Suzanne McLeod - The Bitter Seed of Magic

She looked the most casual I’d ever seen her. Her blonde hair was scraped back in a utilitarian ponytail and she was wearing pressed jeans with a pink tailored shirt and a navy cardigan, all of which looked out of place with her usual jewellery-shop-display of spell-carrying bling. She was treating Jack to an exasperated frown, while absently wafting a small brown bottle under my nose: smelling salts—which accounted for the ammonia. I almost laughed. Did she think I’d fainted or something?

‘I told you to stop calling me my lady, Jack,’ she snapped at him. ‘I’m your mother, not one of your fancy sidhe females you have to flatter and flirt with. Call me Mum, Mother or Helen, I don’t care which one, but most definitely not my lady!’

So looked like I’d found Helen’s changeling son, too, and if her memory was correct, he was also Mad Max’s long-lost little boy, and Jack had to be the dog’s offspring she was protecting. Part of me was surprised I hadn’t put it together before, even if Helen was a witch and Mad Max was a vamp and ne’er the twain shall meet, let alone get down and dirty and produce a bouncing baby boy complete with tiny vamp fangs.

But while mentally playing Happy Families with Helen, Jack and Mad Max was entertaining, it wasn’t going to help me escape from my evil witch nemesis, or help me save Nicky and the missing faelings. Hoping for inspiration, I scanned around. We were in a large, dimly lit mediaeval-looking room the size of a tennis court, judging by the ceiling, which was all I could see from my prone position. The walls were irregular grey stone, and the thick wooden beams and pillars were darkened with age. Huge circular wooden chandeliers, stuck with half-melted candles, marched down the centre of the room. The room didn’t look too different from the pictures Hugh had shown me of the interior of the White Tower itself—but then, it’s always easier to base Between on something real; if you rely on imagination too much, there’s a chance you’ll end up with a pic’n’mix nightmare of whatever the magic decides to winkle out of your mind.

And speaking of nightmares …

‘Alternatively, you could always call her Witch-bitch,’ I said, my voice sounding as croaky as a raven’s caw. ‘That works for me,’ I finished as they both turned.

Helen’s mouth pinched sourly. ‘At least you’re awake.’ She took the smelling salts away and I took a decidedly more pleasant breath.

‘Hello, my lady.’ Jack gave me a tentative smile; it held the same apology as his voice. ‘I’m sorry I dropped you. I wasn’t planning on it, you just sort of slipped.’

‘Hey, no hard feelings, Jack.’ I hit him with my best glare. ‘So how’s the Morrígan and the mother thing working out for you then? Or am I wrong in thinking you’re one of the goddess’ messengers?’

‘Um, the Morrígan wanted you here, and so did my la— my mother,’ he said sheepishly.

‘Ri- ight . You do know that pissing off a goddess isn’t the healthiest thing you can do, don’t you?’

‘Ms Taylor,’ Helen spoke briskly, ‘the Morrígan didn’t say how, or where she wanted you once you got here, so Jack has fulfilled the task set for him. Please stop trying to intimidate him.’

‘I’m not trying ,’ I said, keeping my eyes on Jack, ‘I’m telling it like it is. And I bought two tickets for this “Tour the Magical Tower” trip, so, no, he hasn’t fulfilled his task yet.’

‘I’m sorry, my lady,’ Jack said, ‘but I have to wait until the feather—’

‘Jack, be quiet,’ Helen said. ‘You don’t need to tell her anything.’

Jack gave me a ‘nothing I can do’ shrug. Damn. So much for my intimidation skills. And so much for my fanged backup: with his super-senses, finding a feather with my blood all over it should’ve been like finding a giant needle without the haystack.

I switched my glare to Helen. ‘Oh, and while we’re on this whole need-to-know-or-not subject,’ I said, ‘how about filling me in on all the Tour’s gory details. What’s my fate this time? Are you going for straight sacrificial victim, or can I look forward to something more creative?’

Helen ignored me and spoke to Jack, who was hovering anxiously at her shoulder. ‘I told you to rest, so will you please do so and get your strength back.’

‘I’m fine, my la— Mother.’

‘Just do as I say, Jack,’ she said tiredly.

He sat back with a loud long-suffering sigh.

‘Having problems with the kids, Helen?’ I said sarcastically. ‘I mean, you just get your son back, then you lose your daughter. Very careless of you.’

She flicked her finger at me, a fist of magic punched my injured shoulder and I disappeared into a furnace of pain.

Then the sharp ammonia scent brought me back.

Fuck. Whatever happened to not making my injuries worse? As I shifted away from the pungent smell, another shock of pain ripped through me and I resolved to stay still. If I didn’t move, it didn’t hurt. Of course, if she didn’t spell-punch me, it wouldn’t hurt either.

‘Ms Taylor.’ Helen clenched her hands, her multitude of rings chinking in anger. ‘There are no friendly trolls, inquisitive media or my ex-husband here to protect you this time, and my patience is wearing thin. I suggest you keep your mouth shut until I ask—’

A clock struck, sounding like the Westminster chimes of Big Ben. Helen and Jack started chanting under their breath and turned their backs to me. Magic shivered over us like a light snowfall, illuminating the dome of the ten-foot circle enclosing us and melting like cool kisses against my cheeks. I lay there counting the sixteen notes of the hour, waiting for the deeper gongs at the end to tell me how long I’d been here: one, two … ten, elev—

The eleventh gong cut out halfway through.

Four hours, give or take. Shit, that was a long time. C’mon, Malik, find the damn feather; the night’s not getting any younger.

In the silence that followed, I could hear the quiet rustling of people moving, the muted cry of a baby, quickly hushed, and the scrape of metal on stone.

The cold round me increased, and my breath fogged into the air as my teeth started chattering.

My stomach heaved as a spell rolled over us like an air pressure wave following an explosion.

Jack moaned and collapsed against Helen; she wrapped her arms round him and gently lowered him to the floor. As she stroked his hair back from his face, sadness and longing crossed hers, and I relived the memory of her grief as he’d been taken from her by Angel.

I scowled; I so didn’t want to feel sorry for her.

Then her sadness was gone and she fixed me with an irritated look. ‘You’re shivering, Ms Taylor.’

I didn’t bother to answer. One, it was obvious, and two, my teeth were going at it like they were one of those joke wind-up sets that clatter around until they run out of power and die. A not-so-cheerful thought.

She pulled her cardigan off and laid it on top of me, tucking it under my chin. ‘It will warm up in a minute,’ she said absently. ‘It’s just the after-effect of keeping this circle tuned to Between so we don’t go out of Time-sync.’

‘Time-sync?’ I asked, then braced myself for another magical shoulder-punch as her attention focused on me instead of her internal thoughts.

After a moment, she said. ‘Yes, Time-sync, Ms Taylor. Time here runs slow, around a day for every hour in the normal world. Until the clock finishes the chime we can’t get out, and no one can get in. The place is cut off until this time tomorrow.’

I digested that. Time in Between —like space and form—was malleable, of course. Not that I had much of a clue where to start with any of that, but that was less important than how long … in other words, how long before Malik, my super-powerful fangy back-up found the bloody Morrígan’s feather and caught a raven-powered flight to my (and everyone else’s) rescue. Still, the good news was I probably hadn’t been out of it for as long as I thought. The bad news— If it took Malik an hour, I could end up trapped here for twenty-four of them—