Free The Rain-Soaked Bride by Guy Adams Page A

choosing correctly from your menu.’ She handed the menu to Shining. ‘A double burger with bacon and brie with extra onion rings, southern-fried chips and plenty of barbecue sauce.’
    She turned back to Toby. ‘But summonings are sloppy. And dangerous. To be avoided if possible. A curse retains the control. The person doing the cursing calls the shots.’
    ‘So how can we tell which this is?’
    ‘By asking an expert like me,’ she said, before throwing her hand to her forehead. ‘If only I could think clearly. I’m so terribly hungry. I think I may faint.’
    ‘I’ll order,’ said Shining, smiling. He looked at Toby. ‘Want anything?’
    ‘Of course he does,’ said Cassandra. ‘I’m not eating on my own. He’ll have a burger as well.’
    ‘Will he?’ asked Toby.
    ‘Of course you will,’ she replied. ‘Who doesn’t like burgers? Or scampi … or maybe a pie …’ She slowly reached for the menu again but Shining snatched it away.
    ‘I’ll order three burgers,’ he said, retreating to the bar.
    Suddenly Cassandra grabbed Toby’s thigh. ‘You in love with me yet?’
    ‘Not quite yet,’ he admitted, backing away.
    ‘You’re only lying to yourself,’ she said, letting go of his leg. ‘It’s sad, really.’ She grinned and stared at him. ‘To live under such denial.’
    ‘No doubt I’ll succumb any moment,’ he said.
    She inclined her head, thought for a moment, then shook it. ‘No. You love someone else. Oh Lord …’ She fell back in her chair. ‘I’m always the bridesmaid. Poor girl. It was a tragedy, that foolish little thing she called life.’
    Rather than get involved in a discussion as to whether he loved anyone else, Toby decided to keep the talk on subject. ‘So how did you become an expert on curses?’
    ‘At school,’ she said. ‘Everybody hates me because I’m weird.’ She said it without expecting sympathy, to her it was a simple expression of fact and Toby suddenly felt sad for her. ‘I’m used to it now and, you know, to hell with them, but when I was at school it used to really hurt. I just wanted people to be nice. And when I gave up on that I just wanted them to feel as badly as I did. I’m not much cop in a fight so I looked into alternatives. I found one!’ She grinned. ‘You haven’t known real pleasure until you’ve seen an entire netball team sprout facial hair.’ She gazed into the distance, a dreamy look on her face. ‘I think Clarissa Hedges still needs to shave twice a week.’
    Shining returned from ordering the food. ‘Done,’ he informed them. He looked to Cassandra. ‘So, what do you think?’
    She sighed. ‘For it to be a curse there are certain obvious signs. Firstly a delivery method. Curses aren’t just spoken, you need to mark the victim out, plant a target on them. Usually this is by a written form of the incantation.’
    ‘The mobile phones?’ Toby suggested.
    ‘It would seem likely,’ Shining agreed.
    Cassandra shrugged. ‘If someone has found a way of digitising hexes then they’re a better magician than I am. Curses don’t like being written down, they’re too powerful. It takes a strict methodology and control to even set pen to paper.’
    ‘The phones were destroyed.’
    ‘True,’ she nodded. ‘It does seem the most likely. It just worries me.’
    ‘The whole thing is worrying,’ said Toby.
    ‘Yes,’ she agreed, ‘but brilliant experts like me don’t like things to contradict their view of their subject. Digitised curses? That’s just freaky. I’ll be panicking about email attachments for months.’
    ‘So what are the other obvious signs?’ Toby asked.
    ‘Method of death. In a summoning you never know what you’re going to get. Demons are a weird bunch and terribly creative. I once heard of a man eaten by toads. I mean, that’s just sick … imagine!’ She began miming a toad eating people. It was like a sequel to her earlier performance, Toby thought, and just as disconcerting.
    ‘It must have