AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Well, that was one way to stop Mum in her tracks. Calming Rory down took the better part of twenty minutes, during which time dinner nearly burned, and by the time the food was all safely on the table, if a little more well done than usual, Mum had completely forgotten about the lecture she'd wanted to deliver.
Thank goodness.
FIVE
Wystan woke in darkness, feeling for all the world like he was a boy again, back in a river full of eels. Everything around him squirming so much he could scarcely feel the icy water at all. Then he burst through the surface, and realised why: he hadn't been in the water, merely mud. And the thrashing, squirming creatures surrounding him were not eels, but men, much like himself.
Until they unfolded their wings and took flight.
Help protect us. HELP.
Wystan wasn't sure if the words floated on the wind or whether they were echoing inside his own head, but he could not refuse the pull. He, too, unfolded his wings and took to the air.
Wait...he had wings?
He twisted in the air, trying to see the great flapping things, and almost fell out of the sky. The ground came up so fast, it took some serious flapping and a swoop that he felt in the depths of his belly to keep him from crashing. The others were so far ahead of him, there'd be nothing left for him to do when he reached her.
And it was a woman. He'd never been able to resist a feminine cry for help, even when there was nothing he could do. He had to try. Could not face himself in the mirror if he didn't at least try.
Finally, he caught up with the others – perched on the flat top of an enormous tower. He'd have said it was the biggest tower he'd ever seen, but as the words left his lips, they'd have been lies, for this tower didn't stand alone. No, it was one of many – all built close together, of differing sizes, with more windows than walls up the sides, all reflecting the lights lining the streets below.
Like Glasgow, only writ large, larger than he'd ever believed possible. He squinted at the lights below. One large panel proclaimed that the premises were a café, established in 2002.
So this was what happened when a city grew for more than a hundred years. He slept in darkness. The city grew upward and outward, while Wystan grew wings.
Yet even as he approached the top of the tower, he could feel the pull, moving away from him. The woman who needed help wasn't here.
He could not let her pass out of his reach. He had only one purpose, and it was to protect her. Even if she ran from him. He had to catch her, even if she moved impossibly fast.
"Then fly faster," he told himself, as the others set off to follow the same thread tugging at him. A thread that tugged deep within his chest, tied tightly around his heart.
SIX
Tacey found herself in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, when Mum cornered her again. "I do worry about you girls in that house all alone. I'd feel so much safer if you had a man about the place, or even a big, fierce dog. Your father knows someone who breeds those pit bull things that make good guard dogs. Perhaps if you spoke to him..."
"Mum, we're fine, and you know the lease conditions for Bell House don't allow men to live there. Women only. Besides, we have Callie, and she's scarier than any man I know. Did I tell you what happened to the last guy she dated? He spent half of their date texting on his phone, then was rude to the waitress, so she changed the language on his phone to Ancient Egyptian while he was in the bathroom. After she set his phone to the silent, do not disturb mode. Oh, and the kitchen accidentally made his meal extra spicy, so his eyes and nose were streaming so bad by the end of the date, he didn't even notice when she left. If anyone dares cross Callie, the whole universe conspires to punish him." Tacey had a horrible thought – what if the gargoyle statue had once been a real man who'd turned to stone? Callie said magic and witchcraft didn't exist, but the way she went around threatening to curse people, Tacey had never been sure what to believe. Then there'd been that demon summoning ritual in the cemetery. Probably for the best the security guard had interrupted them, because she'd definitely felt something happening. If they'd managed to complete the spell, who knows what would have happened? Would a real, actual demon have appeared? What would they have done if it had?
Mum was shaking her head. "Are you talking about your cousin Callie? The one who works at the university, and hasn't grown a centimetre since she was twelve? Matt would break her in two without even blinking to get to you."
Tacey sighed. "Mum, Matt's in prison, where he belongs. He's probably having a bad enough time there without even one of Callie's curses."
Mum's mouth dropped open. "You mean you haven't heard? He got some fancy new lawyer, who appealed his sentence, and he's been released. Cleared of all charges. It's been all over the news."
This time, Tacey's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious. He hasn't even served half his sentence. He's not even up for parole until...until Rory's finished primary school!"
Mum shook her head. "He's been all over the news, saying how justice has been served. He's a lot bigger now, after all his time in prison. Like a bodybuilder."
Tacey shuddered. Matt had always been into sports, but not bulking up muscle. Maybe he'd needed to do it to survive in prison. And here she'd been hoping he'd become some bikie's bitch and...now he was free?
For one crazy moment, she wished Callie's spell in the cemetery had actually worked, so she could borrow Alethea's demon protector to stand guard outside her house.
Then she shook herself. Matt didn't even know where she lived. It's not like he'd be lying in wait for her on the front doorstep.
At least that's what she told herself.
She dried her hands on a tea towel, forcing out a calm smile for her mother's benefit. "Thanks for dinner, Mum, and for taking care of Rory. I should probably get her home now." She stepped into the lounge, where Rory was deliberately ignoring the Disney cartoons in favour of the Lego spread across the rug. Of course she was building some sort of space ship. "C'mon, Rory. Time to go home."
Rory jumped to her feet. "Can we take the Lego with us so I can finish building my ship?"
