Chapter 2

L ynx walked through the village of Midnight and looked around. Growing up, he'd been desperate to get out as soon as he could. He wanted to experience the world, not closet himself away. But since his brother Wolf, who lived here, had got married and had a daughter, Lynx had spent more and more time back here and now he lived in Midnight permanently. He adored his niece Blaze and loved spending time with her. He realised he'd reached a stage in his life where he wanted to be close to his family, not run from them.

He knocked on Wolf's door and his sister-in-law, Star, answered with Blaze on her hip and a smile on her face.

‘You're back, we weren't expecting you here so soon.'

‘Hey Star.'

He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. Blaze was already reaching out towards him and Star handed her to him. Blaze had a big smile on her face as she grabbed hold of Lynx's curly hair, babbling away to him as if having a proper conversation.

‘I missed you too,' Lynx said, giving his niece a hug.

He followed Star down to the kitchen and sat down with Blaze in his lap as Star added some chopped apple to the cake mix she was making. Blaze reached out for a spoon on the other side of the table and it floated across the table to her outstretched hand before she started banging it on the wooden surface.

‘She's getting so much better at controlling her magic, isn't she,' Lynx said, grabbing a spoon himself and joining in with her music-making. Blaze giggled loudly.

‘She really is. She can't tell us what she wants yet but if there's something she wants on the table or somewhere in her sight, she can certainly help herself using her magic. I have to watch her like a hawk because everything goes in her mouth, whether it's food or not.'

‘Children's magic is erratic, things just happen around them with very little control. The fact that she can summon this spoon with so much accuracy is pretty impressive.'

‘Wolf said the same. And she made it snow the other day.'

‘Did she?'

‘Yes, while she was in the bath. One minute she's playing with her rubber toys, the next it starts snowing from a little cloud that appeared above the bath. I know my magic can be a bit unpredictable at times, but I know it wasn't me.'

‘Your magic is fine, you've learned to control it very quickly. Even the most experienced witches make mistakes sometimes.'

‘Thankfully my magical mishaps are very few and far between these days.'

It had been eighteen months since Star had arrived in Midnight with no idea she had any magical abilities or about the world of magic and witchcraft. It had caused quite the stir in a village full of witches, but she had adapted very quickly.

Viktor the cat jumped up on the table and Blaze reached out to stroke him. Viktor wasn't remotely affectionate, he was sarcastic, grumpy and demanding. So Lynx was surprised when Viktor allowed Blaze to stroke his head, just once before he casually moved away.

‘Did you bring me a present back from London?' Viktor said, avoiding Blaze's grabby hands.

Knowing that Viktor would never let him forget it if he hadn't, Lynx rooted around in his bag and pulled out a packet of shortbread biscuits.

‘Biscuits?' Viktor looked at the pack disdainfully.

‘They're from Harrods,' Lynx said.

‘Very well.' Viktor flicked out his claws and sliced open the box as if using a knife. He stuck his face inside the hole and started munching away at the biscuits inside, the noise of his eating punctuated with the odd appreciative grunt.

‘I got you and Wolf some chocolate-covered strawberries.' Lynx slid the box across the table to Star. ‘I'll leave it up to you whether you want to share them with Blaze.'

Star laughed and quickly put them in a cupboard before Blaze set her eyes on them.

Lynx fished a small cuddly lion from his bag and gave it to Blaze before his niece noticed the chocolates.

Wolf walked into the room. ‘Hey, wasn't expecting to see you today.'

Wolf kissed Star on the cheek and Blaze on the top of her head.

Lynx offered his own cheek up for a kiss but Wolf rolled his eyes.

Lynx laughed. ‘Oh, I hear congratulations are in order.'

They both stared at him in confusion. ‘For what?' Wolf said.

‘You're expecting again.'

They stared at him blankly. ‘Expecting what?' Star said.

‘A baby.'

Star's mouth fell open in surprise.

Viktor whipped his head out of the packet of biscuits. ‘Another baby?' he said, in horror.

‘News to me,' Wolf said.

‘And me.' Star stroked her flat belly gently, staring at it as if it would give her the answers.

Lynx wondered if Iris had got it wrong, but she had been so confident and accurate about everything else.

‘Who told you that? Was it Zofia?' Wolf asked.

