Page 6

Chapter 6

Bastion looked up as I walked in. ‘Success?’ he asked.

I grinned. ‘Yes, I think so. It needs to be tested, but I’ll get one of the acolytes to run it by Liyana or another of her seers if she’s not available.’

‘Hopefully this time, she’ll fit you in,’ he groused.

‘She will. I think we have an understanding.’ I hoped so, anyway.

‘I’ve made breakfast, but it’s more like brunch now.’

I checked the time: 11am! Whoops. I’d gotten lost in the potion. My stomach let out a growl.

‘Better feed the beast,’ Bastion teased. ‘Sit down. I’ll warm it through and bring it over.’

He had cooked us a full English breakfast. I often struggled to eat first thing in the morning, but luckily we were far past that. I attacked the food with gusto, thankful that he’d even done hash browns. When I’d finished, I pushed the empty plate away. ‘That was amazing. Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘Now probably isn’t the right time to raise this, but I thought that I probably need to learn a little more hand-to-hand combat if we’re going after some evil witches. At the moment it feels like they hold all the power.’

‘Amber,’ Bastion looked amused, ‘the other day you ripped the Earth in two to get rid of some zombie ogres. Believe me, you have power aplenty.’

That made me smile a little.

‘Having said that,’ he went on, ‘there’s no reason why I can’t teach you a few tips and tricks to make you feel more confident.’ He pushed back from the table and grabbed a pillow. ‘Why don’t you show me how you’d kick this?’

I stood, lifted my skirts out of the way and then – without understanding what I was doing – did a roundhouse kick that sent the pillow flying out of his hands. Bastion’s mouth dropped open.

I blinked. ‘Huh.’ I toyed with the pendant at my neck. Edith – one of my Crone predecessors – had known how to kick butt. She’d taken over my body to save me with a spot of knife fighting and it seemed I’d also inherited some of her other skills.

‘That was unexpected,’ Bastion noted.

‘You remember when Tristan attacked me?’

‘How could I forget?’ he growled.

‘He had a knife. I asked my sisters if anyone could help me. A lovely witch called Edith took over, kicked his ass and shoved him into the pentagram.’ I paused. ‘Then you ran in and killed him. But it looks like some of Edith’s skills have been left behind.’

‘Whether you have her skills or not, you still need to practise. You won’t be comfortable using them if they’re not embedded in your own body and mind,’ Bastion counselled.

I nodded reluctantly. I’m not a huge fan of exercise, and I have the cardiac fitness of a cursed slug. But things were heating up and I was determined not to be the weak link. He was absolutely right. It was something to work on.

‘Ok, I’m game if you are.’

‘Always.’

Bastion held up the cushion. ‘Again.’

Our impromptu training session had felt surprisingly good. My arms ached a little with all of the punches that Bastion had made me throw, but I was pleased at how far I’d come on. Goddess bless Edith. It helped that I was probably the first young Crone to be appointed in recent years, and that was another advantage I had. I was physically, and magically, still at the height of my power – if I trained right, I could be a force to be reckoned with. A prophecy hung over me, and I was all too conscious that I really needed to be a force to be reckoned with.

‘Thank you for my training.’ I kissed him. ‘And thank you for the brunch too.’

‘You’re welcome. What are your plans for the rest of the day?’

‘I need to speak to Ethan and do some general Coven-keeping. Now I’ve been awarded the role of Crone, we need to start the process of finding a new Coven Mother.’

I got out my laptop and fired off a few emails, then summoned an acolyte to take Lucille’s potion for testing. I was surprised – and impressed – when Sarah Bellington was the first to volunteer.

Moments later she was at my door and hustling off to the seers, potion vial in hand. It had seemed mean at the time but demoting her to acolyte because of her poor crystal ball safety had clearly been the impetus she’d needed to push herself. I gave myself a mental pat on the back for my excellent leadership skills.

I sent a few more emails before Ethan knocked at the door. He and I weren’t friends – or even friendly – but we had a decent working relationship that did the job. Though I always felt he was bristling to attention every time we spoke.

Bastion let him in and came to stand by my side; he was in guard mode and he let Ethan see it.

Ethan ignored any implicit threat and got straight down to business. ‘The discovery of a black witch—’

‘Evil witch,’ I corrected.

He went on without missing a beat. ‘A necromancer no less, in our Coven! Well, it’s going to cause issues.’

I raised an eyebrow. ‘For whom?’

‘For all of us,’ he huffed. ‘As if it isn’t bad enough being known as the Hula Coven,’ he muttered, pacing in front of my sofa.

‘The salt rings are sensible,’ I started to argue.

He raised a hand. ‘I have no issue with the practice, just the disrespectful nickname.’

I smiled. ‘You know how we deal with disrespect.’ A curse a day keeps the idiots away.

A smile flickered across his stony visage. ‘Well, yes.’

‘Then let them be disrespectful. They’ll only do it once.’

Ethan sat on the edge of the sofa. ‘Jeb,’ he said tightly. ‘I still can’t believe it. We’ve worked together for years. I feel like I can’t trust my own judgement.’

I knew exactly what he meant. ‘We can’t let them undermine us. Jeb acted a part for years. It’s not our fault for taking him at face value.’

‘I don’t know where we go from here.’

‘We do exactly what we were doing before,’ I said firmly. ‘We keep an eye on our potions store, and we keep an eye on practising witches. We know their power levels. Jeb was a mid-level witch when he came here, but when he broke an old clearing in my mind there was absolutely zero sign of exertion. With hindsight, that was a huge red flag that I missed. We need to review the personnel files, check their initial tests. Perhaps we could redo some power tests as part of a Coven shake-up. If anyone’s power has increased unusually, we’ll know to look at them twice.’

I didn’t share with him the recent survey that the Coven Council had carried out while the evil witches were off in the daemon realm. I had a number of names on my list to look twice at.

Jeb had been on there, but Venice Bellington was also on the list and it would truly be a surprise if she were evil. Melrose was also there, and I was disquieted to see Hannah on it too because she was one of my protégées. If Hannah’s excellence came through pain and death rather than natural talent and hard work, I’d be sorely disappointed.

Ethan’s name wasn’t on the list, but the fewer people who knew about its existence, the better so I wasn’t planning to mention it. I had suggested strongly to the Coven Council that the list be for the Coven Mothers’ eyes only, and only after someone had checked that the Coven Mothers themselves weren’t on it. That sort of snafu was something that happened all the time in big organisations, and it was as embarrassing as it was dangerous.

‘That’s a good idea,’ Ethan said, relaxing now that he had something he could do.

My phone blared. I intended to ignore it but I checked the screen just in case. Abel calling. My gut clenched. Abel was the pseudonym that I used for Cain Stilwell’s number. The ringmaster of the Other Circus didn’t call me for casual chats.

‘Excuse me,’ I muttered hastily to Ethan. ‘I need to take this.’ I strode into my office for some much-needed privacy and swiped the screen to answer.