LITMIR.BIZ

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know the name of. She skimmed her fingers across the leaves, breathing in the mix of fragrances, trying to calm herself. There were some vegetable seedlings and some winter lettuces too; for one insane moment Merry wondered whether she could just stay here, eat the herbs and the salad leaves, refuse to come out until all this nonsense with the trinket box and the mad Saxon boy had gone away, or been dealt with by someone else …

       What if I could go back in time to last Monday, and not open the box? Or go back to when I was twelve, and not take the test?

      But life couldn’t be unravelled, and there really were no fairy godmothers to wave their sparkly wands and make everything better. The stuff with Alex had taught her that lesson. She picked up the mint and headed back to the house.

      When she pushed open the door, Leo was sitting with his head in his hands, fingertips pressed against his eyes. Gran was talking, but she broke off and bit her lip as Merry entered.

      Merry looked from one to the other.

      ‘What’s going on?’

      ‘Nothing, dear.’ Gran took the mint, rinsed it, dropped it into the teapot and poured boiling water on top of it. The scent filled the room. ‘I was just saying to Leo that I can summarise the rest of the story, then you can go home and get some rest. The breakdown of the sleeping spell seems to be gradual – otherwise the King of Hearts would be out attacking people every night – so we can talk more later about preparation, training and so on. But you must both promise not to say a word about this to your mother. Her reaction would definitely be … unhelpful.’

      Merry hesitated.

      Leo straightened up and patted the chair next to him.

      ‘Gran’s promised to keep it brief. And sanitised.’ He smiled at her, though there was something wrong with the smile –

       It’s his eyes. In his eyes, all I can see is panic.

      But she didn’t really have any option.

      ‘OK.’ She sat down.

       I’m guessing no one’s going to live happily ever after …

      Merry remembered nothing about the drive home from Gran’s, apart from the silence. Neither Leo nor she had spoken.

      Now they were outside their house, still sitting in the car, listening to the rain as it plummeted from the sullen sky and thumped off the roof and windscreen.

      Gran’s summary had been brutally brief. As Gwydion’s curse took hold, Jack spent more time transformed into the King of Hearts, and the wizard began sending him out to kill. He cut out the hearts of those in love with an enchanted sword and took the hearts back to Gwydion, so the wizard could use them to increase his mastery of dark magic. The murders, and the evil spells the wizard was using, began to blight the kingdom. Crops failed, the population dwindled, and the lives of Edith and Aiden were overshadowed by grief. Anwen’s three daughters, bound by their mother’s promise, wanted to find a way to free Jack from the curse and kill Gwydion. But they soon discovered that the wizard had protected his life and linked it to Jack’s through a powerful enchantment: they could not destroy Gwydion without first overthrowing this enchantment. And they realised they didn’t have the power to do it.

      Still, Gwydion had to be stopped. So, the sisters bought time: they put both Jack and Gwydion into an enchanted sleep. One of the sisters, the youngest, vowed that she – or one of her descendants – would one day return to finally defeat the wizard.

      Oh, and the name of the youngest witch was Meredith.

       Because, obviously, if you want to protect your daughter from an Anglo-Saxon magical oath, the one thing you should definitely do is give her the same name as the person who swore the oath in the first place.

      According to Gran, everyone else in the family thought the name was unlucky, but Mum had chosen it because ‘she just wanted to be difficult.’

       Way to go, Mum.

      And that was it. Now Jack had woken up, and Gwydion could wake up at any minute, and the stuff in the box was supposed to help Merry kill the wizard – whatever that entailed.

      The anger boiled up again inside Merry’s chest.

      ‘I don’t want to have to deal with this, Leo! I know my life isn’t perfect, or super-worthwhile or anything, but it’s my life. I should have a say – I should get to choose whether I want to face some evil wizard or not. But instead, just because some – some insane relative of ours from hundreds of years ago decided to swear an oath – I’m stuck, I’m—’

      She screamed and pounded her fists up and down on the dashboard.

      ‘Merry, calm down.’

      ‘I don’t want to calm down! I don’t see why this should all fall on me! You’re just as much a descendent of Meredith as I am. And you’re older, and way smarter. Its just totally sexist that men can’t be witches, and – and …’ She got out of the car and slammed the door as hard as she could. Leo followed her.

      ‘Hey, watch it! There’s no reason to try and smash up my car.’

      ‘Do I look like I care about your stupid car?’

      ‘None of this is my fault. All I want to do is help you.’ Leo tried to wipe some of the rain off his face with his sleeve. ‘Look, let’s go inside. We’re going to get soaked standing out here.’

      ‘Stop being so bloody reasonable, Leo! You really don’t get it, do you? What’s the point in worrying about the rain when I’m probably going to – to—’

      Pain seared Merry’s fingers.

       Oh God, no. Not now –

      Merry dug her fingernails into her palms, trying to stop her anger in its tracks, but it was too late. She spun away from Leo, flung her hands out –

      It was like someone had turned down the volume on the whole world. In that moment of stillness long tendrils, black and thorny, erupted from the ground in front of her. They rippled in the air, waving back and forth almost as if they were looking for something …

      ‘What – the hell – is that?’ Leo’s voice was shaking. He edged closer to the tendrils, stretching out a hand.

      ‘Get out of the way!’

      Leo threw himself sideways as the tendrils lashed out. He wasn’t quite quick enough: blood welled up from a long scratch on the side of his neck. Behind him, the tendrils fastened on to a big camellia bush right next to where he had been standing – ripped it out of the ground – dragged it back into the hole from which they had sprung. The earth collapsed back on itself and was still.

      Merry stared at the broken ground.

       I nearly killed him. I nearly –

       What’s wrong with me?

      ‘Leo, I’m so sorry.’

      Leo was still sitting on the ground, one hand pressed to the side of his neck.

      ‘How did you do that, Merry? How? And why?’

      ‘I didn’t mean to! I don’t know …’

      ‘Because you told me you could only do small-scale stuff. That,’ he stood up and pointed to where the bush used to stand, ‘that was not small-scale. How did you do it?’

      ‘Honestly, Leo, I don’t know.’ She stepped towards him.

      Leo backed away.

      Merry flinched. It felt as though he’d just slapped her.

      ‘Leo—’

      He held up his hand to silence her.

      ‘I just need a few minutes, Merry. I have to get my head round … whatever this is.’

      ‘But

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