Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

26

What the hell?

Before I could question the statement, Mary's life-force dimmed and confusion filtered through her features.

I looked up the stairs to see Emily beckoning me impatiently. Glancing back to Mary, I just caught her disappear into her room. A noise from Stephen's door sent me stumbling up the stairs after Emily

It was four hours later when I woke, groggy and hung over. I shot out of bed, convinced that my lie-in would give me away.

After showering and dressing, I quietly descended the stairs, preparing to face the music and atone for my escapades.

Stephen hurried past me, barely acknowledging my presence. Relief quickly turned to worry when I heard him speak.

"I think we need to go to the coven."

"Ok, but tread carefully. They can't get their hands on Alice. She's too valuable. They'll want us to hand her over. I'm surprised that haven't already petitioned the Agency."

"Erm, there won't be any handing over..." the words died on my tongue as I turned the corner into the room.

Emily was bent over a bed, applying a cool compress to Mary's head. I never took her for the maternal type, but there were several things about Emily that I was only just learning. An uncharacteristic blush spread over her face when her eyes met mine.

As I neared the bed, I heard the constant stream of mumbling coming from Mary's fast moving lips. Her eyes were closed, but their jerking movements suggested that she was in REM sleep.

Mary's tiny form was dwarfed in the bed, even though it was only a child's single. She was still, but every thirty seconds or so, her left hand twitched in response to some unidentifiable stimulus. At these times, her voice increased in volume and pitch.

I lowered my head, trying to make sense of the words that fast ran together. I'd heard those rhythms before. She was chanting.

When the Sheffield coven had brought me back from my father's prison, they'd joined together round the tree mosaic at Hazel's restaurant. Their incantation had destabilised Jonathan's control and allowed me to access our shared power.

Mary was trying to access power and judging by the strength of her green life-force, she was succeeding.

I took her hand. Her power buzzed and hummed in waves, cresting then receding. The green of her life-force brightened and then dimmed in synchronised bursts of colour. My own energy crept forward.

I felt it. The moment that the silver particles infiltrated the green. Latching on, slowing the movement, easing the frantic pace of the energy multiplying as Mary's magic broke the bind that had been put on it.

The rapid eye movement became less frenzied, and her words began to resemble understandable language. But it wasn't the White Paternoster, the charm the coven used to break or lay curses.

Mary spoke the same three words over and over.

"Two for two. Two for two. Two for Two."

"Keep touching her Alice, I think it's helping."

Stephen moved to the other side of the bed. The tension in his body eased as Mary became more restful. His wild, fearful stare of a moment ago faded to a tired, harried expression.

The care that Stephen showed for Mary warmed my heart. It was why I'd stuck with him all those years. Stephen had a deep well of compassion in his soul, and if you were one of the lucky ones, he would submerge you in his affection and keep you safe from any harm.

I missed that security.

After a few minutes, Mary settled into a deep sleep. I removed my hand slowly, worried in case the fit came on again.

Thankfully, she remained calm and restful.

"What brought it on?"

"She was like this when I came to check on her this morning. Mary always does breakfast. We are both early risers. When she didn't join me, I found her here. It's never been this bad before."

I swallowed hard. I really didn't want to be the person to blame for this, but in the face of my interaction with Mary last night, I couldn't really doubt it.

"Should we take her back to Sheffield. Maybe Hazel will help her," I said, willing to try anything to ease her suffering, and my own conscience.

"No, there's someone in London that might help."

I let out a sigh that I didn't realise I was holding. We all knew what the price for Hazel's assistance would be, and I was nowhere near ready to join the coven.

"Wait, why haven't we already asked for their help then?"

The look that past between them made me draw that sigh right back in.

What new witchcraft is this? Hope you're enjoying the story.