Witching Tree (Alice Gray Book 1)

48

A dense miasma filled the air as the words repeated, low and rhythmic.

It was the song that my mother had sung, but now it was hard, and cruel, and bewildering.

My body was heavy and sluggish. I tried to clear my head of the low ringing that threatened to drown out all sanity.

What little energy remained leeched out of me as I fought to keep the fog out of my brain.

Jenny watched me with greedy eyes. When I turned to Anne, hoping for help, I was met with resignation.

Looking down with blurred vision, I saw the silver from the band around the tree bleed into the colourful tiles. The animals stopped moving, frozen as silver and blue tones crept over them like ice.

"Knowledge," Stephen gasped, "It's not The Tree of Life, Em Look."

"What?" Emily shouted, looking down at the mosaic, eyes widening in surprise. The silver had reached the leaves now, moving through the tree's foliage, banishing the colour and vitality.

"It's the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."

Emily's eyes stretched even wider.

"Shit," she said, as the silver covered the tree's trunk, freezing it into a perfect two dimensional replica of my silver tree ornament.

Tearing my eyes away from the tree, I met Emily's look of alarm with one of my own. If she was panicking, I knew that I should be too, for sure.

"That's enough," Thomas snapped. "Come on, let's get out of here."

I tried to move, but my limbs refused to comply. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball on that mosaic and sleep.

Thomas took me by the arm, his grip firm. Yanking me towards him, he shifted me to his back, creating a barrier between myself and the others. Edging us out of the room backwards, Thomas kept his eyes on the rest of the room.

As we moved towards the exit, I realised that Stephen was missing from his position at the door. I took a quick glance round the room, trying not to meet anybody's eyes or listen to the greedy voices chanting. Others joined in, and I could hear that Anne was among them.

Had she abandoned me already, for this group of creepy witches?

Bolts of blue, gold and crimson shot though the tiny particles of silver that fogged up the room. I couldn't deny the beauty of it, but the sight left me empty of everything but a deep longing that made my heart ache.

That was my power, kept from me by the coven.

I staggered as the heavy sense of defeat knocked me off my feet.

As I fell, the tree drew my eyes again, shining bright silver through the heavy smog of magic. A tear welled in my eye as all the fight seeped out of me. I prepared to hit the floor and stay there.

Thomas caught one arm, Emily grabbed the other. Between them they half carried, half dragged me the rest of the way. Without breaking stride, Emily kicked the door open.

A blue Prius skidded to a halt right outside the restaurant; the passenger side flying open a split second later.

Stephen.

Thomas ignored the passenger door and bundled me into the back seat, following quickly after. Emily jumped in the front, and we sped off with a painful screech of tires on tarmac.

As we drove away, the thick miasma in the restaurant manifested into a dense smoky fog that clouded the windows and hovered at the exit.

I watched with wonder as veins of colour danced through the billowing silver smoke, bound by an invisible barrier at the open door.

The smoke thinned, and I thought I saw a pair of familiar hazel eyes.

A shiver ran through me and I turned away quickly.

Slumped into the seat, my body was like jelly now that we were out of that dense magic. I closed my eyes, trying to force my brain to get back into the game.

Slowly, I realised that the others were discussing where to take me as if I had no say in the matter.

There was only one place that we could go now that Anne had taken sides against me.

"The priory," I said.

"That's the first place anybody will look for you," Emily said.

"I can protect her," Thomas said.

"Fine job you've done so far," Stephen snorted.

"Pipe down you two. There's nowhere to hide now anyway," Emily interjected.

And I knew she was right.