‘I just met Minerva today,’ I said. ‘And seeing as Ronnie’s told me that Athena died three weeks ago, then I definitely didn’t bring Minerva back from the brink, did I? She should be dead, but she isn’t, which means Athena’s death was a murder. It’s the only explanation. Minerva just hasn’t come to me for help because … well, who knows? She seems to think she’s got it all under control, so maybe she just prefers to work alone.’

  ‘Her witch was like that,’ Florence told us, sniffing back a tear. ‘I loved her dearly, but my goodness, she always thought she was right about everything, and the best at everything. It’s how she got her illness, as a matter of fact. There’s a certain part of the Middlemage enclave where the illness occurs. A magical Toadstool grows in a perfect ring around an area of the enclave called the Beast’s Hollow. The Beast’s Toadstools are incredibly powerful. You can’t pick them or you’ll die instantly. Even touching them will give you a wide range of magical maladies. But many supernaturals travelled there anyway, believing that they could soak up the magic and gain new knowledge. About two hundred years ago the tradition stopped. It had become impossible to ignore the fact that those who travelled to the Beast’s Hollow were becoming ill and, eventually, dying. The spores of the toadstools had entered their bodies and taken up residence, overwhelming the body and killing the sufferer.’

  She rubbed her tired-looking eyes. ‘And Athena, she was obsessed with the toadstools. She wanted to gain that elusive magic, that knowledge of life, the universe and everything else they were supposed to impart. She would stay there for increasing amounts of time, a few seconds, then a few minutes, believing she could build up some sort of immunity to the spores. Obviously, she couldn’t. Nobody can. Quite soon, Athena was mortally ill. Many in our coven said “I told you so”. We might be interested in discovering the antidote to all ills, but even we Nights and Gales know that there are some things which ought to be left well alone.’

  Rubbing away a fresh stream of tears, she said, ‘But I couldn’t abandon her, even if it was her fault. I loved Athena, dearly – although she sometimes drove me batty. So I helped her to search for a cure. We found a way to gather the spores, and we’d used them to attempt to create the antidote. Our initial tests seemed to be going well, but Athena was impatient, wanting to rush through to the next phase. And who can blame her, with her illness progressing? I suspect she may have been working on her own, too, hoping to hurry things along without my many precautions, but … neither of us were far enough along to save her. She died before we’d made a cure, and I was heartbroken, wishing I’d done things differently, wishing I’d just gone ahead and broken the rules.’

  She looked at me again. ‘Now that Minerva has turned up, though, I have no idea what to think. Could there have been foul play involved? Anything’s possible, I suppose, but I really don’t see how.’

  With a nervous tug of tooth against lip, Ronnie said, ‘I suppose there was no autopsy?’

  ‘Well, no.’ Florence shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I did suggest it to Anton – he was Athena’s husband. I phrased it sensitively, or at least I hope I did. I said that it was what Athena would have wanted. She would have wanted her body to be studied so that we could be one step closer to the cure. Anton agreed that she probably would have but … he just couldn’t bring himself to allow it. It’s not as though Toadstool Tumours are a common disease. Most people know better than to linger at the Beast’s Hollow. But she’s not been buried yet – Anton’s been trying to track where Minerva might have died, so he could retrieve her body and bury her with Athena. But even when he finds out Minerva isn’t dead, he still won’t be keen on an autopsy. I know that much.’

  ‘Well, he mightn’t have a choice,’ said Ronnie. ‘Not if this becomes a murder investigation.’

  ‘No.’ Florence’s heart-shaped face was troubled. ‘I suppose not. I …’ Her eyes widened in shock, as Finn Plimpton suddenly appeared in the foyer, with his mother in his arms.

  4. Fast Friends

  His face distraught, the captain gazed at Florence. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with her, Florence. You have to help.’

  Without asking more, Florence clicked her fingers, and a bed appeared in the foyer. Gently, she arranged Finn’s mother and said, ‘What happened, Finn?’

