Chapter Nineteen

 

I gave myself a moment after the Ipsissimus left and then, telling myself that it was only because I had to save the world, I made my way outside. Both Brutus and Winter were there, seemingly in the middle of some kind of argument.

‘She needs peace, Brutus. She needs to sleep.’

‘Food.’

‘I’ll get you food. Just let me check on Ivy and then I’ll find you some tuna or something.’

Brutus yawned and raised a paw in my direction. ‘Food.’

I shrugged at him. ‘I don’t have any. I’d suggest you go to your new friend for some but I suppose he’s still being interrogated.’

Winter turned in surprise then gave an irritated frown when he saw me. ‘You need to lie down. I can handle the investigation.’

I smiled at him. ‘I’m not going to let you steal all the glory, buster. Not after all this work.’

He wasn’t appeased by my light-hearted answer. ‘I won’t have you collapsing on me, Ivy. You look bloody awful.’

‘Well, thank you very much.’

He gritted his teeth. ‘It’s not a criticism.’

I crossed my arms. ‘It sounded like it.’ I couldn’t let Winter bundle me back off to bed. Not now. ‘You keep complaining that I’m too lazy. Now I’m taking action and you’re still complaining. I can’t win.’

He drew in a breath as if unsure of himself. ‘I’m worried about you.’

I waved an airy hand around, hoping I didn’t look as nauseous or exhausted as I felt. ‘I’m absolutely fine.’ I pulled my shoulders back. ‘We can’t hang around. We have to find who’s behind this.’

Winter’s eyes narrowed. ‘You must have hit your head. This definitely isn’t the Ivy Wilde I know.’ I let out a fake laugh, which only served to increase Winter’s suspicions. ‘What’s going on, Ivy? What exactly did the Ipsissimus want?’

I had a ready-made answer – and one which I was sure would prevent Winter from probing further. ‘He asked me to join the Order. Said that I’d done enough to prove myself and that I’d be welcomed in with open arms. I wouldn’t even have to begin at Neophyte again.’

He stared. ‘And you want to do this? I thought you were determined not to go near the Order with a barge pole.’

‘I am. And that’s exactly what I told him. He said that if I helped you find the necromancer and put a stop to his crimes, he would leave me in peace.’

Of course there was no logic to what I’d just said. That was why I reckoned it would work. If I came up with a more rational reason for not hiding under a duvet when I’d been given permission to do just that, Winter would continue to question what I was doing. Instead, he’d spend so much time puzzling about it that he’d stop asking.

Just in case, I rushed ahead. ‘We need to go and speak to Bellows. If Belinda and her vial have been ruled out, he’s the only other person who’s got any reason to be dodgy.’ My mouth flattened into a grim line. ‘And from those photos, he’s dodgy as hell.’ I swung a side look at Winter. ‘Has Belinda said anything about them?’

He was silent for a moment, as if he still wanted to ask more about the Ipsissimus and my reasons for springing up from my sick bed. Fortunately, his inner investigator took over. ‘Our focus was on the vial. The photos, distasteful as they are, don’t seem pertinent to necromancy.’

‘No,’ I agreed. ‘But they are pertinent to being a bastard.’ I still didn’t think Bellows was the bastard witch we were looking for but there were few other options at this point. ‘Where’s Tarquin?’

Winter stilled. ‘Why?’

‘He’s obviously good friends with Moonbeam. I imagine he has insights into all this which we can only guess at.’

Winter was only slightly appeased. ‘Unless he’s gone with the others, Tarquin’s probably around here somewhere. Many witches are. They’re using tracking spells to see if they can work out where the zombie came from.’ His expression was grim. ‘Not to mention making sure there aren’t any more of the damn things anywhere.’

I frowned. ‘Gone where with the others? What others?’

‘Other than Armstrong, everyone else in the crew has been shipped back to Tomintoul. No matter what Armstrong wants, it’s pretty certain that Enchantment is finished.’

‘Rampaging zombies are just a bit too much even for reality television?’

‘It appears so.’

I sniffed. After what had happened to Benjamin Alberts, they were lucky that no one else had died. Yet. All the same, it was a bit of a shame that my television career was probably over before it had barely started. I wondered if they’d use the footage of me after I died saving the world. I shouldn’t have played the bitchy role like Barry wanted me to; post-mortem montages of yours truly would be much more effective if I looked like I was a nice person. Oh well.

Then a thought struck me. ‘Wait a minute,’ I said slowly. ‘Everyone involved with Enchantment apart from Armstrong is back in Tomintoul?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then why did I see Mazza strolling around when I looked out of the window?’

Winter’s blue eyes darkened. ‘The runner?’

I nodded, feeling the sudden chill fingers of dread tap down my spine.

‘Where was he?’ There was a sudden urgent edge to Winter’s voice.

