‘Well, I certainly agree that you were pretty useless in this situation, Captain,’ I said. ‘But … is there even going to be a Warlock Society for him to infiltrate after what just happened?’

  Finn snorted. ‘Of course there’ll still be a Warlock Society. The current leaders might be heading to Witchfield, but the rest of them will forget all about the Old Ones. Heck, I’ll forget about the Old Ones once the Cacklers have given me a list of who to arrest. Those warlocks’ll go back to business as usual. And while they might forget about the demons for a while, they’ll still be up to shady business.’

  Cullen grunted and picked up his pool cue. ‘You won’t change my mind, boss. Being around those people makes me feel dirty. Anyway, any other crimes they’re involved in should be small potatoes. Someone else can enjoy being contaminated by them for a change. I have other things in mind.’

  He turned to me and said, ‘Diane gave me a call a little while ago. She and Alexis are back to normal, thank the stars. Of course that also means that their grief has hit them all over again, and they want to get away from this enclave for a while. So … they asked me if I wanted to take over the Bank. What do you think? You still wanna be friends with me if I’m not a sexy undercover Wayfarer anymore?’

  I laughed. ‘Well, you were never sexy.’ Lie. ‘But sure. I’ll pop in for a cup of tea from time to time. Heck, maybe I’ll even let you buy me dinner.’

  ‘Good.’ He bent over the table, potted the last few of his red balls, then sank the black without a pause. ‘Because the only thing that could have kept me working full time as a Wayfarer was if it was the only way I’d get to see you. I’ve become way too addicted to your crazy curls and your can’t-do attitude to ever give it up.’

  Finn’s eyes widened. ‘Well if he’ll do it for you, Katy, then tell him to stay! Tell him you’ll never hang out with him unless he’s a full-time member of my staff. Do it, Katy. Please.’

  I side-bumped the captain. ‘Aw. You’ll miss his ego, won’t you? But don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll stride in to take the credit as soon as anything exciting goes down.’

  Finn sighed, said, ‘You two are as bad as each other,’ and walked back to the dinner table.

  ‘Katy, I em … I just want to say …’ Cullen laid his cue aside and ran a hand through his hair. ‘You were brilliant in there. In that tower room at the mansion, I mean. It was a wild plan I came up with, and it never would have worked if we didn’t trust each other.’

  I thought back to that conversation we’d had in the Garden of Reflection, when Cullen had outlined the bare bones of his plan to pretend to betray me. Trusting him had come way too naturally to me. I wished it weren’t so, but it was. Not for one second had I believed he’d let me down – and that was a dangerous way to feel about a person.

  ‘Sure.’ I swallowed. ‘Any time.’

  ≈

  After I scurried away from Cullen, I found Ned talking urgently with Peter Müd on one of the window seats. I glanced around the room, and saw that my uncle was mid-conversation with Hamish. Hamish was showing him his broom. Dear Hecate – the thought of my uncle riding a broom was terrifying. I just prayed that Hamish wasn’t telling him that most wizard brooms also had a cloaking function.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked.

  I nodded. ‘Sleepy. Shocked. Happy. I’m having all the feelings. You guys?’

  Peter hung his head and said, ‘A bit embarrassed that I let a robotic vampire compel me to destroy all of my computers and files just so I could withhold important information from you. Other than that, I’m just tickety-boo.’

  Ned chuckled. ‘Yeah, well you managed to get your hands on the Wreck-Tech in the Wayfarer evidence room just in time, so I think we’ll forgive you. As for me, I’m still a bit hyper, to be honest.’ She focused on me. ‘I’ve actually dragged your friend Müd over here to talk over a couple of things. See, the normal way of things after this is for the Cacklers to go scorched earth and obliterate everyone’s memories except their own. Matter of fact, the original Three created such strong spells that even now it’d be difficult for us to do anything other than that. And I get the reason why. The mere idea of the Old Ones is dangerous, yada yada yada. But Katy, I’m not like the other Cacklers. All my life my mother told me I had to stay on Samhain Street, but she never told me why.’

  She squeezed my hand. ‘And it was dumb, because if I’d only known at least some of it, we all could have been so much better prepared. So I think I need to do things differently. I don’t want Cullen – or Jay, if he’s the protector the next time around – to only remember their roles when there’s already danger in the air. I need you all with me, watching, being alert.’

  She leaned closer. ‘So what I want is for a few of my most trusted friends to become honorary Cacklers. You’ll keep your memories as a hunter and the caretaker of the Ice Crystal, and I’ll keep them as the One Who Sings – Cleo will probably automatically remember, seeing as she’s my familiar. But I want Cullen, Jay and Hamish to remember too. They’ll have to go through some training so that living with the knowledge of the Old Ones doesn’t drive them mad, but … I think they can handle it. I think they need to, given the fact that this is an incredibly unpleasant enclave and if us lot don’t remember, we’re hardly going to want to stick around.’

  I shrugged. ‘I dunno about that. Your stinky vapour gives the place a homely feel. But I think we can convince the others to go along with it. Hamish really ought to remember, seeing as his genius computers can help to nip the next event in the bud. You want Müd to be an honorary Cackler too?’

  Ned bit back a laugh. ‘No. I was talking to him about your uncle, actually. He’s a hunter, so these events are probably going to stick with him. And from what you’ve told me, memory spells don’t work very well on him. We could get Libra 3.0 to wipe what happened last night I guess but … I feel like even the robot might have trouble.’

  ‘It’s true,’ I conceded. ‘He is a stubborn man.’

  ‘He really is,’ Müd agreed. ‘Which is why Ned was asking my advice. She wants to know if we can trust him with this knowledge. So what do you think? Should he remember his way in to the enclaves? Should he remember what happened with the Old Ones? Because jokes aside, Libra 3.0 could make him forget it all.’

