The Accidental Invitation (The Chronicles of the Accidental Witch Book 2) Read online

  It sounds easy, but of course I have no idea where the portal is, and I have no idea how to actually access this magical knowledge that they say is mine. The visions that I have had, haven’t come when I’ve chosen them or when I’ve asked for an answer to something. They just come when they please. Can I really get us to the portal?

  Talia puts her arms around me, and I miss Fletcher. “Ready?”

  I nod. Hopefully I am. Hopefully I can get us to where we’re meant to be going. I repeat the word portal in my head until it doesn’t even sound like a real word anymore.

  And then we land.

  I cannot see a portal.

  Sally scowls at me. “This is Galloway Forest Park, the portal can’t be here.”

  “It must be,” Thea says. “If this is where she’s brought us.

  I nod and walk forwards, portal, portal, portal. “There are protections in place. We can fly closer.” I don’t know how I know it, but it feels true.

  Talia grabs on to me again. Once again, I miss Fletcher’s arms around me. We fly into the forest, before coming to land just on the cusp of a dense thicket of trees.

  I look at the three of them then, helpless. I can’t undo protections; I wouldn’t know how.

  Sally humphs a bit but uses her magic to undo the protections and we all walk forwards. It’s very quiet. And creepy.

  As we walk inwards, our feet are crunching on something and when I see the bones under my shoes I almost faint.

  “Demons.”

  One of the twins explains it to me. Demons have been eating animals and humans maybe, and just throwing their bones around afterwards. I feel sick.

  We are all on edge, on high alert, creeping closer and closer to the portal. I know the way instinctively, and when the trees clear, I gasp. I hear the girls gasp too. And I’m glad it isn’t just me.

  The floor of the clearing has two very clear, very large patches of blood. Fresh blood. Two people have died here. Recently.

  The twins are crying, and I can see that Sally is trying her best not to. I feel a twinge of guilt for bringing them out here.

  “Two,” Sally says, hoping that neither of the two are her parents.

  “Only two,” Thea says, her voice shaking only a little less than Sally’s was.

  They all stare at the blood and then the portal. “This is a portal?” Trust me to ask the stupid question. No, Ellis, it’s a double decker bus!

  I’m glad I’m not the only one who has never seen a portal. The twins and Sally look as awestruck as I feel.

  It is mesmerising. Beautiful really. And very, very, very frightening.

  I feel like I’ve stepped into Star Trek or something. It’s exactly like you imagine, like they show it on the TV: a swirling mass of green, blue, purple, pink, spinning in mid-air with a thick black hole at the centre.

  The hole has been ripped open though, so it’s wide and jagged and I know that’s where the demons came from.

  I feel sick.

  Again.

  8

  “What can we do?” Fletcher is pacing the room, grief forgotten, replaced with blind fear. “What if something’s happened to her?”

  “They’re alive.” Ember, Jane and David – Sally’s father – all speak at the same time.

  Fletcher shakes his head. “That doesn’t help me. I still don’t know about Ellis.”

  “If they are alive, she’s alive.”

  “Alive could mean anything.” His anger makes his voice louder and harsher than usual. “Alive could mean with demons, alive could mean almost dead, kidnapped again-”

  Elodie takes him by the shoulders. “Stop. They weren’t left alone for long. The girls are safe, Ellis probably is too. Ember – find the girls, please.”

  The good thing about being a witch with a child is that they can track you anywhere at any time. The bad thing about being a witch with parents is that they can track you anywhere at any time. Fletcher feels the tightening in his chest loosen – just a little bit.

  They head back outside, protections on the house quickly put back in place, everybody alert for danger.

  “I hope they’re all okay,” Ember says, the familiar snarl back on her face. “So I can kill them.”

  Vann laughs, and steps closer to her. “Can I fly with you? Maybe my innate fairy goodness will calm you down.”

  “Innate fairy goodness?” She laughs. “Vann, you are a bad fairy and you know it, but you can always fly with me.”

  She holds on to him and they all prepare to fly, hoping that they all get led to the same place.

