Page 22 of Familiar of the Witch

I squeeze his hand. ‘Pull me through?’ I asked softly.

‘Of course. Close your eyes.’

Isquinched them shut as he tugged me forward and let my feet follow his lead. I felt the air cool slightly. ‘You can open your eyes,’ he murmured, his breath against my cheek.

The walls were lined with shelves filled with glowing orbs. I guessed this was where the prophecies lived before they were formally filed with the Hall of Prophecy. Melva had never put mine in an orb; she’d held it inside herself this whole time.

Where the bookcase illusion was, a transparent wall allowing us to look directly into Melva’s office. ‘Can you hear us?’ I called.

‘Yes,’ Melva confirmed tartly. ‘So no heavy petting back there!’ She smirked. ‘I’m going to call in my 4pm.’

She used the intercom to tell Nell to let in her next client. ‘But your 3pm…’ Nell argued, sounding confused.

‘The appointment has finished,’ Melva responded firmly. ‘Send in the 4pm and then you can finish for the day. Thank you so much for all your hard work, Nell.’

I grimaced. She was thanking Nell not just for today but for everything she had done. Despite having Bastion and me in her corner, Melva still thought she was going to die. I bet Jinx didn’t have to deal with this cynicism whensherescued someone.

Chapter 19

Bastion stayed tense and ready behind the illusionary bookcase, poised to leap through if the 4pm ended up being an appointment with death. It was not. It was Mr and Mrs Gilden, who wanted to know if their baby daughter had bred true and was going to be a wizard.

Melva held the babe, looking into her eyes, then intoned some Latin and anointed the six-month-old with oil, at which point the kid started wailing. Melva passed the baby back to her mother and brought out a crystal ball. I noted with approval that it had been safely secured in a cloth bag inside a drawer. No accidental crystal-ball fires here.

Melva looked into it for five long minutes. Even I started wondering about the fate of Gilden Junior as various expressions danced across her face. Finally she slumped back in her seat and covered the ball.

‘Well?’ Mr Gilden asked eagerly. ‘Is she?’

‘She’s a wizard,’ Melva confirmed with a smile.

‘Thank God!’ Mrs Gilden murmured, cuddling her baby close. ‘If she was a Common realmer it would have been so hard to keep magic from her. I would have hated it.’

I was glad to hear that her main concern had been that, rather than building up a wizard dynasty. It wasn’t unheard of for children that hadn’t bred true to be put up for adoption. At times the Other realm could be cold and hard.

Melva gave some cryptic words of advice to guide the young child and the Gildens left. The baby didn’t have a prophecy of her own.Lucky her, I thought mutinously.

The Seer busied herself making a cup of chamomile tea while we stayed hidden and silent in the orb room. She drank her tea then ate a bar of chocolate. It riled me: she was drinking her favourite drink and eating her favourite food as if she really thought she was going to die. She had Bastion in her corner. She wasn’t going to need a last meal.

Melva pulled out her phone and sent off a few messages, then put it down and waited. Her hands were folded in her lap and she was gazing a little to her left. I swallowed. She knew what was coming.

She wasn’t kept waiting long.

A vampyr slid out of the shadows to her left. His eyes were jet black; he was being controlled by a necromancer. ‘Bastion!’ I shouted but I needn’t have bothered – he was already moving.

Vampyrs are insanely fast, though, and he had phased out of the shadows right next to Melva. He had a syringe in his hand; he stabbed it into her neck and pushed down the plunger.

I ran through the illusionary wall, opening my tote as fast as I could. I plunged my hand inside and wrestled out the potion jars. Bastion was already on the vampyr, fury written on his features. His chest heaving, he tore its head clean off its shoulders.

As I looked at Melva, she smiled at me. Her chest rose once and she gave a gasp, then her chest didn’t rise again. ‘No!’ I pleaded. ‘No, I’m here tosaveyou! Don’t die, Melva!’ Her glassy eyes ignored my heartfelt pleas.

No doubt it was exhaustion that made the tears pour down my face. I was just so damned tired. I went to touch her neck, to check for a pulse before I let myself give up – even I couldn’t heal death – but Bastion gently pushed my hand away.

‘Don’t touch the body. The last thing we need is another trial because your prints are found on it,’ he said grimly. His expression softened. ‘She’s gone, Bambi.’

‘But…’

‘She’s gone,’ he repeated with absolute certainty. ‘I can reach out with my magic but I can’t coax her. There’s no life to coax with.’

Next to him, the vampyr’s corpse disappeared into dust. ‘We’d better tidy that up,’ I said absently. ‘Nell will go mad if we leave all that dust.’

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