Page 17 of Black and White, Twice the Might

“Make a habit of talking to young boys, do you?” I growl out. I’m still angry, sue me.

Ernest shakes his head, his eyes looking sad. “To be honest, we didn’t even give that fact a thought.” He leans a little to the side, looking at Enoch. “I’m truly sorry we scared you. Everyone has told us off and told us how out of order we were.”

“I wanted to make sure you were all alright, especially your brother,” Adhan says. “I also want to offer my apologies. We pride ourselves on being a safe town, and to know members of my family caused you all distress is unacceptable.”

“Thank you for your apologies,” I manage to get out.

“I know it won’t make up for scaring your brother, but would you like to join us for coffee and cake in the tearoom?” Adhan asks, waving at the bookshop.

“Clarence and Callum make the best cakes,” Ernest says with a small smile. “You can meet Mollyanne. She usually has an animal with her.”

“We met her yesterday and had some of their cakes. Enoch even fed Miles,” Sly replies.

Ernest looks confused. “She didn’t have Miles with her yesterday.”

“As we were leaving the farm, we saw her standing by a post. She looked like she was having a funny turn. We offered to drive her home, but she asked us to take her to the tearoom. Miles came running in not long after,” I explain.

“Dammit, I knew she was doing too much,” Adhan said, suddenly looking worried.

I see Ernest looking from me to Sly. “She gave you protection charms.”

I nod. “She gave one to all of us.”

“Will you come and have coffee and cake with us?” Adhan asks again.

I look at Sly before turning to look at the boys. “What do you think?”

“Okay,” Enoch says softly.

I turn back around and look at Adhan and Ernest. “Thank you, that would be nice,” see, I can do polite.

CHAPTER 8

We leave the tearoom sometime later. We have time to eat something proper before we head to the Haunted Farm.

“So now we know why your father keeps emailing you,” I say to Sly.

Ernest, Adhan and Molly filled us in on what has been happening with the dark witches. Ernest even emailed us a link to a website, where they mark each encounter out of ten. We can look at it later, but it sounds like flying toxic killer puppies is one of their favourites.

It would also seem like Sly knows the town doctor. I’ll ask him more about Rhett/Justice later.

“Yeah. I can’t believe the dark witches are trying to destroy the light witches,” he says. “I’ll tell you more about dark witches of days gone by later.”

I nod and change the subject. “So where to for dinner?”

“The Haunted Farm,” the three of them say at the same time.

“But that’s burgers, donuts and sweets,” I protest, after having pizza last night, not sure we should have more junk food today.

“Yeah, but it’s funfair food, Eb,” Xander says.

“And I never got my donuts,” Enoch puts in.

“Plus, they have burgers,” Sly adds, grinning like a loon.

I heave a fake sigh. “Fine, but tomorrow we'll find some healthy food.”

“We’ll chat,” Xander says.