Read Illicit Magic for Free Online Page B

things in it, meagre treasures, the last relics of a life I’d once had but I couldn’t let them burn. Smoke stung my nostrils and I coughed against the rising darkness that even the half moon couldn’t permeate. I barely had time to wrap my fingers round the hot tin as Étoile grabbed me around the waist.
The door smashed open with a groan, the small frame crowded with first one stocky figure, then two and more behind.
They thought we only had two ways out, both impossibly blocked.
They didn’t have a clue.
The air fizzled and burned around us and I cried out as we vanished from the flames.
    When I opened my eyes, I was momentarily blinded by having my face pressed against Étoile’s silky blue shoulder. I detached myself from her and pushed back my hair. Between the drizzle and smoke, it had begun to stick unpleasantly to my face. I sniffed. The acrid stench of smoke was on me, not quite fully formed but still repellent enough. Bewildered, I blinked back tears and looked around. We were in a tiled cubicle with a toilet behind me, a sink and a hand drier in front, the kind that you dipped your hands in for the blast of air that was so strong it made your skin ripple. There was a long cord with a red blinking light next to the toilet.
    “When you said we had to get away, I didn’t realise we were escaping to a disabled toilet,” I muttered.
    Étoile didn’t look embarrassed. “It was the best I could do on short notice,” she sniffed. She set my shoulder bag on the floor and rummaged in her coat pocket until she found a little mobile phone. She pressed a number, then the call button and held it to her ear, turning slightly away from me as if to prevent me from hearing every word she was saying.
    “It’s me,” she said, her voice low but without that trace of panic she’d had before. “I’ve got her, but I was only just in time. They’re getting faster and stealthier. I could tell they were coming, but not that they were right outside the door! I think they are, well, we discussed that theory already. If I had been a minute later ... Just a minute! Well!” She listened before continuing, sighing. “We’re fine. We’ll check in straight away. Yes, of course ... See you soon.”
    Étoile stuck the phone back in her pocket. She crouched in order to see herself in the low mirror, ran long fingers through her hair, fluffing the front slightly and rearranged the collar of her jacket before shrugging, seemingly satisfied with her perfectly lovely and unhurt self. I decided she was probably the type who could survive any disaster while still keeping her lipstick fresh and her heels on.
    If only I had fared so well. I tucked the tin caddy I was still clutching into my sports bag and ran the tap. My face had a smear of smoke, made even messier thanks to some stray tears from where my eyes had started to sting. I scrubbed at my cheeks using a wad of toilet paper and the curiously, and slightly revolting, green liquid soap from the dispenser and a trickle of water. I thought my hair might have singed slightly but there was nothing to trim it with so I settled for pulling it into a ponytail and twisting the ends under. The skin between my thumb and forefinger, where I held the tin caddy, was starting to blister and I prodded the puckered red skin carefully. It had begun to sting already. I had my bag and Étoile remembered to grab my shoulder bag, but in the chaos, I hadn’t thought to snatch my jacket. Damn it. It was cold outside.
At least, it was if we were still in London.
“I left my jacket.”
“It was ripped. Weren’t you going to get rid of it?”
    “I would have mended it.” How did she know it was ripped? Was she watching me when it happened? Fat lot of good she had been then, if she was.
“Oh,” Étoile nodded thoughtfully. “Make do and mend, hmm?”
“That’s a nice way of putting it.” I eyed the cubicle rather than meet her eyes.
Étoile was quiet for a moment then she said, “I’ll get you