The Broken Spell by Erika McGann

Author:Erika McGann [Erika McGann]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781847176165
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2013-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Grace dropped, from a height, onto her back on the wet football pitch. Ms Gold’s amber eyes were panicked. The woman was shouting something at her, but Grace’s ears were filled with the sound of ringing and, beneath that, a noise like an untuned radio. She shook her head, trying to communicate that she couldn’t hear, but Ms Gold gripped her shoulders and shook her.

Grace watched as Adie, Rachel and Una tried and failed to coax the woman off her, then drag Grace away from the teacher and help her up. The ringing began to dissipate and Grace started to make out the commotion around her.

‘Enough! Enough!’ cried Ms Gold, putting up her hands and signalling for the others to calm down. ‘I understand your concern but this is vitally important!’

She approached Grace again, calmly this time, but gripped her bruised shoulders, making Grace flinch.

‘Where did he come from?’ Ms Gold’s voice was low, but trembled as if she was forcing herself to keep from shouting. ‘He shouldn’t be here. Do you know where he came from?’

The woman’s face was too close and her golden eyes so intense that Grace was afraid to answer. Her head ached, and her shoulders pulsed beneath the woman’s fingers. Her eyes began to water. She held her breath and shook her head. The teacher searched her face for a few seconds, then let her go.

‘He’s dangerous,’ she whispered. ‘And he shouldn’t be here.’

‘Who is he?’ Grace breathed.

‘A twisted soul,’ the woman replied. ‘He was born of malevolence and evil – he’s soaked in it. If you see him again, you run. Don’t speak to him, don’t listen to him. You run and you don’t look back. Understand?’

Ms Gold stepped back, raising her eyes to the night-sky and taking deep breaths that gradually slowed. When she lowered her face, the familiar luminosity had returned to her skin and she seemed perfectly tranquil once more.

‘Go home, all of you,’ she said. ‘Stay together and stay safe. I have work to do.’

The girls stood in the damp grass, watching the teacher walk briskly towards the back of the school.

‘Grace?’ Adie said gently, but Grace was already running at Jenny. She raised one elbow, catching Jenny in the chest and knocking her to the ground. Grace fell to her knees, grabbing handfuls of Jenny’s hair and meeting her nose to nose.

‘What the hell were you doing?’ she screamed. ‘You tried to kill me!’

Jenny swung a fist at Grace’s temple that knocked her to one side, but Grace didn’t loosen her grip on Jenny’s hair. They rolled and grappled on the pitch, screaming at each other, until Adie and Una grabbed Grace and hauled her off, while Rachel wrapped a restraining arm around Jenny’s waist.

‘It was part of the lesson, you moron!’ Jenny shouted, her red face framed with tangled strands of hair.

‘Why didn’t you dismiss it?’ Grace cried in reply. ‘You set your monster on me on purpose!’

‘I was trying to control it, like Ms Gold said. That’s what we were supposed to do.

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