Page 35 of Witch You Weren't Here

‘Are you wearing comfortable shoes?’ Harry asked her, as they stared down the ticket line. ‘Fancy getting some fresh air and stretching your legs? It’d be nice to see a bit of Dusseldorf.’

‘How far is it?’ She wasn’t worried about her feet. Despite all the marketing material she’d been lumbered with, she’d had the forethought to pack her purple flowery Doc Martens, and had put them on today to travel in. She couldn’t help feeling a wave of sadness at the loss of her killer knee-high boots to the baggage claim system, though.

‘About five miles.’

‘That’s a touch over a stroll across the city, isn’t it?’

‘For someone with your leg muscles, I would’ve thought it was a breeze.’ He grinned and glanced down at her legs, possibly thinking about last night where she’d snapped the sofa bed in half, seemingly without the use of her magic.

His eyes lingered, moving up slowly, and Kay felt a betraying heat in her loins. At least she thought it was her loins.

He cleared his throat. ‘Pretty boots.’

‘Thanks.’ She looked away and made her voice breezy. ‘It might be nice to see something other than airports for a while, though. Do you think we’ll make it?’

‘If it gets tight, we can try to flag down a cab. I’m not sure I can face standing still for so long, if that makes sense? What if it takes longer waiting than to just get on with walking?’

She cocked her head, studying the queues again. Honestly, she doubted it. Everything was moving efficiently; it was just the sheer volume of people making the queues long. But she understood his desire to keep moving – at least to a certain point. Psychologically, it felt more productive. Perhaps he had that itch going in his chest too. Since she’d thrown her lot in with him, it made sense to pander to his whims just in case.

An issue that must crop up regularly if you were in a relationship with someone who had a seer designation. How would you know if they were genuinely convincing you to get Thai for the third date in a row because an accident was going to befall the Italian restaurant you wanted to go to, or just because they were leveraging their gift to get their own way? Trust, she supposed. Great big helpings of trust, that could backfire on you spectacularly.

Not dissimilar to the situation she was currently in, she reflected, as they made their way outside, and immediately realised this wasn’t going to be a relaxing stroll through a picturesque city. Why she had imagined there was going to be blue skies and sunshine, when they had walked off a plane buffeted by high winds, she didn’t know. Possibly her subconscious had been conjuring up rainbows too, as she and Harry walked hand in hand along cobbled streets.

You’re losing your grip on reality, Kay.

She glanced at the fake tattoo he’d drawn on her hand and wondered if he had infused it with some kind of charm, even though he’d promised not to. Something that made her biddable and more prone to agreeing with him. But she couldn’t feel anything emanating from it. Not that you could always tell. If it was mostly a push towards something people already wanted to feel, they might not even think to question it. Amplifying, subtly twisting, the things people genuinely felt was the easiest way to go undetected.

She flipped her collar up, buttoning it across her neck and burrowing her chin down into it – as though that would help her from being absolutely drenched by the time they reached the other train station.

‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ she asked, watching people barely able to stand up straight against the driving rain as they waited for taxis.

‘The weather is a tad more vigorous than I was expecting, admittedly.’ Harry put his duffel bag down by her feet. ‘Have you got an umbrella on you?’

Her eyebrows rose. ‘I really don’t think an umbrella would stand a chance against this wind.’

‘Humour me for a minute.’ He gave her his half-hitched smile, eyes warm with amusement, and she probably should have felt annoyance at the hint of smugness – or maybe even affection – in the expression.

‘I can’t, I don’t have one.’ She tucked the strap of her tote a little higher on her shoulder.

‘Right. I’ll be back in a sec.’ And then he disappeared inside the airport.

She sighed, dribbling his bag out of the entranceway as she quickly sent another update text to her mum and a silent plea to whatever deity might take mercy on her that she wouldn’t immediately receive a phone call about it.

When Harry returned five minutes later, he was brandishing a large golf umbrella. Kay rolled her eyes. He was still thinking this would work? ‘Harry – the wind must be forty miles an hour. Unless you’re planning on getting us there Mary Poppins style, I don’t think that’s going to help.’

‘That’s an idea, isn’t it.’ His eyes darted upwards, like he was picturing it happening in the sky. ‘I wonder if there is anyone out there who could—’

‘Not sure we’ve got time to find them even if there is,’ she interrupted, when a familiar expression passed over his face. This one was different to the tuned-out look of concentration he got when he was sketching. It was the glazed, staring-into-an-imaginary-distance one, when he was coming up with his ideas or picturing the world a different way.

How could she have come to know him so well, all those years ago – and yet not have known him at all? Did falling in love with someone make you develop a photographic memory of that person—

Hold on. No. She’d never been in love with him. Just infatuated.

He blinked and focused on her face again. ‘No. Of course not. Though it would be fun. We’ll have to go for something a little more elementary.’ And then he put the big umbrella up and stepped right up close to her. He shut his eyes for a moment, gripping the handle tight as the wind tried to carry it off, exactly as she predicted, and then his lips moved over a couple of phrases and Kay’s ears popped as a hush descended.

The force on the umbrella disappeared, as did the cold wind and the splashes of rain which had been driving underneath it to soak her coat and jeans. She watched as droplets rolled away in front of her face as though there was now a windscreen around them, the circumference of the big umbrella.

‘I’m not sure if it’ll last the whole walk but …’ he trailed off, looking at her face with a faint frown. ‘What?’

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