Dark Spell Read Online Free Page A

“We’re all witches, and I keep telling you that witches are all on first name terms. And the teapot’s fine anyway.”
    With a tiny thud, the spout fell off again.

3. THE TUNNELS
    JUST ABOUT 2 LEAVE.
C U THIS AFTERNOON?

    Josh watched the envelope icon sail across the screen as he pressed
Send
. He was looking forward to seeing Callie again, of course, but to his surprise he was getting slightly nervous. What if they had nothing to say to each other face to face? Facebook wasn’t the same as spending actual time with someone.
    He looked at the pile of bags and boxes in the hall and took his headphones out.
    “You don’t mean
all
this, do you?” he shouted to his mother, Anna, who was filling yet another bag in the kitchen.
    “Yes. It’ll all fit in if we pack the boot carefully.”
    “I didn’t realise we were going for three months.” Josh poked around in a couple of the bags. Blankets. Why was she packing blankets? It was shaping up to be the warmest summer for years and she was taking
blankets
?
    “Are we still going to Pitmillie, or did you change the booking to Iceland and forget to tell me?”
    Anna emerged from the kitchen with a bag in one hand and a list in the other.
    “Ha ha. I’m not taking anything for granted after last year. I’ve never been so cold in bed in my life as I was then.”
    “But…”
    “Never mind
But
. Just shove it all in the boot. Carefully.”
    Sometimes there was no point arguing.
    ***
    “So when do I get to meet this boy?” demanded Julia as she shoved a load of washing into the machine. “You’re being very secretive about him.”
    Callie cringed at the tone of her mother’s voice.
    “I’m not being secretive. And don’t do the ‘boyfriend voice’. He’s a friend who’s a boy. Not a boyfriend. I’ll see him in the next day or two, but you and Dad will probably be at work.”
    “Hmmm. Well, if he’s here for two weeks you can surely invite him round at some point when your dad and I are here?”
    “Maybe.”
    “At least it’s someone your own age instead of you wasting your time with these mad old women.”
    Bet you wouldn’t call them that to their faces
, Callie thought.
    “You know you have to put all this nonsense out of your head, Callie. It’s unnatural, unhealthy. You’re
not
different from everybody else. If you’d just make a bit more of an effort to fit in you’d find it easier to make friends.”
    Callie gritted her teeth. They’d been having thisargument over and over since Rose had started teaching her how to use her powers, and she knew that nothing she said would make any difference.
    “I just want you to be happy,” Julia said.
    “I know.”
    Chutney Mary wound herself round Callie’s ankles in a show of solidarity. Sometimes Callie felt as though she had more in common with the cat than with her mother.
    ***
    Anna turned the car into the drive that led to East Neuk Cottages.
    “Have you arranged to see Callie yet?” she asked.
    “Yeah. I’m meeting her in the village this afternoon – if we manage to get the car unloaded in time.”
    “Don’t moan. You’ll be glad when you see all the food I brought. Remember trying to buy stuff at the village shop last year?”
    She stopped the car in front of their cottage and went off to get the keys. Josh lounged against the bonnet, gazing at the enormous expanse of blue sky, and the duller metallic blue of the sea beyond it. They were far enough from the road to have lost the traffic noise, and apart from the sound of a tractor engine somewhere in the distance, there was only hot, blue silence.
    It felt like the start of a proper holiday.
    ***
    Two hours later, Josh set off to walk into the village. On the way he passed The Old Smithy, where George and Rose, Callie’s grandparents, lived. Callie lived near the beach.
    Josh arrived in the square, where they’d arranged to meet, and sat on a bench to wait, watching the passers-by from behind his sunglasses. After five minutes he