Page 22 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

“ T hese burgers are amazing,” Sly says, as he munches on his second one.

I laugh to myself. Honestly, Sly would live on burgers if he could.

“They really are. Before I had one of these Stone burgers, I wasn’t really a fan of them. I hear the others filled you in on everything earlier,” Ernest says.

Sly nods. “Yeah, we picked up a lot looking at the website you guys created, but hearing all the stories was eye-opening. I couldn’t figure out why my father kept emailing me to come to a family meeting.

I’ve not spoken to him for over five years.

That’s the reason we came to town. We heard rumblings of Cadenbury and Little Welling, but we chose to come here first and see what we could discover. ”

“Little Welling is a place we hope we never have to go back to. Hopefully, it’s now deserted. The ley lines there are dark,” Ernest replies.

Sly perks up at that. “Really?”

“You want to go and play with the ley lines, don’t you?” Ernest asks him.

Sly shrugs. “Just because they’re dark doesn’t necessarily mean they are evil. It’s always good to know where dark ley lines are.”

“It’s a good job I like you, otherwise I’d be scared by you saying that,” Ernest points out.

Sly laughs. “Sometimes to deal with dark magic, you need dark magic.”

“Yeah, like that dream. I wonder if that’s why the dark witches did that?”

“Because you don’t have any dark witches, they are all now grey. Mind you, saying that, I was surprised how dark Justice’s magic could go and not turn black.”

“Yeah, he can go almost black, dark grey. We found that out when his biologicals kidnapped Alfred.”

“I’m glad he made a life away from his family. He looks truly happy,” Sly says, looking over at him.

We turn to look as well. Justice is laughing at Ben as the Jenga blocks fall.

“He really is. He was a bit of a grump, to be honest, but Alfred brings out the best in him.”

“You all helped as well, Pops,” Alfred says, walking over and joining us, a drink in his hand.

“You know, calling me Ernest works just as well, right?”

“Where’s the fun in that? You did claim me as your stepson, and there are no take-backs.”

Sly and I burst out laughing.

“Fine,” Ernest says on a sigh.

“So, the true witches didn’t scare you off with all their dark witch encounters?” Alfred asks.

Sly laughs. “No indeed. Different planes, a magical birdcage, the Witchfinder General, burning at the stake, flying toxic killer puppies. Seriously, no running away for us.”

“Molly told me the boys’ father abused them with magic. Do we need to keep an eye out for him?” Alfred asks.

I go to answer, but Ernest gasps in outrage. “Really? He better not come here, or he’ll have to deal with me and probably the other true witches as well.”

Sly touches my arm. “He was dealt with. We’ll have no problems with him coming here.”

Alfred grins at him. “What did you do? I know I don’t know you that well, but I can’t see you not doing something to him.”

“You’d be right with that,” I say.

“I covered him in boils, made his hair fall out, cursed him so that everything he touched broke and stripped him of his magic. I gave the magic to Ebby before you ask, as it was from his line.”

“Nice. Temp and Nix are gonna love you. Nix hexed someone with boils once, and Temp threatened to cover Kean in boils as well,” Alfred tells him.

“Looks like I really do fit in here,” Sly says with a laugh.

We finish the BBQ and clean up before heading off to the fair. None of us are expecting anything to happen because of redoing the wards, but this is dark magic we’re dealing with, so anything is possible.

We’re walking around the fair with Kean and Titus, laughing and joking and talking about their magical bunker.

“I think we were all shocked by how big that bunker is,” Titus says. “But it does mean our magical playtimes are fun.”

“I’ll say, if you had a lava dragon,” I say, grinning.

Titus laughs. “That was fun. I think all the town witches are enjoying playing with magic again. We witches can sometimes forget that playing with magic is fun and just use it when needed.”

“That’s true,” I say. “But then we’re taught to take magic seriously and only use it when needed.”

“Like against a lava dragon. Sal told us he made a glass dragon fly. I wish I‘d seen that,” Sly says.

“It was an impressive sight,” Kean replies.

We walk past one of the stalls I’ve not seen before and shudder.

Sly notices. “What’s wrong?” he asks as I stop walking.

Titus and Kean look at me.

I see Titus shake his head. “Boundary lines.”

“What?” Sly asks, looking confused.

Kean slaps his forehead. “Idiots. We’re a bunch of idiots. This farm crosses two boundaries.”

“And our protection only covers Cadenbury,” Titus adds. “We should find the others and tell them.”

I look around. “There is Ernest and some of the others,” I say, pointing.

“Come on,” Kean says, rushing away. We follow Kean. “Boundary lines,” Kean calls out as he gets closer.

“Yep, we just figured it out,” Temp replies.

“Witchlings gather round, and we’ll extend the wards. Sly, you can either join us or add yours separately.” Ernest says.

“I’ll do mine separately,” he replies, taking a step back.

Titus and I step closer, and we all hold hands.

“On the count of three,” Titus says. “One, two, three.”

And with that, we push our magic out, extending the protection around the whole site.

Sly’s magic adds to ours. Finally, the whole of the Haunted Farm is protected.

Ernest lets go of our hands. “We’ll not make that mistake again.”

“I didn’t even give boundaries a thought,” Elliot said, “as the address for the farm was in Cadenbury.”

“The house is literally on the border. If you draw a boundary line, it goes right through the house,” Adhan says. “But as Ernest says, we’ll not make that mistake again.”

“That would be why only certain rooms came alive,” Temp says.

Adhan nods. “Yep, that’s why. I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

I turn to look at Sly, who looks to be concentrating, his eyes closed. I step close and touch his arm. “Sly?”

Sly holds his hand up in a ‘wait’ gesture.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees his dark magic going off somewhere. A moment later, he smiles, nods and opens his eyes. “Sorted.”

“What did you do, love?” I ask curiously.

“Connected to the dark magic, stripped it back, found the end user and threw their magic back at them.”

“You did all that in a few moments?” Temp asks, looking shocked. “It would have taken us ages to do that, and then I don’t think any of us would think of turning their magic on them.”

“It’s one of my superpowers, stripping magic back and finding the end user.

I don’t know the name of the person who was sending it, though, but that’s why it was easy enough for me to destroy the dark magic on the walk and in the house.

” He turns to Elliot. “All dark magic surrounding your fair is now gone. Nothing should be able to get through to this event now.”

“Thanks, Sly,” Elliot said.

“Yes, thank you. Now, hopefully, the only strange incidents will be made by the witchlings,” Adhan says.

“Totally,” Temp says happily.

After extending the wards, Sly and I walk around the fair on our own for a bit.

I love bringing the boys, but it’s nice just walking around with Sly.

We play some games, go on the rides and just have fun, knowing we don’t have to be on guard for any dark magic.

We skip the Hall of Mirrors. I’m not sure I want to experience that again, even knowing it’s dark magic free, the same with the Haunted House, but we do walk the Haunted Walk and dance at the disco.

After a few hours, we go back to the manor and collect the boys, thanking John for looking after them. John laughs and hugs both of them, and my brothers lap it all up.