Page 51 of Destiny of the Witch

Damn it.

Chapter 44

A low hiss and a growl from the deep shadows suggested that we had found the second chimera that my father had bragged about. I ignored it and ran over to Benji. ‘Benji!’ I shouted as I knelt by him. ‘Benji?’ I lifted his head onto my lap.

‘I deactivated him,’ Ria said smugly.

My mind went blank. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘Dad wants you most of all,’ she said, her voice petulant. ‘He wants you in the library, to bond with the harkan, but I’m going to kill you and take your place.Ishould have all that power, not you. You’re pathetic.’

‘Dad?’ I said feebly, my mind failing to connect the dots as I stared in horror at her.

She grinned at me but there was no warmth in it. ‘Oh yes,Coven Mother,’ she sneered. ‘All this time, you and I have been half-sisters. When your father got divorced fromyour mum, he took up another identity. Grant Plath.Myfather.’

Everything fell into place. After he’d been Shaun, he’d been Grant and then Toby before he’d become John. I looked in horror at Ria, who was still continuing her triumphant monologue.

‘When he’d had enough, he ditched Meredith but he never leftme. He got a new identity and he joined me in the Coven as John. He cautioned me to hide the true strength of my magic and taught me to stay under the radar. He had me break the wings of that bird and let it go, just so you could find out about me and I could act all contrite. I did a great job, didn’t I?’ She laughed with delight, clapping her hands childishly.

‘You believed me, hook line and sinker. “Oh I never meant to be an evil witch, they led me astray!”’ She snorted. ‘As if. I begged Dad to let me do more and more. Runing that griffin bitch, feeding off her fear and then her thirst and starvation – it was delicious. I was full of power for days.’

She laughed. ‘And then Edward came to help get me out of the circus because, honestly, I was just so bored. Of course, I could have got myself out if Meredith hadn’t confiscated my damned phone,’ she grumbled.

‘Edward nearly killed your mother!’

‘I know – such a pain that he didn’t do a better job. I was going to smother her and finish her off, but Cain wouldn’t leave my side.’ She grimaced. ‘I might have overdone the distraught teen a bit too much. Ah well, live and learn.’

‘You’re psychotic.’

‘Runes and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me,’ she sang. ‘Listen to us, bickering like real sisters!’ She winked at me. ‘Anyway, Edward and I were going to kill you when you were “rescuing” me from the circus, but you and Bastion flew instead of getting in the car with me, which really ruined my plans. I had to call Edward off.’ Her voice became petulant.

The chimera let out another rumbling roar. ‘Not yet,’ Ria huffed at it. ‘Settle down.’

It ignored her and stalked forward, all three sets of its eyes glaring at me. I carefully laid Benji’s head on the ground, frowning a little as it moved easily again. When Benji was deactivated, he became immovable like solid rock.

I didn’t have time to ponder that any further. I scrambled to my feet and pulled two things out of my pocket: one was Frogmatch; the other was apotion bomb.

‘It’s go time, Ellie!’ Frogmatch howled happily. He swung down from my hand and started to grow in size. ‘Distract the chimera fucker till I’m bigger,’ he said to me. He glared at Ria. ‘And you – you’ll get your comeuppance, young lady. Iprotectedyou.’

Ria rolled her eyes. ‘I’m shaking in my boots. Oh no! An imp is going to get me.’ She laughed loudly.

Clearly, she hadn’t seen an imp at their full size. I was almost looking forward to this. Every day was a school day, and Ria was about to learn one heck of a lesson.

Chapter 45

Frogmatch grinned at Ria and flashed his needle-like teeth as he started to grow in size. I didn’t allow myself to be distracted by them; my focus was on the huge chimera slinking forward with her eyes fixed on me.

I threw a potion bomb, aiming it at her feet to scare her back. Naturally I missed and struck her full in the chest. The blast sent her rocketing back and she let out a yowl of fury.

Behind Ria, Benji sat up. He grabbed the nearest wooden chair and smashed it over her head. Ria went down like a sack of potatoes.

Frogmatch sighed. ‘I wanted to do that,’ he complained to Benji. ‘I had my eye on that chair.’

‘Why, Mr Frogmatch, I do apologise,’ Benjamin drawled. ‘But I have very limited experiencein such matters and I did not want to leave that young lady as a threat for much longer.’

‘Benji?’ I asked urgently.

‘I was able to protect him from the full hit of the deactivationezro,Miss Amber, but it has knocked him unconscious for the moment. I have been shouting and hollering at him something fierce, and he is certainly coming around. I believe he’ll wake imminently.’

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