Witched! Read online

  ‘When we were in Tynth,’ Cora began. She continued trudging through the bog. SQUELCH. Step. SQUELCH. Step. ‘Kaede said something to me.’

  ‘You mustn’t believe it,’ said Tock firmly next to her.

  ‘Whatever he said, it’s not true,’ said Tick.

  Cora paused her squelching steps. ‘He said I have a brother.’

  The fairies stopped. They stared at Cora, their small mouths formed into circles of surprise. The words Cora had spoken were clearly not what they had expected.

  ‘Oh,’ said Tock.

  ‘Do you think he is somewhere with your parents?’ Tick asked.

  Cora wasn’t prepared for how she would feel saying Kaede’s words out loud. It felt strange. And Cora did wonder, could she believe Kaede? Should she believe him? The question had crossed her mind over and over again. All she knew about Kaede was that he was murderous and calculating. He could have said she had a brother just to rattle her. But if he was telling the truth? And if her parents had escaped him, then where were they now? And where was her brother?

  ‘I don’t know,’ Cora said. The image from her dream suddenly returned to her mind. The one of a boy with silver hair. ‘What if he . . . what if he is like Kaede?’ she asked.

  The fairies were silent.

  Did Dot know anything about him? What had Dot said to Kaede in Tynth? She knew her parents. Why hadn’t Dot told her? Why had she kept it from her all these years? Did she know where they were? Did she know that she had a brother?

  ‘First, brothers are the worst,’ said Tick. ‘I know from experience.’

  Tock threw the fairy a glare.

  ‘Second, if he is your brother, then he can’t be like Kaede,’ said Tick.

  ‘He probably has red hair and a missing eye like you too,’ added Tock.

  ‘And third,’ said Tick, thinking, ‘if your parents escaped him, and you have a brother . . . and Kaede is after you . . . and he destroyed all the other syphons . . .’

  Cora joined the dots of what the fairy was saying. Kaede would also be searching for them too. Belle’s words floated through her mind again. You must do what you can to protect your kind.

  ‘We need to find them,’ Cora said, her mind made up. ‘Before Kaede does.’

  Then, a loud, spine-chilling howl ripped through the Whimpering Bog.

  Chapter Six

  Cora and the fairies froze.

  The howl that tore through the bog was like nothing Cora had ever heard. It was rasping and piercing and angry. It filled her ears and reverberated in her chest, bouncing between her bones. And the worst part was . . . it didn’t sound far away.

  ‘I think the werewolves know we’re here,’ said Tick, wincing.

  Tock sniffed under his hairy armpit. ‘They have a very good sense of smell,’ he said admirably.

  When the chilling howl stopped, Cora stared out into the grey fog to her right, in the direction of where the howl had sounded. She held the princess’s magic in her hands. Calling up the air around her in a ball, she threw it in the howl’s direction. The air pushed aside the fog to reveal . . . nothing more than just bog.

  Tick and Tock moved closer to her.

  ‘Whatever happens,’ said Tick, ‘don’t let a werewolf scratch you.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Cora asked. ‘Is that how you become one? By being scratched?’ Visions flooded Cora’s mind of her teeth growing long and sharp, her red hair sprouting up all over her skin, a ferocious howl leaving her lips.

  ‘No,’ said Tick, shaking Cora out of her thoughts. ‘It just really hurts.’

  Suddenly, another howl ripped through the bog. This time it came from Cora’s left. The three friends turned towards the sinister sound. Cora pushed another ball of wind out towards it. More bog. And just as the fog began to resettle in place, a third howl erupted from somewhere behind them. They turned on their heels as a fourth howl joined the others. And soon, the whole of Whimpering Bog was roaring with howls from every direction.

  Screaming Swamp.

  Panic raced into Cora’s heart as the howls from an unseen number of werewolves continued long and loud in the bog. They had even less time now to find what they were looking for. Cora fought the urge to clasp her hands over her ears as she searched the bog water.

  ‘Hurry!’ she said to Tick and Tock. But she didn’t need to. The fairies had already shot off ahead of her. Hovering as close to the bog water as possible, the fairies picked up sticks and grass from the bog and threw them away over their shoulders in wet splatters, searching every nook and cranny for werewolf hair.

