Page 66 of The Snow Witch

It was time to find her and finish this for good.

46

THEN

The brothers stared at one another, the atmosphere charged with hatred.

Charles wanted to take the first blow, to knock Emory out the way he had done in the house. That had not been the first time he had punched him like that and won. But he was conscious of the pistol Emory had, which was still pointed at him.

‘I can hear Meg, you know,’ hissed Emory, circling Charles. ‘She is talking to me.’ He tapped his head with the butt of the pistol. ‘She is still talking to me.’

‘You are mad,’ replied Charles, curling his lip in disgust at the mess Emory was, matching his pace and movements as he faced the enemy. ‘You made a good pair.’

Emory laughed shortly. ‘And therein lies the rub. It is true, we were a good pair – until you had her murdered.’

‘It was not my fault. She was a witch. Or do you not recall?’ He pulled a face and tapped his own head in a parody of Emory. ‘Are you as touched as she was? You were the one who called her the Snow Witch. You gave her that name. Not me.’

‘We were children. It meant nothing.’

‘It meant everything. So you see, it was your fault she was executed. Fucking witch.’

It was then that Emory launched himself at Charles, taking him by surprise, the two men suddenly embroiled in a fist fight that showed no mercy to either side.

* * *

Blows rained down on each of them from the other. His pistol was forgotten as Emory delighted in the physical contact, enjoying the pain in his knuckles and his body as each blow found its mark. It made him feel alive; he had been numb for days now – how many days had it been? He did not know; life and time had no meaning, not without her. He heard himself shouting at Charles, punctuating each blow with a phrase that seemed to come from his heart and soul. If Charles wanted to believe in witches, he would give himself something to believe in, to make his blood run cold…

‘A curse be upon you, Charles Milburn. You will pay for your errors of judgement. I curse you with all her powers and all her knowledge. I curse you for the harm you have inflicted on other people and the women you have violated. I curse you for your actions, your thoughts, your words and your deeds⁠—’

With all his strength, he slammed his body into Charles, who was very close to the edge of Coventina’s Well now, and Charles slipped, regained his footing, then stumbled again.

It would only take one thing – one thing to finish it.

Emory grabbed Meggie’s dagger from his waistband, and saw Charles’ eyes widen as he raised it.

‘I curse you,’ he hissed, ‘and Coventina can have you.’

And he plunged the dagger into Charles’ neck, then pushed him roughly into the Well – into the fathomless icy-cold depths.

47

NOW

Once he’d turned the van around, Jake’s vehicle climbed the hill as the snow fell thickly and swiftly. The van skidded a couple of times but Jake, his heart in his mouth and his hands clutching the steering wheel as if his life depended on it, kept heading upwards at a slow but steady pace.

Finally, thank God, he got to the car park and turned in. Her car was there, covered with snow – and so was someone else’s. There were the two sets of tyre tracks, one set of footprints, one fresh and one almost covered by the snow.

‘Fucking Ollie,’ he growled.

He grabbed the flask of hot tea he had prepared earlier and pulled his overcoat and scarf on, then threw open the door of the van, infuriated over the whole situation. His job was to protect Violet, to make sure she was safe. He loved her more than his own life, for God’s sake.

But this Ollie, he’d just swaggered in from nowhere. Meeting her on a day like this, in the arse-end of nowhere, when there was nobody else around…

Forcing himself on her.

God only knew what that would lead to⁠—

Jake slammed the door of the van, the noise reverberating around the car park, and he hurried over to the gate at the foot of Carrawburgh Fort. The gate was wedged in place with the snow and Jake forced it open, creating solid drifts on the other side. He debated whether to climb the fort or just head straight to the Well. If he climbed up, he’d see where she was; she might have decided not to go to the Well after all and walked back up to the accommodation, and just abandoned her car there…