Page 3

Chapter 3

I was jerked awake as someone whispered my name. Damn it, I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping. I opened my gritty eyes and peered into the darkness. The electric-blue backpack was obvious even in the dark.

‘Kass?’ I whispered in surprise, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Amber, I am so sorry.’ She was wringing her hands. ‘This is a farce.’

‘That’s exactly how I feel about it,’ I muttered grumpily.

‘Are you okay?’

‘I’ve been better.’ I yawned. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s 3am. I’m sorry to wake you but I snuck in when Mack swapped shifts. Daryl let me in. He thinks you’re innocent.’

‘Daryl…’ My mind was blank for a moment then my sleepy neurons started to fire, ‘Willow’s gu ard?’

‘Yes.’

I grimaced. ‘If he’s guarding me, who is guarding Willow? Get some of the enforcers on the guard rotation. We can’t afford to have the Council members vulnerable to attack.’

Kass shook her head in disbelief. ‘I can’t believe you’re worrying about them when they’ve arrested you. This is all Seren’s doing. We all know you’re innocent but she’s convinced everyone that a trial will clear you, that it’s in your best interests.’

She bit her nail then went on. ‘It took me ages to find you here – in the dungeons, of all places! It’s an outrage! I tried to get you moved but, given the late hour when you arrived, that was nixed. Listen, I overheard Seren talking to someone and she said she had more charges to level at you. I don’t know what they are. Any ideas?’

I smiled ruefully. I run a secret clinic and give away healing for free, I’m involved with a circus that helps people escape the yoke of the Connection, and I possess a sentient grimoire. All three are highly illegal and I wondered which one Seren had discovered. My money was on the clinic because I’d recently turned up there with Bastion on my heels and he was pretty well known. With hindsight that hadn’t been my wisest move, but I’d gone to the clinic on the back of a really long day. Even I make mistakes now and again, but if Seren had her way that particular one might cost me everything.

I kept my self-recrimination off my face. ‘Some,’ I said simply. ‘How is Bastion?’

Kass winced. ‘He’s furious the Council won’t let him visit you.’ She paused. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way. I know you like him, but he’s a little scary.’

Calling Bastion a little scary was like calling a hurricane a light breeze. I shrugged. ‘He grows on you.’

Kass opened her backpack. ‘Here.’ She passed me a flask through the bars. ‘Hot chocolate.’ Next she pulled a Tupperware box out. ‘Some overnight oats. It’s not much, but it was all I could scrounge that wouldn’t be disgusting cold.’

My tummy gave a loud rumble as I gratefully took the box. ‘Thank you.’ I felt a lump in my throat; I’d never had someone come through for me like this before. There again, I’d never been arrested before either. ‘I appreciate it.’

Kass rubbed her wrists as if they were sore. Her fibromyalgia often flared up at times of stress making her joints ache. Having me arrested and thrown in jail was probably a bit stressful for her, too. I grimaced. That was another thing to lay at Mack and Seren’s doors .

I ate as quickly as I could with my hands bound in front of me in the damned cuffs. The smell of food had made me realise I was incredibly hungry. I painstakingly took the lid off the hot chocolate thermos – tricky in cuffs – but when Kass tried to help me, I shot her a glare. I needed to do this for myself.

She waited until the lid was off then held out a mug for me to pour it into. It was a white mug and even in the poor light I could make out the words scrawled across it: This too shall pass. I took a deep breath. Damn right. Everything is transient: the good, the bad and the ugly. This was the latter, but it would pass.

I poured the hot chocolate into the mug, then gave her the flask and lid so I could seize the mug instead. I wrapped my fingers around it, luxuriating in the warmth that spread through my fingers, and took a tentative sip. It was the perfect temperature. It warmed me up in more ways than one. ‘Nice hot chocolate,’ I complimented her.

‘Bastion made it for you. He melted in some chocolate flakes.’