  They recognise it from the air. The portal.

  They land and make their way quickly through the trees. Fletcher is first, he cannot run fast enough and swipes furiously at the branches that get in his way. He has to get to her, he has to see her, he has to know that she’s okay-

  “Ellis!” He calls her and she turns to see him, relief colouring her face. She falls into his arms, crying.

  “You’re alive.”

  “You’re alive!”

  “You’re all alive. For now!” Ember clips Thea and Talia around their ears, causing them to cry out. “How could you? How dare you! I’m so angry.”

  Elodie – normally the calmer of the two looks sickened. “Girls. Whose idea was this?”

  They are all silent and Ellis raises her hand. “It was mine. I’m so sorry. I talked the girls into it.”

  “As if you could talk these three into anything they didn’t want to do,” Jane mutters.

  “I had to see that Fletcher was safe.”

  Elodie shakes her head. “You stupid, stupid girls. If you had seen the demons that were here, if you had seen Mya so casually killed, if you had had to leave someone you loved behind and then found them dead, you’d have been damn glad of the safety of our house.”

  The silence is filled with shame. The girls cannot meet anybody’s eyes. “I’m sorry.” Ellis’s voice is small as she apologises. But even Fletcher doesn’t answer her, he squeezes her hand, but doesn’t say a word to reassure her. Now he knows that she’s safe, all he can see is Griff’s dead body.

  “Let’s go.”

  They turn to leave the portal, the blood, the scene of so much sorrow, and Sally lets out a sharp scream.

  A demon is seconds from touching her, and she’s frozen.

  Fletcher spins around and sees the demon, reaching out, nothing visible in its soulless eyes. He shoots a spark of magic and Sally ducks. The demon dies, with an inhumane shriek. They all shudder.

  Sally flings her arms around Fletcher and Ellis moves away to let her.

  He shrugs. “It’s easy when it’s one.” He is too upset by the thought of what happened to Griff to feel anything but despondent.

  Back at the house the mood remains sombre. The grownups huddle in one room leaving the teenagers alone, with the sternest of warnings not to move.

  “Fletcher, fill them in on what happened at the portal.” Elodie leaves the room without looking at any of them.

  The five of them sit around the table and Fletcher clears his throat.

  “It was pretty grim. The rebels turned up and Peri killed Mya.” The girls all gasp. “Then we bound the three of them so they couldn’t do any more damage, oh, and Efa told us she was Zeta’s daughter.”

  “No way!”

  “Zeta kept that quiet, do you believe her?”

  He nods. “She said John was her dad. Do you remember my dad’s friend John?”

  The girls nod.

  “Well we’d seen pictures of Zeta and John together in her house, when you guys were still in Scotland. We just never thought they had a child.”

  “That’s crazy. Then what happened. You had them bound?”

  “Then Gregory turned on us.”

  “Gregory!”

  “Yes. He told us to let them go, but we knew if we let them go, they’d kill us. He ripped open the portal.” Fletcher closes his eyes, blocking out the memory.

  “So you left Griff?”


  “We had to. My mum wanted to stay and unbind them. She would have died.”

  “Griff did the right thing. It’s what your dad would have wanted.”

  Fletcher shrugs and they are all silent for a moment, thinking about Griff, Mya, Adam.

  Ellis clears her throat. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I was stupid, selfish, reckless...” She trails off.

  “You were. You are,” Sally’s voice is harsh, ugly with anger. “I nearly got killed by a demon because of you.” She spits out the words and Ellis recoils as though she’s been hit.

  “You can’t blame Ellis,” Fletcher says, pointing at the three girls. “You all agreed to go with her – and you all know better. Ellis knows nothing of demons or anything about our world. And you know how important she is!”

  Sally sneers. “Oh, Ellis is so special, I forgot!”

  “Sally!”

  Ellis pulls Fletcher’s arm, taking his hand in hers. “Leave it,” she whispers but he shakes his head. “No! Sally is being a bitch and she knows it. These two aren’t much better.”

