Skinned (17 page)

But just as the thought entered Callum's head, he heard voices – they were very faint, some distance away, but they were definitely there. He reached out and held up his hand for Melissa to wait. They both held their breath and listened hard. Callum couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but he could tell that none of the voices was Jacob's. His mouth went dry as he finally made out one phrase.

‘. . . Born Dead . . .' Then a few more muffled words and subdued laughter.

‘Do you think it's the coven?' Melissa whispered, but Callum held his finger up to his mouth to quiet her. He nodded silently and Melissa's eyes widened, then her brow furrowed determinedly. She gestured that they should keep going.

Callum nodded once more and took a deep breath. Holding the phone above their heads, he began to edge forward through the tunnel again, with Melissa
following close behind. They moved so slowly it seemed they'd barely gone a few steps before Callum stopped suddenly when the tunnel went dark. He felt Melissa bump into his back, and she took in a sharp, frightened breath.

‘Sorry,' he murmured, pressing again at the buttons of the phone and holding it up. As the screen lit up once more, Callum recoiled in horror, holding out his arm to stop Melissa.

The passage ahead was littered with bones.

There was no doubt that the debris was human – more than likely the grisly remains of Black Annis' recent kills, Callum thought. All around them, he now noticed scatterings of child-sized ribs and limbs. Two small skulls lay side by side on the floor ahead.

Melissa's hands flew up to her mouth.

Callum swallowed hard, and his fingers suddenly went ice cold.

He froze as he was hit by a flashing vision of himself, one foot ensnared in the cage-like bones of a dead child's ribs in the passage ahead of them.

The bones were a trap.

Callum's foot hovered precariously in the air, but before he could stop her, Melissa kept moving, pushing into him.

‘Come on, Callum,' she insisted. ‘It's disgusting, but we can't stop now, we have to find Jacob and Doom, and –'

‘Melissa!' Callum yelled, forgetting to be quiet. ‘Don't!'

But it was too late. His echoing voice reverberated around them and, one second later, his foot landed in the middle of one of the rib cages.

It snapped shut around his ankle.

Melissa gave Callum a desperate look. Without thinking, she stepped towards him, and Callum's heart sank as a trap snapped shut around her ankle too. He found he couldn't move a muscle; the bones were somehow keeping them both frozen to the spot. Try as he might, Callum couldn't pull himself free of the supernatural trap. He could see that his friend was beginning to mutter something intently under her breath.

‘Melissa? What are you doing?' he hissed.

The bones around her foot began to twitch and Callum's eyes widened hopefully. She seemed to be
trying to counter the magic that was holding them. But Melissa was cut short as they saw a light in the tunnel ahead of them begin to grow brighter.

Someone was coming.

Footsteps grew louder, and a pair of shadows began to loom around a bend in the tunnel. Callum's heart quickened. Finally he saw two women approaching them. He struggled to free himself, but it was hopeless. Soon the two women were in front of them.

‘Who are you?' one of them asked. She was tall and willowy and, in the flickering light of the flaming torch she was carrying, Callum could tell that she had long red hair. He remained stonily silent, but the woman had now turned to Melissa and was eyeing her closely.

‘A magic user – I sense it. Foolish girl, to think you could undo this spell.' The woman turned back to Callum and held her hand in front of him, as though trying to detect something.

‘Hmm,' she muttered. ‘But in you, young man, I do not sense the same sort of power. What brings you
here, if you –' She broke off suddenly and raised her eyebrows in realisation. ‘Goodness me, who would have thought?'

She turned to her elder female companion and laughed, the mockingly melodic sound of it bouncing off the walls of the tunnel.

‘Maeve, I think what we have here is the last of the
chime children
!'

She made a sweeping gesture with her hands. Callum and Melissa's arms were suddenly pinned to their sides. Callum struggled desperately to try and manifest the power that was building furiously in his hands, but it was no use. His hands remained flat against his legs. A moment later, the traps around their feet fell open, and Callum felt himself being dragged off the ground and up into the air.

