Page 73 of The Vanishing Bookstore
He shook his head. ‘One move and I’ll drop this onto your aunt. It took that stubborn bastard Corey three days to die, but your aunt is a lot smaller than he was and she’s already looking a bit peaky from the weight of the tomb that is crushing her slowly to death.’
Dora tensed; she couldn’t look at Lenny but at least she knew she was still alive, which was something. She had to distract Corwin without letting him drop the extra weight onto her aunt’s chest. Or if he did, she would need to move quick to get it off her.
‘What exactly do you think you are doing?’
‘What I always do, taking the English sisters’ lives one by one until you are all obliterated from this life.’
‘Why? We’ll just be back the same as we always are.’
‘You’re forgetting one thing; did you not visit Proctor’s Ledge before you came here, Isadora?’
His voice was cold, taunting, and she wanted to rip his voice box out of his throat with her bare hands so she no longer had to listen to it.
‘You did, of course you did. Any self-respecting English would have gone to the ledge before even thinking of cominghere but you’re not going to admit it, are you? You don’t want to ask me why I killed that stupid crow that has followed you around for centuries because you know that I know he was more than just a bird.’
He stepped towards Lenny.
‘Keep away from her.’
‘Or what, you’ll turn me into a frog, a cat?’
‘I mean it, you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you.’
‘Shall I tell you how you have kept evading me and reliving your lives? I’m angry with myself, you know, for taking so damn many centuries to work it out. I suppose it’s better late than never.’
Corwin was so busy talking he didn’t notice the black cloud of birds, filling the air as they silently flew towards the ancient tree behind him. Dora watched them from the corner of her eye, wary of alerting him to their presence.
‘That bird or whatever he was saved your souls. Every time you died before I could claim them, he took them somewhere far away. I have a bit of bad news for you though, dearest Isadora, he’s dead. I caught him snooping and turned the tables before he could fly away. It took very little to crush the bones in his neck, they snapped so easily.’
Dora let out a scream of anger and pointed her finger towards him, sending a surge of bright blue sparks in his direction. They hit the boulder, which she realised was made from marble with a brass plaque attached to it, but it was too late. The stream of light flew back and hit her in the chest with such force it took her off her feet and threw her into the air. She landed with a loud thud on the hard ground and let out a grunt of pain. She was winded and furious with herself; Sephy had warned her about reflective surfaces, she needed to control her magic and concentrate. Corwin was laughing at her, which made her even more angry. She felt Caesar next to her, strainingto get at him, but she lifted a hand in front of him in await theregesture. She crawled to her knees and then to her feet. She was dusty, and her beautiful dress was not only torn, but singed.
‘For real, you want to carry on when it’s useless? Give it up, Isadora, you left it too late to be in with a fighting chance, but I do admire your spirit. You are so like your aunt Lenora – she was always a fighter.’
Dora noticed her aunt move slightly under the heavy slab of concrete and realised she was listening. She’d thought she was unconscious. Dora took a deep breath in and glanced up at the glowing white moon and remembered Hecate, the binding spell and the salt in her pocket. She smiled at Corwin, and he frowned, it was now or never while his hands were full.
She lowered her hand and commanded Caesar, ‘Now, boy.’
The shadow dog leaped forwards and she watched in awe as he came into full view. Corwin let out a yell and dropped the heavy stone on top of Lenny. Dora had minutes to make this work, her hand had uncapped the salt, and she began to turn, spreading the black salt as she moved to form a protective circle around her. George held his hands up to protect himself from the dog and at the same time sent a flash of white electricity in the dog’s direction. Caesar let out a yelp and fell to the floor.
Dora began to panic as she felt in her pocket for the papyrus, it must have fallen out when she jumped over. She turned and saw it near to the fence, she couldn’t remember the spell that Sephy had given to her and she felt all the strength drain from her legs, making it hard to keep her body upright. The crows began to caw and they all took off at the same time, the beating of their wings deafening as they rose majestically from the branches of the oak tree. Corwin turned to them and sent a beam of light their way, but it didn’t stop them as they flew towards him. She heard the singular beating of wings as a lone bird swooped down to pick up the piece of papyrus and then itwas flying towards her, landing on her shoulder with the paper in its beak.
She stared at it. ‘Hades.’
The crow nodded once, then pushed the paper towards her. The murder of crows were distracting Corwin, flying around him like a black tornado, while Caesar was up on his feet and growling at him, stopping him from moving towards Dora. She heard a voice so soft and light whisper in her ear and she felt a love so strong that she knew it was Lucine.
‘I’m here, Dora, you can do this, we’ll do it together. Just read the words.’
Dora nodded, her voice was dry, and she wanted a drink of water more than anything.
‘I cast this spell into the night.’
She heard Lenny’s voice in her other ear and carried on.
‘And bind George Corwin into the light.’
Sephy’s voice was behind her. She turned and saw her aunt standing there with her arms up in the air, she nodded and smiled at her.
‘No longer can he thrive from pain, his action and desires he can no longer gain, in Hecate’s name.’ Dora paused as she saw a tall woman wearing a cloak step forwards from the darkness, holding a torch in one hand with a snake wrapped around the other. She was standing with Caesar staring at Corwin and she knew in her heart this was Hecate, the mother of all witches. She was here to help set them free.
