disappear for good. At this point, their mother, Raine, had decided to take matters in hand.
‘I am taking matters in hand,’ she’d said, her mouth forming a grim line as Camille set a feather duster on Willow. It hadn’t done much aside from making her sneeze … but this had caused Camille to disappear again for a moment, and their mother had decided that the safest course of action was to separate them for a while.
‘For the time being, I think you can sleep in the spare bed in the attic, Willow. We will get to the bottom of this. You had a cold, and I think that’s the most likely culprit – look what happened when you sneezed, and you were coughing at the bunfire …’ Then Raine had narrowed her green eyes and said reproachfully, ‘Though you should not have used your magic if you were feeling unwell. You know this. The number-one rule for any witch who’s feeling unwell is what?’
Willow had opened her mouth to protest that she didn’t feel unwell, but changed her mind when her mother crossed her arms expectantly. Willow had sighed and recited in dull tones, ‘Not to use her magic.’
‘Correct.’
As far as witches went, this was a rather good rule, as being under the weather could cause a lot of magical misfires. Willow’s cousin, Petulant Moss, who had a talent for rather nasty hexes, had ignored it to her peril when she got a bad case of stutter pox. She had accidentally turned herself into a pig, instead of hexing her neighbour – to his delight. It was rumoured that she was still living up north somewhere with rather fluffy, spotted ears …
‘So, no magic, Willow. Understood? Not until we get you better,’ Raine had said.
Willow had agreed, and had moved into the attic that morning. She’d lasted half a day.
It wasn’t technically her fault that she’d broken her promise so quickly … As far as she was concerned, the letter from Nolin Sometimes and her fears for him had surpassed her concerns about her magic. In the stakes of wonky magic versus missing friend, missing friend had won out. Or it should have if her dodgy magic hadn’t made the attic – and her sister – disappear in the process …
Luckily, they both reappeared a few moments later. The lecture, however, went on for considerably longer.
Willow now sat at the kitchen table while her mother paced up and down, shaking her head and muttering things like, ‘I just don’t know what’s to be done with you. I sent your father word that he should come home so that we can all deal with this together as a family. What if your sister had gone missing permanently? You don’t know how to control this – and, despite the risks to all of us, you’re still using your magic …’
‘But Mum,’ Willow interrupted, feeling a pang of guilt that her mother had asked her father to leave work early to ‘deal’ with her, ‘I had to use my magic! I’ve got to find Nolin Sometimes.’ She tried once again to explain. ‘He’s my friend, and he needs me. He sent me a letter—’
‘Which has conveniently vanished,’ said her mother. She made a ‘pfft’ noise, eyes narrowed.
This was true unfortunately. A few things from the attic hadn’t reappeared, like Granny Flossy’s old purple hat, several tonics that her mother had been forcing her to drink, and the leaf-letter, so no one would believe a word Willow said.
Her mother shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. ‘I’d like to believe you, Willow, truly … but trees do not move or speak! I don’t know what on Great Starfell made you think they could. Besides that – which is worrying enough – I’m not sure where you got this idea that you’ve met a forgotten teller …’
‘Mum, I have!’ she protested.
‘No, you haven’t, Willow! It’s not something one does. Oubliers are extremely rare, and most end up … well, dead because of their abilities, which land them in trouble.’
Willow blinked. ‘I KNOW that! That’s why he needs me – it’s urgent!’
Willow’s mother shook her head, her eyes wide with concern. ‘Oh, Willow, I think you’re really quite ill. It might be a fever or something that’s been causing all this trouble with your magic – and now these delusions …’
But Willow wasn’t ill. She felt fine. She’d had all kinds of colds before and it had never caused her magic