Kaden clenched his teeth and said nothing.
“So?” Joel challenged. “Shall we get this over with or what?”
Finally, Kaden stepped forward and extended his hand to Joel.
“Fine. We have a deal,” he confirmed darkly. “In exchange for my marked one, I will take your life instead. Tonight I will kill a Chosen One.”
Joel swallowed hard, then took Kaden’s hand. This was what he’d wanted, right?
As their palms clasped, the ground juddered beneath their feet, as though the earth was acknowledging the contract. A pact made between two witches, now sealed.
The deal was done. And Chosen One or not, hopefully afterwards Kaden would be none the wiser that he had, in fact, killed just another a regular witch.
KNOWING THAT HE was about to die gave Joel a strange sense of calm, as though he were being released somehow. Released from the pain that he’d held onto for so many years.
Standing there in the carnival grounds waiting for it to happen, Joel realised that he wasn’t angry; not at Kaden, or Maximus, or even his mother. No, he wasn’t angry. Not anymore. He wasn’t hurt, either.
It’s ironic, really, he mused.
What better time to accept life as it was than when staring death in the face? With that notion, he simply let go and gave way to acceptance. To the acceptance of other people, and their flaws, their choices, their demons. . .
Joel warily looked up to meet Kaden’s eyes, wondering what was about to happen. Would it happen in the next minute? Would it hurt?
However, Kaden wasn’t looking at Joel anymore. His attention had been drawn to something beyond. Something far off, across the abandoned carnival.
Joel turned and followed Kaden’s gaze.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Joel muttered under his breath.
Racing past the canvas-covered stalls and between the abandoned rides were three all-too-familiar figures—one large, one medium, and one small.
Charlie, Evan, and Maggie.
Three people whom he really, really didn’t want to see right now.
“Joel!” they were crying out, a motley and uneven chorus echoing across the empty fair grounds.
Kaden shot Joel a look of daggers.
Joel groaned inwardly and raised his hand in a disgruntled wave. “Yes, I can see you guys,” he muttered irritably under his breath. “No need to all shout my name at once.”
“J-dog!” Charlie bellowed as the trio neared the Haunted House, panting from their exertion. “And New Guy!” he added, sounding pleasantly surprised to see Kaden.
“What is this?” Kaden hissed to Joel as the others closed in on them. “A set up?”
“No,” Joel assured him, holding up his hands in submission. “No, I swear. I didn’t know they were coming.” He cast a glower at the unwelcome trio. “What are you doing here?” he snapped.
“We’re here to help you,” Evan answered, his eyes locked onto Kaden.
“I don’t need your help,” Joel told him tautly. “How did you even find me?”
“Seriously?” Maggie began with a patronising eyebrow tilt. “You’re in the most obvious place ever, Joel. This was literally the first place we looked.”
Joel narrowed his eyes. “Okay,” he said slowly. “So you found me. Good for you. But can you go now, because I’m kind of in the middle of something.” He gestured between himself and Kaden.
Evan spoke up again. “We know everything, Joel,” he said. “Maggie told us about the mark—”
“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Joel interrupted him. “Kaden and I have made a deal.”
For a second, Evan just stared blankly at his brother. “What kind of deal?”
Joel looked to the ground. “Just a deal, okay? Listen, you guys need to leave. For real.”
Nobody moved.
“Go,” Joel told them, wincing.
Instead of leaving, however, Evan took a step closer. “Joel, please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did.”
Charlie looked between the two brothers, his expression clouded with confusion. “What do you think he did, dude?” he asked Evan. Then, turning to Joel, he said, “What did you do, dude?”
But Joel and Evan were only looking at each other.
“I’m sorry,” Joel mouthed. “I had to.”
Evan shook his head. “No. No, you didn’t have to.”
Joel swallowed. “Yes, I did,” he said quietly, casting a quick glance to Maggie, and then to Kaden.
Evan tensed. “What’s the deal?” he demanded again, directing the question to Kaden now. “Tell me exactly what deal he’s made with you.”
