The Witches of the Glass Castle (The Witches of the Glass Castle Series Book 1) (11 page)

‘I thought it was a lucky feather,’ she justified.

Colt fell back
wards laughing.

Mia pouted. ‘Well, I still don’t know how I did it.’

‘You did it because you needed to,’ he explained, composing himself and sitting back upright. ‘You feared us and you wanted the feather to distract us. Am I correct?’

‘Yes,’ she admitted.

‘Use that fear. Use that need. Become it.’

‘Will you help me?’ Mia asked meekly.

‘No.’

‘But, we’ll speak again?’ she pressed.

‘I hope not.’ Colt smiled slightly. Then all of a sudden he tensed, like an animal under attack. ‘Lotan,’ he murmured. ‘Lotan is near,’ he told Mia. ‘Go!’ His eyes were filled with sudden urgency.

Mia rose to her feet.

‘Go faster!’ Colt hissed. And with a swift raise of his hand, he enveloped her in a forceful gust of air, propelling her backwards.

She landed several metres away, her fall cushioned by a cluster of leaves. Dazed, Mia sat up among the foliage, but when she looked back to the willow tree Colt was gone.

Mia returned to the castle with a spring in her step. It was still early, but she guessed that the others would be up and about by now. She trotted along the corridor and peeked around the drawing-room door. Sure enough, several Arcana were dotted around the room, polishing off plates of buttered toast. Mia spotted Dino, Kizzy and Blue congregated in the far corner of the room.

Dino, look at me
, Mia thought. And to her surprise, he did. Kizzy and Blue turned, too.

From the doorway, Mia beckoned them to her.

The little group rose from their seats and quietly made their exit. They followed Mia along the narrow corridor until they reached the library. Mia jostled them into the unoccupied room and closed the door behind them.

In the windowless library, the musty smell of books and centuries of candle smoke lingered in the air. Mia quickly lit a candle to illuminate the dim room. Then she turned to face the others, her face aglow in the candlelight.

‘I have to tell you something,’ she began. ‘I can’t keep it to myself any longer.’

The others waited for her to elaborate, their expressions eager.

‘I’m a Tempestos,’ she announced proudly.

‘You’re asbestos?
’ Dino frowned. ‘I think we had that in the roof once.’

‘No,’
said Mia, rolling her eyes at him. ‘Not asbestos, dummy.
Tempestos
.’

Blue cleared his throat. ‘Actually, I-
I think the word is, Tempest
us
.’

Mia waved her hand
. ‘Same thing. Anyway, I’m one.’

Kizzy began clapping
. ‘Congratulations!’

Mia beamed. ‘I can influence the elements! Can you believe it?’

‘How did you figure it out?’ Kizzy asked.

‘Someone told me,’ she replied evasively. For some reason, she felt reluctant to divulge any information about her interactions with Colt. She feared that her alliance with a Hunter would be a taboo issue.

But Kizzy didn’t give up that easily. ‘Who told you?’

‘Some guy,’ Mia said casually. ‘But that’s not important. The important thing is, I’m a Tempestos!’

‘Tempest
us
,’ Blue corrected her again quietly.

Tol!
Dino suddenly thought, reminded of the sinister man he had encountered the night before. ‘Who was the guy?’

‘Just a guy,’ Mia answered
.

‘Older?’ Dino pressed
.

Mia thought back to her conversation with Colt. He had told her that he was eighteen, which made him two years her senior. ‘A litt
le older,’ she replied.

Dino felt his stomach knot. Instantly he concluded that Tol had found Mia and offered her the promise of power, just as he had done with Dino. And Mia had fallen for it.

‘Did he tell you his name?’ Dino asked her.

Mia glar
ed at him, irritably. ‘What does it matter what his name was?’

‘It matters,’ he stated. ‘Some strange guy appears out of nowhere and tells
you that you’ve got a kick-ass power. You don’t think that’s a little off?’

Mia blanked him out. ‘Can you imagine,’ she gushed to Kizzy and Blue. ‘I can control the elements! Me!’

