2 Witch and Famous (12 page)

I opened my senses as wide as I dared, taking in the feel of the people around me, searching for some hint of that feeling that signified another like me. There, up further, heading into the castle, I felt the sharp otherness of another enchanter. It had to be Niall.

There was a line waiting to get in. I ignored it, pushing power into the men who tried to step into my path so hard that they practically fell to their knees as they let me pass. I headed up through the winding complexity of the old fortress, which had stood up to wars and the displeasure of kings, but really wouldn’t want to be in the way of my current mood.

The castle. I’d been here before, once, at school, as a child. My main memory of it was of getting lost in its maze of corridors and having to call out for help. As a child, it had seemed such a huge, intimidating place. As an adult, it had seemed like the kind of place to ignore as a tourist trap, the kind of place to quietly laugh about busloads of people from south of the border coming up to see while I got to see all the “real” places in the city. As an enchantress, it looked completely different.

For a start, I could feel all the layers of history that had seeped into the stone around me. Not in the way that some of the tourists around me would probably claim to feel it. Even the ones with their own “ghost-busting” equipment were deluding themselves. Instead, I could feel layer upon layer of emotion, from the most recent blend of curiosity and impatience belonging to the tourists around me, through the pain of wars and the glory of state occasions, all the way back to the toil and effort of the castle’s builders.

More importantly, I could see what a perfect hunting ground the place made for an enchantress. All those nooks and crannies dotted around gave someone like me the perfect places in which to trap a human and feed. All those areas that were marked off limits to the general public, in which a skilled hunter could lurk and draw a victim…beckoned. All those potential victims wandering around in their little groups, or better yet, trying to hang back to get the feeling of independence from their tour party. It was tempting. The dark, hungry part of me whispered just how easy it would be to send a tendril of interest over to one of them, to draw them back into a dark spot where I could feed.

I ignored my hunger, looking through the crowd, following the feeling of an enchanter until I saw…

Niall was ahead of me. There was no mistaking his bright halo of blond hair, even in the midst of the crowd. His clothes were more subdued than usual, though. A simple dark jacket and jeans seemed so out of place on him but fit so well with the rest of the crowd that he was practically invisible in it. From the way he moved carefully through the groups of people, never striding, never looking up, I guessed that was his intention. I could
feel
that was his intention, because ahead of me I could feel the steady pulse of power, encouraging people to look away. Encouraging eyes to slide right off him.

Mine might have done the same, had my other, more magical, senses not been so carefully fixed on the idea of him. I knew from experience that what Niall was doing was almost as good as being invisible. I’d used the technique myself to persuade an art gallery full of people to look away while I’d threatened Rebecca once.

There could be only one reason for Niall to do it now.

He was hunting.

I had been planning to confront Niall straight away when I found him. If I’d found him. I had been planning to walk up to him and demand answers, and this time not to accept “tomorrow” as an answer. Now, though, I found myself falling into step behind him, pushing out my own “don’t notice me” signals to the crowd around me. If I followed, I could see what he was going to do. I
had
to see what he was going to do. If I saw it with my own eyes, then there could be no doubt left. There would be no more avoiding it. I would know what he was. Everything that he was.

And if I caught him in the act, I resolved that I would do what I needed to do to keep him from hurting or killing anyone else. Regardless of the way my heart protested at the thought. So, I followed without taking action yet, watching as Niall moved through the crowd, looking this way and that with occasional hurried glances. Did he know I was behind him? I didn’t think so, but…

But if not, what was he doing? Picking out a target? Perhaps he was just making sure that he had a clear line of escape picked out. A spot in which to feed. If he did find a target to his liking, what then? At what point should I intervene? When he chose them? When he moved in? When he dragged them away to some hidden spot to take their energy? After that, when he was sated? How far would he feed? To the death? Would he leave behind the empty shell of some tourist? No. Surely, he would just—

Then, suddenly, I saw
her
.

Victoria was up on the battlements, looking out over the city from a spot next to the largest of the castle’s cannons. She was elegantly dressed in dark pants and a cream silk t-shirt, her hair moving slightly in the breeze that high up. There were steps in front of her, but Niall stepped past them, avoiding her line of sight and moving toward a second set that was maybe a hundred yards further along.

He was stalking her, I was sure of it. It was too much of a coincidence to believe that after Jessica’s death at the hands of an enchanter, Niall should just
happen
to show up at a place where her lover was taking in the sights. He’d come for her.

What he intended to do with her, I didn’t know. Did he want to frighten Victoria off? To merely start the process of feeding from her? To kill her? Given what had happened to Jessica, I knew I couldn’t take the risk. I had to get her to safety.