Kaden tilted his chin upwards. “In exchange for the girl, I will take his life instead,” he revealed, aiming his index finger at Joel. The gesture was reminiscent of a shotgun, locked and loaded and waiting to fire.
The revelation was met with a frozen hush while the words hung bitterly in the air, turning to ice.
Charlie was the first to break the silence. “Uh, say what, New-dog?”
Maggie pushed Charlie aside and jumped in front of Joel. “No!” she yelled at Kaden. “That’s not going to happen!”
Joel gently took her arm and pulled her to his chest. As she fell into him, burying her face in his t-shirt, Joel looked around helplessly at the other faces gathered about. There was Kaden, cold and emotionless. And Evan, looking crestfallen. And Charlie, who was. . . mostly confused.
“You guys need to get out of here,” Joel said again. “Seriously. Please. It’s done.”
Kaden spoke up now, too. “Go,” he ordered the newcomers. “I am owed the Chosen One’s life. That is the deal, and so it shall be.”
Joel’s heart sank. Oh, crap.
He glanced over at Evan, hoping against hope that by some miracle his brother had missed that whole ‘Chosen One’ bombshell.
No such luck.
“Wait, what?” Evan reacted. “Did you say Chosen One? He’s not the Chosen One; I am.”
“No, he’s lying!” Joel cried, freeing himself from Maggie’s grasp so that he could face Kaden once more. “Just look at him, man. He’s not Chosen One material. He’s way too passive.”
“I’m not lying,” Evan insisted, taking an obstinate step forward.
Now two Tomlins witches were standing before Kaden, mirroring each other in build and in presence, with two identical sets of unflinching violet eyes.
Kaden looked back and forth between them and groaned. “Which of you is the Chosen One?” he demanded. “Tell me now!”
“I am!” the brothers answered in unison.
From the sidelines, Maggie and Charlie swapped a glance, waiting with bated breath—though neither one was quite sure what they were waiting for.
Kaden knotted his hands through his raven-black hair. “Enough! Just answer the question!”
“I’m the Chosen One,” Evan proclaimed. “So if you’re looking for a life to take, then I guess it’s mine you want.”
Joel’s jaw dropped and he gave Evan a hard shove. “Shut up,” he hissed.
Evan looked back at him. “I won’t let you do this,” he said.
Joel ignored him and turned back to Kaden. “Don’t listen to him. I’m the Chosen One, alright? I’m all powerful, blah, blah, blah, so just kill me already.”
“No!” Evan shouted. “Kill me!”
“No, kill me,” Joel countered.
All of a sudden, a new voice came from behind them. It wasn’t Charlie’s, or Maggie’s; it belonged to someone else.
“No,” said the voice. “If you’re going to kill anyone, then kill me.”
JOEL DID A double-take. “Dad?”
Maximus stepped forward and Joel groaned.
“What is going on?” Joel exclaimed. “So what, does everyone know about this now?”
Evan threw up his arms. “Well, obviously I told Dad.”
Joel rolled his eyes. “Well, yeah. Obviously.”
“Kill me,” said Maximus, standing nobly be
fore Kaden and bowing his head.
Joel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Listen,” he began, “as great as this new family catchphrase is and all, everyone needs to stop offering to die for everyone else. I’m the only one who’s supposed to be doing that.”
“Well, if that’s the case,” Maggie said boldly, “then maybe you should kill m—”
Joel placed his hand over her mouth before she could finish her sentence. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Bmff wrmm,” Maggie argued, her mouth muffled.
Joel turned back to Kaden, whose brows were knotted together in a mixture of rage and perplexity. “You made a deal. And that deal was with me.”
“That deal,” Kaden fired back, “was with the Chosen One.” His cool grey eyes looked pointedly at Maximus. “Now I know you know, Mr Tomlins, that once a deal has been sealed, there is no turning back. And so it is written in the skies.” His lips crooked into a dark smile. “So, tell me, which one of your boys is the Chosen One? Which one gets to die today?”
