing into the woods just as the dawn broke and the birds started to sing. They’d been a quiet sort, able to calm the agitated witches. I noticed that Bree and Daniel talked quietly a lot and she waved cheerfully to him as she went, following her kinfolk.

Next went the wolves, who had taken to setting up a camp of sorts in the garden. Some of them left in cars, some of them melting into the woods. I guessed that they must have been helping run interference as per Anders’ plan and that was why I hadn’t seen many of them until now. Gage and Annalise had been sorry to see the local wolves go. Then Annalise and Beau slunk off to the barn to talk in peace and I decided it wasn’t worth losing a limb to interrupt and ask how they found their brethren.

“Hey.”

I spun around and smiled when I saw Gage. “Hey yourself.”

“Can we talk for a moment? Alone.”

“Yes, of course.”

We walked away from where Anders sat, still silently staring at the fields, and around to the small parking area, now empty.

“I wanted to say thank you for everything you did for Annalise,” he started.

“I only did what any friend would do.”

“Not many friends would put themselves in danger. You got shot, Stella.” He leant against my car, his face shadowed.

“Everyone came to help, not just me,” I pointed out, uncomfortable with any kind of hero status. “Étoile told me Evan came to see you in Wilding, to help.”