The Accidental End (The Accidental Witch Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  We make up a triangle now, and Fletcher’s mum quickly reads through the notes Adam made.

  I’m about to leave 2020 and head back to... I didn’t even ask Fletcher how far back in time we are going. Hundred years. A thousand years. What if I get stuck there? What if Fletcher and his mum lose me and I end up stuck in medieval witch land or whatever witch land we are heading to?

  It’s too late to ask him.

  “Join hands. Close your eyes.”

  I do as I’m told, because I don’t want to be the one who fudges it up again. In my defence I honestly thought Zeta and Efa had come back from the dead to take me with them, but I still messed up.

  This time I’m good. Eyes closed, hands holding. It’s nice to hold Fletcher’s hand instead of scary old Ember’s hand; her skin was as icy as her smile.

  I shudder but keep my eyes closed, my hands holding, and my mind on Fletcher’s mum’s words.

  We are about to go back in time and – hopefully – change the world that Fletcher lives in forever. I hope we can do it. I need us to do it.

  If we can change his world, then we’ll be safe. And if we’re safe, we can do normal things – like go to the pictures to watch a rubbish film and snog instead, walk along the beach because it’s meant to be romantic, even though it’s too cold, and it’s horrible when sand gets in your shoes and there’s nothing to talk about except waves and sand, and those idiots who surf even when it’s obviously too cold for it, and imagine that we’ll be in love together forever and get married and live in a big house and have three perfect children, including one set of twins.

  Not that my mind wanders.

  And I rein it back in and focus on the words being said, the air turning hot around me, Fletcher squeezing my hand a little tighter.

  This is it – we are getting close. We are going back in time. We are time travellers – which sounds even more unbelievable than witches – and yet I know that’s true too.

  I hold my breath.

  But then I have to breathe because nothing’s happened.

  And then I hold my breath again, because something is definitely happening. I feel like I’m upside down on a rollercoaster, like my body is going too fast or my head is going too slow, or my body is turning inside out and the wrong way round and I might die and then even if I wanted to breathe I couldn’t because I’m moving – and yet staying still at the same time – at about a zillion miles an hour.

  I scream and I open my eyes and then shut them straight away because we aren’t in Fletcher’s house anymore; we are literally falling through time and the world is a blur around me and I’m pretty sure that if I throw up right now, I might just change history because my vomit will fly randomly through the air.

  Oof!

  7

  The three of them land in a jumble, Ellis shouting out “Oof!” but Fletcher and Elodie remaining quiet. Fletcher grabs hold of Ellis straightaway and puts a finger to his lips. They have no way of knowing where they have landed so they have to be quiet.

  They stand up and tuck beside a tree. They cannot see anybody, and there’s only one building within sight. They know from Adam’s spell that they are where they need to be at roughly the time they need to be there, now they just need to figure out how to find Sadie and change the original magic.

  Elodie beckons Fletcher and Ellis to her side, and using a quick spell makes them invisible. “Follow me.”

  They move towards the building. It’s the coven headquarters, and they know this, as well as they know their own names.

  Elodie holds a hand up as they stand beside the door. They need to wait for somebody to open it. They are invisible but about to go into a lair full of witches; they cannot risk being exposed or raising suspicions.

  It doesn’t take long and two young witches come out. Fletcher, being the tallest, grabs hold of the door near the top and they all quickly duck inside.

  They have walked into a huge hallway, full of witches milling around. There are many places to sit and congregate and multiple doors and hallways going off in different directions.

  “I’ll go this way, you two stick together. We need to find Sadie. Let me know if you find her. Fletcher, you know what she looks like. Ellis-”

  “I do too. Must be a head witch thing?”

  “Great. Be careful.” Elodie slinks off, weaving between the witches with ease. Ellis watches her go – the three of them can see each other – and then turns to Fletcher. He takes her hand and leads the way.

  He heads for the corridors first, it’s quicker than waiting for doors to open. The first one they take leads downwards at quite a steep slope and ends up in the basement. These are obviously the stores: food, drink, crockery, and the laundry. There are several witches talking and laughing, busy with their jobs.

  They back away and head down another corridor. They end up in the kitchen. There are seven witches cooking up a storm here, and although whatever they are cooking smells divine, Fletcher leads them away.

  Back to the main hall, they try another way. They find a library, a few rooms that seem like official spaces – full of old wooden tables covered in reams of papers and the first bedroom, but no sign of Sadie.

  “She could be anywhere,” Fletcher says, and they walk on.

  A small cluster of witches is taking up the whole corridor, so they pause; listening might be useful. “I don’t think she’ll do it,” one of them says.

  “Sadie has faith in her,” another argues.

  “Sadie has faith in anybody who gives her power.”

  They all laugh, and then move off in a group, still gossiping and laughing.

  Fletcher and Ellis follow slowly behind.

  They reach a fork in the corridor and follow a set of stone stairs upwards.

  There’s a locked door at the top. Fletcher magics it open.

  It’s a woman’s bedroom, but they have no way of knowing if it’s Sadie’s or not, but they know it’s empty.

