Free Witch Is When It All Began by Adele Abbott

nodded. “Our whole family are witches. Your mother, your grandma and your cousins.”
    “There’s no such thing as witches! You’re crazy.”
    “How else do you explain this?” She took another spoonful of cake.
    “I don’t know. It must be some kind of trick.”
    “What about the spell you cast last night?”
    “I didn’t cast a spell,” I lied.
    “So you didn’t make yourself invisible?”
    How could she have known? Unless she’d been inside my flat. “I didn’t. I wasn’t.”
    “I felt the force when you did it,” Aunt Lucy said. “I’d been waiting and hoping I would.”
    “It was some kind of elaborate illusion.” I was running out of straws to clutch at. “Did you pay the locksmith to pretend he couldn’t see me?”
    “Sooner or later you are going to have to accept this.”
    “That’s never going to happen. Look, if I really am a witch.” I scoffed. “How come I’ve gone all my life without knowing it? How come I haven’t turned anyone into a frog or something?”
    “When you were born, it wasn’t safe for your mother to keep you with her.”
    I wanted to ask why not, but knew I’d get the same old ‘ it’s complicated ’ nonsense, so I allowed her to continue.
    “Before she gave you up for adoption, your mother cast a spell that effectively blocked your powers. That spell remained in place until she died. When she knew she had only hours to live, she reached out to you. She wanted you to know before she passed away.”
    “I don’t know what you expect me to say. You’re asking me to believe in magic and witches. I just can’t.”
    “Have you noticed anything else unusual since your mother died?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure?”
    I recalled the surge of energy I’d felt when my mother died, but surely that was just the shock of what had happened. Then there was Winky. But that had just been my over-active imagination—cats can’t talk. And then there was the strange, ghostly figure in my bedroom. I’d just been over-tired.
    “I’m sure. Nothing at all.”
    I could see Aunt Lucy didn’t believe me, but at that point I really didn’t care. “I probably should be going.”
    “Why don’t you pay another visit to Candlefield?”
    “I can’t take time off work. I’m busy.”
    “You wouldn’t need to take time off. Time in this world will stand still while you’re in Candlefield.”
    This was a whole new level of crazy. I wasn’t even going to try to get my head around such nonsense. Still, Candlefield was a beautiful village.
    “If I did come, could I bring Kathy?”
    “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
    “But she’s my sister.”
    “I know, and I’m sorry, but it’s simply not possible.”
    “Why not?”
    “Candlefield is home to sups only.”
    “Soups? What do you mean?”
    “Sups, not soups. It’s shorthand. A collective term for supernatural beings: witches, vampires, werewolves—”
    “Whoa! Right there! Now you’re trying to tell me there are vampires and werewolves? Okay, that’s it!” I stood up. “I’m done here.”
    “Jill, wait!” Aunt Lucy reached out to me, but this time I was determined to leave. There was only so much crazy anyone could take in a day.
    I could hear her calling after me as I walked down the high street, but I had no intention of stopping. After five minutes of power walking, her voice had faded into the distance. At her age, she had no hope of keeping up with me. I slowed my pace and tried to get my bearings. The hotel where Mr Lyon was staying was no more than half a mile away. I’d be early, but it was worth a try. If he wasn’t in or couldn’t see me yet, I could always wait in the lobby.
    Werewolves? Vampires? Just how gullible did she think I was? The idea that Kathy couldn’t go to Candlefield because she was human—it was laughable.
    “Jill.”
    I almost jumped out of my skin when Aunt Lucy stepped out of a shop doorway in front of me. How had she done that? I thought I’d left her way