Jinxed!: The Curious Curse of Cora Bell Read online

  Then at last they could see the painting of the castle on the wall ahead. Cora panted as she ran. She felt the energy drain from her with each step. Then suddenly there was a string of loud POP! POP!s near her. Someone was throwing magic at them!

  They reached the painting of the castle. Tick and Tock flew through and without a second thought, Cora dived headfirst into the shimmering wall.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  They landed on the Bits and Bobs shop floor. Cora groaned in pain. It felt like she had hit the wall instead of passing through it. She heard the buzz of fairy wings in her ears. She didn’t want to get up from where she lay. She didn’t think she could.

  ‘Come on, Cora,’ said Tock urgently.

  There was a tug on her coat.

  With the little strength she had left, Cora pulled herself upwards. She stood and tried to focus her vision. Standing in front of them was the shop owner. He was only as tall as she was and had bright red hair that stuck out every which way. The man stared back at them and crossed his arms over his chest.

  ‘Let us pass, dwarf,’ said Tick.

  The dwarf glared at Tick. He wasn’t going to let them pass. Cora knew that any minute now all sorts of magical beings were going to burst out of the jewellery box. All sorts of magical beings that were now after them. Because of her. She looked behind her and saw the jewellery box shake on the shelf. She could push past the dwarf but given what happened only moments ago, she didn’t want to hurt anybody else. Then she remembered what Archibald had said.

  ‘You let us in,’ said Cora. ‘Fairies and a child. You let us in.’

  Tick and Tock folded their arms across their chests.

  ‘When they find out . . .’ said Tock.

  ‘. . . boy, will you be in trouble,’ finished Tick.

  The small man stood still but Cora saw it. His eyes shifted worriedly. Then the dwarf stepped to the side.

  Tick, Tock and Cora wasted no time. They raced past the dwarf and through the shop. Tick and Tock pushed open the door and the minute they were out of the shop, the fairies touched Cora on the arm, there was a loud POP! and then they were gone.

  Cora opened her eye. Her head spun but she could see from the rock walls around her that she stood in a small cave. Glistening purple crystals sat nestled in the rock. They gave off a slight purple glow, lighting up the dark corners in a soft purple hue. Looking out of the cave opening, she could see the late afternoon sun was still out. She rested a hand on the wall behind her and closed her eye. She had thrown a warlock through a window! In broad daylight. In the Black Market of Gwell. A place filled with magical beings. She thought things were going from bad to worse before. Now things had gone from worse to even more worse.

  ‘Cora,’ Tick said softly.

  She opened her eye to find Tick and Tock hovering in front of her, worry etched on their round faces.

  ‘You need to rest,’ said Tock.

  Cora nodded.

  The fairies walked her further into the cave and she sat down. Tick flew out of the cave and soon brought back a bundle of wood. Then with a POP! of magic, the wood was set alight and soon a fire burnt in front of them. There was silence for a while as the three of them stared into the fire, occupied with their own thoughts.

  ‘What’s happening to me?’ Cora asked.

  Tick and Tock looked at her across the fire.

  ‘We don’t know,’ said Tick.

  Cora was afraid of that.

  ‘What happened at the Black Market?’ asked Tock.

  Cora closed her eye again. ‘When . . . you were . . . in pain . . .’ she said, not knowing what else to call it, ‘Archibald grabbed me on the arm and it hurt, so I . . . pushed him away . . . and . . .’ she trailed off as she remembered the warlock flying through the window.

  Tick and Tock looked at each other.

  ‘He knows what you are,’ said Tock.

  ‘And that’s not good,’ said Tick.

  ‘Wh-what am I?’ Cora asked.

  ‘We don’t know that either,’ said Tick.

  ‘You could be many things,’ said Tock.

  Cora remembered what Archibald had said at Drake Manor. That can mean . . . many things. She just wanted an answer. Why couldn’t anybody tell her?

  ‘You could be an ogre,’ said Tick.

  ‘You could be a mage,’ said Tock.

  ‘You could be having a severe allergic reaction,’ said Tick with a shrug.

  Cora shook her head. She was certain that whatever was happening to her wasn’t any of the things the fairies had mentioned. The feeling still squirmed beneath her skin.

