Illicit Magic by Camilla Chafer Read Free Book Online Page B

you have to do what I say. I know you don’t want to. I know you’re scared but I will look after you and I’m taking you somewhere safe. Until then, just let me take care of the bills, okay?”
    “Where are we going?” I asked feeling a little sullen, like I’d just been told off. I didn’t have much choice but to trust her and if I was thinking practically, getting out of the country might be the best thing. She had, after all, rescued me from a firebomb and someone smashing my door with an axe. I was between a rock and a hard place; I couldn’t turn Étoile down.
    “New York, for the moment. We have... people there and they will tell us what to do next,” Étoile told me at last.
    “Couldn’t you just, you know, zap us over there? Wouldn’t that be quicker than flying?”
    “I was stronger once, but I can’t... zap us that far. We would get horribly wet when we landed in the middle of the Atlantic. Better to fly.” It was Étoile’s turn to look petulant and I wondered if I’d hit a nerve. She turned away from me for the briefest moment to scan the departures board. “Come on. We’ve got a little walk to our departure gate and it isn’t long before we board. I’ll tell you more on the plane.”
    Thanks to Étoile’s business class tickets, we swept through the departure gate and settled into large, plush seats fairly quickly and again I wondered how this woman, who didn’t look much older than I, had the money for two tickets, the ability to get passports (fake ones at that) at short notice as well as the resources to buy me an expensive jacket without flinching. I wondered if she flew regularly, unlike me . Perhaps she was some kind of entrepreneur, I decided. Or a criminal with a heart , I wondered as I watched her stow my bags in the overhead compartment.
    I shuffled in my seat to get comfortable but it wasn’t difficult considering how soft it was. Étoile leaned over to buckle me in like a child and grinned. “I hope you don’t get airsick.”
    I shook my head then suddenly realised that actually, I had no idea. It wasn’t like I was a seasoned traveller used to hopping on and off planes at a moment’s notice. In between the air stewardess’ instructions whose arms flapped towards exits that I couldn’t see and hopefully wouldn’t need, Étoile spoke in a low voice so that the other passengers couldn’t hear. She told me there were others “like us”, but not all could do things quite the way we could, she said with a wink, making us sound like conspirators. She told me that they – and I hadn’t quite fathomed whom “they” were – hadn’t been certain where I was for a long time but when they finally found me and thought there might be a threat, they had been keeping a loose eye on me. Apparently, my frequent job changes and home moves had kept them one annoying step behind. It became imperative that I was found, said Étoile, and here she was. She shrugged as if that told a whole story itself.
    When rumours of cruel and unusual happenings to witches had begun to surface over the past few months, they started rounding up the “waifs and strays,” as she put it, taking those who couldn’t defend themselves somewhere safer, pairing the newer of our kind with the stronger, trying to make sure no one was left alone as a target.
    Étoile sighed. “Sometimes we were just too late and now I fear it is not safe for us to go back to England at all for quite some time.”
    “Did you take them all home with you?”
    “No.” Étoile frowned as she thought about it. “No. I only had instructions to return with you.”
    “Why do they want me?” I wasn’t even remotely useful. Surely, I didn’t have money, or connections; it wasn’t like I was a big cheese in any way.
    “I don’t know.” Étoile put her hand over mine and gave it a friendly squeeze. I wasn’t sure if she were trying to reassure me, or herself. “Don’t worry. They don’t tell me everything, but they will