‘No – stop!' he said through gritted teeth, but the woman just smiled slowly.

Moving his eyes to the side as much as he could, Callum saw the same thing happening to Melissa. She let out a cry and he could see her trying to blink back tears of frustration. They were being pulled through
the air by the women's magic, through the tunnel towards the lair.

In the pale light, Callum could tell that many of the bones scattered down the length of the tunnel were still fresh, with scraps of flesh still attached and teeth marks evident. It was grotesque and sickening, but Callum forced himself to keep his eyes open. He had to be aware of what was happening, wait for any chance to break free.

The passage now opened abruptly into a cave. At last they had reached Black Annis' lair.

Callum surveyed the scene in horror.

A pair of pale glowing orbs slowly became visible in the murkiness of the cavern. They were Black Annis' eyes, the sickly luminescent green of decay. Strewn around her feet were the partially eaten corpses of half a dozen children, surrounded by a large, elaborate pentagram drawn on the dusty floor in what Callum was almost certain was blood. Two men stood on either side of it, holding their arms slightly away from their bodies with their eyes closed. It looked as though they were somehow keeping the prison intact.

As Callum's eyes searched further, he was shocked to see a small group of children standing in one corner of the cave. They were still alive, but their eyes were glazed and their bodies stiff. They gazed unseeing into the darkness, obviously under some kind of spell too. Callum suddenly remembered his earlier vision of a kid wandering to the front door like a zombie. He cursed silently.

And then, finally, Callum's eyes came to rest on those of Jacob. He swallowed hard as he saw the Born Dead and Doom caged in separate iron prisons. Jacob's black eyes were narrowed with a hard, pained stare, and Doom began to emit a relentless, otherworldly whine.

Callum finally felt his feet touch the ground, though he and Melissa remained frozen by the women's invisible magic.

‘Oh, poor little ghosts – they don't seem to like iron very much,' the red-headed woman cooed. Callum's mind darted back to a conversation he'd once had with Jacob, in which the Born Dead had mentioned that iron could be used as a ward against Netherworld
beings. He clenched his jaw and spoke.

‘What the hell are you doing?' Callum snarled.

‘Don't you worry yourself with the details, chime child,' the red-headed woman retorted. ‘Suffice it to say that your feeble attempts to thwart our plan have proved futile. What did you expect – that you, one little chime child, and your pathetic band of friends would be able to stop us?'

‘Aradia,' the older woman said, interrupting. ‘We don't have much time before Varick returns. We should get rid of them.'

Callum's heart quickened as the woman called Aradia stepped towards him. Her face threateningly close to his own, she answered the older coven member.

‘And just
what
, my dear Maeve, do you propose we do with them?'

The white-haired woman paused, and then her face twisted into a callous grin.

‘We should feed them to the hag.'

‘NO!' Melissa's shout was so loud and determined that for a moment, even the entranced children seemed to stir, before their staring eyes glazed over once more.

‘Shhh,' Aradia hissed, mockingly. ‘Don't worry, sweetheart. There's no need to get yourself all worked up now, is there?' She turned to Maeve with a frown.

‘And
you
– don't be so hasty. They could be useful; they have some power, they could be turned. Either way, soon we will begin, and their efforts to stop us will be less than nothing.'

Callum could hear Melissa sigh with tentative relief, though he was still unable to turn his body to look at
her and give her any sign of encouragement. He could feel rage and frustration boiling inside him.

‘Besides,' Aradia continued, moving back over to Melissa, ‘perhaps you, my girl, might want to follow in my footsteps? You would be far better served using your magic to side with those who will soon wield all the power –'

‘Never in a million
years
,' Melissa spat, regaining her voice, but Aradia merely emitted her tinkling laugh once more.

‘You may well have your wish when we sacrifice this crone and the crossing point is made wide enough for the Demon Lord to enter the mortal world. Then our rule shall last a million years and more. Those who do not surrender to us will be doomed. Think carefully. You could thrive under my guidance.'

‘She might need guidance, but definitely not from
you
,' Callum said through gritted teeth.