  ‘Whatever you are, we need to find out,’ said Tock. ‘And soon. Archibald will have already started looking for us.’

  Cora groaned. ‘Maybe he will just . . . forget about me?’ she tried hopefully.

  ‘Archibald is not going to quickly forget about being thrown through a wheelbarrow by a child,’ said Tick.

  ‘Window,’ said Tock and Cora at the same time.

  ‘Warlocks are very powerful magical beings,’ said Tock. ‘Especially Archibald Drake.’

  This was not making Cora feel any better. She put her head in her hands. ‘First the Jinx and now a very powerful warlock,’ Cora mumbled.

  ‘It could be worse,’ said Tock.

  Cora opened her eye and looked up. ‘How?’ She really could not see how it could be any worse.

  ‘You could have taken that potion from the witch and be covered in boils and growing excessive armpit hair,’ said Tick.

  Cora gave the fairy a small smile. Perhaps it could have been worse.

  There was a silence again as they stared into the fire. And then Cora whispered, ‘I’m . . . scared.’

  ‘It will be okay,’ said Tock.

  ‘You have us,’ said Tick. Smiling, he puffed out his chest. ‘The best fairies in all the land.’

  Cora gave him another small smile.

  ‘Now we all need to rest,’ said Tock. ‘We’ll figure out a plan in the morning.’

  Cora hoped so. She felt her eye begin to close as she stared into the fire. The tiredness and dizziness she had been fighting had begun to take hold. She put down the whisper root she still held onto and lay down on the cave floor. She closed her eye. It wasn’t long until Cora fell into a deep sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Cora was in Urt. She gasped as she sprinted down an alleyway. She got to the end and skidded around the corner. Then she stopped. In front of her, standing in the middle of the road, was Dot. She was holding Scratch in her arms.

  ‘Dot!’ Cora cried. She ran up to her. But Dot’s eyes didn’t meet hers. She watched as Dot pointed to something behind Cora. She turned around. Charging down the road towards them was the Jinx. The shadow creature moved quickly; its yellow eyes on them. Both of its hands swiped at the buildings either side of the road. Then it roared into the air.

  Cora turned back to Dot. ‘Run!’ she told her.

  But Dot didn’t move. Neither did Scratch.

  ‘Dot! Run!’ Cora called again. She realised that Dot couldn’t hear her. Cora waved her hands in front of the old woman’s face. And then she did the same in front of Scratch’s eyes. Nothing. They both remained still, staring up at the shadow creature. Cora looked over her shoulder. The Jinx was getting closer.

  Cora tried to push Dot off the road. But it was like she was made of stone. She wouldn’t budge. ‘Please,’ Cora urged as she pushed as hard as she could. She felt her eye fill with tears. ‘Please move.’

  The Jinx was almost on them. There seemed nothing Cora could do. She stopped pushing and stood in front of Dot and Scratch. It was all she could do. She faced the shadow creature as it hurtled towards them. She closed her eye. Then when she opened it again, she was looking down at Dot and Scratch from up high. She raised her arms up and saw that they were shadows. Then Cora reached down and grabbed hold of Dot and Scratch. She lifted them up and held them out in front of her. They tried to wriggle out of her grasp but
she opened her mouth wide and tossed them inside, swallowing them whole in one big gulp.

  Cora sat up awake. Blinking, she realised she was still inside the cave with the glowing purple stones from the day before. Only now she was dripping with water. Huh? She wiped her face and looked around. Tick and Tock stared at her from the other side of the fire.

  ‘Are you okay?’ asked Tock.

  Cora nodded. Although she wasn’t entirely sure she was. Dot’s scared face still sat in her mind. Cora looked down. ‘Why am I wet?’ she asked.

  ‘We thought you could be a mermaid,’ said Tick.

  ‘What? A mermaid?!’ exclaimed Cora. The fairies sat cross-legged on the cave floor, each holding a notepad and pen in their hands, a pair of half-moon glasses atop their noses.

  ‘We have already crossed off werewolf and soothsayer from the list, too,’ said Tock.

  ‘You didn’t turn into a wolf last night and you have been doing a terrible job at predicting the future,’ said Tick.

