Chapter Twenty-Two

Daylight glints off the flame-red hair of the woman approaching the school gates. She breathes in the fresh air, relishing the relative ease of the task ahead of her. She hears the children’s laughing, squealing voices as they play in the concrete grounds, oblivious. And so they shall remain, she thinks.

The adults posted around the gates – the teachers charged with protecting these youngsters – remain unseeing, a result of Aradia’s magic. They know nothing of the fate that will befall the children they are supposed to be watching over. As she strides up to the iron railings of the playground, Aradia reads the sign attached to them – ST ANTHONY’S SCHOOL. A smile creeps on to her beautiful face. St Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. How apt, she thinks to herself.

She whispers an ancient sequence of words, a spell that will lure a child over to her. A girl of ten or so, with short, slick black hair and honey-brown skin freezes in the middle of the playground. Aradia reaches forwards and crooks her finger. Wordlessly, robotically, the girl turns around and begins to walk towards her. The girl’s deep brown eyes are glazed, her expression slack. Aradia leans down to the level of the girl’s ear and whispers the special rhyme that she has made into an incantation. It seems so appropriate that these are the words that will complete her mission.

She draws herself back up to her full height, and gestures once more. The girl turns, but instead of returning to the gaggle of friends she’d been sharing mobile phone games with, she walks swiftly over to two girls sitting on a step, where one is braiding the other’s hair. Aradia folds her arms and watches.

The black-haired girl leans close to each of the others and whispers straight into their ears. Aradia watches her lips move, and nods slowly.

‘Good,’ she mutters to herself. She keeps watching as the two girls stop their hair-braiding suddenly. They each move off swiftly and whisper to another two children.

And so it spreads.

Aradia turns on her heel and strides away from the playground.