  I glanced over at my uncle. He was now playing with the buttons of Hamish’s broom, giggling with glee.

  ‘You know, I think we should play it by ear,’ I said. ‘Let him remember until he does something dumb. Which I really hope he doesn’t, by the way.’

  ‘Just what I was thinking.’ Peter clapped me lightly in the back. ‘Anyway, I think it’d do him good to remember the day that a female hunter slew the demons and saved the world.’

  ≈

  The dawn light was just beginning to shine as I stood outside the Cacklers’ front door, saying goodbye to Aunt Jude. I’d already said goodbye to the rest of the Moons, and now they were waiting for Jude to join them in the van.

  It was a flying van, and a purple one at that, owned by a friend of Felim’s. It had comfortable seating, could travel faster than hyper-speed, plus it had a popcorn maker and a chocolate fountain always on the go. I almost wished I could join them on the ride home, but what Jude needed now was time with her family.

  She hugged me for the umpteenth time. ‘We’ll see each other again very soon, Katy. I want to know every single thing about your adventures. But before I go.’ She opened her palm, revealing the shrunken Toolkit.

  ‘But I gave it back to you after the battle,’ I said. ‘It’s yours. You and Felim built it up together.’

  She nodded. ‘We did. And if I ever decide to go a-hunting again, we’ll make another one just for me.’ She brushed away a tear. ‘As I’m now officially passing it over, you’ll notice that the wording has changed.’

  With my wand, I drew the symbol that would enlarge the box, gasping as the engraving on the wood became clear: The Toolkit of Katy Kramer, Witch Hunter.

  ‘Cullen gave me my Disgruntled Admitaz back, so you’ll find it inside.’ She held up the snot-green Ring of Privilege I’d given her before the battle. ‘This’ll do me till I find something better. And no arguing. I want to spend time with my family. I’ve had many years as a hunter. It’s your turn now.’

  ‘Before you go,’ I murmured into her shoulder as I pulled her in for yet another hug. ‘There’s something I need to know. Why Faster? Why did you send your Toolkit to him all those months ago? I mean, it just sat in his attic until he eventually let me try to open it. Why not the Wayfarers, the Cacklers, Felim …? Come to think of it, how did you manage to send it anywhere at all? And how did Kieran manage to trap you in the first place? And–’

  She gave me a sheepish smile. ‘Next time we meet I’ll give you the story in full, exciting detail. For now I’ll just give you the headlines. How did Kieran trap me? Well, he intercepted me when I arrived on Samhain Street and took me to the mansion, telling me that some warlocks had kidnapped a Cackler. I don’t know why I didn’t double-check before going with him. I was going to, but he looked so hurt at the thought that I might not trust him.’

  She placed a hand to her heart. ‘And he’s my son at the end of the day. I’ll always want to give him a chance to prove himself. Anyway … the second he got us into the room in the tower, I realised it was a trap. I’d opened my Toolkit to take out something, and he stole the Ice Crystal before my eyes. I had my wand in my hand, so before he could take anything else I sent the rest of the Toolkit away. I knew he’d have thought ahead and have blocked me sending it to the Wayfarers, or the Cacklers or Felim, so … I sent it the only other place I could. Believe me, I would have preferred it to go straight to you – I’d even made sure you were the only one who could open it – but Faster and your father had protections over you, blocking me from contact.’ She chuckled. ‘They worried I’d be a bad influence. I hoped you’d find your way to it eventually. I also hoped that Faster would realise that something was wrong with me, and that he’d finally have some cop on and try to come and find me. But … neither of my nephews were ever the brightest sparks in the fire.’

  ‘That’s true,’ I said. ‘Although Faster did come through for us in the end.’

  ‘He really did, didn’t he?’ She laughed. ‘That was a surprise. But then so was the fact that the very handsome Cullen hadn’t betrayed you the way I thought he had.’ She stroked my face. ‘You are a very good actress.’

  ‘That’s surprising, seeing as I hate lying.’ I shrugged. ‘But I might be coming around to it.’

  ‘Well, thank the stars you managed it this time.’ She cast a look back at the van. Harry was sitting patiently in the driving seat, while Felim and Eva were snoring behind him. ‘I’d better get this lot home. But I’ll see you very soon, Katy. In the meantime, you’ve got some great friends in this enclave. I think as long as you keep them by your side, you’ll be all right.’

  She hugged me one last time before turning away.

  ‘Be careful,’ I said as she headed towards the van. ‘Those steps are slippery.’

  Harry came out to help her get seated, and with one last wave they took off, driving for the first few feet along the road before soaring up into the air. I watched the purple van for as long as I could and, when it was finally out of sight, I looked around at my enclave instead. There were Cacklers on the street, taking down the last of the hanging baskets. They’d obviously used magic to get rid of the new fountain in front of Bartholomew’s café, because there was no sign it had ever been there at all.

  Sure, it would be dark and dreary without those flowers, but maybe I could put up some flowers of my own – ones that weren’t planted in soil from the Old Ones’ burial ground and hypnotising people as they grew. I could make it nice-ish to live here forever, right? I mean, there were worse places in the world than this.

  Behind me, the door creaked open, and I turned to see Cullen with two mugs of tea in his hands. Passing me one of them, he said, ‘Thought you could use something to warm you up.’

  I took a sip of his always-perfect tea, and sighed in happiness. Did I say this place was nice-ish? Scratch that crazy thought. The Samhain Street enclave was the nicest place in the world.

  ≈

  You’ve reached the end of the latest Katy Kramer mystery. I hope you enjoyed this read. If so, subscribe for my newsletter to keep up with the very latest releases in this series and others: http://www.subscribepage.com/z4n0f4

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  A. A. Albright, The Case of the Strange Society

 

 

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