The witchs sacrifice, p.1
The Witch's Sacrifice, page 1
Contents
Also by K.C. Adams
Title page
Copyright
1 - Edie
2 - Niamh
3 - Edie
4 - Niamh
5 - Niamh
6 - Edie
7 - Niamh
8 - Edie
9 - Niamh
10 - Edie
11 - Niamh
12 - Niamh
13 - Edie
14 - Niamh
15 - Edie
16 - Niamh
17 - Edie
18 - Niamh
19 - Niamh
20 - Niamh
21 - Edie
22 - Niamh
23 - Edie
24 - Niamh
25 - Edie
26 - Edie
27 - Niamh
28 - Edie
29 - Niamh
30 - Edie
31 - Niamh
The Ghost Hunter's Haunting
The Mean Girl's Murder
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by K.C. Adams
Also by K.C. Adams
Afterlife Calls
The Mother’s Lesson
The Ghost’s Call
The Mummy’s Curse
The Necromancer’s Secret
The Mean Girl’s Murder
Writing as Kristina Adams
What Happens in…
The Real World (free prequel about Liam)
What Happens in New York
What Happens in London
Return to New York
What Happens in Texas (free blog series about Astin)
What Happens in Barcelona
What Happens in Paphos
Spotlight (What Happens in… spin-off about Cameron and Luke)
Behind the Spotlight (runs alongside What Happens in London and Return to New York)
Hollywood Gossip (What Happens in… prequel spin-off about Tate and Jack)
Hollywood Gossip
Hollywood Parents
Hollywood Drama
Hollywood Destiny
Hollywood Heartbreak
Hollywood Romance
Hollywood Nightmare
Nonfiction for Writers
Writing Myths
Productivity for Writers
How to Write Believable Characters
The Witch’s Sacrifice
Afterlife Calls
K.C. Adams
Copyright © 2022 K.C. Adams
ISBN: 1230005517862
All rights reserved.
This book or any part of it must not be reproduced or used in anyway without written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations used in a book review.
First published in 2022.
Cover design by 100 Covers.
1
Edie
What had I done? Had I done the right thing?
Either way, it was too late to go back.
I cried into Dave’s cinnamon-coloured fur. He was curled up in my arms, but he didn’t seem to care that I was upset. He didn’t try to console me like Tilly would’ve.
Was I really ready to leave Tilly? What would she think? She was a dog! She wouldn’t understand.
Then again, I wasn’t sure I did.
Had I overreacted? Was I finally turning into my mother and being a drama queen for no reason?
No. It wasn’t for no reason. She’d lied to me about one of the most important things in my life. It was one thing to not know I was more powerful than her. But to lie about how Dad had died? Why would she do that? And why had Dad never said anything?
Dominic put a mug of tea on a pop-up table in front of me. I’d ran to his after leaving home. I’d had nowhere else to go. I didn’t have anyone else for moral support. I’d lost Mum and Josh, the only two people I’d ever really trusted.
And now I was a sobbing, puffy eyed mess on Dominic’s threadbare sofa, cradling his apathetic border terrier like he was a teddy bear.
‘Thanks,’ I said, picking up the tea and hugging it to me. Dave didn’t move from my lap even as I reached over to get it. He was a weird dog.
Dominic sat beside me, his own cup of tea in hand. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘How do I look?’
He yawned, then sipped his tea. ‘That’s not what matters. Your family lied to you. You did the right thing.’ He rubbed his neck, focusing on a particular spot for a moment, massaging it, then lowering his hand. Where his hand had been was a faint purple bruise. That was some sensitive skin he had right there. I really didn’t know him at all, did I?
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ I said. ‘I just don’t get why. Why tell me Dad died in a car accident when he was killed by a poltergeist?’
Dominic shrugged. ‘Do we ever really understand another person’s motivations?’
‘I used to think so. Now I’m not so sure.’ I took a few more gulps of tea. ‘Thanks for letting me crash, by the way.’
He smiled. ‘Of course. You can stay as long as you need to.’
‘Thanks.’
I didn’t know where Dominic and I stood, but at least he was honest with me. He’d told me the truth about my dad’s death. And he was the first necromancer I’d met that I wasn’t related to. Dad hadn’t even known he was a necromancer when he was alive, which meant he wasn’t much help, even though he wanted to be.
Gran, meanwhile, seemed to like playing games. Which meant that she answered questions in riddles, then got annoyed when we summoned her back to fill in the gaps.
I didn’t have any of that with Dominic. He was upfront with me. The only person who ever really had been.
Sure, he hadn’t told me he was a necromancer right away, but who would? It’s not exactly the kind of thing that rolls off the tongue, is it?
‘Do you want to go get some of your stuff in the morning? When your mum has gone to work?’
‘Yeah, that would be good.’
*
Dominic’s old sofa was lumpy. But that wasn’t why I didn’t sleep that night. I tossed and turned, unable to shake my mum’s face from my mind.
