Chapter Twenty

The three of them stared at one another in silence for what felt to Callum like hours. The defiance that had prompted him to agree to Melissa’s scheme drained out of him under his grandmother’s furious gaze.

At last, Gran spoke again.

‘I should have known,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘I absolutely should have known. What was I thinking, teaching the Craft to a girl who would come up with ludicrous ideas like this?’ Gran shook her head emphatically as she spoke. Callum didn’t think he’d ever seen her so angry. Gran turned to go back down the stairs, but Melissa jumped up to stop her.

‘Mrs Scott, please! I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t have even tried it if it wasn’t really important.’

Gran glared at Melissa so hard that Callum almost thought she was going to throw the hot chocolate over the girl’s head.

‘Melissa, I don’t think –’ he began, trying to calm things down, but Gran interrupted.

‘I could sense it!’ she said angrily. ‘The minute I set foot on the stairs, I could sense magic being used, but I thought, “No, Ethel, you must be imagining things”. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that you would actually go behind my back like that, when I’ve expressly told you not to try any of this without my supervision. After all your promises! You betrayed my trust, Melissa. I knew this was a mistake.’

Melissa stood dumbstruck as Gran thundered back down the stairs. Callum heard her clatter the mugs into the sink in the kitchen. Melissa started down the stairs too, but Callum quickly stood up.

‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Just leave her for a minute. I’ll go down and try to talk to her.’

Melissa nodded mutely. She headed back into Callum’s room and slumped down on to his bed with a sigh. ‘Good luck,’ she muttered.

Callum took a deep breath and then slowly made his way downstairs to confront his grandmother. She was still standing in the kitchen, her hands gripping the edge of the sink. She stared out of the window, and Callum could see that the rise and fall of her shoulders was gradually beginning to slow as her angry breaths returned to normal.

‘Gran?’

She didn’t turn around, but Callum took her silence as a signal that he could keep talking. ‘Gran, we weren’t trying to deceive you. It’s just . . . things are getting kind of serious, and it was a last resort. We needed to do something, before the situation we’re facing gets out of control.’

Finally, his grandmother turned around to him and folded her arms. Callum could see that she was considering her words carefully before she spoke.

‘Callum, I know that you want to do this on your own, this fight, dealing with the Shadowing. I know that’s my fault. That my actions – even though they were intended to be in your best interests – mean you’re not as prepared as you might have been. But you have to believe that you can talk to me about this. About anything. We’re family, Callum.’

Callum had been looking down at his trainers as his Gran spoke but, at that, he raised his eyes to meet hers. ‘I know, Gran,’ he said. ‘Of course I do. But if I’d come to you and said, “Hey, Gran, Melissa and I are hoping to trigger one of my chime child visions using magic,” would you have said it was a great idea and jumped at the chance to help us?’ He could feel a smile playing on his lips, and he could see his gran biting one back as well.

‘Fine, I may not have been entirely receptive at first,’ Gran conceded. ‘But I really am here to help you, Callum. If only you’d let me. Why do you think I agreed to train Melissa, and let her read the chime child books? You wouldn’t let me help you directly, so that was the only thing I could do. But magic is not something you can mess around with.’ She tailed off as she heard Melissa slowly making her way down the stairs. She came into the kitchen, her face solemn.

‘I really am sorry, Mrs Scott, and I appreciate everything you’ve been showing me,’ Melissa said quietly, beginning to gather her things. ‘I’ll understand if you want to stop our lessons now.’

‘Wait,’ Gran said, finally unfolding her arms. Melissa stopped and turned around.

‘You were trying to get Callum to have a vision using your magic?’ Gran said.

Melissa nodded silently, and then glanced over at Callum.

‘And you think this will be important in getting somewhere with the situation you are facing?’ Gran continued.

‘Yes.’ Callum answered for both of them.

Gran turned and looked her grandson in the eye.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘Then I’ll help you.’

Her words hung in the air for a moment, and Callum heard Melissa desperately trying to suppress a squeal of excitement. He remained quiet though – he knew there would be a catch.

‘On one condition,’ Gran said. ‘You have to tell me exactly what’s going on.’

Callum sighed. He wasn’t even sure if triggering a vision would give them anything useful. And was it worth the risk of getting Gran involved, or having her interfere in whatever they decided to do to try and stop Black Annis and the Coven? He looked at his Gran, whose eyebrows were raised expectantly, and then over at Melissa. They were both waiting for an answer.

‘OK, OK,’ he said finally. ‘But, Gran, if we tell you what it is, you have to promise not to try and interfere, or keep me from getting involved?’

Gran considered it for a long moment.

‘Fine,’ she said at last.

Melissa’s face burst into a grin, but Callum knew that he would have to be economical with the truth – maybe even bend it a little. As they all sat down at the table in the living room, Callum quickly explained that from some recent visions, he and Melissa had established that a demon witch, Black Annis, had crossed over from the Netherworld at the start of the Shadowing, and that there might be a plot by a human coven to involve the crone in a ritual sacrifice. He studiously left out any mention of Jacob or Doom, remembering the Born Dead’s warnings. Callum was certain, in any case, that now was definitely not the time to reveal that he’d been having chime child lessons from a ghost.

‘What exactly do you think these magicians plan to achieve by sacrificing Black Annis? Did your vision give any indication about that?’ Gran asked, her brows knitted together with concern.

Callum and Melissa exchanged looks.

‘We, uh . . . we think that they’re planning to widen one of the gaps in the Boundary,’ Callum said grudgingly. He wasn’t sure if revealing the gravity of the situation would help or hinder their case in getting Gran to assist them.

‘Widen it?’ Gran said incredulously.

‘Yes,’ Callum said grimly. ‘We think they might be planning to bring more – or bigger – demons across, and sooner than we were expecting. So we’ve got even less time to prepare than we thought.’

‘Oh my goodness,’ Gran breathed.

‘Exactly,’ Callum said wryly. ‘Melissa just thought that, as things have gone quiet, if she could help me have one of my premonitions it might give us some clues about how to stop it.’

Callum waited, letting the idea sink in. He braced himself for Gran to freak out and tell him they were packing up and moving to Timbuktu, but she just sat for a moment, thinking.

‘Right,’ Gran said at last. ‘Give me your hands.’

‘What?’ Melissa replied, but Gran reached out and clasped her own hands around one of Melissa’s and one of Callum’s. She indicated that they should link hands too.

‘Doing something of this nature with magic will require a Three in any case,’ Gran said. ‘You’d never have been able to do it properly on your own, Melissa. Such a thing requires control and focus.’

With nothing more than that, Gran closed her eyes and began to chant. Both Callum and Melissa stared at her dumbfounded for a moment before Callum saw Melissa follow suit and close her eyes as well. Soon Melissa began to repeat the strange phrase that his grandmother was saying over and over again. They gripped Callum’s hands tightly and after a moment, to his shock, Callum’s palms began to tingle uncontrollably.

He stared at Melissa and Gran as their lips moved faster and faster, their voices becoming almost indistinguishable, their heads bowed in complete concentration.

And then everything went black . . .