Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 66

We're hiding out in the derelict west wing of Buckingham palace. Which, if I wasn't so shell shocked would be hilarious. But I'm tired and wired. The adrenaline crash makes me feel like a wraith. It's all too much like a living nightmare. I'm with Bess Kyteller and her entourage, and the other witches that managed to escape from the Sabbat.

And the siren queen is addressing me, surrounded by her entourage, she's stressed out, not used to this kind of action in the real world. I've never seen a witch queen in the real world before. She's older than I thought. But somehow still the glamour hangs on her every gesture, like she cannot stop investing everything with the energy of raw desire.

And she's been talking for so long, but I think I'm only just back in my own head for long enough to start to string together what she is saying to me.

And as my presence of mind returns, after the mad panic of the flight, the only thing I want is to get my mom back, get the twins, get dad, get the hell out of London. This is too much for me. I can't take on the full force of the witch hunt backed by the city of London.

I need to go home, back to Manhattan, mom can fix me, mom can solve whatever is wrong with this rhizome thing, maybe even she can get it out of me, switch it off. She invented it by all accounts. We must be able to exorcise her. It must be possible. I think I may even be muttering this stuff out loud.

And the Siren Queen says to me,

"People think of princesses first when they think of glamour, and they always have, although before there were royal families, there were priests, and the high priestess was probably the first symbol of beauty, or even the shaman, because they were the first people who were not so burdened with the business of living that they had the time and energy to cast the spell of glamour."

I give her a look of raw confusion, but she continues nonetheless.

"And in the Middle Ages, princesses were perhaps born ugly, and they were judged harshly for that but everyone else was literally covered in shit, so they still had glamour nonetheless."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm just talking Ursula, it helps when the whole city is falling apart, when my whole tribe is being hunted through the streets of London, and in no small part thanks to you."

And I feel ashamed again.

It comes back to me, the version of myself who stood up on a soapbox and whipped up a crowd of watches into a frenzy. Who the hell was she that had control of this body?

"I do not think that I am always myself lately." I confess.

"You bewitch half of my clan from under my feet and then transform yourself into a helpless rabbit whenever I catch up with you. Just like your bloody mother."

I don't care anymore if she lied to me, or used me or whatever, I just want to go home and I think she wants me to get out of the country too and she did just save my life.

"I want to leave London, get out of your world forever. Can you help me do that?"

"Oh Ursula, I thought you'd never ask."

Several of the others in the room shoot me enraged looks. People just hours before I enlisted in my war on the witch hunt just heard me bleating about running away in front of their Queen. I'm starting to understand why they hate me so much at the Secret School. But this is best for them, I turn everything I touch to dust. Better to get away from them.

"It's time to put all my cards on the table. Come and sit with me." Bess says.

I pull up an 18th century chair covered in tarpaulin and sit, knee to knee with the Queen of Desire.