Page 57 of Star Witch
‘Be careful.’
I gave him a hard look. ‘You too.’ I stretched up on my tiptoes. ‘I can’t have my hero getting into trouble for breaking and entering,’ I whispered in his ear.
Both corners of Winter’s mouth crooked up.
Chapter Sixteen
We were walked through the challenge by Morris Armstrong, alongside our producers. The other two teams of contestants looked considerably worse for wear; the last team to arrive sported weary expressions and several bruises. When I caught one of them muttering about how sore her legs were after marching up a mountain, I allowed myself a satisfied smirk. Unfortunately Mike was too busy flexing to hear her.
Previous challenges onEnchantmenthad been guided by location and this was no different. To begin with, there was the excruciating obstacle course to complete. Armstrong pointed out the rope swings, a precarious-looking balance beam and the marshy mud pit. Once those had been traversed, we were supposed to assemble a Celtic knot to unlock a box and reveal a magic wand. When the wand was pointed at the finish line, with the not-so-immortal words of ‘Enchantmentcommands you’, our names would be revealed in puffs of multi-coloured smoke.
‘Of course,’ Armstrong said with a knowing wink, ‘there are layers of magic built into this challenge which will not be revealed to you beforehand.’
I nodded, unsurprised. It was typical for there to be few magical demands put on contestants in the early stages for the simple reason that few of us could perform any spells of consequence. However, the show was calledEnchantment; there had to be magic of some form or another to satisfy the watching public.
I didn’t really rate my chances of winning. I wasn’t fit and I knew that it would take me far longer than anyone else to get across the obstacles. Even Lou would probably be faster. And it didn’t seem particularly wise to exert my own magical abilities too far after the events of yesterday. Despite both my and Winter’s suspicions that my exhausted hallucinations had been caused by something nefarious, I couldn’t discard the idea that I’d simply cast too many spells. I had to be careful. After all, who knew when another real zombie would appear?
Taking up our allotted places, I glanced down the line. The others’ expressions ran from grimly determined to absolute glee. I sighed. Then a camera was thrust in my face and Barry, staying well out of shot, addressed me. ‘How are you feeling about this, Ivy?’ he enquired.
I knew the protocol. I had to answer in full sentences to make it appear as if I’d not been prompted to speak. I considered the fact that I was never going to win or save myself from the upcoming vote and spoke carefully.
‘I’m feeling terrified,’ I confessed, widening my eyes for emphasis and speaking loudly so that the other contestants could hear. I looked down at myself. ‘I’m not really built for athletics and some of those obstacles look almost insurmountable.’
It clearly wasn’t the answer Barry was looking for. He frowned slightly and nudged me some more. ‘There must be some spells you have up your sleeve that will help you to compete with some of the more sporty contestants.’
I spotted Mike giving me a sidelong glance, apparently waiting to hear my answer. No prizes for guessing what he was thinking. From his body language he was raring to go – and he seemed absolutely convinced that he was going to win.
I let out a tinkle of laughter. I couldn’t have sounded more fake if I’d set off in a spaceship namedThe Majestic Untruthon course for the Fraudulent Galaxy. ‘I’m not an accomplished Order witch. The only spells I can perform are mere tricks and sleights of hand.’ I pasted on a rueful expression. ‘Maybe if I could sprout myself a pair of wings, I could soar over the obstacles. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s likely to happen.’
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mazza run over to Belinda. She was standing to one side, talking into a mobile phone while her hair was being teased out and fluffed up by an attendant.
Mazza handed Belinda a piece of paper that she perused with pursed lips before dismissing him. Even when he walked away his expression remained like that of an eager puppy. He looked even brighter when Amy crossed his path as she dashed off in the other direction on someone else’s bidding. Just watching her made me feel tired. Yeah, I might have an obstacle course to get over but things could always be worse.
I flicked my attention back to Belinda. Unsurprisingly, there was no sign of the vial but I had no doubt that it was still round her neck. I wondered how badly it would go if I rugby-tackled her to the ground in order to snatch it from her. It’d probably be carnage. In a magic-less fight, I reckoned the primped and preened presenter would beat me hands down. It was just as well I had oodles of magic at my disposal. All I had to do was to come up with the right plan.
‘Ivy!’ Barry barked.
I glanced at him, belatedly realising that he must have been asking me questions in a bid to get me to say something interesting – or incriminating – for the ever-rolling cameras. ‘Sorry. Could you repeat that?’
He scrunched up his face in irritation before carefully smoothing his features. He was going to have to work on his acting skills if he wanted to get me to believe anything that came out of his mouth.
Dropping his voice to a whisper so the others couldn’t hear him, he leaned towards me conspiratorially, although he still managed to keep away from the camera lens. ‘Don’t tell anyone you heard it from me,’ he said, ‘but one of the other teams has decided that you’re their strongest competition. To stop you from winning, they’re going to try to bring you down, probably during the obstacle course. They want to make sure you’re voted out first.’
Yeah, yeah. I pushed back my hair. ‘Barry, I know you want to see me do more spells but you saw what happened yesterday. I have to be careful not to overdo it.’ It sounded like the perfect excuse for not trying very hard. I’d hallucinate every day of the week if it meant I didn’t have to put in too much effort.
‘The medics have cleared you. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t good to go,’ he sniffed. ‘And it would be so shameful if you were booted out first. Just think what all those Order witches who are watching would say.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Barry, honey. I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work. This would be a whole lot easier if you’d just tell the truth when you spoke to me. I can sniff out a lie at a hundred paces. ‘
Instantly he seemed interested. ‘Because of magic?’
‘No. Because most people aren’t very good liars.’ I sighed. ‘I know you want to make good television because it makes you look better. But you have to know I’m not going to beat the others. You can fabricate as many stories as you like about what you’ve overheard but it’s not going to make a difference. If this relationship is ever going to work, we need to reach a mutual understanding.’
Barry’s eyes shifted as he weighed up my words. ‘Fine,’ he said eventually. ‘You want the truth, you’ll get it. You were brought in to replace the contestant who we had lined to be the bitch.’
‘So I heard.’
‘We don’t have anyone else who’s nasty enough to draw the viewers’ anger. We need someone to be an object of hatred.’