  ‘I … I was arguing with her,’ he admitted. ‘Then she went all funny, and she just … collapsed. I brought her straight here.’

  ‘Any conditions I should know about?’ Florence questioned.

  ‘No.’ Finn looked agonized as he shook his head. ‘She was as healthy as a dragon.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll take her in for examination,’ said Florence. ‘Anything you can think of, let me know.’

  ≈

  ‘The first thing I should tell you guys is that I got a call from Dexter, the guy in charge of the Fire Squad,’ Finn said, while he, Ronnie, Gretel and I gathered outside his mother’s hospital room. ‘They caught my mother on film, pulling the fire alarm. She’d been looking at her watch really intently, as though she was trying to time it perfectly, and then she stood up, popped on a pair of gloves, flipped the switch, and walked out of the office.’

  Gretel and Ronnie gasped, while I just groaned and said, ‘Yup, sounds about right.’

  ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Finn spoke in a miserable tone. ‘I called round to her house, phoned her too, but I couldn’t find her, so I moved on to the dean, meaning to ask him how he hired her, why he hired her, what he was going to do to make sure that your final exam will happen without a hitch. Y’know … your general threats and demands.’ He cleared his throat.

  ‘Yeah, we get the picture,’ Ronnie drawled. ‘He managed to avoid me earlier on, though. Where did you find him?’

  Finn’s cheeks flamed. ‘I found him in my mother’s house, when I went back to call on her for the second time. He answered the door and said my mother wasn’t home.’

  He sank into a nearby chair. ‘I was so staggered, I didn’t even ask him what he was doing at her house. Instead, I asked him why the heck she was working at the college, and he was having none of it. He said he was sick of getting rid of staff members, that me and Ronnie were bullying him, and that Wanda Wayfair is going to have to get used to the fact that quite a lot of people hate her guts.’

  Finn shot me an apologetic glance.

  ‘No problem,’ I said. ‘But next time I see him, I’ll tell him that I am used to it. Sick of it, but used to it. I’ll also tell him that even if he couldn’t give a crap about me, I’m not the only one whose classes and exams have been messed up, so he should give a crap about the other students, at least. Although … you guys let him know exactly what she was like when you scuppered her chances of the examiner role, right?’

  ‘Right,’ said Ronnie and Finn in unison.

  ‘So then what the heck is he thinking?’ I questioned. ‘Never mind the fact that she tried to murder me – but she also used some illegal teaching methods along the way. Pernicious Gnats, for example.’

  ‘Well, yeah but she didn’t really try to murder you last time, did she? She just … sent you to an incredibly dangerous coordinate in your Travelling exam, where you plummeted to your almost-death.’ He sighed. ‘You’re right. She tried to kill you. Why am I defending the woman? She’s already disowned me, so why do I care?’

  I leaned into him, gently squeezing his arm. ‘Because she’s your mammy, that’s why. And she’s ill. I’ll go easy on her, okay? I know this has to be hard.’

  ‘Hard? Yeah, maybe. Mostly it’s a head wrecker, though. I mean, the dean then went on to say that the last Head of Scheduling he’d fired was suing him, and that he wasn’t about to put himself in a situation where his girlfriend was suing him too.’

  ‘Girlfriend?’ I gawped at Finn. ‘Your mother and Dean Carmichael? But I thought he was dating Adeline Albright.’

  ‘Oh, Adeline Albright dumped him a long time ago,’ said Ronnie. ‘He wanted to spend more time with her, while she wanted to spend more time training for fights or hanging out with her cat.’

  Finn rubbed at his stubbly chin, letting out a growl-like sound of frustration before saying, ‘Why anyone would want to date him is beyond me. But … anyway, yeah, my mam had obviously asked him to lie, because she was at home. She came thundering down the stairs and, well, first she went on the defensive. Then, when I started to question her more about why she was messing with your schedule, she went all weird. Like … vacant looking? I don’t know, I can’t really explain it. But she collapsed. And now we’re here.’

