Witch - By Fiona Horne Page 0,44

into this psychically, but we couldn’t get through.’

‘Yes, there is definitely some kind of block around him that makes it hard to determine his origins or what exactly his issue is with you, Vania. Though there is an issue.’ She flipped over another card and it was Death. I gasped.

‘My dear, don’t worry, it’s not literal – the Death card most often means a rebirth or transition of a situation into new circumstances.’

Brenda briskly piled all the cards back together again.

‘Is that all?’ Dean said.

‘For now, yes,’ said Brenda. ‘I never force the cards to divulge information before it’s time. The future is created by the steps we take today, and the cards are merely a guide as to what is up ahead, not instructions on where to go.’

‘But what do I do about him?’ I wailed. ‘I can’t bear any more of his poor treatment! It’s so unfair! And now he’s taking it out on everyone else, too!’

‘Hush,’ said Brenda soothingly. ‘Now is not a time to focus on how weak you are, but how strong you are.’

She stopped and looked at each of us for a moment. ‘I mean, look at you all! You are successfully working magic. You are learning from mistakes and moving forward and evolving together. Don’t let this silly man’s attitude intimidate you. Remember: together you are stronger than the sum of your parts, and you can take the high road and ignore his behaviour,’ she said adamantly. ‘Which brings me to this.’ She grabbed my left wrist and placed my arm on the table, palm up. My star arrow showed clearly, dark and purple. I had totally forgotten about it.

‘This is a sacred symbol of empowerment,’ Brenda said. ‘I recognise it as a Spiritualist symbol.’

‘My great-grandmother shared it with us,’ said Bryce.

Brenda nodded approvingly. ‘It means that the greatest light is that which shines from within. When you mark yourself with this symbol, you declare that you unconditionally embrace your own individuality. You are elevated beyond cool. You are you. And that is enough.’

‘So we had it in us all along,’ Dean said quietly.

‘Yes,’ Brenda said. ‘In fact, what makes you cool on the inside will keep you cool long after school is over.’

‘Do we have to undo the spell?’ I asked Brenda hesitantly, remembering how intense the last spell reversal had been for me.

‘I don’t think we need to,’ said Bryce, ‘because it didn’t create something untrue – it just made us aware of something we were blind to. I think that’s why my great-grandmother revealed the symbol to us, so that we could always look to it and remember.’

We all looked at the symbol we shared on our wrists.

‘I want to get it tattooed on for real,’ I said.

‘Wait until you’re eighteen,’ Brenda said. ‘You gotta be practical as well as magical, you know. Your parents will kill you if you get a tattoo now, and no spell could change that fact!’

I gave a wry shrug of my shoulders. That was undoubtably true.

‘Let’s have something to eat and ground this energy,’ Brenda said. ‘And then you need to think about focusing on solving the mystery of the woman of Queen’s Cross. I feel intuitively there’s something about her death that will help enlighten you all about magic. Nothing is by pure chance in life. You were drawn to her, for a reason.’

Eleven

Dust caused my nose to clog and my eyes to itch as I turned over the pages of an ancient newspaper. Behind me the twins were coughing and sniffling, too, as they juggled newspapers and a list that Mrs Pilkington had given them noting all the archived copies of the Summerland Star that were supposed to be contained in this room.

It was a mess. But after all our recent magical adventures we were now fully focused on the mystery of the woman of Queen’s Cross.

For about the thousandth time I wished the newspapers had been scanned and stored digitally. It wasn’t like the technology to do it didn’t exist.

‘Summerland is a small town,’ Alyssa said, reading my thoughts.

‘Well, I guess that has its advantages, too,’ I said. My voice was nasal because my nose was so blocked. I almost sounded American! ‘I doubt we’d be allowed to go through all this stuff if this were a big city newspaper like the Los Angeles Times.’

I looked around again at the piles of boxes and crates filled with old papers.

‘We’d better solve this mystery and ace the assignment to make this worth