Cadenbury Town Does Halloween (Cadenbury Town #7)

Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

I give a happy groan as I bite into my perfect burger.

“These burgers are amazing,” Sly says, as he munches on his second one.

I swallow my bite before answering. “They really are. Before I had one of these Stone burgers, I wasn’t really a fan of them. I hear the others filled you in on everything earlier.”

Sly nods. “Yeah, we picked up a lot looking at the website you guys created, but hearing all the stories was eye-opening. I couldn’t figure out why my father kept emailing me to come to a family meeting. I’ve not spoken to him for over five years. That’s the reason we came to town. We heard rumblings of Cadenbury and Little Welling, but we chose to come here first and see what we could discover.”

“Little Welling is a place we hope we never have to go back to. Hopefully, it’s now deserted. The ley lines there are dark,” I tell him.

“Really?” Sly perks up at that.

I look at him. “You want to go and play with the ley lines, don’t you?”

Sly shrugs. “Just because they’re dark doesn’t mean they are evil. It’s always good to know where dark ley lines are.”

“It’s a good job I like you, otherwise I’d be scared by you saying that,” I point out.

Sly laughs. “Sometimes to deal with dark magic you need dark magic.”

“Yeah, like that dream. I wonder if that was why the dark witches did that?”

“Because you don’t have any dark witches, they are all now grey. Mind you saying that, I was surprised how dark Justice’s magic could go and not turn black.”

“Yeah, he can go almost black dark grey, we found that out when his biologicals kidnapped Alfred.”

“He said. I’m glad he made a life away from his family. He looks truly happy,” Sly says looking over at him.

I turn to look as well. Justice is laughing at Ben as the Jenga blocks fall down.

“He really is. He was a bit of a grump to be honest, but Alfred brings out the best in him.”

“You all helped as well, Pops,” Alfred says, walking over and joining us.

“You know calling me Ernest works just as well, right?” I ask.

“Where’s the fun in that? You did claim me as your stepson, and there are no takebacks.”

Sly and I burst out laughing. “Fine.”

“So, the true witches didn’t scare you off with all their dark witch encounters?” Alfred asks.

Sly laughs. “No indeed. Different planes, magical birdcage, the witchfinder general, burning at the stake, flying toxic killer puppies. Seriously, no running away for me.”

“Molly told me the boys’ father abused them with magic. Do we need to keep an eye out for him?” Alfred asks.

“Really?” I ask. I knew they had a fear of light magic users, but now I know why. “He better not come here or he’ll have to deal with me and probably the other true witches as well,” I say, adamantly. How dare a father abuse his children.

Sly touches my arm. “He was dealt with. We’ll have no problems with him coming here.”

Alfred grins at him. “What did you do? I know I don’t know you that well, but I can’t see you not doing something to him.”

“I covered him in boils, made his hair fall out, cursed him so that everything he touched broke and stripped him of his magic. I gave the magic to Ebby before you ask, as it was from his line.”

“Nice, Temp and Nix are gonna love you. Nix hexed someone with boils once and Temp threatened to cover Kean in boils as well,” Alfred tells him.

“Looks like I really do fit in here,” Sly says with a laugh.

We finish the BBQ and clean up before heading off to the fair. None of us are expecting anything to happen because of redoing the wards, but this is dark magic we’re dealing with so anything is possible.

Adhan and I volunteer to walk around the fair. I really don’t fancy going inside an attraction tonight, because of the dark magic and that dream.

We all say ‘hi’ to Elliot and go off in different directions.

Adhan and I are slowly walking around, stopping to watch people play or try some of the games. Adhan makes me laugh when he wins me a massive rainbow teddy bear in a hoop game. It’s awesome and I totally love it. The stall holder offers to keep it safe for us until we leave.

“Thanks for the bear,” I say smiling at him as we walk away.

“Anything to make you smile sweetheart. Your Pa told me how you deal with nightmares,” he says, taking my hand.

I sigh. “I figured he would because he’s a tattle tale.”

“Only because he loves you and is worried.”

“I know. I was going to tell you later anyway. Stupid dream.”

As we’re talking and walking, I feel a shudder go through me. I stop, forcing Adhan to stop as well.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in concern.

“Hold on,” I say, sending my magic out to find out what that was. I groan when my magic tells me.

“What?”

“We’re a bunch of idiots, that’s what,” I say just as Elliot, Temp and Ben join us.

“Why?” Ben asks.

I look at Temp and he groans as well. “The biggest bunch of idiots.”

“Would one of you please tell us why,” Adhan practically demands.

“Because the town protection stops just there,” I say pointing behind us.

“Why wouldn’t it protect the whole town?” Elliot asks.

Now it’s Adhan’s turn to groan. “Because this farm crosses two towns. Even though one part of it is in Cadenbury, the rest of it isn’t.”

“We never gave a thought to boundary lines,” Ben says. “You’re right, we’re all idiots.”

I drop Adhan’s hand and look at Elliot and Temp. “Let’s extend the protection, shall we?”

I hold my hands out to Temp and Elliot when I see Kean, Titus, Sly and Ebby rushing over.

“Boundary lines,” Kean calls out.

“Yep, we just figured it out,” Temp replies.

“Witchlings gather round and we’ll extend the wards. Sly, you can either join us, or add yours separately.” I say.

“I’ll do mine separately,” he replies, taking a step back.

Titus and Ebby step closer and we all hold hands.

“On the count of three,” Titus says. “One, two, three.”

And with that we push our magic out, extending the protection around the whole site.

I see Sly’s magic adding to ours, finally, the whole of the haunted farm is protected.

“We’ll not make that mistake again,” I say, dropping Temp and Ebby’s hands.

“I didn’t even give boundaries a thought,” Elliot said, “as the address for the farm was in Cadenbury.”

“The house is literally on the border. If you draw a boundary line it goes right through the house,” Adhan says. “But as Ernest says, we’ll not make that mistake again.”

“That would be why only certain rooms came alive,” Temp says.

Adhan nods. “Yep, that’s why. I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

I turn to look at Sly, who looks to be concentrating, his eyes closed. Ebby notices and steps closer.

“Sly?” he asks gently, touching his husband’s arm.

Sly holds his hand up in a ‘wait’ gesture.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees his dark magic going off somewhere. A moment later he smiles and nods. “Sorted,” he says, opening his eyes.

“What did you do, love?” Ebby asks.

“Connected to the dark magic, stripped it back, found the end user and threw their magic back at them.”

“You did all that in a few moments?” Temp asks, looking shocked. “It would have taken us ages to do that, and then I don’t think any of us would think of turning their magic on them.”

“Yeah, it’s one of my superpowers stripping magic and finding the end user. I don’t know the name of the person who was sending it though. That’s why it was easy enough for me to destroy the dark magic in the walk and house.” He looks at Elliot. “All dark magic surrounding your fair is now gone. Nothing should be able to get through to this event now.”

“Thanks, Sly,” Elliot said.

“Yes, thank you. Now hopefully the only strange incidents will be made by the witchlings,” Adhan says.

“Totally,” Temp says happily.