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  “Girlfriend, woah. I've never been anyone's girlfriend before.” she mused.

  “I've never really been anyone's boyfriend, either.” Liam added, which was a mistake in a sense, as it made Lila wonder who he'd been with without being their boyfriend.

  He never cared enough about them to make it official. Drop it, Lila. Lila scolded herself, turning her slight frown into a smile. Liam was older, of course he hadn't gone 28 years without being with anyone. All that mattered was that he had chosen to be more to her.

  “We should go get started on that food, then.” Lila smiled.

  Liam nodded, dipping his head to kiss her softly. She felt her worries melt away under the pressure of his lips on hers, and placed her hand on the back of his neck, toying with the soft curls at the base of his hairline. After a moment, he pulled back and smiled down at her, and her stomach did a flip, her attraction to him stronger than ever.

  “Come on, then.” he grinned, then helped her back into the diner, where the others erupted into wolf whistles. One of them had been sneaking peeks at them through the window; Lila suspected Rose, but could prove nothing.

  “Cut it out guys.” she chuckled, a blush rising high on her cheeks. “Come on, we've got some serious eating to do.”

  Chapter Twenty

  By the time Grace arrived, everyone had been through at least two small breakfast plates, and were working on a main meal. They had stacked the plates up on the next table, and a waitress was trying to carry them. Grace stepped in to help with the tower of plates, and inadvertently put the group back into the good books of the diner staff. She walked over, stealing a small piece of bacon off of Lila's plate.

  “Oh yay, now I have room for dessert.” Lila grinned, and hugged the girl when it was offered.

  “There's no way you've got room to eat dessert if those plates all belonged to you guys.” Grace countered.

  “I beg to differ.” Lila looked slightly nauseous, but Liam took her hand, and moments later, she was fine again. “I am incapable of getting sick.”

  “I'm not enabling you again.” Liam scolded.

  “Spoilsport. I have a weeks worth of eating to make up for.” she pouted.

  “I'm pretty sure if you eat any more, we're going to have to roll you back down to the compound. I had no idea you could eat like that. It's... kind of impressive.” Liam admitted.

  “Well, I could go for dessert.” Grace admitted, sliding into the booth beside Troy and Noah and squashing them at the other end.

  “Now who's enabling?” Liam tutted, then shrugged. “Okay, fine. They do have some pretty good desserts here, and there's the added bonus that they all think we work for the government, so we might get some money off.”

  “This is all on my card, so technically you guys are all getting money off.” Troy answered. “Though I have to say I'm glad I don't have to explain this bill to my parents.” he chuckled lightly. They had all come to terms with the loss of their parents following the events of November, and could now speak (mostly) fondly about them without feeling guilty. They had seen each other a lot in the last few months, and had bonded in so many ways. Adam was now one of Lila's best friends, though he seemed absolutely determined to be some kind of knight in shining armour for her, which didn't say much about how capable he found her of staying alive without that help.

  The last two months had been the real reason she'd fallen for Liam, too. He'd never expected more of her, but he'd been there every time she'd even mentioned needing help, like when she'd held a jumble sale to raise funds for her high school as part of her senior year responsibilities – he'd shown up with his truck to help her load everything up, turning a two hour job into something which only took half an hour. He'd also come to fix her bedroom door when she'd slammed it too hard kicking it shut when her arms were full, causing it to break from the hinge.

  No matter what she'd needed, he'd been there, and the undercurrents of attraction had burned slowly through it all. It really hadn't been a surprise when they had given into it, even if it had taken a drink to motivate them into doing anything about it. They were a good match, but it would take time for others to see it, too. Neither of them had great reputations when it came to the covens yet, and it was understandable – not many had been around to see that they had both been trying to save Elsie from the start.

  They ordered dessert amidst further teasing by Liam, and Lila split hers with him, which prompted more gagging from Rose, and teasing about them as a couple from everyone else. At some point, Troy wound up with ice cream on his face, launched from a spoon, and a small food fight ensued.

  Unsurprisingly, they were soon thrown out of the place, despite Grace's desperate attempts to clean up their mess while they made it, and had no choice but to begin the road back to the compound.

  “Are you sure you're okay coming up? Didn't they say you couldn't talk to your parents or something?” Lila asked, more or less relying on Liam to do all of the walking while she leant on him. She hadn't exactly intended to employ him as a crutch, but if he was willing and she was in need, it would be rude not to accept, not to mention self-sabotaging, as she'd be left out in the wilderness, taking half a step a century. Okay, so that was perhaps an over-exaggeration, but Lila felt next to useless at that moment, her magick feeling further away than she ever remembered. Apparently, her physical ailments weren't her only injuries. She had been affected down to the core of where her magick lay. Lost in thinking about this, she almost didn't comprehend Grace's next words, having to work back to what she'd said in order to grasp it.

