Page 42

Chapter 42

Benji and David returned soon afterwards. I had spent the intervening period wringing my hands and envisaging horrific things happening to Frogmatch. I shouldn’t have let the little – large? – guy come along for the ride. Why had I done that? I prayed with all my might that he was fine and he’d escaped from the witches. I hoped he’d pop up any second now but, no matter how hard I looked around, I didn’t see a flash of red skin and a cheeky grin. My stomach clenched.

Bastion laid his hand on mine, sending soothing vibes down our bond. I shook them off and glared at him. I didn’t want to be soothed; in my fear for Frogmatch, I was as prickly as a hedgehog. I was at least partially responsible for him and I’d failed him. We’d left him, and now he was who knew where .

I tried to reign in my agitation when the two golems returned. I was pleased to see that Benji and David had become friends and Benji was clearly showing David the ropes. Usually there was only one golem awake at once. The Council didn’t need to have more because, despite the bed in his room, Benji didn’t need to sleep. He liked lying down, though, and pretending.

‘I’ll make us all some tea,’ Benji said as he lumbered in. He froze. ‘I’m sorry, Am, that was insensitive of me, wasn’t it? After the poisoning…’ He trailed off uncomfortably.

I smiled. ‘I’m okay, and truthfully I need a cup of tea.’ Boy, did I? I’d just lost Frogmatch and met my father, albeit in some sort of projection. He’d spoken to me in his real voice. He knew me, knew about Bastion. And yet he was just a shard of memory to me.

He’d known we were there the whole time, yet he hadn’t given us up to the other black witches. But he’d also made me kill a vampyr. It was all so mixed up that I no longer knew which way was up.

Benji brought over my tea, placed the china cup on the table and studied me. ‘Do you need a hug, friend?’

I automatically started to say no but then I nodded. I let myself be drawn against his hard, cold body. He held me for so long that his cold started to leach into my limbs, but the depths of his coldness didn’t alleviate the warmth of the comfort that he brought to me.

Finally I sighed. ‘Thanks Benji.’ I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and stepped back.

David’s mouth was open. ‘You really are friends.’

‘We are,’ I agreed, a small smile tugging at my lips.

‘I am glad we saved you,’ David said abruptly, giving a nod as if he were talking to himself. ‘Even if we get in trouble. It is right to save a friend, I think.’

‘It is,’ Benji said firmly. ‘It is a tenet of friendship to do so. I will save you , if ever you need it.’

‘Thank you,’ David murmured. ‘That would be nice.’

I tried to smile despite the worry churning in my gut. I was happy for Benji to have someone other than me and Bastion. Benji and I were often so far apart that it made me feel better to know Benji had someone close by he could turn to.

I picked up my tea and paused as I read the mug. My very obviously brand-new mug said: Hold on while I over-think this. I looked over at Bastion’s mug, which simply read: Fuckoffee. I snorted with slightly hysterical laughter. ‘You got yourself some mugs!’

Benji nodded seriously. ‘I am told that a hobby is a good thing. I tried golf but the ball went too far. ’

David snorted quietly. ‘And through a wall.’

Benji slid him a playful glare. ‘The wall got in the ball’s way. I tried reading, but I’m not too keen on romance. I read a sports’ romance book but I am not sure what was described was anatomically possible.’ He frowned. ‘I even drew a diagram but I couldn’t get it to work.’

Another laugh bubbled up, which I suppressed with effort – I didn’t want him to think I was laughing at him. ‘Maybe another type of book then – a thriller, perhaps, or a good mystery?’

He considered. ‘Perhaps I will try another type of book,’ he said.

‘Do. Reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures. A reader gets to go on a thousand adventures. You just need to find the book for you. I truly believe reading is for everyone. You could even try—’ I gave a fake shudder ‘—non-fiction.’

‘If it is important to you, I will try and find another book to read. In the meantime, I settled on collecting mugs like you. I hope you don’t mind if we gather the same things. Coins and stamps did not appeal to me.’

‘I’m honoured. And I can see you’ve been taking your rock education seriously, too.’ I nodded at the posters on the wall .

‘I have. I am a real head banger.’ Benji spoke the words slowly, using the unfamiliar term cautiously like he wasn’t sure if he was using them properly. I gave him an encouraging nod.

‘Anyway,’ he went on soberly, ‘we should talk about the witches’ searches. We’ve been ordered not to talk about the particulars of the list.’ He sounded unhappy. Bound to the Council as he was, he couldn’t circumvent the order. ‘But there were quite a few people missing from each Coven. I’m sure some of them will have an explanation.’

I laughed sardonically. ‘ All of them will have an explanation and some of them will even be true.’ I frowned. ‘I need that list, or at the very least the list for my Coven.’ I rubbed my eyes. ‘This is a mess. There were so many witches gathered in that room.’

‘A hundred and fifty at least,’ Bastion agreed. ‘But they came from across Europe, perhaps the whole world. It isn’t as grim as you think.’

‘If they’re so strong in numbers, why haven’t they made some sort of move?’ I asked.

‘They don’t seem to want the spotlight yet. They’re content to pull strings,’ Bastion suggested.

‘They weren’t ever going to sell the harkan crystal tonight, not when it can open portals like that. The power roiling off it hurt my teeth. The witches could level cities with it – so why haven’t they?’

‘They were wearing gloves when they handled it,’ Bastion noted. ‘It didn’t look like it was easy to manipulate, and it killed the witches around it to use it. Maybe they haven’t cracked its use yet.’

‘Great, so we’re on a countdown. Get the crystal off them before they work out how to use it to its full potential.’

‘It seems likely.’

‘Half its potential was still pretty terrifying,’ I muttered. ‘They opened a portal to the daemon realm and pottered through like it was a trip to shops.’

‘Maybe it is for them,’ Bastion said morosely. ‘They’re getting all those dark artefacts from somewhere.’

‘Or they’re making them,’ I countered. ‘We need that list.’ Because someone on that list had Frogmatch. ‘We need the list,’ I repeated firmly. ‘And I know just who we can talk to to get it.’