  ‘Thank you?’ Cora replied, unsure. She was glad to hear that she wasn’t a werewolf or soothsayer. But she felt like she could have told them that.

  ‘How do you feel?’ asked Tick. He put down his notepad and handed her a small bowl.

  ‘Better than yesterday,’ she said. She looked down at the bowl in her hands. It was filled with a thick, white soup. Twigs floated along the top of it. ‘What is this?’

  ‘Why? Would you say you prefer blood?’ asked Tock, pen poised on his notepad.

  ‘What? No,’ said Cora, crinkling her nose.

  The fairy crossed off something on his notepad. ‘Well, we can safely say you’re not a vampire then. They like blood. A lot.’

  Cora shuddered.

  ‘You never know,’ said Tick with a shrug. ‘One minute you’re a person. Next minute, vampire. It’s very common, you know.’

  Cora didn’t want to think about how common vampires were. She took a small sip of the soup. It tasted like the tea the fairy godmothers had given her.

  ‘It’s myrtle soup,’ said Tock. ‘An ancient fairy recipe.’

  Then there was a POP! of magic and Cora found herself no longer wet.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said. She quickly finished the soup. She hadn’t realised how hungry she was until the myrtle soup hit her stomach.

  ‘While you were asleep, we also crossed off ogre,’ said Tock, picking up his notepad.

  ‘And zombie,’ added Tock. ‘You haven’t even tried to eat us once.’

  Cora thought the fairy sounded a little offended.

  Then with a POP! his notepad, pen and glasses disappeared. With another POP! so did Tick’s.

  ‘There’s a gateway not far from here,’ Tock said. ‘But first,’ the fairy stopped and pointed to something on the cave floor. Cora looked down to find the whisper root next to her. She had almost forgotten about the oddly shaped potato. Carefully, she handed it to the fairy.

  Tock held the whisper root into the fire. They watched and waited for something to happen. Then a wisp of thick, black smoke appeared in the flames and gradually more smoke began to fill up the space in the small cave.

  Cora screwed up her nose at the smell. It reminded her of the time when Dot had accidentally set the grill too high and burnt their last few pieces of bread. The burnt smell filled up their entire home. Even Scratch refused to go anywhere near the kitchen. When Dot had rescued the bread from the grill, only one of the pieces wasn’t badly burnt. And Dot had given it to Cora.

  Tock flew over to her with the whisper root in one hand, his other hand holding his nose tightly closed.

  Cora stood up.

  ‘Hold still,’ Tock said. The fairy waved the whisper root in the air all around her, covering her in the thick, black smoke from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.

  Tick watched, pinching his nose closed too and grimacing at the stench.

  The smoke swallowed her. All she could see was darkness. Cora closed her eye. Then some of the smoke went up her nose and she coughed and spluttered.

  ‘There,’ said Tock after covering her entirely in the whisper root smoke a few times. ‘I think that will do.’ He blew out the burning embers at the end of the whisper root and handed it back to Cora.

  Instead of disappearing into the air, she watched the black smoke that floated around her fall down and settle on top of her skin like a fine layer of dirt. Up close, it gave her pale skin a subtle, grey tint.

  ‘We need to keep moving,’ said Tick.

  They packed up their things and put out the fire. As they left the cave, Cora thought of Dot. And the dream she had where her arms were made of shadows. She looked down at the glistening smoke that sat on her skin. Please, she begged. Please work.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  ‘How far away is the gateway again?’ Cora asked. She trudged up the hill behind the flying fairies.

  ‘Not far,’ said Tick and Tock at the same time.

  Cora was beginning to think the fairies’ idea of not far was very different from hers. They had been walking for what felt like a few hours. When they left the cave, Cora was happy to see a landscape of large rolling hills of green with pockets of beautiful trees outside. She had never seen scenery like it. Like The Hollow, she thought it was beautiful. As she walked, she breathed in the air, felt the trees with her hands, and gazed out into the sunny distance. But as the hours passed, her legs had started to hurt. And the air had too many bugs in it. And the sun had become too strong in her eye.