“Me!” Joel and Evan shouted in unison, then frowned at each other.
The wind rippled over Maximus, lifting his scraggy strands of white hair and pressing his frumpy grey sweater against his thin chest.
When Maximus finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. “You can break the deal, if both sides agree to,” he countered. “It’s not too late to change your mind. Please,” he was begging now. “My boys mean you no harm. I beg you to let them leave.”
“Yeah,” Charlie chimed in. “I don’t really know what’s going on here, New Guy, but there’s, like, five of us and only one of you. You’re outnumbered, pal.”
Kaden rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “True,” he agreed. “And I could do without spectators. Especially ones of the human variety.”
With that, Kaden directed his palm towards Charlie and whispered a single word. “Entrance.”
Charlie’s eyelids fell shut and he dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
In dismay, the three Tomlins witches looked on as Kaden swiftly moved onto Maggie. He held his palm towards her and murmured his simple spell.
“No!” Joel shouted.
But instead of sinking to the ground like Charlie had done, Maggie remained standing perfectly upright, a bright gold light encircling her. This time, it was Kaden who jolted backwards.
Winded and blinking in shock, Kaden staggered to regain his footing.
“It rebounded,” Joel murmured, hardly able to believe it. “His entrancement rebounded.”
Evan nodded. “It’s because she’s protected.”
“Leave the girl alone,” Maximus called out to Kaden. “She’s protected.”
“But h-how?” Joel stammered. “I mean, I have been doing a lot of spells lately,” he uttered, rubbing at his temples. “But I can’t remember doing a protection spell. . .”
Evan looked at Joel strangely. “Joel. Come on.”
“What?” Joel asked, mystified.
Evan’s lips parted in disbelief. “Do you really not know?”
Joel shook his head, perplexed, and swapped an uneasy glance with Maggie.
“It’s you,” Evan told him, as though it were plainly obvious. “You’re protecting her.”
“Huh?”
“Joel,” Evan tried again, almost laughing in spite of the tension, “you’ve been protecting Maggie for years. How did you not know?” He gestured to the air around her. “Haven’t you seen the light around her? That’s you. You’re surrounding her. You’re. . . everywhere!”
Joel squinted at Maggie, trying to see what his brother was talking about. He saw the muddy purple hue of fear, and beyond that he could see a faint outline of the iridescent gold shimmer of Kaden’s mark. But other than that. . .
“But if Maggie is protected, then how has he”—he thumbed towards Kaden—“managed to mark her?”
Kaden cackled loudly and the sound tore through the stillness of the night.
“She is not the one I seek,” he announced with distain.
Joel stopped in his tracks. “What do you mean?”
“What would I want with her?” Kaden scoffed at the idea.
“You said the girl you marked was from Blackheath,” Joel recalled. “No parents in the picture. . . and then at that party you and Maggie were. . .”
“My mark was upon Isla!” Kaden corrected angrily. “And you blocked me.”
It took a few moments for the words to sink in, but when they did, it was all Joel could do not to drop to the ground. Could it be possible that he had made such a huge error? That Maggie wasn’t marked at all—and that in fact the gold light surrounding her was some sort of strange unconscious manifestation of his own doing? That the curse was not a curse at all? But in fact, a spell. A protection spell. . .
My protection spell. The words played over in his racing mind.
Then a new understanding dawned on him. “The binding spell worked,” he muttered. “Kaden marked Isla, and I blocked him.”
Maximus dropped his head into his hands. “Joel,” he moaned. “You know better than to block a witch’s mark.”
Oh, hell, Joel thought, clenching his teeth.
“But a new deal has been decided,” Kaden went on coolly. “I am promised the life of your coven’s Chosen One. And in light of recent. . . developments, I’m willing to bet that the Chosen One is . . .” he trailed off as his finger moved back and forth between Evan and Joel, before finally settling upon Evan. “You,” he finished.
“No!” Joel cried urgently.
