Free Unruly Magic by Camilla Chafer Page B

maybe that would put Gage off. I smirked to myself.
Gage was stood on the driveway, almost like he was waiting for me, and fell into step beside me as I slowed to a walk.
“Enjoy your run?”
“I might die,” I admitted.
“You run every day?”
“I try to.”
“Same time?”
I shrugged. “Not really. Just when I feel like it.”
“It’s not safe at dark, so don’t run at night.”
I stopped. “Why?”
“Animals. We’re isolated out here, so... what if you twisted your foot, or something?”
    I thought about the strange print I’d found. “Oh, right. I guess. Well, thanks. And thanks again for this.” I waved a hand at the house. I opened my mouth to ask him about the print but he was already walking away.
    “No problem,” I heard him say.
    I stumbled into my house, my heart still pounding from the run, but at least my head was clear again. I was pushing myself too much for someone so under exercised. I’d have to take it easier in future, or risk pulling a muscle. I froze a few steps into my living room. Just as I had time to think something wasn’t right in my house, I felt the familiar feel of magic drift towards me. Out of the air, Chyler materialised. I would have to do something about the wards, I thought as she took on form, it wouldn’t do to just have witches pop up out of nowhere in my house.
    “Hi, Stella,” she said brightly.
    “Chyler, hi. Is everything okay?”
    “I wanted to know if you’d found anything out. From the council, or from... are there any other witches around here?” She studied me for a moment. She was wearing the same outfit as yesterday but her hair was pulled into a low ponytail and didn’t look like it had been brushed properly.
    “No, there aren’t any other witches around here. That I know of anyway.”
    “Oh. Too bad.” Chyler’s tone wasn’t exactly sincere.
    I gestured at her to follow me into the kitchen where I poured myself a big glass of water and glugged it down before offering her a drink. She shook her head, so I knocked back another glass and then leant against the counter, tugging at the zip of my sweat jacket.
    “So no one’s come looking for me?” Chyler swept a finger across my counters and then checked it, like she was checking to see if cleanliness was a top priority in my house. I hoped she was satisfied at my super clean kitchen, elbow grease powered by boredom.
“No one, yet,” I said, adding a little caveat.
“Oh. Good.”
“I guess. Why don’t you sit down and tell me more about what’s happening?”
Chyler wobbled over to a chair like a baby gazelle taking its first steps and I frowned at her.
“Are you okay?”
    “Fine, thank you. So, I don’t really remember much. I was just practising some spells and bam! Something flies out of nowhere and hits me. I think something backfired.”
    “And that’s why the council came?” I couldn’t see the witches’ council bothering about something like a spell backfiring. Unless it was something really hideous.
    “Yes!” Chyler exclaimed. “They just turned up and they were really mad and they wanted to take me somewhere, and I was scared so I just grabbed the book.”
    “Did they say where they wanted to take you?” I asked, trying to recall the details of the vision I’d had when I touched her. Something smelled off.
    Chyler shook her head. “They were really scary, Stella and I was frightened so I didn’t stay and ask.” She shivered and clasped her hands in her lap, her head bowed.
“What spells were you practising?”
“Um... I don’t remember.”
I didn’t miss the flicker of Chyler’s eyelids. She was lying, I was sure.
    “They’re really bad, you know. They want power, any power, and they’ll do anything to get it,” she said, her eyes flicking up to look at me from beneath her lashes.
    That didn’t exactly strike me as untrue. Chyler had intimated before that there wasn’t any successor to Robert Bartholomew and I wondered what it meant to have the council