  Cora leapt through the sticky bog water after the fairies. She searched everything and everywhere for something that resembled werewolf hair. Every moss-covered branch, every narrow tree, every sharp blade of black grass that speared out of the bog. They couldn’t leave until they found some hair. Yet, Cora hadn’t even seen the smallest of werewolf hair strands since they arrived and now the entire bog was crawling with howling werewolves. At this rate, they were going to have to come face to face with a werewolf and ask it politely for some of its hair.

  Reaching out a hand, Cora used her magic to push the air around them against the fog, creating a large circle in the bog that was free from the grey blanket. Cora and the fairies searched the area for werewolf hair as quickly as possible.

  As Cora combed a clump of moss on a jagged rock, the bog water below her suddenly began to shake and shudder. She stopped. The ground then rumbled beneath her feet. It was like an earthquake, only . . .

  Tick and Tock turned around to face her, their eyebrows raised at the sound.

  ‘That sounds like . . .’ said Tock.

  Tick’s eyes went wide as he realised just what it sounded like.

  It sounded like many werewolf paws pounding across a bog towards them.

  Tick and Tock flew over to Cora. The three of them stood with their backs to one another, their eyes on the fog that crept in around them, searching for any sign of movement amongst the wispy grey.

  ‘We should go,’ said Tick. ‘Before we’re werewolf food.’

  ‘We can’t,’ Cora said, shaking her head. She thought of Dot. ‘Not without what we came for.’

  There had to be werewolf hair here somewhere. Maybe they were searching in the wrong place? Then Cora had an idea.

  ‘Wait here,’ she said to the fairies.

  ‘What?’ replied Tick.

  ‘Cora, wait—’

  But Cora had already found the witch’s magic and clicked her fingers.

  She appeared in a deeper part of the Whimpering Bog. It was darker, the fog was thicker, and the water at her feet was stickier. Cora held onto the trees around her, using them to push herself through the bog water. This part of the bog was also much stinkier. It smelt like three-day-old fish. Then to her left, Cora saw a cluster of bones sticking out from the bog.

  Nope.

  Cora turned away from them, forcing her mind to the task at hand and not the growing number of bones that appeared with each step she took into the bog. Where are you? she asked herself. There had to be something, somewhere. Otherwise she had just magicked herself away from her friends and further into a werewolf-filled bog for no reason.

  Cora used the princess’s magic and created a swirling wind around herself, dispersing the fog. And just as she did, something ruffling in the wind ahead caught her eye. A brown clump of hair was stuck to a white branch of a tree just beyond the whirl of wind she had created. She let go of the princess’s magic and smiled.

  Cora clicked her fingers and appeared next to the tree that stuck out from the bog at an angle. Looking down, she could see with relief that what was caught on the branch was definitely animal hair. Was it from a werewolf though? She reached out and plucked the hair from where it was snared on the tree. It was wiry and coarse against her fingers. She couldn’t help the fluttering of her delighted heart as she put the clump of hair carefully in her pocket. She hoped that it belonged to a werewolf, and not I some other h
airy creature that lived in the bog.

  Cora was about to click her fingers to return to Tick and Tock when she realised something. The ground had stopped moving. The rumbling and shaking of what was most likely the pounding of many paws had ended. And there were no more howls. The bog had returned to its eerie stillness.

  The werewolves . . .

  There was a crack next to her and Cora swirled around at the sound. She grabbed onto the princess’s magic and the air around her swirled, too. She pushed the air forward and it blew the thick grey fog next to her out of the way. Beyond it was . . . Nothing. Just more dense and empty bog.

  Slowly, the thick fog crept back in, obscuring Cora’s vision once more. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. She was about to call out to Tick and Tock when there was another loud crack, this time on the other side of her. And then Cora heard the sound of panting, ragged breaths.

  She wasn’t alone. Something was close.

  Then turning on her heel in the opposite direction, she pushed the fog away with her magic . . . revealing a pair of wolfish, yellow eyes staring back at her.