I tried to think. Pointing to the side, I drew an imaginary line. ‘He was walking from there over to there.’

A muscle throbbed in Winter’s cheek. ‘There are supposed to be Order witches guarding the entire perimeter. How the hell did he manage to avoid them?’

‘Let’s apportion blame later, shall we? We need to find out where he is.’ My tone hardened. ‘Right now.’ I took off in the direction where I’d seen Mazza and almost immediately regretted moving so quickly. My head swam and I was forced to take several shallow breaths to avoid passing out.

‘Ivy…’

‘I’m fine.’

Brutus shot out in front of us, scampering across the clearing at full speed. I blinked. I’d never seen him run before, not since he was a kitten anyway. I exchanged a quick glance with Winter and then took off after my cat with my fingers crossed. I was going to look mightily stupid if he’d just decided to chase after a woodland mouse.

Fortunately, Winter also seemed to believe that Brutus was onto something. In less than a few heartbeats he overtook me, sprinting towards the tree line. I quashed my trepidation at the thought that the shy runner was out there with a zombie just waiting to chomp on him, and tried to keep up. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t. I slowed down in an effort to reserve some energy – not to mention to avoid throwing up – and did what I could to keep Winter in sight. At least the river was over in that direction so there was a natural barrier.

Winter had just disappeared behind a tree when I heard a strangled shout. Muttering a curse, I picked up speed again, reaching him – and Mazza – just in time. Winter had grabbed the kid by the throat and was holding him at arm’s length whilst Brutus hissed repeatedly.

‘Is it you?’ Winter demanded. ‘Is it you raising the dead?’

Mazza’s eyes bulged. ‘What? No! I didn’t have anything to do with that!’

I eyed him. He seemed more scared than anything else. But was that scared because he’d finally been found out or because he was being falsely accused? It was imperative we learned the truth.

‘Let him go, Rafe,’ I said softly.

Winter glared then did as I asked, releasing his grip. Mazza staggered backwards and rubbed his neck vigorously. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ he croaked.

I stepped forward. ‘We’re looking for a very dangerous person, Mazza. Someone who might not even realise how much of a danger they are. All the other crew members are back in town. Why are you still here?’

He mumbled something under his breath.

I leaned forward, ignoring Winter’s bristling fury. ‘I didn’t catch that. Say it again.’

‘Amy.’

I squinted. ‘Pardon?’

‘Amy lost her necklace out here. I was looking for it.’

Winter was incredulous. ‘After the carnage that happened here, you thought you’d come back to look for some girl’s stupid necklace?’

I put my hand on his arm. ‘Did she ask you to come and do this?’

Mazza wouldn’t meet my eyes. ‘No.’

‘How did she lose it?’

He shrugged. He was growing redder and redder by the second. ‘Dunno.’

‘How did you get back here from Tomintoul?’

‘I never left. I didn’t get on the bus.’ For all his embarrassment and awkwardness, he was being remarkably recalcitrant.

Winter folded his arms across his chest. ‘You’re lying.’

‘Wh – what?’ Mazza stammered. ‘I’m not! Amy lost her necklace and I want to find it for her.’

‘He is sweet on her,’ I remarked.

The glow on Mazza’s cheeks intensified. ‘She’s a nice person!’ he said, as if daring me to argue with him.

‘Yes, she is. But you’re still lying about something, Mazza.’

He glared at me. ‘I’m not.’

I tapped my foot impatiently. There really wasn’t time for this. Whatever he was doing out here, there was next to no chance it had anything to do with zombies. Maybe he was just looking for Amy’s necklace in a bid to impress her. Stranger things had happened.

Brutus, sensing my irritation, jumped up and sauntered over. He circled round Mazza like a predator, sniffing as he went. Then he sat back on his haunches and washed his face. ‘Blood,’ he said.

Mazza screeched, ‘That cat just spoke!’

I ignored him and focused on Brutus. ‘Blood? You’re sure?’

Brutus continued to wash himself as if he’d already given us every possible answer we could want.

A dangerous smile lit Winter’s lips. ‘Where’s the blood from, Mazza?’ he asked silkily. He sounded far scarier now that his voice was low than he had when he’d been shouting.

‘I… I…’ Mazza’s eyes darted from side to side as if he were expecting someone to appear and rescue him. Just to be sure, I glanced around as well. The Ipsissimus had said we had at least a day before we could expect another zombie but that didn’t mean the impossible couldn’t still happen. When there wasn’t even the faintest rustle of leaves, I relaxed.

‘Spit it out, Mazza,’ I said tiredly, ‘or I’ll get Winter here to turn you into a toadstool.’

His eyes went even wider. ‘You can do that?’

