She almost ran straight across the road to her house, forgetting the van-sized unicorn stood by her side. Almost. ‘Lara, could you sort of walk past, have a nosey?’
‘Won’t they be cross at me?’
Scarlet inclined her head at the crowd of onlookers, unashamedly gathered around to dig into their neighbour’s misfortune.
‘Oh, right, well, OK.’
She set off toward the house. Scarlet watched her go, one hand unconsciously patting Elt’s broad shoulder. Lara wandered slowly past, looped around and went back the other way, trying, and utterly failing, to look casual. She was almost back when Scarlet spotted mum being led from the house in tears.
‘What happened?’
‘The lounge is destroyed, you know, TV smashed apart and everything. I think your mum’s alright, just really upset.’
Scarlet fingered the necklace. Lucky the book was with Martin. What she didn’t have was her laptop. Her laptop. The world froze, everything reducing down to a tiny point of light that shrunk until she was staring at blackness, a gulf threatening to rise up and swallow her whole.
‘Scarlet? Scarlet, what’s wrong?’
The lights came back on, beginning in the middle of her vision and swimming slowly out, until she saw Lara’s face, brow furrowed with worry, peering down at her. She sat up, noticing the hard edges of the kerb beneath her. ‘What happened?’
‘You collapsed. God, are you alright?’
She sat up rubbing her neck. ‘My laptop. They’ve got my laptop.’
‘But they already know what we know, whoever they are, don’t they?’
‘Huh? Oh, yeah, course they do. It’s…’
Lara thought she was worried about the end of the world. Hah. They’d taken her laptop. How the hell was she supposed to use Tumblr on her phone? Or facebook, or pinterest for that matter?
Lara pulled her to her feet and she turned back to the house. ‘I’m not sure we want to go in. They’ll have questions and if anyone’s watching the house…’
Lara laughed. ‘Then there’s always the matter of the unicorn.’
Elt harrumphed. ‘I’m perfectly good at not being seen, thank you very much. But we should go, now.’
‘Why, what’s the hurry?’
Elt looked at her. ‘We’re in one of the crappier parts of west London, if my nose serves my right, so you tell me.’
Scarlet returned the look with interest, but she couldn’t argue. They took the roundabout route through the estate to Martin’s place. They reached the corner before Lara shook her head. ‘Look, I’m sorry, but I have to get home. If the police aren’t out looking for me yet, they will be soon.’
Scarlet nodded. Of course, she should have thought of that. They faced one another, hands brushing. ‘So, hey, good first date, huh?’
Lara giggled. ‘I’d always dreamed of walking romantically by a river, maybe having dinner somewhere.’
‘How old are you again?’
They both laughed and Scarlet stepped closer, pressing her lips to Lara’s, their noses brushing together. She closed her eyes, one hand cupping the back of Lara’s head. A snort from the unicorn made both of them jump and they broke apart, faces red.
‘Lara, if you’re in a hurry, I can probably help.’ Elt knelt and Lara climbed onto his back. Scarlet frowned for a second, seeing her unicorn about to disappear. Then she looked higher and realised he wasn’t going away with a stranger, but with her girlfriend. Girlfriend. Heh.
Lara gave a little wave without moving her arm and they were gone, moving so fast Scarlet could barely make them out beneath the street lamps.
She sighed and turned for Martin’s place.
He was asleep on the couch, book lying flat on his chest, and she removed it gently, pulling a cover over him before settling in his desk chair and looking at the page he’d been reading.
The picture was still just as horrible and her stomach turned over as she swallowed. The writing was spidery and made mum’s scrawl look like calligraphy. She deciphered it slowly, discovering in the process that the charms of Undoing were three objects, items or people, each integral to the spell that would banish the Undying.
The next three pages outlined the spell and by the time she reached the end, she felt exhausted. She put the book down, grabbed another blanket and covered herself as the night drifted slowly on. She was jerked awake by a grunt from Martin. Reluctantly opening her eyes, she watched him stand, stretch and look down at her, wry smile on his face.
‘Good morning, my apprentice. How was your night?’
Scarlet woke fully, twitching her head back and forth and rubbing her crick neck. ‘Like you wouldn’t believe. We found the horse.’
Martin’s eyes widened and he sat, leaning forward until he was way too close and way too alive. ‘Hey, just, chill for a second, please. I’ve just woken up. You shouldn’t actually be looking at me for at least an hour. God, I must look like crap.’
