We were halfway home before I began to understand what had just happened.
Emily and Stephen's shocked expressions quickly turned to anger as soon as we left The World's End. It was only after their anger had turned to silence, and I had time to consider my words to Roger, that I began to feel anxious.
So I owed him a favour, that wasn't too bad was it? Who was I kidding? I still couldn't shift the filth that lingered in my head.
I'd experienced Roger's excitement at the pain and degradation that he so vividly imagined inflicting on Emily as if it was my own. I also understood that it wasn't just Emily that he wanted to debase. She had merely been the trigger in this instance.
Any woman would do, but the more powerful the woman, the more intense his pleasure. The realisation hit me with an unpleasant wash of clammy dread. Roger knew. He knew about my father, about my heritage on both sides. It was me that he wanted to use and destroy. I was the woman that he feared and desired most of all.
Great.
"Ok, so what happens now? You guys must have a plan, right?"
"We had a plan all right, but it didn't involve signing you over to Mr Macho Bullshit. For God's sake, we know how to deal with guys like that. All you had to do was keep your mouth shut."
A hint of panic squeaked in Emily's voice as she reached the end of her tirade.
"It's only a favour, guys. It can't be that bad."
My assurance was for show. If Emily was worried then I knew that I was in it deep. I had to push down the bubble of hysteria that was fighting to encompass my brain and fly out of my mouth.
It's only a favour, I repeated to myself, trying to banish the horrific images that Roger's life-force had pushed into my mind.
"Alice, a favour within coven law is a binding contract. When repaid, the service has to match the magnitude of the boon that was originally granted. All we can hope for now is that the aid that Roger provides for Mary does not overreach what you are willing to give him in return."
"Why didn't you warn me about him, about his perversions. You could have told me that we were visiting a woman hating sadist."
Emily and Stephen shared a worried glance. "That's a bit harsh, even for a misogynist like Roger," Emily said, doubt lacing her words even as she spoke them.
No-one replied. I'd just confirmed something that the others already suspected. There was no joy in my superior knowledge, despite how rare an occasion it was. This was the guy who thought I owed him. For two favours!
Nice one Alice. Well played as usual.
We sank into silence. The possibilities of what Roger might try to take as payment weighed heavily upon the three of us.
"Look, there are things we can do. Emily is a magistrate for the covens. She mediates between the parties for arrangements like this one," Stephen explained, after the silence had become too uncomfortable to tolerate.
"But she's human. Why do they allow her involvement?"
"A magistrate has to be impartial. And, unless you hadn't noticed, Emily is not your average human."
True, Emily was lethal, but that didn't seem enough. Then I remembered how Roger had greeted Emily and Stephen. "He called you agents. It's because of your DPA licence."
"Even the covens have to toe the line with the Agency," Emily said. "Despite having spies and double agents in every office."
"Or because of them," Stephen continued. "It's all about the politics. Control is usually an illusion. Everybody has deals going on behind the scenes. We're going to have to get you caught up with all the players. This trip is no longer about helping you control your power, Alice. We're in the thick of it now."
"Politics, my favourite," was the only response I could muster.
Back at Granville Square, a meal of chicken soup and bread rolls waited for us in the spotless kitchen diner. As we ate, Mary's lingering glances crawled all over my skin. Her magic was definitely getting stronger. There was no ignoring the rich green haze that surrounded her, so similar to Roger's that the memory of his perversions played continuously in my head.
But Mary was an innocent, as unlike Roger as I was separate from my father who shared the silver life-force that fuelled my magic. I had to protect her from the energy building in my blood. I shoved my hand in my pocket and rooted around for my garnet pendant. Massaging the stone between my thumb and my finger, I prayed that I could hold it together for Mary's sake.
"You're so like her, dear. I can't believe that you are not when I look at you so close. Evelyn was such a striking woman, and not one that you would often mistake for another."
At first I thought that Mary was speaking of my mother. My heart sped. I missed her so much. Then I realised it was my great-grandmother that she referred to. Another Evelyn, from a different time.
"Mary, this is Alice, you met her yesterday. She's staying in mother's rooms with Emily," Stephen said, gently prompting Mary to acknowledge my identity.
"I know that, dear. We've conversed."
"Evelyn was my great-grandmother. I never met her. I didn't know about any of my family before a few weeks ago. My mother kept us separate," I started cautiously. Mary had been a prepubescent girl of twelve when Evelyn was a coven leader in her fifties. I didn't want to traumatise her by recalling those memories all at once, but we needed answers.
