LITMIR.BIZ

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had felt when she realised what she’d done to Alex – that terrifying sense of her own potential for evil – rose up inside her again as strong as ever. What if she was really dangerous? What if they decided she was just as bad as Gwydion? Would they turn on her?

      ‘Merry,’ Gran was beckoning to her, ‘come here.’

      Merry hesitated.

       This is ridiculous. That’s your grandmother over there. She’s not about to transform you into a frog.

      She walked over to the coven, head held high.

      ‘Well?’

      ‘We’ve decided,’ Gran stared around the ring of women, as though daring anyone to challenge her, ‘that your training may need a – a different approach. Usually the whole coven would be involved in training a witch, but for the time being you’ll work mostly with me, and occasionally with Roshni and Sophia. Your abilities are clearly very unusual: virtually non-existent in some areas, highly developed in others. To be honest, it’s not something any of us have come across before.’

      ‘If anyone was to ask me,’ began Flo’s mum, ‘I’d say what she’s done is – well, it’s not natural. Not at all how any true witch would go about things.’ She backed away a little as Gran turned to glare at her.

      ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Denise, do stop being ridiculous! Merry’s abilities are most likely to do with who she is. What she is.’ Gran paused, but Denise didn’t seem inclined to argue. ‘Well, we’re done for today, ladies.’ The witches separated. Some stayed and chatted, but Merry noticed Denise hustling Flo straight out of the room.

      Merry pressed her fingers to her forehead, trying to push away the headache building behind her eyes. Gran hugged her.

      ‘You can go too, Merry; I’ll call you later. Unless there’s anything you want to ask me now?’

      Merry shook her and turned away. She’d remembered what Leo said, the night they found the trinket box. That she would be the kind of witch who eats children.

       So I’m not going to ask Gran who I am, or what I am. Somehow, I don’t think I’d like the answer.

      It was the next day, and Merry was sitting in the garden shed. The shed was full of spiders, but that meant Mum wouldn’t expect her to be in there. Merry was pretty certain her mother had put some kind of eavesdropping spell on the main house.

      She settled herself on an old bag of potting compost and thought about practising her witch fire spell, before deciding she was too tired and pulling out the manuscript instead.

      ‘Hello, manuscript.’

       Eala, Merry.

      ‘So … can we get into Gwydion’s fortress through a tunnel system that runs under the lake?’

       No.

      Merry sighed and crossed ‘tunnel’ off the list in her notebook. Other suggestions the manuscript had rejected included a secret entrance, a magic portal and a rip in the space-time continuum (Leo’s idea). Gran had tried putting charms on Merry to remove her fear of the water, but so far none of them had stuck. Merry wasn’t surprised, given she couldn’t even force herself to get into the local swimming pool.

       Maybe there’s something I can do to the water, instead of something being done to me?

      She thought back to the incident at Mrs Knox’s house.

       Maybe I can make the lake boil away? If I can figure out what the hell I did to the water in those jugs. Although, people might notice an entire lake disappearing …

      The whole magic thing was so confusing. She was frightened of being a witch, but she needed to be a witch. She had to try to be good at spells, but she felt sure she shouldn’t want to be good at spells. Why could she work some magic easily and some not at all? And were there going to be any more killer plants or other dangerous outbursts?

       Just a lot of questions. No answers.

      Shaking her head, she made a note to consider the boiling lake idea further, then went back to the list she’d already made.

      ‘OK. Is there a spell we can use to destroy the puppet hearts from a distance?’

       No.

      Another line through another list; they’d already run through variations on the idea of getting Jack to bring the hearts out of the lake (without, of course, revealing to him – and potentially the King of Hearts – exactly what they were attempting). Nothing doing there either, apparently.

      ‘Is Jack going to leave the lake tonight?’

       Yes. Follow him into the water.

      ‘But – I can’t swim down through the damn lake! I can’t—’ Merry threw the manuscript to the floor. Every other night now, the answer to that last question was ‘yes’. There was no point in crying about it. But she was just so very tired.

      Merry barely noticed when they arrived at the little car park in the woods that evening. Leo turned off the engine and twisted round in his seat to look at her.

      ‘You were very quiet during dinner. Try to talk a bit more. Mum’s going to get suspicious, given it’s normally impossible to get you to shut up.’

      ‘She’s already suspicious. You saw the way she was watching me.’

      ‘I guess it’s not surprising; you look terrible.’

      ‘Gee, thanks.’

      Leo drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘School OK?’

      Merry shrugged. Not really. Currently I have no social life, no time to study and I’m probably about to get dumped from all my sports teams.

      But she just said: ‘Same as usual.’

      ‘Right … Well, is there anything you do want to talk about, while we’re on our own?’

      ‘What, other than the fact I’m turning out to be the most rubbish witch in history, and Gwydion is probably going to catch me and – and turn me into a pumpkin, or something?’

      ‘Wrong fairy tale. But yeah – anything other than that?’

      Merry considered. There was something else on her mind: Jack. Even when she wasn’t having nightmares about him, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him. It was disturbing. And wrong, surely: to start looking forwards to spending time with somebody you were supposed to kill. Definitely wrong to be dreaming about kissing him.

      ‘Well?’ Leo nudged her.

      Better to say nothing, maybe. But there was so much she was keeping hidden at the moment. And this was Leo she was talking to …

      ‘Do you think Jack’s hot?’

      Leo’s eyebrows shot up, but he pursed his lips, musing. ‘Course. If you like that whole tall, blond, ripped, murderous thing. I definitely fancy him. I mean, who wouldn’t?’

      Merry laughed. ‘I suppose. You’re obviously going to think he looks good, because you’re tall, blond and ripped yourself. Not quite as tall or blond, and definitely not—’

      ‘Yeah, yeah, I get the picture. But Merry—’ the smile faded from Leo’s eyes, ‘—you what know Jack is, what he is capable of. Or at least, what that thing that takes over his body is capable of. You’re not falling for him, are you?’ He looked so serious.

      Merry shook her head as she opened the car door. ‘Don’t be an idiot, Leo. Let’s get this over with, shall we?’

      A little while later they were sitting with Jack near the edge of the lake, huddled close to the small portable heater Leo had started bringing with him. Gradually, some of the missing fragments of Jack’s memory seemed to be returning.

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