  Sadie made the original magic when she was head witch. The four supernatural species were battling through a great war – the witches the vampires, the shifters and the fairies – with hundreds of thousands dead on each side, and no sign of an end, when a witch, Ellery, came up with a plan to trick the heads of the three creatures and end the war, with the witches being the victors, and ultimately gaining power and authority over the others. Sadie wanted the power for nefarious purposes, which Ellery wasn’t aware of when she came up with the trick, so even though Sadie died, and the power went to Ellery, Ellery vowed never to use it against the other creatures.

  But the power was still the witches and something, somewhere, tied up in the original magic, meant that if they tried to undo it, everybody would die. This is what they want to undo.

  This is what Adam was trying to do.

  Somewhere in the original magic they’ll pinpoint it and undo it. Change the past and fix the future.

  “Come on, let’s find the crazy witch lady.”

  Fletcher nods, but then pulls her into a hug. “We’re in the past. How weird is that?”

  She laughs, then covers her mouth, unsure about how much noise she’s allowed to make. “Very weird.”

  He leans in and kisses her. “We just kissed in the past. Maybe a few hundred years before we’re even born.”

  “That’s even weirder.”

  A noise outside the door makes them pull apart and freeze for a second. Nobody comes in so they wait for a minute or two and then head back out into the corridor.

  “This could take all day,” Ellis says.

  “True. Or longer – hang on, that’s my mum calling out to me: she’s found Sadie. We need to go back to the main hall we came into and she’ll meet us there.”

  They leave the room as they found it, and head back, with a few wrong turns, to the main hall. Elodie is waving at them, and they weave through the witches to reach her.

  “There.”

  She points to a throng of witches gathered across the room, and one wi
tch that’s the centre of attention. They all recognise her. The witch who started these troubles.

  Ellis leans closer to Fletcher. “The war that’s going on here, what was that about?”

  “Same old, same old. Power, I think. All the creatures were separate, four distinct groups, but the vampires tried to take power for themselves, or was it the shifters?” He looks to his mum who rolls her eyes. “To be honest, there are so many versions of this war, so many historical records that contradict each other. The only facts we know are that regardless of who started the war, it was a witch who used magic to trick the other heads to ending the war and giving the power to the head witch – who at the time was Sadie. Ellery, naïve or stupid, we’ll never know for sure, assumed that would be that.”

  “But it wasn’t.”

  Elodie puts a finger to her lips and nods to the group.

  A single witch has threaded through the witches to join them and Sadie has thrown her arms around her.

  “That’s Ellery,” Ellis says.

  They move a little closer, carefully, trying to hear what’s being said, trying to figure out where in the timeline of the terrible magic that took place, they are. Suddenly the small group is on the move, heading out of the coven and along the road.

  Elodie, Fletcher and Ellis follow quickly behind.

  Ellis

  Now where are we going? I can’t say I’m enjoying this bit. We have to be super quiet, and we have no idea where we are going or what we are about to see.

  I hurry a bit to catch up with Fletcher and slip my hand into his. That always helps.

  I’ve heard enough of the witch’s history and this witch in particular to feel terrified. But I have no choice in all this, so I follow along to an old church.

  We duck inside, still invisible, still playing catch up. Nothing I have overheard on the way over has been of any help. I can sense excitement in the air, and fear, but it could just be my own.

  The church is empty. No, there are a few witches here, but hidden. I can sense them, because I’m a witch or because I’m head witch? I tuck in closer to Fletcher to ask him if he can sense them too, but the church door opens and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I clamp my mouth shut. I don’t like this.

  Fairies have walked in. Will I ever get over how beautiful they are, with their gorgeous fairy wings? So many shapes, colours and size of wings too – you’d think they’d all be pretty similar. If you ever thought about fairy wings.

  I shake my head. I need to concentrate. The answer to our problems could come about at any time. We need to be ready.

  A fairy who arrived with the witches joins the other fairies. She must be Ellery’s half-sister. I can’t remember her name, but she helped pull the whole trick off.

  The doors bang open again and I jump back, almost falling, when five gigantic dogs run in. Then they shift into humans. Ooh, that is weird and creepy and amazing all at the same time. I can’t take my eyes off them. So that’s the shifters arrived, just the vampires to go.

  I feel a definite thrill at being here, being able to see something that’s already happened. I can’t think too much about it because it will screw with my head. Like when I saw Molly again.

  I’m doing things that should be impossible. It’s odd. But I like it.

  Ooh, here come the vampires. They are so bad ass; they stalk into the church like they own the place and I get another shiver. Their leader – I assume he is their leader – is a hot potato. I shift my position so I can get a better look at him, before realising that Fletcher can see me perving on the creepy vampire, and settle down again.

  Relax Ellis!

  I’m not sure what will happen next. I know some fairies, shifters and vampires have been spelled, and that’s why they have turned up today but, hang on, Sadie’s raising her hand.

  I jump again as the hidden witches fly out of their hiding spots and boom, boom, boom; they spell everyone. I sneak a glance at Fletcher and his mum – they both look horrified. I’m guessing this is pretty much against civil liberties or whatever.

  Sadie has her wand out now and I shrink back, even though she doesn’t know I’m here. She’s bound them all now, so they can’t move. I feel sick.