  The girls bristle but none of them argue with Fletcher. What can they say?

  He stands up, taking Ellis with him. “Let’s go. Tell my mum we’re upstairs. I can’t stand to look at any of you.”

  His anger radiates from his body and Ellis follows him out of the room, refusing to look at the twins or Sally.

  Ellis

  I follow him out, holding his hand tightly, but I feel sick. I can’t let him be angry with his cousins or Sally. It’s not fair.

  I wait until we are in his room to tell him how I persuaded them, how I was mean to them, but as soon as the door shuts, he takes me in his arms and kisses and kisses and kisses and kisses me, until my knees actually buckle.

  He steers me to the bed, so we are sitting on the end of it, still kissing, and all my guilt and shame and anything I wanted to say in defence of anyone else is lost.

  His hands are tangled in my hair, his lips are hard on mine and he’s pressing down on me, kissing me so passionately that a little warning flare goes off in my head. I pull back. Smile at him. I don’t want him to think that I don’t want to be kissing him; I do. But we are still in the middle of a pretty big catastrophe and I don’t want his mum bursting in on us.

  “I. Was. So. Worried. About. You.” He punctuates each word with a kiss and then we are snogging properly again, and I can’t stop.

  I do.

  I have to.

  I place my hand on his chest. Catch my breath.

  “I was worried about you too. That’s why we came to the portal. It was unforgiveable.”

  “It’s not. It’s fine. You’re all okay. I won’t leave you alone again.”

  I shake my head. “You have to, and I was okay without you. I missed you. Then I was worried about you. Then I talked the girls into coming with me.”

  “The girls don’t even like you, how-”

  He pauses at my offended expression. “Sorry, Ellis, but they don’t.”

  I know that, but it sounds so much harsher coming from Fletcher, so much meaner. I know I’m pouting, and I want to stop, but instead I’m crying, and then he’s wiping my tears and kissing me again – it really is the answer to everything. “Don’t cry, I’m sorry, don’t cry...”

  I pull back again. Since we’ve been back from the portal, he’s being very affectionate, very...needy. “Are you okay?”

  He shakes his head. “I’m not. I just want to kiss you and hold you, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you... if something happened to you.”

  I pull back, pushing my hair off my face. “Fletcher. What is it?”

  He shrugs, an innocent expression on his face. I frown. “I’m sorry Ellis. I know I’m being a bit full on, but...” He takes a shaky breath and I take his hand. I’m not complaining about the kissing, honestly, but so far – and okay it’s only been a few days – I’m, I think it’s fair to say, a little bit more into him than he is to me. But now it feels like he’s very much into me. It’s weird.

  Why am I even complaining? The best-looking boy in the whole entire world – flashback to him in his towel – can’t stop kissing me, worrying about me, declaring his concern for me. This is a problem, why?

  I lean in, ready to kiss him again, let him fall hopelessly in love with me, but he’s frowning.

  Ellis! Stop trying to talk sense into the boy! If he wants to kiss, kiss.

  “I have never seen so many demons, so much possibility for death and destruction. I was ready to be head witch, but truth be told, it’s a pretty easy job. We didn’t know about this war between the species, at least my mother and I didn’t, so head witch is a title, really. If there’s a problem, some trouble, some question with the species, they come to the head witch – like a judge. Someone to arbitrate. I would never have had to make big decisions, huge choices, life or death... Ellis – I’m scared. I feel sick. The demons – they won’t just kill us, they won’t just kill who they’re told, once they are unleashed they will kill mercilessly. I have no idea how to stop them. I feel stupid.”

  I kiss him then, and put all of my feelings into it, I kiss him hard; trying to show him that he isn’t stupid, that he’s wonderful, that he should be scared – war is scary, that I think he’s marvellous however he’s currently feeling about himself.

  He pulls away, tears streaming down his face. “I want to do something. I want my dad to be proud of me. If he was here, he wouldn’t be crying.”

