Page 80 of Star Witch
‘Shhh.’ My attention was on Alistair. When he made a beeline for the sheep, I hissed and dropped the ward. I stalked forward, throwing a rune out behind me to loosen Gareth’s bonds. ‘Leave the animal alone, Alistair.’
The sheep bleated, as if it knew what was coming.
‘Everything else is ready,’ he muttered. ‘I just need the blood and the words and then I can set Morag free.’
‘Morag is at peace,’ I told him. ‘She’s no longer there. What lies beneath that headstone is just a shell.’ In fact, surely she was nothing more than bones by this point. Even if he did bring back to claw her upwards, I reckoned her skeleton would collapse before it took a single step. At that point, though, it wasn’t Morag’s corpse that worried me it was what would happen with Alistair’s magic if he succeeded.
Alistair started to mutter as the night itself filled with his power. It was so strong I could almost taste it. It was now or never.
There was a faint whoosh of air on my nape and Gareth burst forward. He tackled Alistair and they both fell to the ground. I darted forward to grab the knife but they rolled away from me, grunting – and then the entire area was bathed in bright light. What the hell?
Both Alistair and Gareth froze, as startled by the light as I was. A voice boomed out and I spotted several shadowy figures towards the end of the line of graves. ‘Keep going! Don’t stop because we’re here!’
Morris Armstrong. And not just him: there was a cameraman, pointing the lens in our direction, and the white faces of both Barry and Amy staring at us.
‘This is not a damned television show!’ I yelled.
‘You’re right!’ Armstrong called back. ‘This is better!’ I heard him mutter an aside to Barry ‘Enchantmentmight be down the toilet but with this kind of footage our careers aren’t over. Not by a long shot.’
I briefly closed my eyes. This was all my fault; this was what I got for trying to warn them what was happening. The idiots had probably put their numbskull brains together to discuss what I’d told them and decided to track Barry’s car. I’d have thought Amy would have known better. Their interference was the last thing any of us needed.
Fortunately Gareth recovered quickly. Taking full advantage of Alistair’s shock, he lunged desperately for his hand and wrestled the knife from him. Gripping it tightly, he sprang to his feet and backed away. ‘You don’t need to do this, Alistair. You don’t want to do this.’
I walked up to Gareth’s side. ‘Give me the knife.’
‘An hour ago you were going to kill me, Ivy.’ He didn’t look in my direction.
‘I’m sorry.’ My words fell hollow. ‘There wasn’t any choice.’
‘So you’re going to kill Al instead? He’s just a kid.’
I reached over and took the knife from him, relieved that he let it go. ‘Just a kid who’s bullied you. Who was prepared to kill you. Who has hurt your sheep.’
‘He’s a teenager.’
‘That doesn’t excuse him.’
Gareth’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘There’s still hope for him. He’s only fifteen.’
I passed a hand across my eyes. Gareth was right: Alistairwasjust a kid. Who was I to pass judgment on him? I’d done things I wasn’t proud of when I was that age. I defied anyone to put their hand on their heart and say they’d been teenage angels. But what Alistair was doing was different to a few childish shenanigans. This wasn’t a bit of graffiti or drinking alcohol or breaking a window.
‘I don’t need you to stand up for me,’ Alistair yelled at Gareth.
‘He’s a child, Ivy.’
I sighed.
Gareth persisted. ‘Our parents haven’t been any kinder to him than they were to me. He’s desperate to prove himself and he wants attention. He’s not evil.’
I had my doubts about that. I stared at Alistair, looking past the furious bravado. Immature eyes looked back at me with a mixture of fear and defiance.
‘Give him a chance,’ Gareth urged.
‘It’s not as simple as that,’ I whispered. I knew what I had to do.
‘Ivy…’
I raised my hand to hush him. Alistair was on the edge of being consumed by the magic he’d unleashed but his blood was still red. He’d not gone so far that his death wouldn’t contain the power. If he’d pushed ahead with trying to raise Granny Morag it would have been too late but he’d not managed it. And he couldn’t have known what horror his actions would have created. Except … he knew what had happened to Benjamin Alberts.Hiszombie had done that. A man had died as a result of this child, whether he’d intended that death or not.