‘Wow!’ Kizzy cheered. ‘Show us something.’

Mia shifted her weight from left to right. ‘Well,’ she fiddled with a thread on her top, ‘I can’t exactly do it yet. But I’m working on it. And the guy I met, I think he’s going to help
me.’

‘Are you insane?’ Dino spluttered. ‘I hate to burst your little bubble, but this freak is scamming you. He’s making you believe that you have a power and that he can help you, but it’s all a con to trap you!’

‘That’s not it at all!’ Mia protested.

‘How can you be such an idiot?’ he exclaimed.

‘Perhaps I am an idiot. An idiot to think that my brother would be pleased for me.’

Dino shook his head solemnly. ‘If you are so blind to think that this
man has got your best interests–’

‘Maybe you’re jealous because you want to be the only one with a power,’ she cha
llenged, cutting him off. ‘In fact, you said it yourself, didn’t you? You hope I never get a power,’ she recounted his words from the night before.

Dino narrowed his eyes. ‘Suit yourself.
Act like a reckless little kid if you want. But don’t come crying to me when it all blows up in your face. You’re on your own.’

Mia held his ga
ze. ‘I’m not on my own,’ she shot back. ‘I don’t need you.’ She turned to Kizzy. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Kizzy looked
between the siblings. ‘Guys, don’t leave it like this. Can you sort it out?’

‘Ask him,’ Mia thumbed towards Dino. ‘He’s the jealous one.’

He scoffed. ‘I would never be jealous of you!’

‘Then you’re just plain nasty,’ she replied hotly.
Without another word, she turned and stormed into the corridor. Kizzy followed, leaving the boys alone in the library.

Dino looked sceptically at Blue. ‘Why did you encourage her? You really think she’s this asbestos thing?’

‘Tempestus.’ Blue shrugged diplomatically. ‘Maybe.’

‘No way.’

‘What makes you s-so sure she’s n-not?’

‘Because it’s all too convenient, if you ask me,’ Dino mused. ‘She met a guy and he told her what she wanted to hear.’

‘Possibly,’ Blue agreed. ‘But maybe he t-told her the t-truth. What reason would someone in the Glass Castle have to l-lie to her? What would they have to gain?’

‘Exactly!’ Dino concurred, as though Blue had made a point rather than asked a question. ‘And I know just the culprit.’

Blue’s honey-coloured eyes rounded. ‘Who?’

‘Something happened last night,’ Dino
explained, ‘when I was out looking for Mia.’

Blue’s
cynical expression altered to intrigue.

Dino carried on, ‘This foul, shifty-looking guy showed up out of nowhere, telling me about my power and asking me to join him.’

‘What?’ Blue furrowed his brow. ‘Who?’

‘He called himself Tol.’ As Dino spoke the man’s name, the flame of a nearby candle flickered agitatedly.

The boys eyed it, unnerved by its movement.

Then Blue spoke,
‘I’ve been at the Glass Castle for a y-year, and I’ve never met anyone called T-Tol. What did he look like?’

Dino grimaced. ‘Like a monster. He could have been a Hunter, but even less human than the Hunters around here. He wanted me to join his coven. And I’m willing to bet that it wouldn’t be me who would benefit from that little merger.’

Blue glanced around the dark room, as though suddenly even the books were potential spies. ‘What did he want you for?’

Dino shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Recruiting, maybe?’

‘Did you t-tell Wendolyn?’

‘No,’ Dino confessed. ‘I was all the way out at the forest boundaries, and I’m not looking for a lecture. Know what I mean?’

Blue held his hands up impassively. ‘And now you think this g-guy is after Mia?’

‘I know it,’ Dino insisted. ‘But he’ll have to go through me first.’

Something about his final words was more ill-omened than even he could have comprehended.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, until at last the sun disappeared and night-time set in. Mia and Kizzy spent most of the evening lounging around Mia’s bedchamber, chatting and swapping stories.

Kizzy hopped up on to Mia’s bed. ‘And now,’ she was saying, ‘I can almost will a vision to come to me. They’re so clear and distinct, it’s like they’re real.’

