Page 14 of Familiar of the Witch

I took the same approach: powerful associates are helpful. ‘Thank you, I’d appreciate that,’ I said as warmly as I could, which was a shade above glacial.

She nodded briskly and turned back to managing the scene. We returned to the car. Frogmatch’s absence worried me. Would he follow us out or would he wreak havocwith Wise’s crime scene? I looked around but I couldn’t see him.

Reluctantly, I slid into the car without him. ‘Well,’ I said as I shut the door, ‘that’s made things a lot more difficult.’ I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. Someone else had to know the prophecy. ‘Who else knows the prophecy besides Melva?’ I asked the men.

‘Your mum heard it,’ Oscar pointed out. ‘But it could be weeks before she’s … present again. And even then, there’s every possibility she will mis-remember a word or phrase. You can’t afford that.’

Frogmatch popped up from the boot again, making me start in surprise. ‘Goddess! You startled me!’ I protested.

Bastion didn’t so much as blink. He was aware of his surroundings in a way I would never be. Once more, he’d known that Frogmatch was there; I was glad that one of us had.

‘I saw something surprising,’ Frogmatch said, looking at me oddly.

‘What?’ I asked impatiently.

‘You.’

‘How is that surprising?’ I raised an eyebrow.

‘There were two of you.’

Oscarthunked his head on the steering wheel and let out a low groan. ‘I guess we know where we’re going next.’ He sighed.

‘Indeed,’ Bastion murmured.

I looked at them. Two of me at one time only meant one thing – time travel.

Hellhounds can manipulate the realms, including the Third realm that allows you to influence time. Jinx’s bonded hellhound, Gato, was off on honeymoon with her and Emory.

‘Gato isn’t accessible right now.’ I pointed out. Indy had been left at home with Tom Smith, but she was a pup; I wasn’t sure I’d trust her to shove me through time when she could barely restrain any of her baser urges. She’d destroyed Emory’s shoes. A lot of them.

‘We don’t need a hellhound,’ Oscar confirmed grimly.

I frowned. The only alternative to a hellhound was a temporal portal. There was only one in the whole of the UK. Surely he couldn’t mean that?

‘The temporal portal in St Luke’s is heavily guarded,’ I pointed out. ‘Prohibitively so. Besides, we’ve just driven all the way from Scotland. You can’t seriously want to turn around and drive all the way to Liverpool right now?

‘Want to? No,’ Oscarconfirmed. ‘But do we need to? It looks like it. If Frogmatch saw two of you, then it’s time for some temporal surfing.’

‘Sneaking in past the portal’s wizard guards will be virtually impossible,’ I argued. ‘That means we need permission from the Symposium and the only Symposium member who might vote to let us in is Kass. And as the newest member, I doubt she’s even been to a Symposium meeting yet. She’ll have zero clout to get the others to agree.’

‘We don’t needherclout,’ Bastion said. ‘We have Oscar’s.’

‘What has Oscar got to do with anything?’ I frowned. I hated how Bastion seemed to know more about Oscar than me, even though Oscar had virtually raised me and was my father in all but name.

Oscar met my gaze in the rear-view mirror. ‘You know that I worked for the Connection before I formally joined the Coven as Luna’s bodyguard.’

‘Yes…’

‘I worked as a temporal guard.’

My mouth dropped open. ‘What?’ Temporal guards are reputed to be hardened killers, former black-operators doing a slightly cushier job before retirement cametheir way. Being a temporal guard is physically demanding and only the operatives at the top of their game are invited to become one. They retain the position for a year or two, then the cream of the next crop replaces them.

From waking Oscar abruptly a time or two I knew that he’d been a dangerous man at some point in his life – that he still was. Even so, I still found it hard to reconcile that knowledge with the image of the man who put overnight oats and fresh orange juice in my fridge.

Oscar went on, ‘For seven years.’

Seven years? ‘That’s unheard of.’

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