Witching Tree (Alice Gray Book 1)

44

I tried to remember how we had travelled from the open countryside to this hall, and there was nothing.

A gaping hole in my memory.

The last thing that I could recall was that glorious arbour.

It had died.

And then there was Jonathan's life-force. Silver, just like mine.

That web-like pattern. I'd seen it before. It had infiltrated Evan's blue life-force; corrupted it somehow, corrupted him.

But when Jonathan lost his temper the sequence had shifted and loosened. The silver particles had drifted out, away from him.

They'd come to me.

Warmth spread through my body, as the chimes of the silver leaves cackled encouragingly.

That was when this reality had escaped his control and his magic weakened.

That was when I heard that chanting before. That's when I'd felt its intent.

I forced myself to calm down. I had to play this right.

Everything that I had witnessed told me that my escape depended on Jonathan losing his cool.

But even though I knew that should be my focus, I wasn't ready to escape yet.

There was an emptiness inside me, a dissatisfaction that resonated through every fibre of my being. It told me that there was something that I needed to do here first.

Something that I needed to get.

No. I wasn't leaving. Not until I'd tasted that power again.

That silver energy, it was mine.

Smoothing out my face, I tried for placid. Jonathan's tightly bunched muscles relaxed a fraction. He gestured for me to come to him.

The throne was raised on a platform with two steps. I approached steadily, forcing down the energy that welled inside me as Jonathan's silver particles reached me, joining with my own, knitting together to strengthen the web of my life-force.

Sitting down on the second step, I looked up at Jonathan, eyes wide and adoring, a perfect expression of filial obedience.

"How do you like your new home, child."

It was a test, I could tell. He wanted me to contradict him. I knew if I did, he would lay a double whammy of glamour on me and I might lose that delicious silver energy that was filling me up and making me strong.

He'd have a fight on his hands.

"It's magnificent," I answered.

Dragging my eyes away from the silver, I gazed around the hall to demonstrate my point.

My eyes passed over the windows, and reached the far wall, where a large wooden door stood, the only exit. A stone gothic arch enclosed the door. Just above the point where the arch met, a large gargoyle lurked.

I did a double take.

Cold shocked through my veins. A strangled cry escaped my mouth as the horror of it filled me.

Evan.

He was frozen, folded into a cramped, painful looking crouch. His knees jutted out from his body, his back was arched over unnaturally contorted to fit in the space above the door. His arms hung low, much too long for his frame. The effect was grotesque and unnerving. But worse of all was his face. Once pleasant and happy features were twisted and gnarled.

When he'd attacked me, Evan had been bitter and angry. Now he looked deranged and deformed. Most of all, he looked terrified. And made of stone.

"The rancour inside takes them over after a while," Jonathan said blithely, with a dismissive flourish of his hand in Evan's direction.

"Is he still alive?"

I tried to keep my voice calm and even, but I knew that I was losing it.

The silver leaves scraped and cackled, encouraging me to let go. Power built within me, begging for release.

Still I held on.

"If he can master the psychological decay, he can overcome the physical," Jonathan said oblivious to my struggle. "But that's not likely under the circumstances."

"You could save him."

"Why Alice, this wasn't my doing you foolish child," he laughed. "It is you that he desires."

"What?"

"Why do you think he was so keen to help me? He thought that I would give you to him. The fool. I have this now thanks to him. And you won't be safe anywhere but here."

Jonathan held my garnet pendant on its silver chain. He swung it back and forth, mocking me with his cleverness at manipulating Evan and stealing my mother's pendant.

"But I was out with Evan when the pendant was stolen," I said, desperate to contradict Jonathan's story.

I couldn't accept that I was responsible for Evan's degeneration. The manuscript had said that I needed the pendant to temper my power. Could it really be so strong that it twisted and deformed Evan in such a short space of time?

"Be that as it may, I have the pendant. I have you, here with me, where you belong. And you have Evan, up there, where he belongs."

The silver leaves merged with Jonathan's laughter, until the noise became unbearable. He was enjoying it, showing me my burden. The bastard knew that I wasn't equipped to carry it, and couldn't wait to teach me the lesson.

To think that I could be responsible for Evan's plight sickened me. I looked around the room at all Jonathan's victims. Twisted and deformed by their own desires and bitterness.

He was the true cause, not me. I knew that much, and I hated him.