Hunt and Power. Stephen Hayes

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СКАЧАТЬ point exactly,” said Mum. “You’re not going anywhere. From now on you will leave this house for school only, and you will return here as soon as it’s finished, and that will be the story of your lives. We can’t stop your fathers putting their necks on the line, but you will not be in the same boat. I refuse!”

      She looked at Marge for support, apparently realising that her words weren’t making much of an impression on us.

      Marge thought through it, and finally said, in a defeated voice, “I’m not sure if there’s much we can do to stop them.”

      “What do you mean?” snapped Mum. “Of course we can—”

      “And when have they ever paid attention to what we’ve told them to do?” sighed Marge, the fight going out of her. “They just go and do whatever they like anyway. They’re still hanging around with that Marc, for one thing.”

      “So you’re prepared to throw in the towel?” said Mum incredulously. I almost laughed at the sight of her and Marge in disagreement regarding our behaviour; that was one area where they usually thought alike. Luckily, I stopped myself just in time.

      “Not quite,” said Marge, and she turned back to face the rest of us. “I’m prepared to allow some leniency if you agree to certain terms.”

      “Good thinking,” said Mum. “For instance, you are all to be home by 11 o’clock. No later.”

      “Yes,” said Marge, nodding. “And no friends will come to stay with you this time.”

      “And you are all to be 100 percent sober,” joked Carl, but Mum and Marge glared at him.

      “Exactly,” said Mum. “Absolutely no drinking, under any circumstances. We’ll be waiting up to smell your breath as soon as you get in.”

      We looked at each other. It was better than we had expected; we would only be there for three hours, and would probably miss half the party, but three hours would be enough to show Stella that she wasn’t alone in this thing.

      Unfortunately, however, the fight wasn’t over yet.

      “Margaret! Marge!” shrieked Hilda, as she and Violet prepared to enter the fray.

      “Do you two have a better idea?” asked Mum, glaring around at them. I had the impression that Amelia had worked her magic on her now too.

      “I am astounded you would let your maternal instincts drop so easily,” said Violet, looking appalled. “There’ll be all sorts of dodgy people there. The boys will come home with black eyes and broken noses, and the girls will probably be drugged senseless, and then who knows what.”

      There was an explosion of sound in the room as every single person took to their feet. My ears were ringing, not due to the noise in the room, but from the rage that was now burning inside me at Violet’s words. How could she have such a low opinion of us? The state of the argument was getting us nowhere now; everyone was shouting, trying to make themselves heard, and it wasn’t until Carl’s booming voice sounded out, louder and angrier than I’d ever heard it, that the room went finally quiet.

      As it did, I saw both Hilda and Violet’s eyes slide out of focus briefly, just as Marge’s had. Thank goodness for Amelia’s timing.

      “That was a terrible thing to say,” said William, staring hard at Violet. “You must not have a very high opinion of your grandchildren to say that, even after everything they’ve done in the last three weeks.”

      “Nothing like that is going to happen,” said Nicole, looking close to tears now, and Jessica put her arm around her.

      “Of course not,” said Peter. “The whole place is forbidden from using magic, and there’ll be enough decent people there so that we can protect ourselves if they do try anything. You people just worry too much.”

      “All part of being a parent, mate,” said Carl. “You’ll understand in due course.”

      “I’m not having kids,” said Peter, and I could tell he was actually thinking more about the process of conceiving rather than the parenting aspect of it—typical Peter.

      “Enough of that,” said Marge. “Okay, you kids can go to this—this party of yours, but you’re to be back here at 11 o’clock, on the dot, alone and completely sober. If you’re not, you won’t know what’s coming to you. Do you understand?”

      “Yes,” we chorused.

      “That’s 11, on the dot,” said Mum. “We’ll be waiting up.”

      “Righto,” I said. We all moved away from the table, desperate to get back to our room now that the job was done.

      We shot upstairs, noticing that the kitchen had gone rather quiet in the aftermath of the shouting; perhaps the adults no longer wanted to talk to each other. We went straight into our room.

      “You in, Amelia?” hissed James as he went to shut the door.

      “Yeah,” she whispered, appearing from thin air once the door was closed.

      “Brilliant,” said Peter, sinking onto his bed. “Brilliant, Amelia. I don’t think we had a hope in hell of getting them on side without you.”

      “I don’t think so either,” said Amelia, smirking. “Most difficult ones I’ve dealt with so far, and I thought Serena’s were bad. Oh well.”

      “Thanks a lot,” said Felicity. “Er—perhaps we should hang up here for a while. I’m not sure I want to be in their company right now.”

      “You guys okay with those conditions she set?” Amelia asked.

      “I’d prefer not to have to worry about being back by 11,” said Nicole. “But we should be thankful that we’re at least allowed to go out.”

      “I can do something about the time too, if you like,” suggested Amelia.

      “Like what?” we all asked.

      “Like put a spell on them so that they’ll need to go to bed early tomorrow night,” said Amelia, her lip curling. “So that they won’t be able to check on you when you get back. I’ll have to come back to do it though, so I can get your dads as well.”

      “That’s not a bad idea,” said Jessica.

      I agreed, but it made me feel slightly uneasy. We had already achieved the near-impossible by getting permission to go, but this somehow felt ten times worse. What if something did go wrong? Our parents would be asleep, and we wouldn’t be able to count on their help. But then, I told myself, if something went wrong with the Hammersons, I would hardly be going to Mum and Marge for help—they wouldn’t be any good in a battle of magic. In fact, we would probably do better than them, after our successive victories over Moran.

      “Cool,” said Amelia. “Well, I’d better go. I believe Daniel is in need of my assistance.”

      And she vanished into thin air once again.

      Chapter 7: The Party

      Tension СКАЧАТЬ