  “Ellery my little witchlet,” Sadie pats Ellery on her head and I want to cry. Stupid, stupid Ellery... though I like the term witchlet. I wouldn’t mind being called a witchlet. I shake my head, I’m going down a rabbit hole again, instead of concentrating on what’s in front of me.

  Sadie’s now threading her way through the people in the church, moving them, like they are her own little puppets, putting them in stupid positions and laughing. She turns to Ellery again. “You did it. I have the power of the entire country right here in this little church. Now I just need to take it and invest it in myself.”

  Sadie stands in front of one shifter, a beautiful woman, and my entire body shudders when she speaks. “Laila, head of the shifters of Britain, leader of the Moss Valley Pack, can you hear me?”

  Laila nods.

  “Speak up sweetie, the people at the back can’t hear you!”

  There’s a burst of horrible laughter and I feel that talon scrape along my spine again. I hate this. I hate that we can’t just intervene and change everything.

  Laila answers, “I hear you.”

  Sadie saunters over to the hot potato vampire. “How about you, Jones? Can you hear me?”

  “I can.” His deep voice gives me the shivers and I see Sadie give a little shiver too. She’s so horrid. I hate that I’m witnessing this.

  “Can you hear me?” She stands in front of a beautiful fairy.

  “I can.” Her voice sounds like music and I feel tears swim in my eyes.

  Sadie gives a sigh of contentment and I want to punch her in her stupid face. “Ellery. I cannot believe it, but you’ve done it.”

  “What’s next?” a witch calls out.

  Sadie beams and gestures to all the spelled creatures. “Aside from the spirits and demons, who I think we’re all happy to leave in their dimension to fight it out amongst themselves, we are the supernatural creatures of Britain. And I will be in charge of them all, of us all. I will be the Queen of the supernatural, and I will have all the power, knowledge, magic and wisdom of all the species for all time. Time gone, and time to come. This headship will continue down my line to my family, in a succession to rival the royal family.”

  I shudder. This woman is a maniac, no doubt about it.

  She strides over to the head of the fairies and places a hand on her head and pulls out her wand. “Power. Knowledge. Wisdom. Magic. Time gone and time to come.” She repeats these words over and over as her hand pushes down on the fairy’s head and sparks fly out of her wand.

  The church has gone dark and cold. This is some awful magic we are witnessing, some nasty business.

  Sadie pushes the fairy to the floor and goes to the head shifter, Laila, was it? This time the church turns darker and colder and the sparks that fly out of Sadie’s wand are brighter. It takes a little longer, too, whatever unholy magic she is performing.

  I shudder again and clutch at Fletcher’s arm. I want to go home.

  A witch calls out to Sadie: “Sadie, what was Laila’s great, great grandmother’s name?”

  “Elsbeth.”

  They all laugh, and I want to vomit and kill them all. What a horrible bunch of nasty, power hungry monsters. I hate that I’m the same as them, that I’m a witch too. I know they are checking if the power of her species, the legacy of her line, the secrets of her lineage have been passed over to Sadie, but I hate it, and I hate them.

  Sadie finally stands in front of Jones. She’s looking at him like she’d like to eat him up. He is a handsome devil.

  Really?

  The magic she is performing is strong and dark and probably illegal, and she knows it. I know she knows it; she just doesn’t care. Hateful woman.

  She is crossing all the lines that have ever been drawn in the sand between the di
fferent species and how they share the world of humans and interact with each other. What she is doing is an absolute horror, and she loves it; she’s revelling in it. She feels so powerful that nothing could stop her now. It’s written all over her pretty face.

  I turn to Fletcher, not wanting to watch. I tuck my head into his chest, and he holds me.

  “And so it is done.” I hear her words and although I cannot see the look on her face, I shake, literally shake as I cry into Fletcher’s chest.

  What a horrible thing we’ve had to watch. I only hope there’s something we can do to change this magic, change the future that we are a part of, because of what this woman did.

  There’s a round of applause from the witches for what Sadie has done and I turn around to watch them help the magical creatures back to consciousness. There is so much confusion, anger and hostility, but they are helpless. Poor things.

  Sadie stands before them all, full of her own importance, and speaks.

  “I proclaim myself Queen of the supernatural here in Britain. I have everything I need and more, and I will punish any of you who tries – dares – to stand against me. Magic is always the most powerful weapon – I can summon it with ease, and use it to your detriment, with only a thought. Do not dare to test me. From this moment on, I am invested with the magic of our four species, and I am four times more powerful than any of you. I do not intend to rule unfairly. You may all go back to your quiet lives, and do as you please, as long as you remember who is in charge.”

  Nobody speaks; there is nothing to say and Fletcher’s mum holds up her wand, mutters something and the scene before us freezes. I hold my breath, and then Fletcher clears his throat, so I know I’m safe to move and talk. “That was awful.” I’m crying again, and Fletcher comforts me. He turns to his mum, who is crying.

  “Now what?”

  8

  Elodie takes a deep breath. “So, there’s no mention about everybody dying if they try to undo the magic, so she must add it in, sometime between now and when she dies. That’s when we need to intervene.”