  Maybe she should have Liam doing all of her talking and listening, too. Evidently, he would be far more adept than she was at that present moment.

  “Yeah, I expected them to be worried or something, you know? But they're completely oblivious. One word from the magic box and they forget anything they're doing.” Grace answered, tailing back with them.

  After a moment, Liam caught Lila behind the knees and swept her into a bridal carry, clearly fed up of basically dragging her everywhere. As grumpy as he tried to look, it was clear that he was totally enjoying coming to her rescue.

  “Well, the magic box doesn't say a lot about magick, With a k, for a reason. Normal people can usually only handle party favours and stage shows, aka magic without a k. You throw that k in there and everything goes down the toilet.” Lila nodded serenely. She held up her finger to her lips dramatically.

  “How much sugar have you had?” Adam asked, caught up to them, still holding Sadie's hand. His raised eyebrow permeated his calm exterior, and Lila knew that he was secretly amused and relieved – she didn't want to give them any more reasons to worry, so she was going to act completely fine instead.

  “You were there. You count how much. I have absolutely no idea.” Lila answered, grinning. Her eyes were bright and teasing, but full of honesty. She really had lost track.

  “Too much.” Grace interjected, shaking her head at her friend. “But I understand what you're getting at. We get as much of it as we can handle. I guess introducing mediums and stuff give people an opinion on magick without them knowing for sure whether it's real or not.”

  “Well, mediums are usually like, third or fourth generation witches, but they don't usually know their powers or how to really use them. In some people it's just.. an intuition, rather than a learned skill. The only reason we even really know what we're doing is that we've been learning our whole lives, since before we took our first steps.” Lila continued. They were halfway back to the compound, and its presence seemed to weigh upon them – back to responsibility.

  Back to the reality which they'd been pointedly ignoring back at the diner; the world was yet again in their hands. Lila really wished she could find a disaster complaints department, where she could point out that surely there were more competent individuals to handle everything. For some reason, Ontario seemed to be a beacon for trouble, and Lila wondered if she was going to have to deal with a new threat every few months for
the rest of her life (which may prove to be quite short if this continued).

  As they took the last few steps up into the compound, they realised that they were being flanked by two not-so-sneaky guards. There was no accounting for old prejudices, clearly. Lila caught Troy rolling his eyes and slipping his hand into his boyfriend's, obviously anxious about being here. Lila could understand all too well. Every time they crossed the threshold, there was no guarantee that they'd make it back out. There was every chance that they'd be disposed of. Well, thought Lila, at least I'll get to see how the bodies disappear.

  Apparently, she was feeling slightly morbid today.

  Finding their way back was made far simpler by the fact that the post-it-notes from earlier had been left in place, much to Liam's chagrin. They walked straight back into the weapons room, and Grace fell back; she had no particular skills here. The others hovered, while Noah explained the weapons and defence systems he'd created – it had never been done before, and he was tentatively naming the process 'alchemical engineering', combining both magick and engineering. It was impressive, and he had clearly put his own stamp on it all. Each piece was whimsical and interesting, looking like it belonged in a modern art gallery rather than actually being used for anything constructive.

  He explained that each item had been worked on by the other coven leaders to imbue their own personal strength into it, then it was amplified in a kind of echo chamber which strengthened the original magickal input exponentially. With the boost, it could very well be enough to beat the Keres witches.

  Lila waved off their concerns about her health, and followed Noah's instructions, weaving her own magick into the device, feeling it connect with its sister magicks and tie together in a complicated knot which seemed to thread through the trap like a ribbon, ready to spring out and grab the spirits from the witches. It could be the upper hand they'd been looking for.

  She continued to cast her magick over other devices, made to be worn as bracelets, which were designed to nullify any magick thrown their way, something Noah seemed to be protecting personally, almost like he didn't want the witch hunters to know about it. No, it was exactly that – he didn't want them to realise he was creating a weapon which would make them basically human. Lila knew that he would probably key them to the users so that they couldn't be taken advantage of, or in any way aimed against them.

  Lila was lost in the casting, so much so that she missed the sound of alarm which came from Grace at the other end of the room. She felt something slightly rough pressing above her lip, and jolted back to reality to find Liam holding a handkerchief against her nose. She made a sound of protest, and he pulled it back just far enough for her to see that it was stained red. Absently, she rubbed her nose with her hand, leaving a streak of red.

  “You have to be careful, Li.” Liam murmured, looking concerned. “You're clearly not a hundred percent; it's not a surprise given how much you gave in order to bring so many people back from the dead.

  “You weren't really dead. You hadn't crossed over.” Lila replied, somewhat stubbornly. She hated having a fuss made over her. Liam's look told her that her reasoning wasn't going to change his opinion on what to do here.

