Page 41 of Uncharmed

‘Not sure what cursed, past-life adventure I fell into to earn such a big dope, but yes. This is Mage. He might be bloody handsome and a show-off, but he’s also a big chicken. Aren’t you, pal?’

Hal took another apple from the pocket of the scuffed leather waistcoat he was wearing over his shirt and tossed it into the air just high enough for the horse to give a small jump to catch it. Pleased with his skill, Mage shook out his burgundy mane, obviously boasting in front of Annie.

‘Why don’t you bring him closer to the cottage?’ she asked, admiring how Mage’s coat caught the shine of sunlight through the trees. ‘He’s all alone out here, aren’t you, Mage?’ His tail flicked out dramatically.

‘Normally you’d see him out in the meadow all of the time.

He has the run of the place if he wants it.

And he has been known to come in through the back door once or twice when he smells gravy.

But I think he’s a bit put out that there’re so many other creatures flooding his meadow to see Maeve,’ Hal said, stroking his thumb across the bridge of Mage’s nose.

‘Sulking, aren’t you, Mage? Plus he’s scared of cats, so he will have spotted Karma from a mile off. ’

‘Can I?’ Annie asked, feeling shyer than usual as she extended a careful hand out towards Mage’s huge shoulder. Hal gestured to go ahead, taking a step back so that she could give the horse a pat on his velvety coat. Mage gave a contented, relaxed blow of approval at her touch.

‘Mage, you are quite the beauty. What are you doing hanging around with this guy and his silly hat?’

Hal smirked. ‘Now that introductions are out of the way, to what do I owe the pleasure?’ he asked gruffly, throwing his hat onto the low wooden stable post and pushing back his hair.

It was only then that Annie realized Mage had swiped two of the three friendship fancies straight from the plate. That explained why he’d taken to her so quickly.

‘I thought you might like a treat,’ Annie said with a sigh, holding out the singular, miniature cake towards Hal. It looked like an exceptionally pathetic offering all on its own.

‘Sure you can spare it?’ he laughed, picking it up between two fingers and eating it in one go. He and Maeve were two sides of the same coin. ‘Thank you,’ he said with a grin through a mouthful of cake that made a dimple pop on one side of his face.

Annie laughed, too. ‘Any time. Besides, you said a little ominously that we should talk.’

‘Right, that I did,’ Hal said. His forearms were bare again, the sleeves of his shirt pushed up to his elbows. Annie tore her eyes back to Mage, who was giving her an attention-seeking nuzzle on the shoulder, keen for more fuss or possibly more apples.

‘I wanted to know what you thought of Maeve’s revelations.

You were keen to get to bed before we had much chance to discuss it.

It all but confirmed our suspicions that she’s attracting magic, pulling supernatural energy to herself.

It’s extraordinary. No wonder the kid has had trouble keeping it to herself,’ he continued, picking up the book from the floor that he’d discarded and shoving it back into his satchel.

Annie recognized the title, Elixirs Most Eldritch , as one she’d borrowed herself a few times from Hecate House library to aid with amending the hex.

‘She’s a very special girl,’ Annie said, hiding her face from Hal’s curious eyes by staying turned in towards Mage.

‘I know it. But you have to admit, all that spooky spirit stuff is a strange one. Never known a glimmer of trouble at Arden Place in all my years.’ Hal leaned his back against the stable door with his arms folded, a bent leg scooched up the wide tree trunk. ‘And it got me thinking.’

‘Don’t pull a muscle,’ Annie said. She’d stolen that one from Maeve.

‘Have you noticed anything like that yourself around here?’ Hal went on, bending a little to try to steer her gaze back to him. ‘Is there anything that you’d like to tell the class? You know, while we’re all getting things off our chests.’

Annie, purposefully avoiding eye contact, made an extra effort to keep her face blank and her laugh bemused. ‘Me? What secrets would I have to share? If you hadn’t already noticed, I’m a very uncomplicated person.’

‘Oh, I have to disagree with you there,’ Hal said, an arcane smile tugging at that same dimple that Annie had only just noticed for the first time.

‘It’s true. Sugar, spice and all things nice. That’s all there is to know,’ she said indignantly, finally turning around to face him now that she felt the need to defend herself.

Hal gave her his gravelly ‘ hmmm ’ in return, but it sounded a fraction more dubious than usual.

‘Granted, most of my magic and intuition is tuned into the nature of animals and beasts, but there’s something about you, Annie Wildwood.

I can’t put my finger on it yet, but..

.’ He waggled a finger, studying her face.

His eyes raked over her, a little bolder.

‘...I will. I’ll figure it out. Something about you is.

..’ He shrugged off the rest of his thought.

Annie cursed the quiet flutter that her heart stupidly gave.

She knew exactly what he was referring to; the alluring effects of Splendidus Infernum ensured that there was always an appealing air around her.

The magnetism that caught everyone’s attention and shoved her into the best possible light to perform.