‘No, it doesn't matter. I was clearly mistaken.'

‘I think it does matter if someone gave you a premonition about us.'

‘They were clearly wrong, I wouldn't worry.'

Viktor went back to eating the biscuits.

‘I'm a little worried,' Star gave a nervous laugh. ‘Two baby witches under the age of two. That's a lot to handle.'

Wolf took her in his arms. ‘And if it's true, we'll face it together.'

She smiled and nodded.

Wolf let her go and turned back to Lynx. ‘Sounds like you met someone interesting,'

‘Iris McKenzie, she's a witch.'

‘And she gave you that premonition about our baby?'

‘Yes, she knew my name, yours, and glimpses of my future.'

‘Like Zofia does?'

‘Yes, kind of.'

‘I guess we'll have to find out if what she saw is right,' Star said.

Wolf nodded. ‘So, premonitions aside, did your trip go smoothly?'

Lynx frowned as he thought about how to answer his brother's question. ‘I wouldn't say smoothly.'

‘Did you get the locket?'

‘Yes.' It still didn't sit well with him how the locket had come into his possession.

‘Then what's the problem?'

‘Iris McKenzie is a metamorph.'

Wolf sat down. ‘You're kidding?'

‘No, I saw it with my own eyes.'

‘What's a metamorph?' Star asked.

‘For want of a better word, a shapeshifter,' Wolf said.

‘Like a werewolf?'

Wolf shook his head. ‘Werewolves change physically, they grow fur, claws sprout from their fingernails, their bones break to encompass their new size and shape. Metamorphs change magically. I don't fully understand the magic behind it. I've never seen one before.'

‘Me neither,' Lynx said. ‘Metamorphs are incredibly rare. In fact they've become more of a myth than a reality. There were stories about them hundreds of years ago but they're not something we see nowadays.'

‘What did she change into?' Star said, her cake completely forgotten.

‘She was a young blonde woman when I first met her, then she changed into an older dark-haired woman and then a six-foot bald man.'

‘How did she change?' Wolf asked.

‘It's hard to explain, she just kind of melted into a completely different shape. And her clothes changed too. Not even just the colour of them – she was wearing a blue dress and then she changed into a black jacket and white shirt, and when she became a man she was wearing the security guard's uniform.'

‘Maybe some kind of illusion,' Wolf said.

‘Maybe. Her aura wasn't like anything I've ever seen before either.'

‘Aren't everyone's auras completely different?' Star asked.

‘All auras are different but essentially they are all a glow of light. Her aura shimmered as if it was made of water. It sort of rippled around her.'

‘That's odd,' Wolf said.

‘I know, she was… mesmerising.'

Wolf and Star exchanged glances, Star's face lighting up in delight. ‘I've never heard you use that word about a woman before.'

‘I don't mean I was attracted to her,' he said, knowing that was a lie. ‘I don't even know what she really looks like so it's not a physical attraction. There was just something so captivating about her. As soon as I saw her I was entranced by her aura. I couldn't take my eyes off her.'

‘Yeah, that doesn't sound like you were attracted to her at all,' Wolf said.

Lynx sighed. His brother was probably right.

‘How does she fit in with the locket?' Wolf asked.

Blaze lifted her favourite toy owl from the far side of the room. It floated into her hands and she babbled excitedly.

Lynx explained how he had found Iris because of her aura, and how she had stolen the locket by raising a mist from the floor. He then told them about the man with the gun. He paused when he got to the part about the kiss, he really didn't want to tell them that but it was sort of key to how he pickpocketed the locket from her. So he briefly mentioned it too, eliciting another smirk of delight from Star.

Wolf thankfully bypassed that part.

‘And the man definitely said, "I knew she'd try to take the locket back"?'

‘Yes.'

‘So it seems Iris had the locket before he stole it from her.'

‘Looking back, yes, I think so. She said she didn't want the locket for its price tag. She also said the locket doesn't have any power, it was just a wedding gift, but I could feel the energy coming from it.'

Wolf shook his head. ‘We knew the locket existed but no one knew where it was until we heard it was in this collection in London. I presumed the seller had found it in some lost archives in some remote museum in Scotland, I never realised it had been owned by someone.'

‘What's so special about this locket?' Star asked.

