Sparkle Witch: A Novella (The Lazy Girl's Guide To Magic Book 4)(9)
Winter held up his hands and took a step back. ‘You're a scary lady, Ivy Wilde.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Scary?’ I scoffed and scrunched up my nose. ‘You ain't seen nothing yet.’
Chapter Five
I was halfway to the train station when I realised that I’d been so diverted by Winter that I had forgotten to check the train timetable. There were some days when I really missed being a taxi driver.
Despite my pleas to the contrary, my driving licence had been revoked as a result of speeding. I tried to point out that speeding was out character and that I preferred to take things slowly; in fact, the only reason I’d been speeding at all was to stop a serial killer in his dastardly tracks. My words fell on deaf ears, however, and I was now forced to rely on public transport or the goodwill of others to get around. Normally it wasn't an issue; it was easy for me to prevail upon witches of various Levels to drive me to where I wanted to go. But this time I was going it alone. If this really was a plan to destabilise Winter, I didn't want any witnesses when I smooshed the perpetrator into the December-frosted pavements. And smoosh them I would.
Unfortunately, when I finally arrived at Oxford’s railway station the train I wanted was already pulling out of the station. Letting out a small shriek of alarm, I did the only thing that I could.
On the far side of the embankment, and just beyond the platform itself, stood several pretty trees. Given that this mission was a result of a Christmas tree having almost fallen on top of me, I didn't feel bad about sending out a surreptitious rune in the direction of the nearest oak and causing its trunk to snap so that the tree careened onto the train tracks with a heavy thud. There. Magic might not affect the technology of trains but that didn’t mean I didn’t have plenty of tricks up my sleeve to get them to do what I wanted.
A moment later the train came to a juddering halt and it dawned on me that it had been pulling into the station rather than leaving it. All I’d succeeded in doing was delaying its departure. Oops.
There were several gasps of horror from the hovering commuters and two station guards rushed over and gazed in dismay at the blocked railway line. I coughed awkwardly and sidled up.
‘I don’t understand,’ the older one was saying. ‘There’s not been a breath of wind all day.’
I winced.
‘Those trees were planted by the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel!’ the other guard said. ‘They’re part of our heritage! They’ve stood there for close to two hundred years. I can’t believe one has fallen down.’
To be fair, there were still two left. All the same, I felt distinctly crappy. I cleared my throat. ‘Uh, I can help.’
They both turned to me and I noted a flicker of recognition in the older guard’s eyes. ‘You’re that witch,’ he said. ‘The one shagging the new Hippopotamus.’
‘Ipsissimus,’ I said helpfully.
He frowned slightly. ‘That’s not a word. The leader of the witches is the Hippopotamus.’
I opened my mouth to argue then decided the effort simply wasn’t worth it. If he thought he was the magical witchsplaining expert in this conversation then that was up to him. ‘Whatever. Look, I can help you with this.’
Both guards brightened. ‘You can?’
‘Sure,’ I said easily, inwardly cursing at landing myself in this situation. I glanced over at the fallen tree and sucked in a breath before performing a quick double-runed spell. There was a vast creak and the tree uprighted itself.
I focused carefully, using magic not only to return it to its original position but also to transplant back its living cells. There was no guarantee it would work; returning what was essentially dead back to a state of being alive was impossible with fauna and almost impossible with flora. But with the correct concentration and effort, I could just about knit the broken tree back together. Only time would tell if I’d succeeded but, given this was my fault, I had to try even if the spell left me feeling weak and gasping for air.
‘That was amazing,’ whispered the older guard, his eyes wide.
His companion stared at me. ‘Are you okay? You’re looking rather green.’
I clutched his arm for support. ‘I’m fine,’ I wheezed. ‘I’ll do anything for the environment. And for the railways. It’s for the good of us all.’ It took just about everything I had not to keel over. I raised my other hand and pointed at the train. ‘I’m supposed to be on that.’
‘We’ll arrange a first-class seat for you straight away!’ he exclaimed.
‘A cup of tea would be great too,’ I murmured.
‘No problem.’
‘And some chocolate biscuits. They help with the, uh, recovery.’
He gave me a benevolent twinkle. ‘You can have whatever you like. You’ve really saved our bacon by sorting out that tree. It would be chaos otherwise and you’ve no idea how cross people get when there are delays. It’s our lucky day that you were here.’
Lucky indeed. I looked up to see a disapproving male ghost wearing what looked like a nineteenth-century suit. Hopefully it wasn’t old Isambard himself. Hastily muttering that I needed to sit down, I avoided his gaze and made my way onto the train.
***
The tea and biscuits helped. By the time I arrived at Banbury half an hour later, I’d managed to stuff several small packets into my pockets and was feeling more like myself.