Page 46 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

I t takes about twenty minutes to get to the farm. We park up, away from the barn, hoping to surprise them. Thankfully, the barn seems to be well away from the farmhouse.

We meet at the back of Adhan’s car.

“There were about ten people in the barn along with Sly. Pretty sure they’re all his family.”

“How do you want to do this?” Kean asks.

“How about the wolves amongst us, shift, and we go in wolves and witches?” I suggest.

I hear a cackle and see Molly walk over and join us, surprisingly, with Elliot at her side.

“That sounds good, Ebby,” she cackles. “We can surround the barn and then rescue the Dark One.”

“I wish we knew what they were doing in there,” Nix comments.

“We can know,” Sal says, “I sent my magic to listen via a hole in one of the barn walls. Here.”

A bubble appears, and we hear talking.

‘Are you even listening to me, boy?’ a man demands.

‘Have you started to say anything interesting yet?’ Sly replies.

I snort out a laugh at that, and the others grin.

‘Now Sylvester, you really should be listening to your father,’ A female voice says, in a fake sweet tone.

‘Why? I’m not helping you kill the true light or grey witches, why would I, when my husband is one, and my friends are the others?’

‘Because you’re not really married, darling. That man tricked you into thinking you got married, but it never happened. ’ The woman tells him.

“Pretty sure it did happen,” I mutter.

Elliot puts his hand on my shoulder.

‘Well, if he did trick me, I’ve had the happiest five years, seven months and twelve days of my life.’

“Aw, he’s keeping count,” Ernest remarks. “That’s so sweet.”

I grin. “Yep, but it’s thirteen days,” I correct.

‘ Can we get this, whatever this is, over with as I have things to do? I especially need to check on my younger brothers, they must be scared and unsettled by what they saw.’

“Goddess, I love him,” I say softly. His family kidnapped him, tied him up, and he’s still thinking about the boys.

‘Why would we be scared and unsettled?” Swayne asks.

Sly snorts. ‘Not you idiots. I don’t care what happens to any of you. You can all die painful deaths for all I care.’

‘Now, boy, we brought you here to undo the brainwashing that light witch did to you.’

‘Good luck with that then,’ Sly replies, not sounding the least concerned.

‘We have spells we can use on you to purge yourself of that light witch and re-join our family,’ the female says.

‘That will never happen,’ Sly replies, sounding confident.

“Let’s go and stop them, shall we?” Molly suggests.

“Brothers, shift,” Adhan orders, before smiling. “I’m going to shift as well.”

The brothers start stripping, and I'm totally checking them out. I might be married, but the Stone brothers are all super-hot. Suddenly, a hand covers my eyes.

“No peaking, you’re married,” Nix says with a laugh.

I pull his hand away and grin. “Married, not dead.” I look around and now five wolves are standing there, their partners picking their clothes up and putting them in a backpack Ernest is holding.

The wolves are all pretty much the same shade of brown, with their signature Stone family blue eyes. Wolf Adhan is the largest of the brothers, Kean appears only slightly smaller, and the other three are the same size.

“Let’s spread out. There seems to be a back way into the barn as well as the front way. We can blow holes in the sides and all rush in,” Ernest suggests.

Suddenly, from inside we hear a scream. I bolt for the barn, as more screaming is heard, wishing now that we had parked closer.

I’m not really taking any interest in the barn; I’m more concerned about what could be happening inside.

The wolves race past me and reach the barn first; I run in next and slide to a stop.

Sly stands there laughing, as his family are either huddled together or unconscious on the ground.

I feel the others run into the barn and stop by me.

“So, we weren’t needed then,” Titus says, looking around.

I rush over to Sly. He opens his arms, and we hug. I pull back and look at his face, touching his cheek. “Are you alright, babe?”

Sly nods. “Physically fine, but apparently you brainwashed me.”

“Damn, and here I was hoping you’d never find out,” I reply, grinning at him.

“Are the boys, okay?”

I nod. “Yeah, they phoned me, and John is looking after them.”

He breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”

A man suddenly laughs.

I turn to look at him. He looks like an older version of Sly, but with mean eyes and a snarl on his face.

“This is just perfect; I couldn’t have planned this better if I had tried.”

Sly steps forward. “What have you done, Father?”

“Watch and learn, boy,” he spits out.

I have a really bad feeling about this, and as quickly as I can, I throw my magic out to protect my friends. I feel the other true witches doing the same, when suddenly there is a loud explosion all around us, blowing us off our feet. I hear some screams of pain, then nothing.

I look around and see the shield we set has kept us all safe, as fire rages outside of our protection.

“Anyone hurt?” I ask, as Sly and I stand up, brushing each other down.

