Chapter Twenty-Four

Later that night, Callum hurried through the gate to the churchyard, trying to ignore the gathering, agitated ghosts that watched him as he walked. He skirted round the iron railings of the Victorian graves and the tilting stone skulls of the older ones, finding a place to wait on a ledge where a chapel wall had collapsed. His breath pluming in the cold, he searched the darkness for any sign of Jacob, Doom or Melissa, but there were only the lingering ghosts and the distant hoot of an owl for company.

Then a voice behind him made Callum jump.

‘It is rather late for a lesson, is it not?’ Jacob stood with his hands behind his back, his face expectant.

Callum hastily explained how Gran and Melissa had triggered his vision, and what Gran had suggested about the enchanted words. When Callum had finished speaking, Jacob didn’t respond immediately. He folded his arms, frowning.

‘I agree. It is entirely possible that the words you heard have been spun into some kind of spell,’ Jacob said. ‘And that it is most likely the work of the coven.’

‘How long do you think we have?’ Callum asked. ‘I mean, if they’re luring children . . . How often do you think Black Annis would have to be fed to get to her strongest?’ The very thought made him feel sick.

Jacob stood for a moment with one hand twisting the fur at the back of Doom’s neck. It was hard to tell from the expression on his pale, faintly gleaming face what he might be thinking. Then he began to pace up and down, shaking his head. Doom stood up and followed.

‘I do not know how many –’ he began, but then both he and Doom came to a halt as they heard something stirring outside the church gates.

‘It’s only me,’ came a familiar voice, and Callum saw Melissa picking her way towards them. ‘So, have we got a plan yet?’

Callum gave her a withering look. ‘We don’t even really know what’s happening, Melissa – or if it’s already happened.’

‘I don’t think anything has happened yet though,’ Melissa said. ‘Surely lots more kids going missing around Leicester would have made the news, just like the others did before?’

Callum frowned. She had a point. ‘OK, but if the coven haven’t been taking enough kids for the media to notice, then what are we meant to do? Just sit back and wait till more kids start disappearing?’

Melissa shook her head and looked to Jacob anxiously.

‘I fear there may be a reason why there have not been reports of many more missing children as yet,’ Jacob said slowly. ‘If there have not been occasional, individual disappearances, then –’

‘Then they might be planning to take a whole group of kids all at once?’ Callum finished. He, Melissa and Jacob all looked at one another anxiously for a moment as the notion sunk in, then Callum finally spoke again.

‘We have to do something, we have to stop them,’ he said, folding his arms.

‘Like what?’ Melissa said. ‘We have no idea where they are. How do you expect to stop them?’

‘We go to the source. We need to find Black Annis’ lair.’

‘Callum,’ Jacob said. ‘I know that you have come on a good deal, but you must realise that this situation could be beyond your control.’

‘What choice do I have? It’s my job to police the Boundary, isn’t it? To keep the world safe? To stop children being skinned and eaten alive, and to stop some crazy group of magicians bringing goodness knows what over from the Netherworld for some premature hell-party.’

Callum raised his eyebrows, inviting a response. Jacob held his gaze for a moment and then sighed, wiping away a trickle of blood that seeped from his hairline like sweat. He beckoned to Doom, and the enormous spectral dog came to lie at Jacob’s feet. ‘But caution is certainly not folly in this instance. You cannot underestimate how dangerous this could be. And what little power I have myself grows weaker the farther I travel from this village, where I was born and where I lie buried. We must be careful. We are heading into the unknown.’

‘We?’ Callum said hopefully. Jacob remained silent, his expression serious.

‘I do not think this is a good idea,’ the ghost said again.

‘Why? It’s the only place that we have even a remote chance of finding that hag, and it’s the most likely place that the coven would go to find her too, if they haven’t got her already. We might be able to head them off, or, I don’t know . . .’

‘I wish there some other way,’ Jacob said quietly.

‘But there isn’t,’ Callum said, cutting him short.

Jacob looked up at this. His black, depthless eyes met Callum’s straight on. ‘At the day’s end, chime child, it is only you who can decide which battles you face. Are you sure you want to do this?’

Callum tossed his untidy hair back out of his eyes, so that he could return Jacob’s challenging gaze head on. He took a deep breath.

‘Yes.’

He may not have complete control of his powers, but he could not stand by while children were taken from their beds as snacks for a Netherworld demon.

‘Good,’ Jacob said. ‘If your power is as strong as your resolve, then perhaps you are ready.’

Next to them, Melissa cleared her throat. ‘This is all very touching, but if we’re going to find Black Annis then we should get going.’

‘Going where though?’ Callum said. ‘We don’t know where her lair is.’

‘Well, I read something,’ Melissa said, her eyes narrowing. ‘It didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, but I had a chance to look into it last night after we spoke. There was a fable in one of the chime child books that said there was a tunnel underneath Leicester Castle. One that lead to the den of a “beastly anthropophage”.’

‘Anthro-what?’ Callum said, shaking his head in confusion.

‘Turns out it means “flesh-eater”. It makes sense, doesn’t it? I think it’s our best chance.’

‘OK,’ Callum said, nodding quickly. ‘Then we have to try and get there before the coven does.’

‘But how exactly do you plan to get to Leicester in the middle of the night?’ Melissa asked.

Callum’s face fell – but Jacob interjected.

‘I think I may be able to assist with that . . .’