page41 (1/2)

With that thought bouncing around htened up and abandoned my bid to search for a key to open Blackbeard’s den No, I didn’t kno this door worked but I did kno glass worked

I raised both hands ‘Winter?’ I said calmly

‘Yes?’

‘Duck’ I flicked out the rune and the glass instantly shattered into a million pieces I have to adh the sound was bloody loud So much for my smiley face Oh well I rarely did subtle – Blackbeard would definitely knoe’d been here now

Winter didn’t move a muscle ‘You just broke a mirror,’ he said

‘Yep’

‘A very large mirror’

‘Yep’

‘That’s seven years bad luck’

I glanced at hi to you’

‘I ht not have faith in superstitions, Ivy, but you do’ Winter’s blue eyes swept across the dae ‘And both the police and Arcane Branch won’t be happy about e’ve done to their crime scene’

‘Neither the police nor Arcane Branch have got as close to Blackbeard as we have’ I sniffed ‘They’ll just have to deal with it And I have faith in you That will have to be enough’ I pointed ‘Look There’s the secret door’ I stalked up and kicked it open I didn’t do that for effect –so much that I didn’t think I could turn the handle

‘We’ll catch him,’ Winter said ‘His days are already numbered’

I just nodded and walked into the claustrophobic darkness in front of us It was Winter’s spell that lit the small room To be honest, when I sahat Blackbeard had been concealing, I alht If the flat outside was pristine, this was its natural opposite After the bleakness of the other rooms, it almost hurt to look at it

Every inch of wall space was covered with so news articles, all of theic, witches or the Order in some way None of the headlines were positive Other parts of the walls were plastered with sticky notes of all shapes, sizes and colours Rando re rope’ and others which made no sense whatsoever such as ‘here 6731’

There were haphazard piles of books on the floor and several plastic bags that see In the furthest corner, there was a towering stack of ornate boxes and urns similar to the container in which we’d found Clare’s ashes Winter reached for one while I suppressed a shudder He flipped open the lid and breathed out before showing me that it was empty

‘There are still threecoven members,’ he said ‘Their remains have to be somewhere’

I flattened n of their spirits yet They ht not be here’

Winter started searching through the rest of the collection ‘Maybe there’s enough of Blackbeard’s null nature lingering here to hold the ghosts at bay Or h’ His eyes ainst him’

You could take the witch out of the Order but you couldn’t take the Order out of the witch He was still thinking like an Arcane Branch officer The truth was that we already knew Blackbeard was guilty and finding the rest of the coven’s reive their families some small comfort All the sas by the book; he really was as orderly as the Order itself I hoped he realised sooner rather than later that he belonged with theed with me

I stepped back to give hi over one of the book piles as I did so I was about to kick theht my eye I knelt down and examined it Well, that answered one question