‘Oh,’ Winter purred, ‘I can do that and more. I’m a highly trained Order witch, Mazza. There are no limits to my magic.’

At those words I opened my mouth but Winter nudged me in the ribs. Yeah, okay. This wasn’t the time to point out that the limits to his magic included finding out who was raising the dead or getting Mazza to tell the truth.

Mazza’s entire body seemed to droop. ‘It’s not what you think,’ he said.

It never was. ‘Go on.’

‘It’s not human blood.’

I glanced at Brutus. He didn’t twitch so I reckoned Mazza wasn’t lying on that part. I tilted up my chin and stared at him. ‘Sheep blood?’

Mazza shrunk even further into himself. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘I thought I’d washed it all off.’

He hadn’t been counting on Brutus. What most people don’t realise is that cats have a better sense of smell than bloodhounds. Yet again, our investigation seemed to involve white fluffy animals with less sense than lemmings. A deep unease filtered through me.

‘Where did the sheep come from? How did you kill it?’ The second question was particularly pertinent. If Mazza had used magic to rip life from the animal, that magic could have been used in turn to feed necromancy. As the Ipsissimus suggested, the truth of the matter lay in blood.

Mazza looked horrified. ‘It wasn’t my fault!’

I gazed at him in disgust while Winter inched forward, his eyes the colour of glacier ice. ‘Oh, I see,’ he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. ‘You accidentally killed it.’

‘No!’ he burst out. ‘I just found it! It was already dying. I didn’t do anything to it apart from…’ He halted abruptly.

‘Apart from what, Mazza? What did you do?’

He flapped his arms and began to babble. ‘Nothing! I didn’t mean to! I mean, I did mean to but only because he’s such a prick! No one would listen to me and I wanted to scare him off and make him stop, and when the herbs didn’t work I had to do something. I couldn’t just let him get away with that kind of thing!’

Winter shot me a glance and, interpreting the look, I nodded and put a hand on Mazza’s shoulder. He was visibly trembling. ‘Slow down,’ I told him. ‘And tell us from the start.’

He sucked in a ragged breath. ‘He wouldn’t leave her alone. He was using his position to get exactly what he wanted.’

There could only be one woman he was referring to. ‘You mean Amy.’

He nodded vigorously. ‘She told him no but he wouldn’t listen. I had to do something.’

‘Who are we talking about?’

He looked at me as if I were dense. ‘Trevor Bellows, of course. He goes after all the woman. Barry told me he was always the same but no one did anything about it because Belinda wanted to keep him around.’ He shrugged helplessly. ‘He’s been on Enchantment since the beginning. He’s got power and money and status and any time anything happened, it just got hushed up.’

My mouth was dry. ‘I need you to be explicit, Mazza. What was he doing? What did he do to Amy?’ She’d never given any indication that anything was wrong. But then, if she were scared of him she probably wouldn’t have. I cursed myself. She’d been my room-mate, even if only for a couple of nights. How could I not have noticed that something was up?

‘He wanted her to sleep with him. He said that if she didn’t he’d get her fired.’

I sensed Winter’s rage. His fists clenched and his body went rigid. I was right there with him but I had to stay in control. I had to find out what Mazza had done and if he was the person we were looking for.

‘So what did you do?’ I asked. I spoke softly because if I tried anything above a whisper I had the feeling it would sound like a strangled scream of fury.

‘I wanted to protect her. If I could stop him, I thought maybe I could find something that would keep her safe. This is my second series with Enchantment. Last time one of the contestants sprinkled some herbs around their beds to keep them safe at night. I thought I could do the same.’

I frowned. ‘I don’t remember that.’

‘Nothing happened. He sprinkled the herbs and then slept like a baby. It didn’t make the cut.’

I sighed. ‘So you thought it was an effective protection spell?’

‘Yes. I copied exactly what he did except in larger quantities.’

‘Let me guess,’ Winter said through gritted teeth. ‘Mandrake, cinquefoil and prickly ash bark.’

Mazza blinked. ‘How did you know?’

‘We found it all around the first set.’

‘Oh.’ Mazza deflated even further. ‘It didn’t work anyway.’

‘Funny that,’ Winter muttered.

‘I’m not a witch. I don’t have any magic at all.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘But I thought that if I did what he had done, then it might be okay.’ He threw Winter an accusing look. ‘At least I tried!’

I offered a soothing nod. ‘You did.’ I gave him a moment’s pause to gather himself together then my voice hardened. ‘But this still doesn’t explain the scent of blood.’

‘Bellows wouldn’t stop what he was doing. I had to take action. I thought if I could scare him I could make him stop. I was going to saw through his staff so that it snapped when he put his weight on it but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I didn’t have a clue what to do. Until I found the sheep.’

‘Where was it?’

