Chapter Four

The Sparrow and the Worm

“Sienna!” Liam cried out, jumping up to give me a hug. Warmth and anxiety swirled within me as I lifted him up and gave him a spin. I cringed away a little as his horns poked into my face, and the anxiety within me rose just that little bit more. He hugged me a little more, and I remembered why it was all worth it. I’ll do anything to keep you safe. I’m sorry I didn’t do more before to protect you. The words played on the tip of my tongue, but the words refused to form. Instead, I ruffled his blue hair.

“How’s the outside world, still crazy?” Liam asked, flopping back down onto his mattress. I rummaged through my backpack and pulled out a bottle of strawberry milk, and a stack of his favourite comics.

“Still crazy. I had a client request a potion to give him the sensation of feeling like a tree. Wanted it to give him that final push into becoming a vegetarian like his girlfriend. He was willing to pay a hundred dollars for it, so I didn’t have any complaints,” I chuckled, sitting next to him. Liam smiled a little, taking a big sip of his strawberry milk. He hasn’t changed his favourite drink since he was ten.

“You remember that old man by Pip’s Fish and Chip place?” I asked with a nudge. Liam giggled and nodded.

“He looked ancient but ran faster than a track star. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man run that fast all for a bottle of strawberry milk. Actually I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone run for strawberry milk. But it was admirable, I think.”

I remembered that summer afternoon with a mix of fondness and and pain. I was just fifteen, but mum had been getting worse and worse. It’d seem like every time I stepped outside my room she’d question where I was going, who I was talking to and if I’d completed each and every task she’d laid out for me that very morning. It seemed the school holidays had just given her more of an excuse to harass me. After a particularly nasty fight with her that morning, she’d been in an epically foul mood. She’d stalked about the apartment like a silhouette rippling with quiet rage as she passed up and down the halls. It all came to a head when she screamed at Liam for dropping a bowl of cereal on the kitchen floor. I screamed right back at her and swept my brother away to Pip’s. For the rest of the summer, the local fish and chip shop became our little sanctuary. When mum got into her moods, we’d escape to little shore front shop and sit beneath the degrading yellowed umbrella sharing a bundle of chips. Liam slumped against my shoulder, a sudden wave of tiredness appearing to wash over him. His hands began to shake a little, so he out his gifts down.

“We’ll be able to go back there soon. Once I get enough money to scrounge the ingredients together for the Jackal Witch, she’ll be able to formulate a cure for you. You’ll be back to your old self and…you can come live with me if you want?” I offered, giving him a light kiss on the head. At that, Liam brightened.

“I’d love that, Sienna. I -I would really love that.” He said, a soft note of hope in his words.

“Soon.” I gave him another hug, refusing to let him see the sorrow and guilt in my eyes.

“Soon.”

~

Central station hummed and thrummed with its usual busy crowd, but I was always able to tune it out with a hot, fresh made latte in hand. Suits and artists walk by me as I milled about, looking to the trains as they came and went. I hadn’t been out of Sydney much, even with the means to do so. As a kid and a teen, mum had always been quick to remind me that our life and purpose lay within Sydney. The Council controlled all witch activity and kept keen eyes on every breed of witch to every bonded Familiar with their Red Sparrows sniffing around every corner. Our life and our destiny were forged into the water and stone alike. Worry prickled at my belly as the clocks ticked on, and I began to wonder how well I could really trust someone else from my own world. Witches, despite our collective nature tended to be more independent. But they obeyed the council, their ancient rules and ways all to keep their lives and tiny cluster societies safe from both humans and interruptions from the council.

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Keeping Liam hidden away in Aika’s attic was the biggest disruption I could think of. It was hard to really conceive a Familiar that could accept my crime.

I took another sip of my latte and checked the clock again, and realised it’d be some time before his train would get here. There was a small array of shops in the station, ranging from a Krispy Kreme, a few cafes to a little gift shop tucked away in the corner. I perused the store, admiring the little station themed keyrings and stickers. There was even an entire shelf dedicated to tiny Sydney Harbour Bridge statues. It was a weird feeling, browsing a store meant for tourists of the harbour city when I’d lived here all my life. The little statues were symbols of the beauty and wealth of the city, of the hard workers that kept the city going. But to me, it’d been a sight I’d glanced at every morning before going to school. The store bell rung as tourists filed in and out, so I wandered to the back of the store. Tucked away in a mostly empty shelf, was a snow globe. Most of Australia lacked snow, so snow globes were few and far between. But this one stood out to me, because I’d seen it before.

