Page 5 of Road To Runes

"Ha. Ha." I cleared my throat before continuing. "We have waited long enough for your response and it appears you don't care at all about the impact your actions have had on our quality of life and our standing in the community." She wasn't wrong there. "I expect an immediate response or you will force me to take greater action to resolve this matter."

Greater action? I snorted, balled the letter up and lobbed it into the bin.

Hecate placed two paws on my forearm and reached up to nuzzle my cheek with the top of her head.

"Didn't she say that last time?"she asked.

"And the time before that." The more she said it, the less seriously I took her. She barked louder and louder in the hope she would scare me into doing things her way. But I wasn't alone anymore and she had no power over me.

Hecate jumped off the bed and pottered over to her favourite mouse toy at the foot of my dresser. I rested my elbows on my knees to watch her play.

I had no intention of walking back into my old life to eat scraps and do their chores for them, only for my grandmother to lock me in my room when I was done. Nowtheyknew what it felt like to have their fates in the hands of someone who didn't give a damn about them.

When I first escaped with Asher and Hecate, I wondered if they would contact the magical police force, Nexus, to get their powers back. But as time went on, I realised they couldn't risk the authorities finding all the skeletons that had built up in their respective closets. The entire Bishop family, headed by my grandmother, Pearl, had specialised in anonymously supplying powerful curses and hexes to dangerous people.

Her small empire had depended on all three of her surviving children doing her bidding. Thornton and Timothy, my two uncles, had never married but that hadn’t stopped Timothy from having a son, Paul. All three of them worked as Pearl’s puppets, doing anything she asked. Even if that meant turning people into pigs and serving them up for dinner.

But perhaps of all the Bishops, the one I most loathed was Louisa, my cousin, and daughter of my aunt Lucille. She had a vindictive streak that she loved exercising, especially on me. She had made my life a shade more hellish every chance she got. It had given me no end of pleasure to take her power from her.

Louisa’s power to turn anything into gold automatically made her the family favourite. Once she had learned how to wield her power properly, the Bishops were never without money. I wondered how her ego was doing now she had no power to play with?

According to Pearl, my parents had died in a nasty altercation between them and such dangerous people not long after I was born. For whatever reason, the culprits had escaped my grandmother's reach. But Asher hadn't.

I snorted at the memory of her shrinking Asher down and stuffing him into a jar. If only I could get her to do the same thing now. He had crossed Pearl and her punishment for him would have likely been far harsher than a lifetime in a jar. He was lucky we had escaped.

Without Asher and Hecate, I would probably be scrubbing more of my uncle's boots or hand washing Louisa's expensive dresses, drowning in feelings of inadequacy.

Hecate stopped batting the mouse and primed herself to pounce as a folded piece of paper slid under the door. I narrowed my eyes as she picked it up in her mouth and pottered over with it. Who was sneaking notes this time of night?

I took it from Hecate and unfolded it.

Didn't want to tell you face to face. Asher's coming home for Laura's birthday. Don't kill me. Love, Priya.

Chapter 3

Icrumpled my note so tightly in my palm that the sharp crinkles dug into my skin.

Laura's birthday. I hadn't forgotten; her presents were all neatly wrapped under my bed, in an enchanted box to stop Hecate from getting to them. But Ihadforgotten that Asher would want to come home for his little sister's twenty-first.

"Great." I stood up and paced to dispel the adrenaline that had burst through my tired muscles. "I'm going to have to make myself scarce around here."

Maybe I could concentrate on work for a while. I had received three commissions in the last week from supernaturals requesting my specialty: grimoires protected by magic. I had spent the past few days tracking down the unsuspecting people I would need to steal powers from in order to complete the commissions. Now was a good time to collect.

"Fancy going out tomorrow night?" I asked Hecate, who had jumped back onto the bed and curled up. Apparently play time was over.

"Do I get to take home some souvenirs?"she asked.

"As always."

The wily grimalkin was so useful during our raids that I had no choice but to let her take what she wanted: other people's shiny possessions.

"Then we have a deal."Hecate yawned and stretched."Can I go back to sleep now?"

Nobody dared wake me up the next morning, probably because Priya had told them to give me space after her bombshell. That suited me just fine, given my late night. Hecate and I slept in until ten, when I finally rolled out of bed and grabbed Laura's jewellery to take back down to her.

Avoiding the kitchen, where I could hear bangs going on, I headed out the back door and into the garden where Laura's mini-forge stood at the very end. Asher had it constructed for her not long after she expressed her enthusiasm for the profession, and she had spent nearly every day in it since.

I tiptoed down the path, trying to avoid the dew soaking into my slippers, the telltale clanks of Laura hard at work filling the morning air.

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