Mazza obviously didn’t want to answer. He scuffed the ground with his toe and demurred. ‘It doesn’t really matter.’

I leaned forward until I was almost nose to nose with him. ‘We’ll decide what matters. Where did you find the sheep?’

‘By the cemetery,’ he mumbled. He pulled away from me.

I didn’t move. He could only mean the one at the bottom of Dead Man’s Hill. ‘Before or after Benjamin Alberts was killed?’

‘After,’ he whispered. ‘Armstrong wanted me to go and scout out the area. He wanted to do a challenge amongst the graves. You know, to make it spooky or something. He didn’t want anyone to know because he thought they might be annoyed that he was still thinking about using that place after what happened. I found the sheep there. I don’t know what had happened to it. It was lying on its side and there was a wound in its stomach. Maybe a wild animal had got to it. I was going to get a vet but my phone kept cutting out. Bad reception or something. I knew that by the time I got to town and found someone it would probably be too late. With all that blood all over the place I just…’ His voice dropped and he hung his head. ‘I collected as much of the blood as I could and then I hit the sheep over the head and put it out of its misery.’

I felt a bit ill – and it wasn’t just because I was still recovering from being hit by a zombie-targeted spell.

‘You used the blood to paint Bellows’ trailer.’

He nodded. ‘When he went to make-up, I snuck in through the back window. After what happened to Benjamin, I didn’t want anyone to think someone else had died so I put some sheep wool onto the fence so they’d know it wasn’t human blood. I was going to leave more wool inside but there wasn’t time. I was only going to draw the pentagram but I panicked when the door opened. I thought that Bellows had returned. When I looked at him, I knew I was staring at the face of pure evil. His eyes turned bright green, like some kind of crazed monster. He had horns growing out of his head.’

Mazza’s voice dropped to a horrified whisper. ‘Horns.’ He shook himself. ‘As soon as he saw me, he attacked. The blood went everywhere. I hit him over the head and ran. The next thing I knew, Marcus was coming out of the trailer and screaming.’ Mazza looked confused. ‘I don’t know where he came from or what happened to Bellows. He looked normal the next time I saw him.’ His eyes were wide. ‘But he’s the devil.’

Mazza obviously meant that last part literally. Okaaaay. Winter opened his mouth to ask another question but I already had everything I needed and I forestalled him. ‘You do realise what you did was wrong?’

Mazza looked away. ‘Yes,’ he mumbled unconvincingly.

‘Mazza, you killed a defenceless animal instead of getting help for it.’

‘It was dying anyway.’

‘Unless you’re a trained veterinarian, you don’t know that. You tried to use magical herbs, which could have had any number of dire consequences on any or all of the crew members. And that’s without even getting into what you did in Bellows’ trailer.’

‘He attacked me! He turned into a monster! Besides, it worked. He stopped going after Amy. He stopped harassing all the female crew members. I stopped him from doing all that because I scared him when no one else was going to do anything!’

Brutus let out what could only be described as a loud snort. I’d almost forgotten he was there. I raised an eyebrow in his direction and he pouted.

‘Was that you?’ I enquired. ‘Did you stop Trevor Bellows from harassing Amy?’

‘I am cat.’

I stared at him. Apparently that was all the answer I was going to get. I suppose Brutus felt he’d made his point.

‘What?’ Mazza shrieked. ‘The cat didn’t do a thing! I stopped Bellows. Alright, he tried it on again last night when he was out here before the vote. He grabbed Amy and that’s when she lost her necklace. But she said he let her go before he did anything. He was obviously scared what would happen if he continued. I made him feel like that. No one else.’ He thumped his chest. ‘Me.’

Brutus snorted again. He picked himself up and walked a few metres away, pawing at the ground. Then he dipped his head for a brief moment before looking up with a quiet purr – and a delicate gold necklace dangling from his mouth.

‘Good job, Bruty baby.’

‘It was me!’ Mazza said, continuing to protest. ‘I’m the hero! Not a bloody cat!’

Winter rolled his eyes. ‘Grow up.’

‘We need to find Trevor Bellows,’ I told him. ‘Everything seems to centre around him.’

Winter’s brow furrowed. ‘But…’

‘Let’s just see what he has to say.’

He nodded. ‘Fine.’ He walked over and hooked his arm through mine. ‘Let me help you. I’ve borrowed that bike again. We’ll be back in Tomintoul in no time.’

I smiled weakly. ‘Great.’

Brutus ran lightly over to us, springing up onto my shoulders and coiling his tail round my neck.

‘You could have told me what was going on,’ I scolded him.

‘Food.’

Yeah, yeah.

‘Hey!’ Mazza shouted. ‘What about me? I need a lift back to Tomintoul as well.’

Both Winter and I ignored him and carried on walking. I was pretty certain, however, that Brutus stuck out his tongue.