But it came too late. Evan had already nodded his head in acknowledgment.
“It’s me,” Evan asserted. “I give you my word, it’s me.”
Kaden smiled crookedly. “If you’re the Chosen One, then you shall die.”
At that, Maximus lunged forward.
Kaden held up his palm in a perfectly composed gesture. “Freeze,” he said easily.
Maximus froze to the spot as though he really were trapped inside ice. Only his eyes were able to move as they desperately darted between his two boys.
Kaden’s gaze travelled from Maggie to Evan to Joel. “And then there were three.”
MAGGIE WATCHED THE scene play out, unable to move. Okay, so she wasn’t frozen in the same way that Joel’s dad was—but spell or not, she was paralysed with fear.
She wrung out her hands as she listened to Kaden whispering a string of cryptic words at Evan, and then Joel chanting words at Kaden in response. They had entered some sort of witch-off, and she felt helpless.
What do I do? she thought frantically. She couldn’t just stand back and watch this—whatever this was—happen.
“Give it up, Joel,” Kaden was saying now between mutterings. “The more you try to block me, the more I’m going to make the Chosen One suffer.”
Joel kept on chanting.
He’s trying to stop him, Maggie realised.
Kaden was trying to put a hex on Evan, and Joel was trying to block it. And Evan was. . . just taking it, she guessed. For Joel’s sake.
I have to do something, Maggie decided. I have to help them.
But how?
Joel had been willing to give up his own life to save her. He’d protected her without even realising it. And he’d saved her best friend without even realising it, either.
Huh, she mused. Joel does a lot of cool stuff without realising it.
She glanced over at him, to where he stood chanting some sort of anti-hex just metres away from her. The Haunted House rose behind him ominously, its railings trembling slightly in the building wind.
Her gaze turned to Kaden and Evan, whose eyes were locked on each other’s. Kaden was murmuring something to Evan in hushed tones, too quiet to be deciphered by Maggie’s ears. But even from a distance, she could tell it was something bad.
Evan just stood there, proud and calm, presenting himself courageously before Kaden to await whatever fate may be bestowed upon him.
Maggie drew in a deep breath. Okay, s
he decided. Time to do. . . something. On impulse, she picked up a rogue stone from the ground and lobbed it at Kaden. It struck his head and he recoiled, his concentration broken for a second. When his grey eyes landed on Maggie, they darkened to black.
Maggie shrank back.
Joel seized the opportunity to communicate with his brother. “Fight, Evan!” he urged. “Why aren’t you fighting?”
Evan didn’t move.
“Fight back!” Joel yelled, his voice catching.
“No,” Evan murmured.
“Please!” Joel begged him. “Please, Evan! I. . .” his voice caught in his throat. “Please.”
Evan stood motionless.
Now Kaden’s attention returned to Evan. Again, he resumed chanting.
Again, Joel did too.
And again, Maggie returned her gaze to the Haunted House.
Why are they just standing there? she wondered, looking beyond Evan and Kaden and into the grim shadows cast by the Haunted House. Shouldn’t they be helping?
They had been standing there for a while now, hidden in the shadows. Maggie wasn’t sure if anyone else had noticed them yet; no one else had seemed to react to them, so she hadn’t reacted to them either. Just in case it was all part of some plan.
Of the two shadow dwellers, she only recognised one.
Ainsley.
The other—an elderly woman with a frail, stooped figure—was a stranger to her. But at least this stranger didn’t look afraid, which was a good sign, Maggie supposed.
Through the darkness, the elderly stranger met Maggie’s eyes. Slowly, the woman raised her hand, showing five crooked fingers.
Five? thought Maggie.
It dawned on her what the woman was referring to: time.
They need more time, she realised with a rush of adrenaline.
She turned her attention back to the chanting match. By this point, Evan was beginning to look weak, Maggie noticed. He was no longer standing as strong and straight as he had been mere seconds ago.
She cleared her throat. “Kaden!” she shouted, lobbing another rogue stone which sailed over his head this time.