The compliment slid straight off her, feeling hollow.

Starting tomorrow, he would feel very differently.

‘And I don’t mean that just because you’re beautiful,’ Hal said unexpectedly.

An uncharacteristic blush formed at the tops of his cheeks the moment he said it.

He squeezed his eyes shut, exposing his embarrassment.

‘Obviously, you are. You know that. I don’t need to tell you.

But you are. Not that it matters. Anyway. ’

She burst out laughing, feeling a not-entirely-unpleasant awkwardness bloom between them. She shook her head. ‘Thank you? I think.’

‘Back to the kid. I thought we should probably talk about it. Especially because...Well, before she got upset last night, I heard her talking back to them.’

Annie stiffened. Her smile popped like a balloon.

‘I know you’ll have the same first thoughts as me about that, given that we both know the inner workings of Selcouth well enough,’ Hal said, lowering his voice and taking a step closer to speak under his breath.

He joined her in leaning on the short stable door that was half swung open, both of them folding their arms on the top of the wood and staring ahead into the stable, watching as Mage returned to his hay bundle now that apples were off the menu.

‘A kid talking to spirits, holding her own accidental seance, potent necromancy at the ripe age of fifteen...Not a recipe that’s going to go over too well with the elders. ’

Annie glanced wordlessly across at him, her heart pounding. Did he know something?

‘A teenage girl sensing an otherworldly presence is not something to write home about,’ Hal continued, as though he were contemplating his own thoughts as they tumbled out.

‘But if they’re communicating back with her?

Using her as a mouth piece or channelling through her?

Something’s going on here. Pardon the pun, but. ..well, that spells trouble.’

Annie’s breath hitched as she tried to formulate what to say next, how to quell Hal’s suspicions as quickly as possible.

But she couldn’t rally her imagination quick enough to fix it.

She felt like a moth flying dangerously close to a flame, frantically flapping her wings to stay afloat without touching the fire.

The spell was already failing – maybe her decision to end its hold had already affected its potency.

Instead of an appeasing answer to fix things, Annie only found herself firing up, irked and defensive at the suspicion in his voice.

None of this was a reflection on Maeve; she owed it to the girl to make that abundantly clear.

‘Maeve is not trouble,’ she said firmly. The one, singular fierce flare of anger felt unfamiliar in its heat.

Hal faltered at her thunderous expression. ‘I’m not saying she is. She’s a good kid.’

‘Then what are you saying? What do you suggest? Why do I feel as though you’re about to come bounding in with some kind of grand plan?’

He looked a little startled. ‘I didn’t mean it that way, I didn’t mean that she’s trouble. I meant that it spells trouble, for us. Here. If we don’t figure out how to protect her properly.’

Annie blinked. ‘We’re an us?’

Hal’s cheeks flushed again and he shrugged, embarrassed.

‘Not an us, but...I don’t know. I just thought I’d ask whether you wanted somebody to talk to about it.

From my perspective, it’s looking like a lot of pressure and responsibility on your shoulders to make this right, all by yourself.

Sometimes it’s easier to fix things as an “us”. ’

Annie seemed to have frozen in body and mind.

A tumble of tangled thoughts flooded her head, so unfamiliar that she wasn’t sure how to translate them.

But somewhere in the mess she could recognize that, most of all, she felt relief.

There it was. An offer of support. A comfort so curious, but so entirely enveloping in its gentleness and sincerity, that she thought her knees might buckle.

Instead, she squeezed the top of the stable door tightly, feeling her nails sink into the damp wood.

She forced her gaze up to the tops of the trees and took a breath as her eyes and nose burned.

‘I’m not much of a talker,’ Hal said gruffly, apparently realizing that it was down to him to fill the silence a little further.

‘As you might have noticed by now. But I am a listener. Think that’s why the animals took a shining to me ever since I was a boy.

So...Not saying that you need to, of course.

But if you want to.’ He turned his head to face her and his hand hovered as though he were debating putting it over hers.

Instead, he gave his signature, conclusive tap to the top of the fence.

‘You can talk to me. I’d like to support you.

Whatever’s going on here, it’s a lot, but we’ll fix it together. ’

Annie couldn’t find any words that wouldn’t open undammable floodgates.

Instead she settled for a silent nod and hoped with all her heart that Hal would understand what she meant by that.

Life without the fading spell to promptly blunt the spikier feelings, to soften the landing of big thoughts, was already proving tough to navigate and it hadn’t even left her system yet.

‘Anyway, Mage needs a brushing and I know he’s eyeing up your braiding skills for that handsome tail of his. Can’t say mine are up to scratch. How about it? He might even let you add a few flowers if there’s apples to be paid.’

Hal dug into his satchel and pulled out a grooming brush, then offered it out to Annie. Their fingertips grazed with the slightest touch.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered under her breath. Firstly to him for the brush, and secondly to whichever supernatural forces had been at play in ensuring those friendship fancies had been quite such a potent recipe.