‘Chime child,' Aradia scoffed. ‘Pathetic does not begin to describe your attempt to stop what's about to happen. You should be ashamed of yourself – you're an insult to your kind. I think keeping you alive for
the Demon Lord to deal with will be a nice opener. Brace yourself – you'll have a front-row seat to a future blacker than you can ever imagine.'

‘Enough!' came a shout from behind them.

Aradia whirled around angrily, but Maeve held her ground.

‘
Enough
, Aradia. We must prepare. We do not have time to waste.'

Frowning, the younger woman turned away from Callum and Melissa.

‘Fine,' she snarled. ‘Let's get on with it.'

All four of the magic users gathered beside the pentagram now, their heads dipped, talking quickly in low voices. Callum felt anger and desperation welling up inside him. He squeezed his eyes shut and put all his will into trying to break free of Aradia's spell, but it was no use. He could hardly move.

But as he opened his eyes, he saw someone else struggling to free themselves – and it wasn't Melissa. To his amazement, Black Annis seemed to be moving her clawed fingers and muttering to herself. Was she trying to use her own magic against the coven's? Her
fingers worked back and forth, unnoticed by her captors, her claws rustling the nightmarish skirts of dried skin around her legs.

Suddenly, Callum had a thought.

Summoning all his strength, he desperately tried to move, grunting with the effort. With the coven's attentions elsewhere for a moment, it seemed the spell binding him was becoming fractionally weaker and, sweating hard, Callum finally managed to raise his hands just enough for his palms to face down towards the ground. He focused all the energy that had been boiling over inside him and, with a final growl, he forced it downwards through his hands. The energy rippled along the floor of the cave towards the pentagram that enclosed Black Annis – and just as Callum had hoped, its force was enough to disrupt its form. The movement seemed to have taken the coven by surprise – and, for all her skill, Aradia's binding magic seemed to be disrupted by Callum's energy bolt.

It was all he needed.

Callum grabbed Melissa's arm and pulled her to one side, out of the coven's line of sight.

‘Callum, how did you –?' Melissa began, but she was silenced as she realised what Callum had already seen, what he'd already hoped for . . .

Black Annis was loose.

Furious, Aradia screamed a spell and flung her hands out towards the hag. To Callum's amazement, she had conjured a ball of crackling energy like sparks of lightning, and she flung it out at the crone. But Callum could see that their feedings had already taken effect; Black Annis was now strong.
Very
strong.

Black Annis dodged, her stringy hair flying out behind her as Aradia bowled another ball of lightning at the hag, fast and furious. This one caught Annis' arm and set the rags of her dress blazing. She spat blue-black saliva on the fire to put it out and deflected the next of Aradia's attacks with a flick of her talons. She sent the sparking missile straight back, but Aradia managed to move out of the way just in time. Instead, it caught Nolan by surprise, smashing into him and igniting his clothes instantly.

He cried out in pain as Aradia rallied, and the two older coven members fell in alongside her. They
chanted in a loud, unfamiliar language that seemed to create a whirlwind around the cave. The cone of spinning air whipped towards Black Annis, but she bared her black teeth in a cackle.

Her talons already glowed red-hot where Aradia's balls of lightning had touched them. Now the light in her long nails grew more intense. Black Annis held out her hands toward the whirlwind, her fingers spread wide, and slashed at the air, breaking the spell effortlessly. Without pausing, she launched herself towards the three magicians, still clawing. Her talons caught the torso of Maeve, digging furiously into her shoulder and back as she turned to try and escape the onslaught.

With a cry of pain, the white-haired woman fled towards the tunnel that led above ground, and Callum could see that the two other coven men were following close behind her.

Aradia, on the other hand, was standing her ground. With a furious cry, she launched another attack at Black Annis, sending a huge, crackling ball of energy towards the demon.

Callum thought it might have been too much for Annis, but with her new strength, she was once again too fast. Black Annis raised both of her taloned hands and deflected the blast – but this time it flew straight towards where Callum and Melissa were crouched . . .