  ‘Cora!’ she heard the fairies cry out to her from somewhere in the bog.

  But Cora couldn’t respond.

  In front of her, standing on its hind legs, a werewolf stepped out of the fog. The creature towered over her, three times her size. Its teeth were razor-sharp and dripping with drool. Its hungry, yellow eyes were unmoving from hers, and its wild, brown hair stuck up every which way as its chest heaved in and out.

  As she stared up at the creature, Cora couldn’t find her voice. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish trying to catch air.

  The werewolf took a step towards her, hunching its back as it sniffed the air in front of her with its wet, black nose.

  Cora took a step backwards, away from the werewolf.

  ‘Cora!’ the fairies cried out to her again.

  Heart thumping, she held onto her witch’s magic to magic herself away to safety when her boot caught itself on something under the sticky surface of the bog.

  Crud.

  Her hands flew outwards to catch herself as she fell backwards and she was about to hit the watery bog and be werewolf food when Tick and Tock appeared next to her in two loud POPs! of well-timed magic. The fairies grabbed her by the arms just in time, stopping her from falling into the bog.

  ‘Cora—’ said Tick.

  ‘Where did y—’ said Tock.

  The fairies stopped. They noticed a shadow of something large looming behind them. They heard the ragged breaths. Slowly, Tick and Tock turned to see the werewolf standing behind them in the grey fog.

  The werewolf let out a low, dangerous growl.

  ‘Oh boy,’ said Tock.

  Then from out of the fog, two more werewolves appeared behind the first. They weren’t as big as the werewolf closest to them but standing on their hind legs, they peered just as hungrily at Cora, Tick and Tock.

  Glancing to her left and right, Cora noticed many pairs of sharp, yellow eyes staring back at her in the fog around them. And soon, the bog was filled with the sound of snarling, hungry werewolves.

  Cora’s stomach dropped. She counted at least twelve.

  The fairies and Cora moved close together. Their backs pressed to one another, the friends moved in a circle, their eyes trained on the now-growing number of werewolves that surrounded them.

  ‘I think it’s time to go,’ said Tock.

  ‘I would argue that the time to go was ten minutes ago,’ said Tick.

  The werewolf closest to them let out a spine-chilling howl. Then it dropped to the ground and leant back in preparation to pounce. The werewolf sprang towards them, its claws bared and dripping mouth wide open, but the fairies were faster. With a POP! of magic. Cora felt herself be pulled away. She was transported safely out of the Whimpering Bog, hoping with all her might that the small tuft of werewolf hair she had found would be enough for Belle and Dot.

  Chapter Seven

  Cora, Tick and Tock appeared with a POP! of magic.

  Landing on her feet, Cora steadied herself. She was glad and relieved to have her boots out of sticky bog water and back on firm ground. Behind her, the sun had almost completely risen and Cora could see that they stood in a narrow stone lane behind a row of shop buildings. Wherever they were, Cora hoped they were far enough away from the Whimpering Bog. Her heart still thudded loudly in her chest, her mind still full with the sight of an angry werewolf leaping towards her.

  Tick and Tock hovered in the air.

  ‘Okay,’ said Tock. The fairy flew back and forth in the alleyway, his hand on his chin in thought. ‘Plan B.’

  Tick raised his hand in the air like a student in class. ‘We go to the Black Market of Gwell and buy some werewolf hair,’ said the fairy.

  Tock shook his head. ‘Remember the last time we were there? We can’t go back.’

  Cora definitely remembered the last time they were there. The three of them had been chased out of the Black Market when Cora had accidentally thrown the warlock Archibald Drake through a window with her magic. Also, the Black Market did not allow fairies. Or children.

  Tick raised his hand again. ‘What if we find a really big dog,’ the fairy suggested. ‘Dogs are a bit like werewolves.’

  ‘Dogs?’ Cora echoed, confused.

  ‘Wolves are even more like werewolves,’ said Tock.

  ‘Yes!’ said Tick. ‘What if we find a really big wolf?’

  Cora had to interrupt. ‘What are you two talking about?’ she asked.

