Page 57 of Uncharmed

‘Good job I’m not precious about this place.

Look at the state of you,’ Hal said grumpily, hands firmly lodged in his pockets.

But he couldn’t hide it, his voice softened as Maeve burst towards him in an uncontrolled, slightly flailing hug.

Hal gave a half-smile down at the top of her head. ‘Hey, kid.’

Suddenly aware of her mortifying burst of affection, Maeve broke free and took a step back, pushing up her glasses and tucking her hair behind her ears.

She looked up at them both, trying to assess their true reaction to her arrival.

A moment later, she frowned, eyeing up Annie in Hal’s shirt. ‘Why are you wearing that?’

Her mouth dropped open once the calculation was complete.

‘Oh, pur-lease do not tell me I have just walked in on you two...getting it on,’ Maeve said, grimacing.

‘Maeve! Absolutely not. I got here moments before you did,’ Annie said, her voice wandering into a high octave of embarrassment as she ushered the girl towards the kitchen.

She conjured a fluffy towel into her left hand and wrapped up Maeve’s hair into a pile on top of her head.

Maeve promptly shoved it off and an effortless incantation dried her hair into its normal sleek, straight style.

‘Thank the universe for that. I don’t mind you two being together. In fact, it’s about time you figured it out. But I absolutely forbid you getting it on while I’m in a two-mile radius of the house. Understood?’

‘We’re under the Cadmus dictatorship already, are we?’ Hal asked, leaning against the staircase with folded arms. ‘You’ve only just got here.’

‘No time for that now, pirate cowboy,’ Maeve muttered as she unceremoniously dumped her backpack on the dining table. ‘We need to talk.’

‘Is that right? Maeve, why do I get the feeling that nobody knows you’re here?’ Annie asked.

‘All in good time, my friend. Can I get a cup of coffee? I’ve thought about that maple blend probably five times a day since we all went our separate ways. And it’s been a long night. Transference really takes it out of you, doesn’t it?’

‘Did you...’ Realization dawned on Annie’s face. ‘Did you transfer here unsupervised? Maeve Cadmus, you know that you are not allowed to do that without an elder witch conducting the spell on your behalf,’ she said crossly.

Maeve scoffed. ‘I think a slap on the wrist from the coven is probably the least of our problems right now. Any biscuits to go with that coffee?’

Annie rolled her eyes, then headed over to the kitchen.

There was some unbaked ginger and chocolate-chip cookie dough that she’d prepared for the morning, currently unattended in the Celeste kitchen.

The bravery-laced brown butter that she’d used in the mixture might help to encourage Maeve to tell the truth about whatever it was that she had come back to them for.

‘Maeve,’ Hal said sincerely. ‘For once in your life, don’t be smart. No pirate jokes or cowboy puns when I ask you this. I need a straight answer from you, because we care about you above all else.’

Maeve only tugged at her sleeves, earning a resigned sigh from Hal.

‘Are you in danger, kid? Do we need to be worried?’

Maeve chanced a look back at him, knocked by his sincerity. She opened her mouth as though trying to figure out whether to give an honest answer, but then promptly closed it again. ‘I’m not sure. Maybe.’

‘What in the universe happened at the foster home?’ Annie called from the kitchen as the cookie dough arrived in a flourish of magic.

With another, sparks falling like pastel-coloured sprinkles across the tray, the cookies rose, bloomed and baked instantly, bringing a warming scent of ginger with them.

Annie scurried back to the table, heart racing.

Maeve began to fiddle with the petals of the pale blue hydrangeas that had been unceremoniously shoved into one of her old paint water jars in the middle of the table, a perfect, visual combination of the three of them.

She kicked a muddy boot against the skirting board.

Her reply was barely more than a mumble, but she was hiding a smile.

‘The weirdest thing happened. Their curtains caught on fire.’

Once an appropriate number of cookies had been inhaled by all three inhabitants of Arden Place – and once its fourth had been summoned in a cloud of fur and whiskers – Annie steeled herself for a serving of tough love.

She could sense that what Maeve required in that moment was belief, support and a promise that she would be taken seriously.

‘We made a deal. Biscuits from me, the truth from you,’ said Annie.

‘And what does Hal bring to the table?’ Maeve said sulkily.

‘I seem to remember this was my house at one point,’ Hal answered with a scowl. ‘Although maybe I’m mistaken. Feels impossible to imagine it now without you two here, taking over my life.’

Annie noted that the latter part, which was probably intended to be a dig, sounded much more pleased than grumpy. Karma must have noted it, too. She gave him a mrow that might as well have been accompanied by an ‘oh please’, before she dismissively returned to grooming her exceptionally tufty ears.

‘We’re waiting,’ Annie said to Maeve, sounding a little too authoritative for her liking. She softened her tone. ‘What did I say when we first met? You can tell me anything.’

Maeve frowned harder. ‘You’re not going to like it.’

‘I very rarely like anything you have to say and you’re still here drinking all the coffee, aren’t you?’ Hal said. He nudged the plate of cookies over in Maeve’s direction. She chewed thoughtfully for a minute while Annie and Hal exchanged increasingly worried glances over the top of her head.