  I sprinted up the steps in front of me. Unlike Niall, I didn’t care if Victoria saw me or not.

“Elle?” She looked at me in obvious surprise, her hand going up to her throat.

“There’s no time to explain what I’m doing here.” I reached out, grabbing her arm. “You need to come with me, right now.”

“But—”

“Victoria, I believe your life is in imminent danger. Come on. No, not that way. Back down the stairs.”

I practically dragged her along after me, leading her down the stairs as quickly as I could. After the first few yards, her mouth opened in a question, but I shook my head.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” I said.

I glanced back, but there was no sign of Niall. That had to be a good thing. My best chance of getting Victoria out of there safely was if he didn’t spot us. If he didn’t have the opportunity to give chase. I just had to hope that the slow movement of the tour parties kept him from viewing our progress from the top of the wall for long enough. I put my arm around Victoria’s waist, walking her back through the castle toward the exit, forcing her to keep moving.

“Elle, what’s going on?” she demanded, about halfway there. “I mean, you say my life is in danger. Does that mean—”

“Right now, the man who killed Jessica is in this castle,” I said, and as I said it, I knew it had to be true. The only reason Niall might be here stalking Victoria was if he had killed Jessica and wanted to finish the job. Maybe he’d even set it up like this, feeding on one of them, and then putting himself in a position to feed on the other.

Victoria stopped. “If you know who it is, and he’s here, we shouldn’t leave. We should call the police. We need to—”

“No police. You need to run. Now.” I shoved her a pace or two in the direction of the exit. “Get out of here, go home, lock the doors and don’t let anyone in except for me. I’ll deal with things here.”

“You promise?” Victoria looked at me seriously. “Promise me that the man who did this to Jess isn’t getting away with it?”

I nodded. “I promise. Now run for it. Before it is too late.”

She ran. I turned back toward the battlements, thinking about the promise I had just made, and how I was going to manage to keep it.

By the time Niall made it up there, I was sitting on the cannon. It was the kind of thing that people were explicitly banned from doing, but right then, I was pushing out a flat wall of inattention, so it wasn’t like anyone was exactly going to tell me to stop. Besides, I wanted to make an impression.

I did. Niall saw me as he reached the top of the steps. I had the brief satisfaction of seeing his eyes widen in surprise that I had tailed him there. I could feel the shock coming off him, and the hurt. No, that wasn’t right.
He
didn’t get to be the hurt one in this situation. Not after what he’d done.

“Well, well,” I said. “Come here often?”

“What are you
doing
here, Elle?” he asked as he came forward. I could feel him pushing people out as hard as I was, making our own private little bubble in the middle of the crowd. People walked around us without even knowing that they were doing it, giving us a wide berth of three or four yards on either side.

“What am I doing here?” I shook my head. “Perhaps I should be asking what
you
are doing here, Niall?”

He hesitated, and I could feel the conflicting emotions coming out of him in a tangle too complicated to unpick.

“Don’t even think about holding something back from me,” I snapped. I’d had enough. I stepped forward, jabbing him in his chest with a finger. “I am sick of the secrets you’ve been keeping from me.”

“If I have kept secrets,” Niall insisted, “it was for your own protection. There are things that I was worried about telling you, things that might have made our relationship too complicated. And things that would have hurt you more than I could stand.”

“Like what?” I demanded. “Like you being a murderer?”

“A what? Elle, are you mad? Do you really believe that I would do something like that?”

“What else can I think?”

I could feel the fury rising in him as his back stiffened and he shifted into something that wasn’t quite a defensive stance. Like he thought I might attack him there and then. Or maybe the point was that the words were enough of an attack. Niall froze, staring at me. His expression was cold, but I could feel the heat of his anger beneath it all too easily.

Not that being able to feel his emotions had helped me before. It should have meant that we had no secrets from one another, but time and again, he’d shown me that it didn’t work like that.

“You think I would lie to you?” Niall asked.

I laughed. “Yes. Yes, Niall, I think you would lie to me. Constantly. Totally. When we first met, you completely deceived me. You tricked me about what you were. You lied to me about your ‘stolen’ painting.”

“You know why I did all that. I wanted to meet you. I couldn’t just walk up to you and introduce myself on the street. You would have run. If not from me, then from what you were.” He paused. “You truly believe that I killed this woman whose death you are investigating?”

“Jessica. Her name was Jessica Hammersmith. After everything you’ve done, at least have the courtesy to use it.” His anger might be bubbling up under the surface, but right then, mine was blazing hotter. He wasn’t going to get to deny his involvement in this.