  Florence poked her head out of Carmel’s room. ‘She’s awake. I have no idea why she collapsed – everything looks perfectly normal to me. Although I can’t be sure, seeing as she’s refusing to let me run any tests. Anyway, she says she wants to see Finn and Wanda.’

  ≈

  I was a little baffled as to why she would want to see either of us. She hated my guts, and she’d been going out of her way to avoid Finn. Nevertheless, I walked into the hospital room behind my boss, and gave his mother a wave.

  ‘Hey, Mizz Plimpton. How’re you doing?’

  ‘Don’t you Mizz Plimpton me.’ Finn’s mother narrowed her eyes.

  I shrugged and took a seat. ‘You’re the one who always insists on being called Mizz. You want me to call you Carmel? I can do that.’

  Her entire face was all screwed up, distorted by hate as she glared at me. ‘You will not address me by my first name.’

  Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Mother, please stop it. You’re the one who asked Wanda and I in here. She called you Mizz, just like you always insist she does. What more can she do?’

  ‘She can say it with a little less sarcasm, that’s what she can do, or find something more respectful to call me.’

  ‘Satan’s mizztress it is,’ I mumbled.

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Nothing, Mizz Plimpton.’ I gave her a bright smile. ‘Now, I know what I’d like to talk to you about. But why have you asked Finn and I in here?’

  She patted down her covers. ‘I heard you talking outside my door. Discussing some security footage that shows me hitting the alarm. Well, yes, I did it. I hit the alarm.’ She smiled. ‘I thought I smelled smoke, you see. I was doing my duty. I think I rather deserve a reward, don’t you?’

  ‘Sure.’ Finn propped himself against the wall. ‘That, and the massive fine that the Fire Squad are going to hit you with for setting off the alarm maliciously. And the criminal charge that I’ll be hitting you with for the same. But anyway, in my little chat with your new boyfriend, I discovered that the last Head of Scheduling just happened to be your friend, Lindsey. And although you for some reason pulled the fire alarm only after pulling on a pair of gloves, I wonder if Lindsey did that too. She would have been on duty during Wanda’s last attempt at her Potions exam, right? And the one before that.’

  She held her nose in the air. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. It sounds to me as if a lot of people have a problem with Wanda. Not just Lindsey and I.’

  ‘For one thing, I’ve never even met this Lindsey,’ I said. ‘And for another, thank you for admitting you have a problem with me.’

  ‘Well, of course I do. My sister died in prison thanks to you.’

  Finn glared at his mother. ‘Aunt Justine was in jail because she was a criminal, and she died for the same reason. Also, you hated Wanda from the beginning, for no reason other than she’s a Wayfair and you’re a Plimpton. Coven rivalry at its worst. Except the Wayfairs never waged war on you. It was all you, and your sister, and the rest of you nutters who wanted the Plimptons to run the Wyrd Court. Look, just tell us, why are you trying to mess up Wanda’s exams?’

  ‘I’m not.’ Once again, she smoothed down her blankets with a prim smile on her face. ‘As I said, I thought I smelled smoke. But I must say, if you keep going along with this line of questioning, I might be forced to sue you both for slander.’

  Her eyes moved to the door, as a young woman walked in. ‘Ah, Emily!’ She beamed at the newcomer. ‘It’s so good to see you.’

  I stayed sitting, feeling a little too dizzy to stand up. I knew Emily Caulfield had been released from the Maze, but this was the first time I had seen her in the flesh. She’d been placed in the mental facility after it was discovered she’d been dosing Max with a variety of potions, all designed to keep him meek and under her control.

  ‘Wanda.’ Her lips pulled back in an awkward grimace. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you here.’ She was holding a box of her handmade chocolates and a bunch of flowers, with the label saying: Carmel, get well soon xxx

  ‘Yeah, we could say the same for you,’ Finn drawled. ‘I wasn’t aware that you and my mother were friends.’