At first, I pictured her after our last conversation, when I’d stormed out. Then, I started to consider how things would go if she was there when Dominic and I moved my stuff out. All the different ways she’d try to stop me. My imagination even went so over the top that it pictured her using magic to stop me. Which was ridiculous, because she wasn’t that powerful. And she was even less powerful lately, since her magic had been playing up. We still didn’t know why. She’d been too busy trying to help other people to look into it. Maybe there was some hope for her after all.
What was I saying?
She’d lied to me. She’d lied to me for ten years. That wasn’t normal. Or healthy. Or setting an example. Or any of those things parents are supposed to be or do.
Dominic emerged from his bedroom, his dark hair mussed up and bags under his eyes. Was it morning already? ‘Sleep well?’ he asked me as he walked past to go into the kitchen. Dave followed him, his tail wagging.
‘Not really,’ I said. ‘You?’
‘Can’t complain,’ he said, wiping at his forehead with the back of his hand. There was a slight sheen to his face, as if he’d just done an intense workout or woken up from a really gross, sweaty sleep. His house was freezing, though, and he didn’t seem to exercise much. Maybe he’d just had a weird dream or something. ‘Tea?’
‘Please.’
Waking up as Dominic’s house guest felt oddly natural. Was this what my future looked like? Living with Dominic and Dave, instead of Mum and Tilly?
‘What time does your mum leave for work?’ he asked as he prepared Dave’s breakfast. It was a bowl of kibble, which seemed odd to me given the raw food I was so used to Tilly eating.
‘She doesn’t. The foreman banned her from the building site because of her rib injury,’ I said. She kept insisting she was fine, but the purple and blue bruises all over her ribs, and the way she struggled to walk, said otherwise.
Dominic folded his arms and paused. ‘Why don’t we drive past in a bit, see if her car’s there?’
‘Yeah. That works.’
I was meant to go to college, but I wasn’t in the mood to be around people, let alone risk running into Josh and his new girlfriend, Tessa. Just thinking about it made me want to vomit. I’d spent most of my life hoping Josh would see me romantically, then a demon had messed it up less than a month after he’d finally given me a chance.
Now, he couldn’t even look at me. And when he did, it was like he didn’t even know me anymore. All because demons had made themselves look like me to torture him. For which he blamed me, even though it wasn’t my fault. How could it be? I’d done nothing but try to save him!
That didn’t matter to him, though. He’d gone from dating me to dating Tessa, the most popular person at college, as his rebound. She was fully embracing it – and him – too. She’d hated me ever since I’d started at the beginning of the year, both because I didn’t fit into her cookie-cutter expectations of people and because Josh preferred me over her.
Or at least, he had.
I was pretty sure even he didn’t know where his head was at anymore.
I had some Corn Flakes – which sounds boring but I was grateful Dominic had them in, as they were my favourite – then Dominic and I drove to Mum’s. There was no car on the drive, which meant she’d gone somewhere, just not to the building site. Had she found another client? Or gone grocery shopping? Whatever. It
It was weird, going back to the house. It had only been just over twelve hours since I’d last been there, but it already felt alien to me.
Moony, the gnome/gargoyle I’d named, was still there, his broken foot pointing towards the road. Mum and Ben weren’t sure if he’d still work with a piece of him missing, but Mum clearly thought he was worth leaving out just in case.
Tilly jumped up at me as I walked through the front door, her tail wagging and her tongue licking me as she told me off for daring to leave. I picked up the ball of white fluff as I walked upstairs into my room. It was just how I’d left it. A part of me had expected Mum to trash it in her anger or something.
‘All right, Tilly. Stop it!’ I said, although I was still laughing, which seemed to encourage her. I put her on my bed. My old bed. It wasn’t mine anymore.
Tilly watched as I took my suitcase out from the bottom of the wardrobe. She danced around the bed.
Dominic stood in the doorway, studying my room. It looked so childish in comparison to his sparse flat. My walls were covered with posters, and a few days before I’d left I’d put up some fairy lights around my headboard to try to cheer me up. There was way more stuff in my room than in the whole of Dominic’s flat. Or at least, it looked like it. Embarrassment washed over me. I hadn’t realised just how lucky I was.
It wasn’t just that, though. He was only the second boy to ever set foot in my bedroom. And he was so different to Josh. Josh’s room had been similar to mine, with posters and junk all over the place. Dominic’s had had stuff all over the place just because he couldn’t afford any storage to put things in. I’d never realised how lucky I was.
That didn’t change the fact that I was leaving.
‘Want any help?’ Dominic offered.
‘Could you get that bag from the top of my wardrobe, please?’
‘Sure.’ Dominic gave Tilly a head rub, then pulled my tartan weekend bag down. I half-expected a plume of dust to fill the air, but Mum must’ve cleaned it recently because there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight.
I took my bag from him and chucked it on the bed. Tilly sat behind it, then looked up at me with her big, brown eyes.
Spectre floated in to see what was happening, settling beside Tilly. I stroked his grey fur. He preferred his own company, but I think he liked living in a house where the occupants could actually see him. He seemed to enjoy the odd bit of fuss, anyway.
