Chapter Eleven

Agatha

I came.

Mostly to see my mum. She'd been on me for ages, texting me updates and complaints. Said she'd drag me out with magic if I didn't come myself. That's the last thing I wanted, so I just grit my teeth, loaded Lucy into a carrier, and caught a plane for London.

It's spring break. Awful weather. The whole way over I was clutching my suitcase, squeezing my eyes half shut, worried about bumping into a magician or anyone I know, but now that I'm safely in a cab, I've been able to relax a little. Lucy's leaning her head out the window. Every so often she'll look back at me, like, Join me. I wonder how my mum will take her.

In one of her texts, Mum said they'd finally sold my horse. I miss Shay sometimes. Wish he could have come out to California with me. I've told a few of my boyfriends about him, and they all laughed, because no one has horses in San Diego. They should have seen us together, a few years ago, jumping four foot two. I could probably text Dad for a picture.

I haven't texted Dad since I moved out, though. He said he supported my decision, said it was okay to take a break, but he had worry lines in his brow, and his hug was preoccupied. I figure if he wanted to hear from me, he would've texted me. Mum, on the other hand, has been pestering me nonstop. She wants to know everything. Every boyfriend. Every best friend. Every grade and if I'm using magic and who I've met and what I'm up to. In return (though I don't give her much), she tells me about Simon, and I delete her texts without reading them. I get enough of that from Penelope.

She-Penny-said she and Simon found a flat together, and just as I was deciding not to feel jealous about that, she said Baz was always over, and the flirting and kissing was getting to her. For a minute I just sort of sat there, stunned. I almost never text her back, but I did then. Just, what? I thought maybe she'd mistyped. Meant to write Jaz, or Bella. Some blond-haired, willowy girl Simon'd found at uni.

But no. Baz. That's the weirdest part of everything. Penny in New York-I can deal with that. Simon's magic gone-I can deal with that. Simon dating Baz-

Anyway.

A few months ago, though, right after Penny texted me to say she and Micah were getting married, the texts just stopped. I hate to admit it, but she kind of left me hanging. Don't get me wrong-I didn't want to be a bridesmaid or anything, and I didn't want to know their address in New York, but I still checked my mobile almost obsessively for a week or two. There was nothing. Just one of my exes trying to get back together, and my best friend providing commentary on people's ugly selfies.

I think that may have been one of the reasons why I came out. My mother's been on my case since January, and I could have gone out for midwinter break instead. But at that point, Penny was still texting me.

Now, Lucy turns her head again and licks my cheek. The cabbie reaches out a hand to fondle her ears. He's heavyset, dark-skinned, with a knotted scar on his cheek.

"How's it going, there, miss?" he says.

"Fine, thanks."

The cab rolls to a stop at a red light, and the driver leans back with a sigh. "Bloody rain," he says. "Just look at it out there."

He's been tense the whole way over, his jaw tight behind his smile, and his fingers white-knuckling the wheel. The weather's absolute shit. Nothing like sunny California. I'm terrified we're just going to roll right off the road.

"You doing okay?" I say.

He gives a sort of so-so motion with his hand. "I've been better."

The red changes to green, and he revs the cab up again. For a second, the wheels skid in the rain, and the cabbie sucks his lips in. He downshifts. The engine whirs. The tyres spin aimlessly. We jerk left.

"Shit," the cabbie whispers.

We're on a narrow, litter-strewn road, about to leave London proper, and there's a ditch to our left. No other cars. I clutch Lucy until she whines with pain.

Then the car gives a violent heave, and fishtails sideways. I scream. The cabbie's clutching at the wheel, stamping on the brakes, and it doesn't feel like the rain anymore. It feels-

It feels-

Well, it feels like magic.

Nicodemus

Got Isabel to come down to this little back-alley street with me. She's the only vampire mage who's on my side, who's willing to do some stuff under the radar. Sabotage. She did that Stiff as a board to get Pitch.

We wait, huddled in the ditch, 'til we both feel magic. The first time, we're too slow. The Jag races by-nice car-and all that's left is a trail of blue exhaust. Thirty minutes later, Isabel's soaked and pissed, and so'm I. We wait a little longer. Isabel casts a Rain, rain, go away, but she's nowhere near strong enough for it.

Then there's a trickle of power. Enough of it. We're both bolting up, halfway hidden in the ditch, and Isabel's wand goes straight out, and she whispers a spell too quiet for me to catch. We don't even see our target. Just Isabel's wand and the rain coming down and Ebb's voice in my head saying, Avenge me, though I dunno if she ever said something like that.

A second later, there's a scream.

Isabel follows me to the overturned cab. The driver's sacked out, and Normal. Easy meat. I haul him outta the front seat and lay him next to the ditch. The girl inside's a better find. She musta been the one who screamed. And she's magic. Weak, diluted with neglect, but magic. She's got what matters.

Agatha

They're vampires. They're vampires.

They dragged the cabbie out of the car, and now they're going for me, and I didn't see what they did with him. Did they bite him? Did they drink his blood? Are they going to do the same to me?

The female one's pointing a wand straight at me, while the male one pats me down. I know what he's looking for, but he won't find it so easily.

"I left it at home," I say.

He backs up from me and gives me a smile, and he hasn't got his fangs. There's just empty space there. The female has them-I know, I can see them-but the male's are gone. He runs his tongue into first one space, then the other. "Really," he says. Not a question. "What's your name, little mage girl?"

I shouldn't have come back. I should never have come back.

"Agatha Wellbelove," I say, my voice wavering.

The female licks her upper lip. "Come out of the car."

I undo my seatbelt, and, cradling Lucy, push myself free of the wreck. My ankle wobbles under me, but I can stand.

"Hands up," says the male.

"My dog-"

"I'll take her."

"Don't!"

He takes her anyway. Sets her on the ground, none too gently, and plants a booted foot on her leash. He's wearing beat-up Doc Martens over skinny hipster jeans.

"Hands," he says, so I put my hands up. "That's better." Then he's kneeling at my feet, unzipping the long black sheath of my boot. He draws my wand out from where it's squeezed between my calf and the back of the boot. When he looks up at me, his pupils are diluted.

"They always hide it there," he says.

Nicodemus

I take the wand and leave the girl. Once she realized that I was gonna take it, she got right fiery, blustering on 'bout her father and her famous friends. Wellbelove, she said. The name struck a chord, but it's only when Isabel and me are climbing back in the car that I realize: Snow's old girlfriend.

I tell Isabel. She's unconcerned. Gutty as fuck, she is, just like Ebb.

"Heard she high-tailed it for California," Iz says. One hand on the wheel, the other rummaging in her bag for a cigarette. "Scared of magic. She can't still be in touch."

I'm reassured, mostly by the brash edge to her voice. She ain't scared of anything.

"Hyde Park?" she says, fumbling to get her lighter open.

I take the lighter, flip the top, and light her fag. Then stick it in my own mouth and take a deep drag. Neither of us should be smoking. Neither of us care.

"Yeah," I say, handing her back her cigarette. "Hyde Park."