  ‘We met in the Maze,’ Carmel said, as she took the chocolates from Emily’s hands. ‘I’m a volunteer there. I mainly worked with one of the counsellors, Athena Gale. Together, we helped the witches find a way to control their anger and make sure it didn’t come through in their magic, once they were released. We were quite the duo.’ She let out a forlorn sigh. ‘Until poor Athena conked out.’

  She clasped Emily’s hand in hers. ‘Emily and I became fast friends during her stay at the hospital, and I think we’ll remain that way. After all, we have a lot in common.’

  Sure they did, I thought as I heaved myself out of the seat and left the room – they both hated my guts.

  5. The Riders

  I was amazed that I’d made it as far as the evening with my invitation to Foundling Forest still intact. Much of it had to do with the fact that I changed the subject any time Gretel seemed about to bring it up.

  It was her brother’s birthday, a brother I didn’t even know existed until recently. Gretel had always kept her private life and her working life separate, but lately she was opening up to me, and I was grateful.

  Hans was younger than her by a year and a couple of months, and they’d be celebrating his birthday the way they did for all coven members from twelve to forty-five. Hans and the others would display their skills at archery and riding, and afterwards they’d have a barbecue.

  As glad as I was that Gretel had invited me, I was a little worried about what would happen when it was her turn to perform. While she dressed in her outfit, I wandered through the house with my phone at the ready, in case she needed my help.

  The Woods had a large library, and I thumbed along the many books. There were guides to slaying monsters and demons, and guides to how to battle even the evilest of witches. One book on A Healthy Coven Diet contained healthy recipes and advice, but each recipe seemed overly concerned with gingerbread cottages. For example, the chapter called Snacks on the Go began by saying:

  It’s important, at all times, to have high-protein items to hand to fill you up. In this chapter we’ll show you how to make high-protein snack bars, so that you’ll never be hungry, and won’t be tempted by cottages made of gingerbread. Of course, those who have been through the Test know that sometimes, even a full stomach isn’t enough.

  ‘All righty then,’ I muttered, placing the book back on a shelf and studying the ones below. All of the books on that shelf had the title: The Test, with a year listed underneath. Curiously, I opened up a few of them to take a look.

  They seemed to be scrap books, with notes and photos of some sort of coven ritual. There was a wizened woman in all of the pictures, standing next to either one or two children, with a gingerbread cottage in the background. The woman looked like the typical wicked witch from fairy tales, or what we actual witches might call a Hag – one so deformed by dark magic and greed that her outsides had begun to match her insides.

  The same picture appeared in page after page, book after book, with different children, although the wicked witch herself had some slight differences in each, too. A different shade of hair or eye-colour, a different outfit. Her appearance was a glamour, I realised. Part of the ritual. The children against the witch.

  Finally I came to Gretel and her brother. Gretel looked about twelve or thirteen, but she was tall even then. Her eyes were red-rimmed, as though she’d been crying, but she was doing her best to smile for the camera. As always, the witch was under glamour spells in order to play the part of the evil witch, but there was something striking about this one.

  I was staring at her, trying to figure out what it was that made her stand out, when I heard voices.

  ‘I won’t hear it, Hans.’ That was Gretel’s mother, by the sound of things. I slammed the book shut and put it back onto the shelf, wondering if I should skedaddle or stay here where I could hear every word of their argument.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re letting her go through with this. Last year was bad enough. It’s torture for her, Mam. She doesn’t do it for anyone else’s birthday, only for mine, only out of duty because I’m her brother. Can’t you let her off the hook, just this once?’

  Hm. It seemed that I was staying, then – Hans and his mother were right outside the library door, and I didn’t want to walk out past them, not now that I’d heard them arguing.

  ‘Hans, I am not telling your sister to stay out of the birthday ritual. For one thing, she wouldn’t listen to a word I say. She wants to be part of this. She loves how much time you and she are spending together lately. If it carries on like this, maybe this time she’ll stay for good. And for another thing … maybe this year will be different.’

  ‘Why on earth would you think it would be different?’ challenged Hans.