  Tock turned to her. ‘We didn’t get any werewolf hair,’ he said as though it were obvious.

  ‘Well, we found the hair,’ said Tick. ‘It was just attached to the werewolves.’

  And then Cora realised. She hadn’t had a chance to tell them. Carefully, she pulled the tuft of dry, brown werewolf hair from her pocket and held it up with her fingers.

  ‘You mean this?’ she asked.

  The fairies’ eyes went wide and smiles stretched across their faces. They clapped their hands and spun around in the air happily.

  ‘Phew,’ said Tock. ‘To be honest, I was not confident in our big-wolf plan.’

  ‘I just hope it will be enough,’ Cora said. She put the werewolf hair safely back in her pocket.

  ‘Easy peasy, lobster squeezy,’ added Tick.

  ‘Lemon,’ corrected Cora.

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Tick. ‘Not very fond of them.’

  Tock shook his head at his brother. ‘Okay, what is next on Belle’s list?’ he asked Cora. ‘I hope it isn’t vampire teeth.’

  ‘Or a ghost’s boogers,’ said Tick.

  Before she could picture what ghost boogers looked like, Cora pulled the hobgoblin’s list from her pocket and read the next item Belle had scrawled on the paper.

  ‘Beetle worms,’ she said.

  Cora was relieved. Beetle worms certainly didn’t sound as dangerous as collecting vampire teeth or as gross as ghost boogers.

  Tick and Tock groaned.

  ‘What?’ asked Cora.

  ‘Why Belle?’ exclaimed Tick, throwing a hand up in the air dramatically.

  ‘Of all the worms!’ said Tock, putting the back of his hand to his brow.

  ‘What’s wrong with beetle worms?’ Cora asked. She couldn’t understand how finding some worms would be dangerous. It absolutely couldn’t be any more dangerous than werewolves in the Whimpering Bog.

  ‘Beetle worms are not just worms,’ said Tock.

  ‘They are also beetles,’ said Tick.

  Cora stared at the fairies, not sure she was understanding.

  ‘You’ll see,’ said Tock.

  Together, the fairies turned in the air and fluttered towards the end of the lane. Cora followed. At the end of the lane, running in the opposite direction, was a wider street. Cora peered around the corner of the nearest building, next to the fairies, and looked out into the small village.

  ‘Where are we?’ Cora asked.

  ‘T
his is Squilp,’ said Tick.

  Cora spotted a few magical beings already wandering along the main street. A woman wearing a white-feathered coat stood out to Cora. But she blended suitably into her surroundings as every one of the buildings that dotted the small village was painted a pristine white. The street was spotless. In fact, the stones that made up the street even sparkled. It was the exact opposite of grey, dusty and cracked Urt.

  A small man with an extensive white beard, long, pointed nose, and a very tall, white hat strode importantly down the street. He looked this way and that, inspecting the walls, lampposts and stones of the street. Then he took out a frilled handkerchief and polished one of the white benches on the footpath.

  ‘Mayor Squilp,’ whispered Tock.

  ‘Leprechaun. Best to avoid him,’ said Tick.

  ‘Generally, but also especially because he’ll surely throw us out of town just because we haven’t showered in a few days,’ said Tock.

  ‘Where is the crime!?’ asked Tick, affronted.

  Cora watched as with a look of distaste upon his face, Mayor Squilp picked up something he clearly disapproved of from the ground. Then just beyond where the petite Mayor Squilp stood, a flash of morning light caught Cora’s attention. A collection of familiar-looking gold sheets was stuck neatly to the front of a shop called Tomorrow’s Turnips Today. Her heart sank.

  ‘Well, we can’t go far, anyway,’ Cora said to the fairies. She pointed to the glittering sheets which featured images of their faces.

  ‘The Orders of Removal,’ said Tick and Tock, recognising the flyers.

  The shining gold Orders of Removal posters had been put up in towns by the council, a group of powerful magical beings who kept order in the magical world. The council had ordered the three of them be removed from the magical world after Cora had revealed herself to be a syphon and had accidentally syphoned magic from two of the council members.