Page 80 of Earth-Bound

“Something Mulgrave left?”

“Most likely.”

I swallowed, trying to swallow down the nausea I felt. “Let me think. It’s definitely in this house and it’s upstairs. It has to be in the master bedroom. It has to. That’s where the plants are suffering.”

“Come away,” coaxed Terrund, but I couldn’t leave it.

“What is it that’s so wrong? Is it a spell?”

Terrund sounded frustrated when he said, “I don’t know. I know the plants are unhappy with something, but I can’t pinpoint what.”

“Maybe I should call Matty. He might be able to tell us.”

I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialled the witch. He answered almost immediately.

“Is something wrong? Did theridirefind you?”

I glanced at Terrund. I wasn’t sure where the dragon-hunter was, and I’d nearly forgotten about them, since they weren’t a threat to Terrund and the dragons had left.

Terrund shook his head. “No, they are still over by theuasalterritory. I lost track of them for a while and I thought it might be because they were breaking into those protections, but it could have been because I was… otherwise occupied.”

Not even the thrumming menace in the air could stop me from smirking at that.

On the other end of the phone, Matty said, “So what’s the problem?”

“Did you ever go upstairs in the house?”

“No. We were working in the basement.”

“Oh.”

“Why, what’s up there? We would have gone through it, but we left in a hurry.”

“It’s just a feeling, that’s all.”

From the churning in my stomach, it was more than that. I’d never liked being in this room but I’d also never been able to feel the press of hatred so palpably before. No wonder my poor plants were wilting and shrivelling, spending all day and night sitting in here with this.

“I suppose we could come back, when Nana says it’s ok. That could be a while, though. Do you think whatever-it-is is dangerous?”

“Maybe.”

Matty started to say, “I’ll ask Ant what he—” but another voice on the end of the phone rang out.

It was Dum.

“Hey! I can’t believe you tricked us like that.”

Behind him, I heard Dee’s outraged voice. “Yeah, it’s unbelievable.”

“We thought you’d be onourside.”

“We thought you’d want us to go and kill thatridire.”

I felt it was time to interrupt. “Actually, we wanted you to be safe.”

“Hmm, you can’t get out of it like that.”

“Yeah, we don’t melt at cute words any more.”

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