Page 74 of Star Witch
Her fingers briefly touched her collarbone. ‘My necklace. I lost it, er…’
‘When Trevor Bellows tried to assault you?’
She blinked rapidly, her cheeks colouring and her eyes filling with dismay. Well, now I knew that Mazza definitely hadn’t been lying.
‘That should not have been allowed to happen,’ I admonished Barry.
‘I … I … didn’t know.’
Amy shot him a look. Obviously he had known. He’d probably been as scared for his job as she had been but that didn’t make his silence right – but it did make it more understandable. Slightly.
I forced my anger to a simmer to avoid it spilling over. ‘We’re going to make this right for you, Amy,’ I told her. Something in my expression must have convinced her I was telling the truth because she bit her lip and nodded.
I flicked my attention to Moonbeam. ‘How’s your mother?’
His nose wrinkled. ‘Furious. That vial was about the only thing keeping her sane. Now that it’s gone and she looks her age…’ His voice trailed off.
‘Just how old is she?’ My question had no bearing on anything important; I was simply curious.
He shook his head. ‘If you want to avoid being knocked unconscious again, you wouldn’t ask.’ He sighed. ‘Tarquin has told me that even if he could, he’s been forbidden from giving her another spell. I don’t know what we’re going to do.’
‘IsEnchantmentgoing to continue?’
Barry’s shoulders drooped. ‘That’s the million-dollar question. Certainly not this series. Not now. Preparations are already underway to ship this lot of contestants home. The only silver lining is that they’ve all signed binding non-disclosure agreements.’ He raised his eyebrows meaningfully at me as he said this. I shrugged. I was probably going to be a corpse in a few hours so what did it matter? I’d tell the devil if I saw him. I doubted he’d care.
‘Give me your car keys,’ I said, without further preamble.
Barry reached into his pocket, automatically doing as I’d instructed. Then he paused. ‘Hang on. Why should I do that?’
‘Because you were my producer, Barry. You were supposed to be looking out for me and I almost died.’ That was something of an exaggeration but I needed transport.
‘Are you going to give them back?’
‘Sure.’ I couldn’t have sounded less convincing.
Amy nudged Barry and he exhaled resignedly. ‘Fine. Here you go.’
‘Great. I need my phone back too.’
‘It’s in our room with the rest of your things,’ Amy said. ‘I took them all back after…’ She swallowed.
‘Thanks. One final thing – has anyone seen Armstrong?’
Moonbeam let out a humourless smirk. ‘He got back just before you did. You walked right by him.’ He pointed over to the bar.
I followed his finger. Slumped in the corner was the familiar figure ofEnchantment’s director. He no longer looked despotic or even fully conscious. The best word I could think of to describe him was crumpled. I’d have felt some sympathy for him if I could have found the time.
‘Thanks,’ I muttered, pocketing the keys. ‘I’m going out for a few hours. Amy, if I’m not back by the time dawn breaks, call this number.’ I scribbled down the Ipsissimus’s direct line onto a napkin. ‘Tell him I’ve disappeared, then all of you need to get as far away from here as possible.’
Even Moonbeam seemed to register how serious my tone was. ‘Why? What’s going to happen?’
‘Nothing you need to worry about yet. But tomorrow morning…’
He drained his pint and stood up. ‘Screw that. I’m collecting my mother and we’re getting out of here.’ He stalked out.
‘Don’t worry, Ivy,’ Amy said softly. ‘I can do that for you.’
I smiled my thanks and walked over to Armstrong. ‘Hello buddy!’ I chirped.