‘You have a ghost cat?’ said Dominic.
‘We do,’ I said. ‘This is Spectre. Spectre, this is Dominic.’
Dominic reached out to fuss Spectre, but his hand went through him. Dominic sighed.
‘I thought necromancers could touch ghosts?’ I said.
‘My necromancy powers don’t work, remember?’ He rolled his eyes, then reached to open a drawer beside my bed.
‘Wait!’ I said, reaching out and grabbing his hand. ‘I’ll sort that one.’ There was no way I was having him go through my underwear collection. It was definitely too early into whatever was going on between us for him to see my knickers. Especially as some had Hello Kitty on them.
Dominic shifted, moving his hand away from the drawer. But as he moved, he inched closer to me. So close I could smell how different he was to Josh. How much more grown up he was.
I blinked, looking away. No doubt my cheeks were crimson.
I cleared my throat. ‘You can, er, you can sort my college stuff. It’s all on my desk. Just throw it into the rucksack in the chair.’
Dominic smiled, a glint in his eye. ‘Will do.’
After he went over to my desk, I took a moment to compose myself. Why was he scrambling my brain? Why was I even thinking about anything happening between him and me? It was never going to happen. It shouldn’t. If things got messed up with him, I’d have nowhere to stay. It wasn’t an option.
Calm down, hormones. Some things are more important.
*
The whole time we were packing, Tilly didn’t settle, as if she knew something was happening and she wouldn’t like what it was. She kept trying to get my attention by nudging my hand or barking at me.
Even Spectre was restless. Instead of lying and watching things happen, like he usually did, he kept circling the room, as if he was waiting for something. If he was, nothing happened.
After about an hour of packing, I’d filled my suitcase, a weekend bag, and a rucksack with things. As I picked up the suitcase, Tilly jumped off the bed and tried to chase me down the stairs. It wasn’t easy carrying something that heavy with a dog chasing me.
‘Tilly! Stop it!’ I said. She didn’t, because of course she wanted her own way. And that way was attention from me.
Somehow, I made it down the stairs. That didn’t stop Tilly from jumping up at me in the small hallway. It was way too cramped for me, Tilly, Dominic, and all my bags. Especially when Tilly seemed to have turned into a kangaroo and wouldn’t stop jumping up. I picked her up and hugged her, saying one last goodbye into her fur. ‘You be a good girl, yeah?’
Tilly licked my nose. Was she trying to break me? It was working.
Spectre watched on from the top of the stairs, a curious expression in his golden eyes.
‘Ready to go?’ said Dominic.
I blinked back tears as I lowered Tilly on to the bottom step. I didn’t want to leave her. She hadn’t done anything. But I couldn’t stay around Mum. Not after everything she’d done. I needed to unpack everything and figure out who I really was. I couldn’t do that with her hovering over me.
‘Let’s go,’ I said, before I lost my nerve. I gave Tilly one last kiss, locked the door behind me, then posted my key through the letterbox.
2
Niamh
I sat outside the lawyers’ office, twiddling my thumbs. Deep reds, wood panelling, leather chairs. It was straight out of the 1980s, although most of the decoration didn’t look that old.
My stomach cramped. I sucked in my breath, curling my hands into fists. The cramps had been happening a lot lately. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. And I wasn’t already sore enough from my stupid rib injury.
Stupid periods. If they got any heavier I was going to buy shares in a maxi pad company.
The guy sitting beside me was so enthralled by the home improvement magazine he was flicking through that he didn’t seem to notice my discomfort.
Oh, to have the luxury of money to improve our house. I’d done it on a budget when we’d moved in, but what I really wanted was a new bathroom. Using a bathroom that had once belonged to someone else always made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t afford to replace it. We’d moved in just under a year ago, but so much had happened in that time.
My powers were wonky. I could see ghosts, but I couldn’t sense them. Which felt completely unnatural for someone who’d been able to see and sense them her whole life.
And my daughter wasn’t just more powerful than I was, she was a necromancer. She could use her magic to control ghosts. And even to kill people.
It scared me, knowing what she was capable of. And how little she really knew about her powers and the consequences of them.
What was more terrifying was that I hadn’t seen her since last night. I’d tried ringing her, but she’d rejected every call. I texted her, but she ignored my messages. I only knew she’d seen them because of the read receipts. At least I knew she was alive. But it wasn’t reassuring for our relationship.
‘Ms Porter?’
I looked up. A woman with her hair tied into a tight bun and wearing wire-rimmed glasses had come down the stairs. I followed her upstairs and through the labyrinthine corridors and to her office. She closed the door behind me, then gestured to a chair in front of her desk. I sat in it, while she sat in the one opposite.
The old desk chair hugged me as I sat in it. The 1980s wood panelling continued in here, so I picked a knot in the wood to study.
‘I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but that feels wrong given the circumstances,’ she said.
I nodded. My friend was dead. Because Edie had used her powers to kill her. What kind of monster had she turned into?