‘Are they like
the visions we get from the tea?’ Mia asked. She sat on the bed opposite Kizzy, her legs tucked underneath her.

‘Sort of,’ Kizzy answered
. ‘But they’re much clearer, and sometimes I can watch them for almost an entire minute. It isn’t just a glimpse any more – it’s the whole picture.’

‘That sounds amazing,’ Mia breathed in awe. ‘What kind of things have you seen?’

‘Um…’ Kizzy pondered over it. ‘Yesterday morning I saw a fox, and then in the evening I saw the fox run through the garden.’

‘Cool! Have you seen any warning signs?’ Mia asked, half in jest.

Kizzy looked away. ‘Some,’ she replied, gazing up at the carved canopy of the four-poster bed.

‘Really?’ Mia’s slate-grey ey
es sparkled. ‘What have you seen?’

‘I don’t know. Nothing major.’

Mia paused. ‘Is something wrong? Is there something you don’t want to tell me about the visions?’

Kizzy returned her focus to Mia. ‘It’s nothing. I don’t want to worry you.’

‘Worry
me
?’ Mia frowned. ‘Why would they worry me?’

Kizzy bit her lip.

‘Oh, my God!’ Mia gasped. ‘Are the visions about me?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe one of them
might
have involved you…’

‘What was it?’ Mia pressed.

‘I don’t want to frighten you.’ Kizzy chewed on her thumbnail.

‘I’m already frightened!’ Mia exclaimed. ‘Please, you have to tell me. Besides, don’t you get these visions for a reason? Maybe you’re
supposed
to warn me.’

‘And then perhaps you could avoid it,’ Kizzy added, brightening at the prospect.

‘Well, yeah, here’s hoping!’

‘Are you sure you want to know? No matter how bad it is? Not that it’s
that
bad,’ Kizzy was beginning to babble now. ‘In fact, it’s practically nothing. Nothing to worry about, at least.’

‘Go on,’ Mia agreed, bracing herself. ‘Tell me.’

With a reluctant sigh, Kizzy surrendered. ‘OK.’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘You remember the Hunter, Colt?’

‘Yes,’ said Mia,
trying to sound indifferent. She certainly hadn’t expected Kizzy to bring up Colt.

‘Well,’ Kizzy continued as she toyed with a strand of blonde hair, twirling it around her index finger, ‘I saw him…with you.’

Mia began to relax. That wasn’t so bad.

‘And,’ Kizzy went on, ‘he was holding a…uh …knife.’

‘A knife?’ Mia mulled it over. ‘Maybe I bump into him when he’s carrying a knife. It happens. Not that I’m expecting to bump into him or anything,’ she put in hastily.

‘Sure,’ Kizzy agreed. ‘But…uh …he was holding the knife over you, and you were, um…what’s the word?’

‘Happy?’ Mia offered.

‘No, not happy.
More like…dead.’

‘Dead!’ Mia cried. ‘You said it was nothing to worry about!’

‘Because I didn’t want to worry you! That’s what people say when they don’t want people to worry!’

Mia clutched at her heart. ‘I’m dead?’ she murmured.

‘Not yet,’ Kizzy smiled supportively. ‘I mean, not
ever
,’ she corrected herself quickly.

‘Are you sure it was me?’

‘Look,’ said Kizzy, tactfully dodging the question, ‘it doesn’t mean anything. It was probably just a warning, to scare us away from the forest. It’ll be fine.’

‘That’s easy for you to
say,’ Mia grumbled. ‘You’re not dead!’

‘Neither are you,’ Kizzy reasoned.

Mia flopped backwards on to her bed and buried her face into a pillow.

‘There, there,’ Kizzy consoled her rather unhelpfully. She patted her friend on the head. ‘You’ve had a good life.’

Mia groaned into her pillow.

There was a loud knock on the bedroom door.

The girls gasped and looked at one another wide-eyed.

‘Colt,’ Mia whispered. She sat bolt upright and clung on to Kizzy for dear life.