  I feel angry then. “There’s no shame in crying, think about what you’re facing, think about what you’re all going through. Anybody would cry. Finding out the truth about your dad...” I touch his face, wiping his tears away now. “It’s okay. You’re a witch, I’m head witch. Surely we can do something.”

  He nods, smiling, his mouth trembling. “Thank you for not laughing at me.” He wipes his face with his sleeve, looking so much like a vulnerable little boy that I feel a huge wave of tenderness for him. I hold him in my arms, until his breathing calms down, until the hiccups from his sobs die down, until his breathing matches mine. “We won’t do anything stupid, but between us we can figure this out.”

  He nods and sits up. “Right. We know that Zeta started this. We know she was in love with John. We know they had a kid – Efa.”

  I shrug. That’s the extent of my knowledge. I wish I’d just let him kiss me, but then he looks so worried, lost, uncertain, that I know I have to help him. I have to help him lead his people out of this mess as though he was head witch, as though I hadn’t stolen that power from him.

  “We know she hated you lot for pushing her out, for not giving her her true place as crone, the honour they normally have as the most wise of all.”

  He nods. “Yes. You’re right.”

  We are silent again. Then I think about Zeta. Crone. Mother. Vampire’s lover.

  “Is it normal for a witch and a vampire to have a baby?”

  He nods. “Not unusual. We all mix, lots of the species.”

  I shrug. She probably wasn’t trying to cause trouble because her love might not have been approved of, then.

  “But your mum said crones don’t usually have babies?”

  “They don’t. Often the crone is the sister of the head witch, or the aunt or even an aunt’s sister. Like Zeta was my aunt’s aunt, or – I’m not even sure. But they are childless and loveless, usually.”

  “So she fell in love with John. They had Efa. Nobody knew...”

  My mind is wandering, I’m mulling things over, as my dad would say. Oh, I miss my dad, and mum and Isaac. I love my family so much. I’d do anything for them.

  “Fletcher. If Zeta was Efa’s mother, why did Efa kill her?”

  Fletcher looks at me, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. “What?”

  I know he heard me – I know he’s trying to process my question. “Think about it: she would never have killed her mum. Not if she was doing her dirty work, which she was. They must have had a good relationship. Why kill her?�
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  “So...”

  “I don’t think Zeta is dead. I think Efa only pretended to kill her, or Zeta used some magic, or I don’t even know. But she wouldn’t kill her, would she?”

  He’s laughing as he shakes his head. And then something else hits me.

  “Fletcher, what if Zeta started all this trouble because she had a daughter? What if she was fed up of being pushed aside, fed up of her daughter being pushed aside. What if she wanted Efa to be head witch!”

  I sit back like I’m Columbo or something – my mother’s favourite programme, I’ve seen every one of them at least once.

  I am beaming, but he’s frowning. Have I joined the wrong dots, or the dots wrong? “What?”

  He laughs then and stands up, pulling me with him, and spinning me around. “You’re a genius!”

  I grin, and shake my head, before laughing. “I know!” I can’t pretend to be unimpressed with myself. “Why did none of us think about this!”

  “Grief,” he says, and we sit, sober all of a sudden. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. I feel the same. I feel like I’m right, but I am often wrong. Very wrong. Like when I thought Thomas was being nice bringing me my chocolate bar. But he was being a dick.

  I look at Fletcher, almost too scared to breathe. Have we maybe figured a bit of this out? This could help, if we’re right.

  “Let’s go.” He heads for the door but turns around and takes me in his arms again. I could get used to this. And as excited as I am, I could stay and kiss him forever.

  9

  They don’t kiss forever – not quite – and they rush downstairs to tell everyone what they have, hopefully, figured out.

  “Zeta’s alive.” Fletcher announces to the three girls and beckons for them to follow him, which they do – confusion clear on their faces. He knocks on the door to the room where his mum, Ember and the others are talking and then goes in. They are all huddled around a table, looking at an old spell book. Elodie smiles up at him. “Okay?”

  “We think Zeta is alive.”

  “We saw her body, Fletcher. We saw the blood.”