BREAKING SHADOWS (Shadows Book 1)

Chapter 11

I wondered what in today's world would force a witch into hiding. Covens were strong communities - were only able to exist due to their loyalty and fierce protection of one another. So what had driven Pendle Thorn away from his?

Fawn didn't know and I'd asked her three times. All she said was Pendle was an old family friend and had reached out to Laura Underhill some years ago for help. Not even the High Witch knew, which meant my grandmother couldn't find out about this morning's visit to him.

"Hopefully, this will be a quick visit and we can make it back to sixth form in time for our first session," said Fawn, as Arden and I followed her out of the cottage. I closed the door behind me until I heard a click.

"That's strange," mused Arden. "I was thinking the exact opposite."

Fawn tutted at him, which brought a content smile to my face despite what I felt inside. What happened with Will was still raw and I dreaded having to go to classes where I knew Molly Adams would be waiting with a smug grin on her face. Something didn't feel right, though. From the movies I'd seen and the books I'd read, I should have felt more. Devastated. Heartbroken. Inconsolable. Upset barely cut it. Sleep wasn't lost gathering the fragments of my shattered heart but convincing myself that wherever Rafe had gone, he was safe. Worry clawed at my chest, a dark void already starting to appear.

The three of us filed out into the garden, brooms in hand, ready for take off.

"Okay, confession time girls," Arden bowed his chin. "I hate flying, always have and I doubt it will change. Certainly not in the few seconds we have until we set off."

"Are you afraid of heights?" I asked.

"Heights are fine. It's plummeting from them and ending up as a pile of mangled bones and goo I have an issue with."

"We're not leaving you behind," said Fawn.

"Would you be okay flying with one of us or between us?"

"Heights, falling from," Arden moved his arm up and let it drop as if to represent his body tumbling out of the sky.

"Better hold on tight then."

We finally agreed it was best for Arden to fly with Fawn. She had more experience in the air and I wasn't too proud to admit she'd fallen off the least.

"So where are we heading?" I threw a leg over my broom, hovered my hand over the brush and started pumping magic into it. I waited for it, the hook into my magic that told me the broom and I were connected.

"South," Fawn pointed in the direction of Pagnall. My geographical knowledge wasn't good enough to know whether she was right or not. "Towards Derbyshire."

Cloaking ourselves in magic veils, we took to the skies, Fawn first with Arden looped around her waist, cheek pressed into her back and eyes squeezed shut.

I followed them wondering if today I would finally find a way to help Rafe. When I allowed myself to think Pendle may have the answer I sought, a knot tightened in my stomach. But nothing compared to the look I imagined on Rafe's face when I told him I had tracked down the Nature Witch.

The early morning consisted of a light blue sky full of sailing clouds and a low, hazy sun. I coasted alongside Fawn, the nose of her broom just edging mine. Arden's soft brown skin had taken on a green tint and I hoped he didn't throw up all over Fawn's back.

Far below us, rolling fields fled until they transformed into autumnal blooms of gold, orange and yellow, which in turn melted and reformed as towering concrete blocks where patches of green were few and far between.