Page 5

Chapter 5

" G et down!" I cried and reached across the table to push Penny onto the booth seat before diving down onto mine.

An icy breeze whooshed above us and an odd cracking noise filled the air. Penny looked to me under the table with panic in her eyes, and Hecate clung to her like a piece of wood on a stormy sea. When the atmosphere finally stilled, I peered out at our table. The pastries had disintegrated into little mouldy specs on their plates and the mugs were filled with green and blue mould blossoms. Penny's tarot cards had curled up into what looked like paper shavings and the illustrations had faded into nothing but a collection of grey lines.

"Gods, Troy that was too close. You nearly killed those girls." The jaunty, chuckling voice that spoke didn't sound as if it belonged to someone who understood exactly what they had just said.

I scrambled upright and looked around for the source of the power and the annoying voice. A few tables away sat a giggling young woman with her red hair in pigtails, a pair of jock- types wearing sports hoodies, and the idiot who I assumed was responsible for this mess, standing behind the table with his hand pointed in our direction.

Kitted out in a designer tracksuit, he had a mop of black hair tied back into a man-bun, and wore a mildly terrified expression. But he quickly rearranged it into a sheepish mask as one of his friends clapped him on the back. Had that moron just tried to show off ?

"What the hell did you do?" I snapped.

"Bea, don't." Penny sat up and dragged a still bewildered Hecate with her. "That's Troy Franklin."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?" Or give a crap?

"What're you gonna do emo?" Troy asked, spreading his arms wide.

"Oh, I'm not going to do anything," I said, standing up. "You're going to undo this and apologise for being a dick."

Heads in the half-empty cafeteria turned toward the commotion as Troy and his merry band of amoebas burst into fits of cackles. One of them pulled a face at me as they turned to leave, and I took my first stride in their direction. I would give them something to laugh about when I smashed power-boy's stupid face in.

"Bea!" Penny seized my arm and dragged me back into the booth. "You can't mess with him."

"Why not?" I asked, grabbing the edge of the table with both hands and squeezing.

"His family are, like, really important." Penny lowered her voice as she leaned over the table toward me. "Anytime he gets into trouble, the university just brushes it off because the Franklin family would come down so hard on them. You can't piss him off."

I glared at the group as they headed for the exit, my eyes narrowing as Troy met my gaze and flipped me the bird.

"Do you mean to tell me that nobody has ever gotten to punch that guy in the face?" I asked. I wouldn't mind being the first.

"If they have, they were probably kidnapped and buried alive in the family plot," Penny said, adjusting Hecate in her arms. "Awww..."

Her disappointed moan drew my attention back to her. Penny stared at her shrivelled tarot cards, her eyes a little shinier than before.

"That was my only set," she mumbled.

"I'll get you a new one. A way better one," I said. "Penny, what the hell is that guy's power?"

"He can distort small pockets of time." Penny smiled weakly as Hecate dabbed at her face with a large paw. "And because he's a child he uses it to mess up everyone's stuff."

My lips parted as my mild shock turned into full on rage. "Are you trying to tell me he could have turned us into dusty mummies just now?"

I had half thought that his pigtailed friend had exaggerated a little.

"Probably," Penny said, sucking her teeth. "But I'm pretty sure his family would have covered it up."

"And to think you were trying to sell me on this place. Who wants to go to university with a man child with too much..." But my rant trailed off as a more dominant consideration stormed its way to the forefront of my mind. Troy Franklin's power was to distort time .

I eyed the mouldy food and drink on the table. If Troy's power had hit us, we really could have died. This power was the real deal, and the wrong person had it in his possession. Fortunately for literally everyone who might encounter that douchebag, I could take his power from him nice and easy, and put it toward something constructive.

"Are you okay?" Penny asked.

I snapped out of my daydream. "Better than ever, I think."

My ideas snowballed into much bigger possibilities once Hecate and I left Penny so she could go to her next class. Instead of going home, I drove us into Cambridge town centre to get a new tarot deck for Penny, and as we walked among the crowds, I kept my focus on the new plan.

Time distortion could help me corner Romilda. Her power of foresight depended on time being consistent and predictable, and if I shrouded myself in a pocket of time that changed second on second, she would never get a lock on where I was. But I couldn't rely on Troy's power alone. I needed to actually know where Romilda was at any given time.

Scrying to find her every time before now had failed, even when I thought it had worked. I needed to know exactly where she was and not one of her projections. If I wanted to find her, the real her, I would need the power to do so. A power that someone out there in the world must possess.

The question was: where did I get a power like that?

Hecate pawed at my cheek when I nearly ran into someone hurrying in the opposite direction. " Are you even awake?"

"I'm thinking," I muttered, in case there were any humans within earshot. Walking around with a cat on one's shoulders didn't exactly scream sanity, but talking to one at the same time sealed the deal.

"Are you going to steal that rich boy's power?"

"As soon as I possibly can."

"We're going on a heist. Love it."

"Don't think of it as a heist," I said. "It'll be a normal job. In and out, like always."

"Besides whatever takes my fancy."

"But of course, milady."

Hecate made up the second part of my power-stealing team. Given that I needed people's powers so often to imbue into the grimoires I made for clients, her spiritual powers could sense who was on the premises at any time and their proximity to us. Without Hecate on board, I would have gotten caught ten times over and condemned to rot in a Nexus jail cell. For that reason alone, I had to keep her sweet, and to do that, I had to let her take home a souvenir of her choosing.

I noticed a few curious looks directed our way as we made our way through town, but most were too concerned with their own lives than to worry about a mad lady with her cat.

Before long, we arrived at our usual occult store whenever we were in Cambridge visiting Penny: Oliver's Oddities . Hecate jumped down off my shoulders as I walked inside, the bell above our heads signalling our arrival.

An array of crystals, potion ingredients, and all manner of occult equipment laden the shelves, the most expensive of which stayed locked inside glass displays atop wrought iron legs. A cabinet on the right-hand wall drew my attention; lined with velvet on the inside, as if mimicking the look of a fancy box, an assortment of shiny tarot cards glinted like treasures. Penny would have passed out in here.

As I looked over the collection of cards, my mind wandered to my imminent quest of stealing powers. Not only did I need Troy Franklin's, but also a few more for the commissions of grimoires I was overdue on delivering. Perhaps I also needed to stock up on talismans just in case. I didn't want to get caught out with no equipment on the job; going back to a location a second time was not something I wanted to get in the habit of.

I picked out a tarot card set for Penny that represented all the figures as candyfloss style characters, complete with a pastel colour scheme. Even for a tarot witch, I didn't think Penny enjoyed all the sharp imagery that came with traditional tarot sets.

Alongside the cards, I picked out a few talismans I needed and went to pay at the till. The mustachioed man, who I assumed was Oliver, rang me up with a few grunts and a beckoning of his hand. Five star customer service.

I took my items and stashed them in the pouch on my belt, which bulged with its new contents. But as Oliver looked down to put my money in the till, he leapt backward and snatched a broom that leaned against the doorframe behind him.

"What are you doing back here, you filthy animal? And with my pocket watch!" he bellowed.

My heart leapt, and everything descended into slow-motion even without the use of Troy Franklin's power.

Hecate jumped up on the desk as Oliver drew back the broom, ready to swing it in her direction. I lunged.