  “Rest.” he insisted, and Noah nodded, carefully putting the bracelet devices into his bag when no one was looking. Well, they were allowed to protect themselves, right? Although, looking around at the witch hunters in the room, the answer to that was probably a resounding no. They weren't exactly into equal opportunities here – witches were second class citizens, the scourge of the Earth, the reason for everything from famine to global warming as far as they were concerned. None of them seemed particularly interested in the fact that most witches cared deeply about the Earth around them, to the point of often being vegan or 'hippies'.

  Lila eventually gave in to the demands that she take it easy, and allowed them to lead her down into the bunker once more. The nurses made a fuss about how long she'd been out, though they were more scolding her than showing any kind of real concern for her well-being. She brushed them off, letting the people who actually cared whether she lived or died lead her back to her bed.

  She went into the small bathroom to change into what passed for nightwear here – a night dress which looked like it was straight out the 1800's – including the high, frilled neckline and matching tight cuffs. It reached her ankles and was a strange, off-white colour which Lila couldn't quite name. Beige? Mocha? Whatever it was, it was disgusting.

  When she came out, the others chuckled, and she went with it, flashing her ankle as if it were the height of impropriety. Sadie let out a playful gasp and covered her eyes, while Troy's silence and subsequent confusion told them exactly who hadn't been paying attention in History lessons. She chuckled, climbing into bed and pulling the covers up to her chest.

  “I don't even want to ask about the fashion choices here... black, white and occasionally a mottled kind of grey; shapeless and unflattering...” a voice came from the doorway, and Lila glanced up just in time to see Elsie. She smiled lightly.

  “I notice you chose not to partake of their choices.” she smirked. Elsie shrugged.

  “I may be a ghost, mostly, but I still have taste.” Elsie retorted.

  “I'm slightly offended, now.” Lila pouted, folding her arms.

  “Yes, well – you have some excuses. They threw your clothes out. When you got here, you were coding; they had to restart your heart a couple of times, but that meant they cut off your clothes to save time.” Troy explained.

  “I hope you guys weren't all in the room at the time...” Lila felt a blush raising to her cheeks at the image of them crowding around while she was cut out of her clothes. She obviously hadn't minded at the time, and didn't really think any of them would be particularly interested in seeing her naked while she was dying.

  “Nah, we were all dragged off to our own examinations.” Adam added, and Lila smiled gratefully. Of course they were; they'd all been pulled back from the brink of death before they could begin to move on. When they said she'd brought them back from the dead, what they meant was that she'd stopped their souls departing this realm, dragging them back to their bodies and kick starting their hearts again, much in the same way that the doctors had done to her. It wasn't anything particularly impressive, except for the scale she'd done it on. It was pretty much unheard of for a witch to affect so many people on an individual level like she had. It was easy to manipulate the surroundings of a group, but she had been inside their bodies, messing with them and basically providing life support.

  No wonder so many witches were worried about being around a Spirit user.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lila's rehabilitation was a long and arduous process, which seemed completely disproportionate to the amount of time she'd actually spent in the coma. The magick itself had left her like a drained battery, and they quickly realised that in order to recover, she not only required exorbitant amounts of food, she also needed to drain small amounts of magick from the others every day, which amounted to the deposits she'd made to keep them all alive. Coupled with this, she built her muscle strength with timed exercise sessions every day, which were all carried out in a gym which seemed to be close to the weapons factory, since she could hear the sound of drills and machinery while she worked, including a metal-on-metal sound which happened at ten second intervals. She used this to keep her rhythm, which made lifting the weighted cuffs on her wrists and ankles a much more tolerable experience.

  At some point, when the days were beginning to blur together, Noah wandered into the gym, his cheeks smudged with oil, and presented her with the dampener he'd created, which slipped on to her wrist. She felt the moment it adjusted to her magick, and looked up at him in surprise.

  “Yup, it was keyed to your signature, which means that only you can use that one. I haven't shown them how to make them, and Adam's been pretty firm with them about the fact we won't share the technology with them. He punched one of the... uh, the head o
fficers or whatever they're called, right in the jaw when he tried to take it from me. Good job he did, really, because I hadn't finished adjusting them yet and they could be used by anyone at that point.” Noah ran a hand through his long brown locks, pulling them off his face. Lila silently offered him a hair tie, and he took it, tying his hair back.

  “Adam's punching people?” she responded, and Noah nodded with a shrug.

  “In his defence, the guy really deserved it.” Noah added.

  “Yeah, but I know Adam hates losing his temper, and this situation seems to really be getting to him. I'm starting to wonder if there's somewhere safer we can send him, so he doesn't land this place in a massive sink-hole.” Lila frowned.

  “Rose has said she can get us out of a sink-hole. I think I trust her.” Noah continued, trying to lighten the mood. Lila fidgeted with her cuff, trying to shake off the feeling of unease which was resonating through everything.