“Nope, looks like we were all just blown off our feet,” Sal replies, standing up.

The true witches check their partners and let us know the wolves are also fine.

“Do you think that explosion killed your family?” Nix asks softly.

Sly shakes his head. “Not if they had any sense, but this is my family we’re talking about, so who knows. Let me deal with the fire, and then we can see.” With that, he mutters a spell and claps his hands together, and the fire is instantly extinguished.

We all drop our shields and look around; the barn is completely destroyed. I see a couple of bodies that have been burned, but no one else.

Sly is staring at them.

I take his hand. “Who were they?”

“My youngest brother and a cousin. I might not have liked them, but no one deserves to be burned to death. I would say, I can’t believe my family left them behind, but this is my family, I’m surprised there aren’t more bodies, to be honest.”

“What do you want done with their bodies?” Elliot asks gently, coming up and standing next to Sly, a hand on his shoulder.

“We can bury them somewhere well away from Cadenbury,” he replies.

“We can bury them in Little Welling if you want. There’s a graveyard there we can send them to,” Temp suggests. “Tim is buried there.”

Sly nods. “Let’s do that then.”

“Hold hands, witchlings, Elliot and let’s send these poor souls off. Set the intention of burying them in the Little Welling graveyard,” Molly instructs.

We all hold hands, including Sly and for the moment, grey magic surrounds the bodies as they vanish from sight.

We drop hands, well, I keep hold of Sly’s. I look around and see the wolves are searching the area. No walls are standing, but burnt wood is scattered everywhere along with burnt straw. The air is filled with the scent of fire.

“It was a good plan of your family’s, Sly,” Sal says. “Kidnap you, knowing we’d all come to rescue you and then try to blow us all up.”

I hear a couple of the wolves growl.

“How would they know, though?” Nix asks, looking confused.

“Swayne would have told them. He met you all at the storage lockers. He would have rushed back to the family and told them everything,” Sly explains.

“Sal is right, it was a good plan,” Temp comments, kicking a bit of wood out of the way.

“We know the dark witches are working with demon magic. Do you think they used that to escape?” Elliot asks. “By the way, I love your website.”

Ernest flashes a quick grin. “Yeah, we love it as well. Adhan’s found something strange.” Ernest announces, walking over to where Adhan has been sniffing.

It’s quite close to where Sly’s parents had been standing.

“What is it?” Elliot asks, walking closer.

I see Ernest send some magic out. “Some kind of portal. Pretty sure your family escaped through it.”

“So do we try to reopen the portal and follow them, or leave it?” Nix asks.

“I’m inclined to say we leave it for now, we have no idea what could be waiting for us on the other side,” Titus replies, but I see him send some magic out and surround the portal.

I do the same, recording the findings.

“I agree, Sonny. Let’s leave here and go home. We can formulate a plan and go in prepared.”

I nod. “Yeah, we should go and reassure Xander and Enoch that you’re safe.”

Sly is staring at the area.

“You want to open it, don’t you?” I surmise.

“I do, but we need to see the boys. Like Molly says, we should go in prepared,” he pauses. “I’m sure a quick peek wouldn’t hurt, though.” He drops my hand and steps forward.

Elliot touches his arm. “I know you want to have a look, and any other time I would be first in line to accompany you, but if you get caught again, what are you going to tell your brothers? Little brothers can be brutal.”

Sly barks out a laugh. “That’s true. Okay, I’ll wait.”

“Good, let’s get you back to your brothers,” a now dressed Adhan says. “Sly, Ebby, you can ride with Ernest and me.”

“Thanks, Adhan. I’ll message John from the car and say we’re on our way home,” I say, as we walk over burnt wood on our way back to the cars.

I have a look behind us and see the farmhouse about a mile down the drive. Why didn’t anyone come running when the barn exploded?

I stop walking and turn around, sending my magic out to have a look at the house and see what it can find.

“Wanna take bets, something weird is going on in that house,” Temp mutters from beside me, as if he didn’t want the others to hear him.

“There must be, right? Why did no one come running when the barn blew up?”

“It could just be empty,” Ben says from behind us. “No, we’re not looking.”

We both spin around and see the others standing there laughing at us.

“But Greasy, it’s right there,” Temp whines.

“Really, it’s just down there. We could have a quick look and you guys can still be home in time for dinner,” I point out.

Sly glares at me. “No. I wasn’t allowed to look through the portal; you can’t look in that house.”

“Okay, you can look through the portal,” I tell him, with a quick grin.

“Not today, people. Move it, you’ve got brothers to reassure,” Ernest tries to shimmy us along.

I look at Temp. “We’ll come back.”

He nods. “We certainly will.”