Illicit Magic by Camilla Chafer Read Free Book Online Page A

away anywhere. I spent my holiday time hulking around London’s many museums and parks.
    Inside the shop, Étoile walked straight to the row of jackets and ran a practiced hand across them, pulling out three. She nodded politely to the sales assistant and told me to try them on. Shaking her head at the first two, she signalled her approval with a small incline of her head at the third. I looked at myself in the long wall mirror. It was grey wool with a full length zip, concealed by a small panel with a dropped waist, a belt that tied in a loose knot and sleeves that flared into gentle bell cuffs. It was well tailored and fit me snugly. It was obviously better quality than anything I had ever worn. I twisted the card attached to the sleeve and winced at the price. It was well out of my league of affordability.
    I shrugged it off but Étoile caught it before I could gingerly place it back on the hanger and marched it over to the counter.
    “I can’t afford it,” I hissed in a low voice, as I caught up with her at the till, just as the sales assistant scanned the tag with the wand.
    “It’s on me seeing as I didn’t think to get yours,” replied Étoile with a dazzling smile that she re-aimed at the sales assistant with a flick of her head, handing over a black card. “No bag. She’ll wear it now.”
    The sales assistant snipped off the tag, passed me the jacket and wished us a great flight. We’d been in the shop only a few minutes and Étoile had happily stumped up more money than I’d ever paid for a single garment and without a single question. I wondered exactly how she had so much money to just throw away cash at a stranger like that. I guessed she couldn’t have been more than a few years older than I.
    “I’ll pay you back,” I promised, pulling the coat back on, now minus its wince-inducing price tag, then zipping it up. I pulled my bag strap over my head again so that it rested across my body like a security blanket. My wallet was, thankfully, inside and I pulled it out. “I have money in my account. Not loads, but enough to give you some back.” I pulled out a card. Étoile took it from me and simply snapped it in half.
    “What did you do that for?” I tried to calculate what was in my account and then what I would have to do to apply for another card. Bother.
    “The minute you put that card in an ATM they’ll know exactly where we are. They will be following you electronically as well as tracking you by other means. We need them to stay confused until we are well out of the way.”
    “I could have used it in... where are we going? What do you mean by other means?” I hurried after Étoile as she tossed my card in the bin and moved on.
    “You couldn’t. They must have no idea where you are. You can never use a bank card traceable to you again, never use your email or your Facebook or anything else that leaves a digital trace. Not even your phone.” Étoile took my wallet from my hand and rudely rummaged through it, taking my only other card and snapping that one too. She tossed them in the bin and handed me the near empty wallet. “As for other means, well, they don’t like us but they don’t mind using our talents when it suits them and when they can get them.” She set her mouth in a grim line.
    “I don’t have a phone.” As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn’t bothered. Bad enough being a freak, but now I was a freak who didn’t even have a phone in the twenty-first century thanks to my social ineptitude. Great, but hardly my fault I reminded myself. “What am I supposed to do for money?”
    “I told you, I’ll take care of everything,” Étoile shrugged like it should have been obvious. She was being very offhand about the whole thing compared to me. “You won’t have to worry about a thing.”
    “I don’t want to be kept.”
    Étoile sighed and leaned closer speak in a low voice. “Stella, you don’t have a choice. Right now I’m the only person keeping you alive and