Page 41

Chapter 41

Before I could descend into total panic, familiar hands grabbed me around my waist. I had a moment to take a deep breath and then Benji pulled me into the walls. The walls were thin; when I’d set up this plan, I had envisaged that he would simply pop me through this wall and into another corridor from which I could make my escape.

But he did not. After he dragged me into the wall, I lost all sense of where we were or how we were moving. My chest was straining and I was dying to take a breath, even though it would be full of brick and dust and would almost certainly kill me. I held my breath and strained not to give in to the urge just to breathe .

Thank the Goddess, just when I thought I was going to pass out, we burst from the walls. I gratefully choked down gulps of air, my lungs screaming at me for my idiocy .

‘Crikey, Benji,’ I said when I’d recovered a little. ‘Warn a lady before you do that to her!’

‘I’m sorry, Am Bam,’ he whispered contritely, ‘but there was no time. The Coven Council knows about the Connection raid and they are trying to catalogue the whereabouts of every witch in the city. If anyone appears to be missing, they will be added to a master list of black-witch suspects. I couldn’t have you on that list. All over the UK, all of the Coven bodyguards are undertaking Coven-wide sweeps. They’ll be here any second.’

It was gratifying that the lumbering Coven Council appeared to be making some fast moves for once. I wondered how much Kass had had to yell to get them moving.

Bastion stepped out of the walls with the other golem, David. Unlike me, Bastion simply took in a shallow breath like his lungs weren’t on fire. Show off.

‘Cloaks, quickly!’ Benji said urgently.

We both whipped them off and threw them at him. He balled them up and shoved them into the wall. ‘That’s a handy storage space,’ I remarked drily. A small corner of the cloak poked out of the wall and David pushed it until it disappeared .

‘Sit!’ Benji said urgently, his eyes glowing white as he tapped into some magic of his own that I didn’t understand. He blinked and his eyes cleared.

I looked around. We appeared to be in a bedsit, sitting at a dining-room table. It was dimly lit with only one naked bulb hanging from the ceiling. Industrial chic.

The walls had posters of Nirvana and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, which made me smile. I knew then without a doubt that we were in Benji’s room; he had taken to rock music like a selkie to water.

The single bed in the corner was neatly made, but I grimaced at the thought that the only room Benji had was a lousy underground bedsit. I vowed to improve his living conditions. He might have returned for David, but that didn’t mean he had to live in a hovel. It reminded me uncomfortably of the jail cell Mack had shoved me into.

The door burst open and, as if summoned by my thoughts, none other than Mack, walked in. When he saw me, he let out a growl. ‘Dammit! I don’t care if you’re here. I know you’re evil.’

I stared at him like I had no idea what he was talking about. ‘Did you get hit on the head?’ I asked, exasperated. I looked at the men behind him. ‘He should see a medical professional.’

‘There has been a raid on a black Coven,’ one of the men behind Mack said. ‘Any missing witches are suspect. We’re here to get the golems to help in the search.’

‘Then what in the Goddess’s name are you waiting for? Go! Search the whole damned catacombs as fast as you can! You’re wasting time – they’ll be able to get back through. You have to hurry!’ My urgency broke through and everyone whirled out, including Benji and David.

At the exit, Mack paused. ‘Just because you’re here doesn’t exempt you. You just missed this meeting for whatever reason. I know you’re evil.’

‘So you keep saying,’ I sighed. ‘But frankly, of the two of us I know who is evil and it isn’t me. The worst thing of all is that you don’t know that you are.’

Bad people make bad choices all over the world and have no idea that they are the villains in the story. They have their own narratives to justify their heinous actions, as no doubt Mack did.

With one last glower, he left.