I looked closer and realised with a start that it was in fact the very snow globe I’d received as a give two years ago.

From him.

I felt that familiar pull as I watched a flurry of fake snow swirl in the globe until I felt that same swirl whip through me hair. I opened my eyes and realised the snow globe had worked its magic. It was a well-known trick amongst Quartz Witches, that Snow Globes could house tiny pockets of a fabricated reality. It took talent, lots of resources and a damned good Quartz Witch to pull off, however.

And I’d only done it once.

Inside this pocket reality, I found myself standing in an eerily quiet Central Station. A shade of ashy darkness had washed over the clocks, turn-styles and ticket booths, a layer of snow on the pale cream tiles.

Who left a pocket Snow Globe for me to find…?

I breathed a heavy sigh, a thick cloud of mist curling out of my lips. Something was deeply wrong, and a twitch of fear in my stomach told me I wasn’t alone in this pocket reality. A heartbeat later, I was proven right when a force landed with a powerful thud behind me and grabbed me by the neck. Like a cat throwing about a bird, the force tossed me into the shelves. I fell in a heap as chip packets and tiny Harbour Bridges rained down on me, the shelf sheltering me from a follow up attack as it landed onto the next shelf. Fear sent my heart thumping in my chest and I scrambled wildly out of the tiny gift shop. The sound of the rapid beating of wings swept behind me, and in a rush of wind a dark shadow landed atop a ticket both, its wings darkening the snowy platform.

I squinted and when I realised who stood before me, the breath was snuffed from my lungs like a suffocated candle flame.

Damien. My ex-boyfriend.

He was a Red Sparrow, yet his wings were black and lined with silver. There was…something wrong with him. I couldn’t quite explain it, but Red Sparrows always had an air of authority about them. But there was no authority emanating from him, just malice. Perched atop the ticket booth, his wings folded at his sides he resembled a gothic gargoyle. A guardian trapped in stone, forever watching those that walked beneath him. His dreads were coiled up into a bun, a few dangling over his brown eyes, darkened by the intensity in which he stared down at me. Even perched, he was tall, his broad shoulders tensed. The long black feathers of his wings stirred, reminding me of his realness. And the fact he’d just thrown me through a gift shop like a chew toy. Fear pumped through me once again and I tried to get to my feet. But he was faster. With a lightning fast swish of his wings, Damien leapt from his perch and landed atop of me. With his wings stretched wide, he created a dark dome around us.

He was close enough I could feel the heat of his breath against my nose.

“Damien, what’s wrong with you?” I whispered, searching his eyes desperately. His features gave away nothing. He raised a hand and I couldn’t help but flinch, yet he only grazed his gloved finger tips down the length of my jaw.

“Things are changing, love. You’re going to need to catch-up. Join us. Before it’s too late,” Damien said, his voice dangerously low. My heartbeat faster at his touch. From fear, or memory of what his touch did to me, I didn’t know. “Join what, Damien? Please. Why did you pull me into a Snow Globe…did you corrupt the one I gave you? Our little reality-” I whispered, hating how weak my words felt pouring out of me. I felt pathetic, but I couldn’t stop.

“You’re running out of time. You have to leave the old ways-” What looked like desperation filled his eyes a moment before he was interrupted. Reality shattered around us. Cracks appeared in the roof of the station. The tiles, the snow, even the gift shop as it all fell away and reality pulled me back with an unforgiving, forceful pull.

I gasped sharply as I felt myself fall back into the corner of the store, but before I could crumple to the ground, powerful arms caught me. My boots skidded on the floor wet with the innards of the snow globe now smashed on the ground. My heart lurched and I looked up, expecting Damien.

It was my new familiar that looked down at me, his amber gaze unreadable.