  At least, Cora thought, we are out in the open. They would be able to see the Jinx from far away. But also, being out in the open, she realised, left them with nowhere to hide. Around her sat trees and grassy hills. They wouldn’t do. Perhaps there was another cave somewhere? One that the Jinx wouldn’t be able to fit inside?

  Cora picked up her pace and caught up to Tick and Tock. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.

  ‘Somewhere outside Plunk,’ said Tick, looking around. ‘Archibald probably won’t look here first.’

  ‘Probably?’ Cora echoed. Her stomach squirmed with unease. She pictured the warlock appearing next to her with a POP! at any moment. Then she remembered what happened to Tick and Tock at the witch’s shop. What Archibald Drake had done to them. She shuddered at the memory of the fairies sitting suspended in the air, twisting in pain.

  ‘The warlock,’ she said. ‘Did he . . . when he . . . at the witch’s shop . . .?’

  Tick and Tock winced.

  ‘It felt like our bones were . . .’ said Tock, trying to find the words.

  ‘. . . on fire,’ finished Tick.

  Cora wished she never brought it up.

  ‘If you hadn’t have stopped him . . .’ said Tock.

  The fairies were silent for a time.

  ‘How did you . . . feel when you faced Archibald at the witch’s shop?’ asked Tick. ‘Had you ever felt like that before?’

  Cora thought about the feeling she felt, the one that was with her now all the time, the one that helped her help Tick and Tock in the witch’s shop.

  ‘I felt it first at the lake. It’s like a feeling under my skin,’ she said, trying to explain it. ‘Like something that’s trying to get out . . .’

  Tick and Tock looked at each other. With a POP! both of the fairies had notepads and pens in their hands again. They flew around her as she walked.

  ‘Is it still there?’ asked Tock. ‘The feeling?’

  Cora nodded. Carefully, she felt for it and found it. She had somehow made room for it in the past few days since the lake. Like it was part of her. What that meant, she didn’t know.

  ‘The good news is that we can probably cross off troll from the list,’ said Tock.

  ‘But you could still be a giant,’ said Tick. ‘Or a witch.’

  Cora groaned.

  ‘You have bursts of strength,’ said Tock. ‘That’s what we know.’ He scribbled down something on his notepad.

  ‘Do you think you can control it?’ Tick asked, peering at her
from over his glasses.

  Cora wasn’t sure. She remembered having the feeling under control until Archibald showed up. ‘I’m not sure. Why?’

  Tick and Tock stopped flying. They looked at each other.

  ‘We know one thing for sure,’ said Tick.

  ‘There’s magic inside of you, Cora,’ said Tock.

  She couldn’t help but look down at herself.

  ‘The feeling you describe is not a feeling at all. It’s magic,’ said Tick.

  ‘Powerful magic,’ added Tock. ‘It’s how you were able to summon the Jinx.’

  The fairies tapped their pens on their hairy heads in thought. Then they looked through the notes in their notepads.

  ‘And your bracelet,’ said Tock suddenly. ‘Maybe . . .’

  ‘. . . maybe it has been protecting you this whole time,’ finished Tick.

  Cora looked down at her wrist. She remembered what the witch had said about her bracelet. Protection from others. Protection from oneself. It glimmered innocently in the sun.

  ‘It tingles sometimes,’ Cora said. ‘On my wrist. And it . . .’ she paused, remembering, ‘it tingled when I first saw the Jinx and then in The Hollow . . . and then again in the shop yesterday when Archibald was there.’

  Tick and Tock smiled.

  ‘Do you know what this means?’ replied Tock excitedly.

  Cora hoped it didn’t mean she was a giant.

  ‘Now you stand a chance,’ said Tick happily.

  ‘At fighting the Jinx,’ said Tock, smiling widely.

  Cora stopped walking. She looked at the fairies as though they had grown five heads. ‘FIGHT the Jinx?!’ she cried. ‘Are you crazy?!’

  ‘But you fought it already,’ said Tock. ‘And you survived!’

  ‘Because your bracelet protected you,’ said Tick. ‘At least we think it did.’

  ‘That was . . . that . . . I’m not fighting the Jinx,’ Cora said. She set off at a brisk walk, away from the fairies.