‘It's been talked about in stories handed down over hundreds of years,' Wolf said. ‘And of course these stories have been embellished and exaggerated and in many cases completely made up, but many of them involve using it to control the oceans and rivers. I'm not sure how true that part is but there were too many stories for the locket not to exist at all.'

‘There are many stories about dragons and unicorns too, which to the best of my knowledge don't exist either, but one story fuels another,' Star said.

‘That's true, but there have been many accounts of people seeing it too, and they all describe it the same way. It could of course be a cheap imitation but the fact that Lynx can feel its magical energy suggests this could be it.'

‘What will you do with it now you have it, if it is the locket?' Star asked.

‘The original plan was to lock it away in the vault below the village. If the stories are true we don't want it to fall into the wrong hands. However, if Lynx's girlfriend has a legitimate claim, it will be returned to her,' Wolf said.

Lynx frowned. ‘She's not my girlfriend. But I said the same. I told her to come here and I would listen to how she's connected to the locket and make a decision from there.'

Wolf nodded. ‘We can chat with her together.'

‘I'm also concerned that she might have got herself caught up in something dangerous. If this man stole the locket from her and now knows how valuable it is, I worry how far he will go to get it back.'

‘We can protect her,' Wolf said. ‘There is a house here in the village that's free. Mrs Baxter decided to move up to York to be closer to her children and grandchildren. I was going to sort out advertising it today. I can hold off until Iris comes back for the locket.'

‘No, do it now. My bet is she'll be looking this place up so she can get the locket back and then she'll see the vacancy.'

‘She can stay as long as she needs to,' Wolf said. ‘As long as she's a witch.'

Lynx frowned in confusion. ‘She's a witch.'

‘Are you sure?'

‘Where are you going with this?'

‘It's just that in the stories surrounding the locket, a lot of them involve kelpies.'

Lynx felt his eyes widen. ‘I hadn't realised that.'

‘Kelpies?' Star said. ‘Aren't they some kind of malevolent and cruel water spirit or fairy? They take the form of horses and if people try to ride or touch them, the kelpies drag them back to the river, drown them and eat them.'

‘That's right. They're shapeshifting water fairies, they live near the edges of the rivers and lochs. And yes, there are lots of stories about kelpies that involve eating children, or disguising themselves as beautiful men or women to attract the hikers that walk nearby. In fact, none of the stories I've heard about kelpies are good,' Wolf said.

‘But that's myths and legends surely? They don't actually exist?' Star said.

Wolf nodded. ‘They do, or did. Witches have had lots of dealings with kelpies over the years. They're quite insular, they like to be left alone, which is probably where the horror stories come from – to discourage mundanes and witches from coming near them. But most of our meetings have been fairly normal. They're notoriously grumpy but no witches have ever been dragged to their watery deaths after meeting a kelpie. No mundanes have either, as far as I can tell. The stories are a nice cover.'

‘I met some kelpies once,' Viktor said, cleaning his face of biscuit crumbs.

‘In this life?' Lynx asked. Viktor had lived hundreds of lives and he remembered every single one of them.

‘Oh no, several lives ago. I think it was in the Victorian times. I was a young man, travelling around Scotland, and I saw them sitting by the lake. One of them threatened to eat me. I showed them my magic and they laughed and invited me to join them for dinner. It was a good night, they had the most amazing mead. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out I wasn't going to be the main course. I feel like they've been misunderstood over the years.'

‘But they aren't around any more?' Star asked.

‘There weren't many of them,' Wolf said. ‘They lived in small groups and were quite spread out. I think they just slowly died out. As far as I know, there haven't been any dealings with kelpies for the last hundred years. I've not heard of their existence at all in my lifetime.'

‘But you think Lynx's girlfriend is one?' Star asked, with wide eyes.

‘I don't know but the shapeshifting ability is an interesting one, as is her watery aura and her ability to raise a mist similar to the kind you might find over the lochs.'

‘Dear Gods,' Lynx muttered. ‘I guess we'll see when she comes here.'

‘Will you be able to tell?' Star asked.

‘As you know, we ask for a drop of blood from anyone that applies to live in the village, to make sure all residents are witches and no mundanes slip through the cracks. We should be able to tell from Iris's blood if she's a kelpie.'

Lynx rubbed his hand across his face and shook his head. What had he got himself involved with?