‘You look perfectly nice. Where is the horse?’
‘Perfectly nice? You might wanna work on your complimenting-women-skills sometime, sunshine.’
Martin smiled broadly. ‘Is that your sass showing, Scarlet?’
She stared and he smiled blithely back. She grumbled, rubbing her face with her hands, then staring in horror at the foundation now clinging to her palms. She sighed, shook her head, and stood, peering fearfully into the mirror that hung above his desk.
Once she’d recovered from the shock she sat back down, despairing of ever having anything approaching a normal life. Martin was still waiting.
‘Fine, OK, it’s not a horse, it’s a unicorn.’
He stood, hands clapping together, then sat again. ‘You brought a unicorn here?’
‘Didn’t have much choice, did we? And by the way, did you know that unicorns are, like, really unpleasant, and kill people and stuff?’
‘Of course I did. Why do think they’re all kept as far north as possible without them actually freezing?’
Scarlet almost punched him. Almost. Instead, she looked at her hands, at the veins pulsing beneath the foundation, and sighed. ‘So all this time, you’ve had a sixteen year old girl for an apprentice, and you’ve never thought to mention that unicorns are real, and live in England—’
‘Scotland, actually, and Russia.’
‘Yeah, whatever, please, I’m trying to make you feel bad. How could you not tell me?’
Martin spread his hands apart. ‘It just didn’t come up. You brought one here? Where is it?’
‘It’s taking Lara home.’
‘Taking Lara home? Like a taxi?’
‘Uh, yeah, I guess so.’
There was silence for a moment as her self-righteous anger was squeezed from her by his glare. Finally he let out a sigh and stood, actually wringing his hands.
‘So, hey, how was your night?’
He paused, apparently deciding whether to answer, or throttle her. Fortunately he settled on the former.
‘Well, I confirmed that the charms are the necklace, the book and the unicorn.’
He said the last one whilst staring at her. ‘The unicorn, that must remain safe and secret and not in any way be seen galloping the streets of London.’
‘Uh, yeah, right. OK, so we’ve got the charms then. What next?’
‘Well. We also have the location of the grave. However, there is one thing missing. I called a few people I know, trying to obtain a clearer picture of who is attempting the raising.’
‘And?’
He shook his head. ‘No one knows. All we have to go on is the man who stabbed me, and all I remember about him is that he wore black. Beyond that, we have nothing.’
‘Actually, we might have more. My house got trashed last night. I mean, completely destroyed. Maybe they left something behind, some sort of clue?’
Martin looked shocked for all of two seconds, before excitement took over. ‘Good, great, we’ll start there then.’
She stared at him, eyebrows raised, and he had the decency to look ashamed. ‘That’s terrible. Is your mother alright?’
‘Yeah, think so. Didn’t go in, too much to do…’
It was his turn to give her a look and she grinned sheepishly. Then it struck her. ‘Hang on, there is something else I can do.’
She pulled the necklace out of her pocket and took a deep breath. ‘When I put this on, in the market, I heard voices. They were threatening to kill me.’
‘You are sure it was you?’ He didn’t seem all that surprised. Or worried about the death threats. She nodded. ‘They called me the Slater girl.’
‘OK, so they know about you, which we already know.’ He stared at her, expectantly. ‘Well, put it on, then.’
She hesitated. ‘Not sure I wanna listen to people talking about killing me.’
He sighed, folding his arms, and she stuck her tongue out at him, then slipped it over her head. They came straight back.
‘She has all the charms.’
‘How did she find them?’
‘She is more resourceful than we thought. We must take action now, this cannot be allowed to interfere with the raising.’
‘They didn’t take your warning to heart, brother, that is most odd. Are you sure you made your point effectively.’
She recognised the next voice, and shivered.
‘I made my point very well indeed. She is stubborn and more than a little stupid, I fear.’
‘Hey, I am not stupid. Maths is just a stupid subject, it’s not my fault they put letters in it, I mean, letters don’t belong in maths, everyone knows that.’
Martin couldn’t hear anything through the necklace, but he had his finger to his lips anyway and she stopped. The voices went on, as though they’d paused when she started speaking. This thing was cool.
‘So what do suggest next, brother?’
When the man who stabbed Martin replied, his voice made her want to take a shower.
‘Well, brother Errant, how about we take away her new girlfriend?’
She yanked the necklace off, and reached for her jacket.
Next Installment Friday 14th March