"Ah, that's a shame, dear. But for me, physical, um, being apart, well, it's beside the point. The visions, you know, the dreams, they bring everything to me."
As Mary spoke, childlike hesitance stuttered her usual brisk speech. Wide eyes glanced round the table, meeting each of us before dropping down. Her hands twisted together on the table top before she noticed me looking and hid them in her lap.
When she spoke next a tremble of fear distorted her previously crisp voice. Her green energy fizzled and popped into the air in response to her increasing agitation.
I understood why when I heard what Mary had to say about my great-grandmother, Evelyn, the head of the Northern Coven.
Two families had jostled for leadership of the Northern Coven for generations: the Grays and the Devices. As a young woman of nineteen, Evelyn Gray had overthrown the Device patriarch to take control of the Northern Coven.
Coven life mirrored human society. In the nineteen-twenties it was rare for a woman to rise to such an important position. There was a lot of resentment from those who wanted to cling onto the norms of the patriarchal social structure.
A woman with power, young at that, agitated family leaders with the worry that their own wives and daughters might explore their magic outside of the usual familial bonds. Coven women were jealous, if they couldn't have the power, why should Evelyn Gray?
It was an uneasy time for the coven, and the lack of stability filtered down the country, destabilising the southern witches as well.
The Southern Coven had always functioned in the shadow of their northern counterpart, ever since the mid-seventeenth century when they had been almost decimated by that lunatic Matthew Hopkins. Even I had heard of the Witch finder General, a bogeyman in human history as well as for witches.
It was from the southern group that Mary hailed. She began to attract the attention of the leading family at a very early age. Her earliest memories were intertwined with the visions that were an integral part of her life. It was hard for her to separate them out for us, vision or reality wasn't clear cut for Mary. It didn't matter all that much. They always came true, and the Southern Coven believed that, finally, they might claw back some power in the paranormal world.
It very much seemed like that was how it was going to play out, when Mary started to have troubling visions of Evelyn Gray.
Evelyn was in her late thirties when Mary was born. She was single, childless, and very, very powerful. Ironically, this was just the combination of attributes and circumstances that had led to accusations of witchcraft throughout history.
The early twentieth century was no exception. Human society had ceased to worry about a threat from witches, science having eclipsed the supernatural in the public consciousness. The paranormal community was a different matter. Evelyn's power meant that she would never be easily controlled in a patriarchal social structure. Her refusal to marry or have children, the usual means by which women were brought to heel at that time, made it practically impossible for anybody to influence her.
For almost twenty years Evelyn ruled the coven, much to the displeasure of many of its members. Then, it became apparent the very circumstances that had allowed her independence, would eventually lead to her downfall. With no children, or other Gray family members powerful enough to lead the coven, the position would inevitably fall to the Device family on Evelyn's death.
The Devices had been preparing for this event for years. Rumours abounded of Evelyn's abnormality. At the outset, most coven members didn't believe them. But they spread anyway, motivated by petty jealousy and the love of innuendo and gossip mongering. She was framed by her enemies as unfeminine, and this fed into the hearsay until she became a caricature of all that was perverse in a woman ruling in a patriarchal social structure.
Twenty years is a long time for stories to circulate. By the time Mary was born, flimsy hints whispered in malice had solidified into myths that were widely believed. It started as a means to control Evelyn and secure the Device succession, but it did lasting damage.
Nobody likes what they don't understand.
All this history was common knowledge in the covens. Even as a child, Mary was aware of Evelyn Gray and her reputation. All children were - there were strict penalties for overstepping your position. Youngsters were taught to mind their superiors.
Then the visions began. Evelyn meeting with mysterious men, and taking them to her bed. Evelyn concocting potions with ingredients that were unlike anything that was used in modern witchcraft. Finally, Evelyn luring two women to her home.
When Mary got to this part of her story, she began to falter. Her eyes widened to huge round saucers that dominated her frozen face. For a moment, I thought we were losing her. But it wasn't the confusion of the previous evening that bothered her.
Mary was struck by intense fear.
Mary, a child that had grown up hearing stories of Evelyn's unnatural spells, began to see visions of her practicing strange and frightening magic.
Blood magic.
Oh no! Blood magic from the Gray witches? They're supposed to be the good guys!
Hope you're enjoying the story so far!