The Apprentice's Apprentice

Part 39

A hand clamping down onto her mouth woke Cora up. Her eyes snapped open but all she could see were dark shapes against the greater darkness of her room as she fought against the person leaning over her. "Shhhh.... Chérie, it's only me."

The soft voice took her a moment to identify. When she did, Cora stopped frantically kicking and writhing on her bed. She went still for a second before she pulled the hand away from her mouth. "Philippe? What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night! Wait, how did you get in?" she hissed.

"Magic. Now we must move quickly. It won't take them long to find us and there'll be a lot more trouble for us if they do. Even more trouble than we're in now."

Cora shook her head. "What? I don't understand. Who's going to find us? What's going on?"

With the little bit of light from the streetlamp outside her window, Cora could see Philippe begin to pace in front of her bed as her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. "I knew this day would come eventually, of course, but I'd thought we would have more time before. I thought we might even be able to escape it entirely if we were lucky enough. But things are already moving and we need to move with them or we'll both suffer the consequences. You must pack light. Take only what you absolutely need. We can always replace things later."

"I don't get what you're talking about and I'm not going anywhere until you explain what's happening! And if you don't explain soon, I'll go wake up my parents and they'll kick you out." The whole situation aside, the weird, frantic tone of Philippe's voice was freaking her out. There was something in it that just didn't sound right. It didn't help that all that was going through her head were all the weird things Warren and Zoe had pointed out to her about him.

He knelt beside her bed and reach out so that his hands cupped her face. "I'm so sorry, ma chérie, but it's Warren who's the problem. He's trying to separate us."

"Separate us?" Cora couldn't figure out what he meant other than the obvious, that Warren would prefer it if Philippe moved somewhere else.

"Yes. I think it's partially jealously, but he and his master will gather like-minded people soon enough. We must escape while we still can."

All Cora could do was stare into the black shadow that was Philippe's face. She still didn't understand what he was trying to say, but she was beginning to think she wouldn't. That she still retained too much sanity to.

On her bedside table her phone buzzed. She turned away from Philippe, pulling herself out of his hands, and leaned over to grab her phone and see what the bright blue screen said. She read the series of texts from Warren that had started at ten that night. "Philippe's nuts! Selena talked to him and he lost it." Was the first one. "We're at his house to try and calm him down." Was the second, only a half hour ago. "He's gone and it looks like he's not coming back. DON"T TALK TO HIM! We're coming to guard your place." Read the last one, the one that had just come in.

Cora turned slowly to look at the dark figure that was Philippe. She opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out, he grabbed her wrist and hauled her to her feet. She dropped her phone and it fell harmlessly onto her bed as she stumbled forward. He caught her. A moment later there was a rush of wind and Cora could feel the familiar tingle of magic around them.

She shoved herself away from Philippe. When she stepped back from him, she found herself standing on grass rather than the carpet of her room. She jerked her head this way and that. There across from her were the distant orange balls of streetlamps, while to her right was the shadowy shape of a slide. Looming over her was a huge oak, its spreading branches partially obscuring the star and cloud filled sky. Cora choked. She had no idea where she was and no one knew she was there. No one except Philippe...