‘I made contact.’

Annie blinked. ‘With who?’

Maeve looked miffed. ‘The spirit. You know, the one that was haunting me day in, day out? The voice and the presence and all that other cool, slightly creepy stuff.’

‘Maeve! What have I told you about dabbling in Necromancy?’

‘I know, I know, keep your hair on. But at least hear me out before you completely flip your lid.’

Annie huffed. ‘I thought that problem had improved once we talked about it?’ It dawned on her that, even without the hex nearby each night, summoning spirits to haunt Maeve’s deepest and darkest dreams, this particular presence was still evidently determined to remain close by. There might be good reason for it.

‘It did, for a bit. But then it didn’t. And I know what you’re going to think, but something inside of me – that witch instinct that you’re always banging on about – I just knew that I had to speak to them. Her. I knew that she had something to tell me.’

Annie faltered at this new detail. ‘She?’

Maeve nodded.

Annie tried to jump from one logical stepping stone to the next.

‘And what did she have to say for herself, then, this mystery spirit?’

‘Well, that’s the problem.’ Maeve hesitated, frustrated.

‘My intuition felt like it was on fire from the minute I left this place. I thought the presence was strong while I was here, but the first night I found myself on my own again, she followed me – and it was like everything was flashing red. Like she had a warning for me. I knew I needed to talk to her, that she had something to tell me. So I tried to make it happen, but I couldn’t hold up the necromancy spell.

I tried to follow the instructions in my grimoire, but the connection kept dropping.

I had no clue what I was even trying to do. ’

‘You’re telling me you’ve never had a casual chat with a haunted spirit before, kid? Sounds very unlike you.’ Maeve shot Hal a look and he pulled a face back.

‘I think...I think she’s trying to tell me I’m in trouble,’ Maeve finished uncertainly.

‘Then we need to speak to her. Properly,’ Hal said, slapping his thighs decisively. ‘We’ve all learned that your intuition is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. So this is something we can orchestrate. Together.’

‘And what are you proposing, exactly? A seance?’ Annie squeaked as he rose.

The idea was entirely preposterous. She had always firmly believed that no good could come from that kind of sinister magic. She had experienced it for herself, dragged under in a sweeping sea of Splendidus Infernum . It had brought her nothing but heartbreak.

‘Well, why not? The kid has already made contact, she’s opened up the gate to whatever or whoever this spirit is.

And they’re not going to leave her alone until we figure out what their problem is.

In fact, this spirit girl is probably already here,’ Hal said, so casually that Annie felt like throwing her biscuit at his head.

‘Absolutely not,’ she said firmly, slicing the air. ‘Out of the question.’

‘But that’s why I’m here, that’s why I came back – for you to help me get it right. It’s Halloween! The timing is fate,’ Maeve said, her voice whining as she stamped her finger onto the table for emphasis.

Annie frowned, realizing that, yes, perhaps Maeve was right about that, as usual...But it wasn’t as simple as that. She grasped at any possible reason as to why this would all be a terrible idea.

‘Even if we wanted to,’ Annie tried, ‘we would need some kind of imagery or beloved connection to the spirit to guarantee success. A photo, an object...Seances never work properly without some kind of identifiable tie to the spirit – and we don’t even know who she is.

You can’t just open up a random connection, Maeve.

I understand you might like the idea of a ghosty gal pal, but. ..’

‘It’s her.’ Maeve blurted it out. She promptly began to chew on the inside of her cheek, as though she regretted saying it out loud.

Hesitantly, Maeve reached under the dining table to unzip her backpack and pulled out the fullest sketchbook of her collection.

She dropped it onto the table with a thud that sent Karma’s ears scooting back.

She flicked through the pages, reams and reams of the same sketches, over and over.

The dark-haired girl she had drawn.

‘That’s who’s been trying to talk to me,’ Maeve said.

‘That’s why I’ve been trying to draw her for such a long time.

I’ve always been able to see her in my mind, then it got stronger when my magic kicked in.

I’ve spent ages trying to piece her face together as she’s become more in focus for me.

Then it all got sharper and clearer when we came to Arden Place and I saw her. I need to speak to her.’

Annie faltered. She had assumed the girl was a crush from school, maybe a book character that Maeve had a soft spot for. But this was the spirit who had, for one reason or another, chosen Maeve as her conduit.

The sketches had become even more detailed, more realistic over time, until the most recent rendered like a photographed portrait through Maeve’s artistic talent. As she examined them more closely, a new suspicion began to creep in for Annie. It couldn’t be possible...could it?

‘Well, this is all very intriguing, isn’t it?

’ Annie said, shaking her head effusively even as her cheeks began to turn red.

‘But, young witch, if you think I am allowing you to hold your very first seance at fifteen years old for an unidentified, troubled phantom, I think you’ll find that you are very much mistaken. ’

An hour later, Hal and Annie were preparing as best they knew how for a young witch to hold her very first seance at fifteen years old for an unidentified, troubled phantom.