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She did, her mind stuck on that morning. She hadn’t even got into work. She hadn’t called her boss to tell him she had to miss today—she’d completely forgotten—and now no one would have recorded those important numbers—
“Done,” Gabi said, and Joy’s breath fell out of her mouth all at once. Her eyes opened slowly, wanting to stay soldered shut. Gabi had bent to retrieve Joy’s clothes and now held out her top, which Joy quickly hurried to yank over her head. She was still frozen cold, still shaking violently, but she felt less like she’d been cut open and laid bare for all to see. She felt the tiniest bit better too when Gabi hung the camera around her neck and helped bundle Joy into her fluffy pink coat, even if it was wet and cold.
“Satisfied?” Gabi demanded, and it took a slow moment for Joy to realise she was speaking to Paulina. Not her—Paulina. “No cuts, no bruises, no scratches. And yet Freya has skin under her nails and defensive wounds on her hands.”
Joy dared a glimpse at Paulina, but only because Gabi had placed herself between them. The Head Witch’s face turned a mottled dark red, and she looked like she’d swallowed a sour sweet, but she did something very strange. She looked at Joy and said, “You’re free to go, Mackenzie. Pride, fill out the necessary paperwork.”
And then she stormed off up the ramp.
Joy didn’t understand the words for a long while and couldn't begin to even process their meaning.
Free to go…
Joy could leave? She could go home?
Her breath hitched, the only warning, and then Joy collapsed into wretched, gasping tears. Her knees weakened, sending her to the floor, but arms wrapped around her, deceptively strong and muscular, and the lens of a camera was digging into Joy’s stomach, the embrace an awkward comfort.
The touch … it unlocked something in Joy, and her hands scrabbled for purchase on Gabi’s wooden coat, clinging to her for dear life—for dear freedom.
“Is it—is it real?” she asked, her voice thick and clumsy. “Can I—”
“You can go home,” Gabi replied, guessing her thoughts. Her hand slid down Joy’s matted hair, just once, but it calmed Joy enough for her to get hold of herself and stem the flow of her sobs.
“Thank you,” she rasped, moving away a step and rubbing her face dry on her sleeve.
But Gabi shook her head hard, that furious expression returning to her face. “You shouldneverhave been here in the first place.” Her eyes were dark, that same bottomless black they’d been when she’d arrived with Paulina. “Come on. You don’t need to stay here any longer.”
Joy was still struggling to process her liberation, but she quickly followed Gabi out of the cell, as if lingering would leave her trapped there another day.
She braced for witchcraft to slam into her, keeping her captive, as they headed for the archway. When it didn’t, Joy exhaled a shuddering breath and let her feet spirit her up the ramp and into the light, fresh air of the lobby.
She didn’t believe it, even as Gabi got a set of papers from the friendly receptionist, even as Joy filled in her details and, with utterly numb fingers, signed her name. Even as she stepped tentatively past the columns on the front door and into the fresh air, it took a long moment for it to hit her. She’d thought she’d be locked down there for the rest of her life.
But she was free.
TEN
GABI
Four weeks before Gabi left for uni—three weeks before she and Joy broke up—Joy had given her a cross of rowan branches, bound by purple thread in the middle. It was supposed to be for protection, but Gabi hadn’t known that when she’d taken a fancy to it. Then, it had hung in Joy’s bedroom window over a plant of basil and a garland of some other herb. Now, Gabi watched Joy’s eyes slide to it in the Law House’s hallway, her stare lingering as she realised Gabi had not only kept it but brought it to her new home.
She couldn’t possibly know Gabi had taken it to the flat she’d shared with three other students in Liverpool, unwilling and unable to throw it out. But Gabi still felt like her feelings were laid bare as Joy passed through the hallway and into the kitchen.
Joy was shaking, and all Gabi could do was sit with her at the table, emptied of every comforting thing she might have said, instead full of rage and cold and protectiveness. She was breathing hard; she had to get herself under control, but she didn’t know how.
“Are you alright?” Joy asked finally, breaking the tense silence that hung over the shabby kitchen table. Gabi met her earnest brown eyes and everything inside her softened.
Not now,she hissed at her own heart.Not when she can see every emotion on my face.
“AmIalright?” Gabi couldn’t quite contain her bitter laugh. “Joy, you were just locked up in a damp, horrid cell and—your wand,” she realised with alarm. “Paulina didn’t give it back.”
Gabi shot to her feet, her mind jumping from one thought to the next. “I’ll go back to the town hall and get it—”
“No!” Joy’s breathing came quicker, harsher, her face paling. She reached her hand out, seemed to remember their history, and drew it back. “Please don’t—don’t leave me alone. I don’t want to be—”
True and absolutefuryspeared Gabi. She was going to murder Paulina for that panicked look in Joy’s eye alone. Never mind everything else she’d done.
Gabi checked her rage as she walked around the table, stuffing it down where Joy wouldn’t see it. Ignoring every bit of logic that reminded her they weren’t friends anymore, she pulled Joy from her chair and bound her into a tight hug.