The rock in my throat was back. Bastion had sent me hot chocolate. No doubt he was the one behind the mug too. Not too long ago, I’d been a tea girl but when I’d been poisoned through a cup of tea, my drink of choice had been shelved. One day it would be dusted off again but not yet. In the meantime, I’d adopted hot chocolate.

‘Pass him my thanks, won’t you?’ I tried to keep my voice level but it wobbled a little.

Kass tried to lighten the mood. ‘Do you want me to pass him anything else?’ She twitched her eyebrows, trying to get me to laugh.

I managed a smile. ‘No thanks.’

Why hadn’t I kissed Bastion in the last five days? I should have done it when we were being guarded in Rosie’s while I re-charged. With other guards around, that had probably been the closest to relaxed that I’d seen him. I should have kissed him then, but I’d chickened out.

Instead, here I was in a jail cell pondering my few regrets. Not kissing Bastion was one of them – the main one, really. I supposed it was a good thing that, at this stage of my life, I’d come to realise that regrets weren’t all that much help. Do, or do not. Don’t regret. Except kissing Bastion, I regretted not doing that. There was something between us that deserved exploration.

I contemplated giving Kass a message for Bastion, but none of my half-formed thoughts did justice to the maelstrom in my heart. I struggle at the best of times to vocalise my feelings, and this wasn’t the best of times .

‘Just tell him to make sure he has back-up video footage of Hilary’s confession ready.’ I had no doubt the original footage would ‘accidentally’ go walkabout if Mack had his way.

‘Already on it,’ she promised.

I passed Kass the empty Tupperware and flask. Regretfully, I also passed back the empowering mug. ‘We’d better not leave any evidence of your visit. Thanks for coming, Kass. I really do appreciate it.’

‘What are friends in high places for if not for visiting you when you’re in dire straits?’

I cut off the ‘getting you out of trouble in the first place?’ comment that wanted to slip out. Kass was new to the Council and it was run democratically. Mack was Tristan’s guard so Tristan was clearly against me, and Seren had hated me since we were kids. I hoped the others were being washed along with some ‘good intentions’. I’d have to remind them all that while good intentions pave the path to hell, it is good actions that count. Hopefully the trial would put an end to the whole sordid mess.

I studied my tired friend. ‘How are you, Kass?’

She looked at me, startled. ‘ I’m okay. I’m not the one in a jail cell.’

‘You were rubbing your wrists. Flare up?’

She sighed. ‘Yeah, a little.’ She was downplaying it; she was holding herself stiffly and I could tell she was in pain.

‘Have you tried taking 4312?’ Some potions have names but all of them have a numeric designation. I wished to heck I’d stuck with numbers rather than naming my ORAL potion. Live and learn.

Kass frowned. ‘Isn’t 4312 a muscle-building potion? For use after long-term comas?’

‘Yes, but I’ve been researching fibromyalgia and exercise comes up frequently as something that helps. It makes sense that 4312 might have some positive effects.’

She blinked. ‘I’ve never thought of that. I’ll definitely try it.’ She gave me a rueful smile. ‘I’ll try anything at this point. Pain management only does so much.’

‘Yeah, that sucks.’ Although I am bad at verbalising my feelings, she deserved my best efforts so I tried. ‘You do so much for so many. Your Coven admire you – I admire you. Some people in your circumstances would fall down and they wouldn’t get back up. But you … you keep on going. I admire that a great deal.’

Kass looked away. When she looked back at me, there were tears in her eyes. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that more than you know.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I feel like a fraud having the membership seat,’ she confessed in a wobbly voice. ‘It should have been you.’

‘We all battle imposter syndrome now and again, even me. You deserve the seat,’ I said firmly. ‘You earned it. I trust you to use it for the betterment of witches everywhere. Now, you’d better go. I don’t want you getting caught. Mack will be back soon, no doubt. Tell Bastion I’m okay, alright?’

‘I will. Hang in there, Amber. The trial starts in the morning. Get some more sleep.’

With the food and drink warming me, I planned to do nothing of the sort. After all, the witching hours were for plotting. I touched the kiss mark that the imp Frogmatch had once given me. It was time to call in some favours.