she said, when I asked if she wanted to meet. “I’ll ring Georgia, too.”
I sat back in my chair, feeling better already. Then I looked down at my boring black skirt and functional white shirt and grimaced. I couldn’t hit the town looking like this.
Picturing my wardrobe – which I kept in strict colour-coded order, natch – I thought about what to wear. Mentally I chose my favourite skinny 7 For All Mankind jeans, a black top with a slash neck and some leopard-print heels, waggled my fingers and, with a spark, my clothes appeared, hanging neatly from the picture rail in my office, the shoes arranged below. I grinned. I was down, but I wasn’t beaten. Not by a long chalk.
At first it didn’t even cross my mind that anything more sinister than a power cut had happened.
I was about to get ready for my night out. The spa was quiet because most of the therapists had finished for the day. There was a Bikram yoga class on in one of the studios, Nancy – the new temp receptionist – was putting on her coat, and Xander was sitting in her chair, fiddling about with her computer.
He’d been tight-lipped about his lesson with Esme.
“Yeah it was good,” was about all he’d said. “She took me through some basics, the rules and whatnot.”
I’d narrowed my eyes.
“Tell me,” I said. “Tell me what she told you.”
“Okay, scary controlling lady,” he’d said with a grin. “She told me about all the three stuff.”
I’d been impressed that Esme had started ‘by the book’ as it were. Uncharitably I assumed the lessons I’d given her were still fresh in her mind. I wanted to know exactly what she’d said though, so I got Xander to talk me through it.
“She said the most powerful magic is made by three witches together,” Xander explained carefully. “And, she told me that if you do a nasty spell, it’ll come back on you three times as bad.”
“That’s true,” I said. “Doesn’t stop me forgetting about it when I’m in a mood though.”
Xander chuckled.
“Seems unfair,” he said in an overly casual manner. “That you can’t hurt someone who’s hurt you.”
“It’s not worth it,” I said. “Our magic all comes from positive energy – if you start messing with the dark stuff it gets scary pretty quickly.”
Xander’s eyes darkened for a second, but he didn’t push it.
“That was about it,” he said. “We didn’t have much time.”
I let it go, but I made up my mind to ask Esme more about what they’d got up to.
Leaving him to it – he was working on more flyers advertising the spa to new customers – I took my make-up bag and clothes into the deserted changing room. I was quite capable of doing my hair and my make-up magically, but I found it frustrating as if I liked it, I could never recreate it, and if I didn’t, it was a bugger to change. So I stuck to doing it my own way, even if some other witches turned up their noses at me.
I’d stripped off my work clothes and swapped them for the outfit I’d summoned earlier, and was just touching up my make-up, when all the lights went out. The little red light on my hair straighteners, that I’d plugged in to heat up, went out, too.
I paused, mascara wand aloft, knowing we had an emergency generator. There was a beat, then a whir as everything started up again. I smiled at myself in the mirror, pleased the expense had been worth it.
And then the emergency power went out.
There was a shriek from the yoga studio as twelve sweaty women felt the heating go off and the cold air of an Edinburgh winter creep in.
“Bugger,” I whispered.
It was pitch black in the changing rooms, which had no windows. Keeping one hand on the wall, I felt my way round the lockers towards the door and then out into the corridor. It ran along the edge of the building, so it had windows but the sun had set hours ago and it wasn’t much lighter there. Finding my way through memory and touch, I made it to reception where Xander was lighting candles. He made a spooky face at me through the flame, but I was in no mood to laugh.
“I pinched these from one of the treatment rooms,” he said, lighting another tealight. “Are youOK?”
I nodded. Half-finished make-up wasn’t a worry for me at the moment.
“Shall we go and rescue the hot-yoga girls?” Xander asked.
I sighed.
“I suppose so.”
Using our phones as torches, we headed to the yoga studio, where the instructor was trying to calm the nerves of her shivery charges. Like grateful lambs, they followed us out of the studio and into the changing rooms. Xander lit tealights and scattered them on every available surface. It actually looked quite pretty.
“Ladies,” he said, giving a little bow. “I’ll leave you to it. Last one out, blow the candles out.”
As one, the yoga class all simpered at Xander. I tutted and headed back to reception, Xander following. We sat together and waited for the yoga crew to leave while I rang Lucy and Georgia to explain. Then I rang the electricity company.
“EH4?” the very helpful operator repeated, in a shrill Scouse accent. “There’s no problem reported in that area.”
My heart sinking, I walked to the door of the spa, phone still clutched to my ear, and peered out. We were on a side street mews, away from the main road of Raeburn Place. Everything was dark and quiet – perhaps it was a problem in the area after all.
“I’m just checking for you,” the operator was saying. I wandered down the mews and cursed as I saw Raeburn Place lit up like a Christmas tree. The pub and pizza restaurant were buzzing and the flats above, and street-lights, obviously all had power.
“I think the problem is at your premises,” I heard the operator say.
“I think you’re right,” I said, hanging up.
I went to the cupboard next to Star’s old desk and found the fuse box. But none of the switches had tripped. Not really sure what to do next, I sat in reception next to Xander. We said goodnight to all the yoga class as they filed out, laughing among themselves.
“Can you do anything?” Xander asked as the last woman left. I shook my head.
“There are some things witches can’t mess with,” I said. “Life and death – that’s the biggest. But also electricity, water supplies, that kind of thing. It’s too risky.”
Xander gave me a sympathetic look.
“I’ll just go and check there aren’t any stray candles burning in the changing rooms,” he said. He wandered off – and suddenly the lights came back on.
“Harry!” Xander came thundering along the corridor. “It’s back!”
“Thank bloody god,” I said, throwing my head back against the sofa cushions. I looked at my watch, wondering if it was still worth going to meet Lucy and Georgia. It wasn’t too late, I decided. I’d just check my appearance in the mirror in the changing room.
Xander sat down in front of Star’s computer again.
“Are you staying?” I asked.
“I might just finish these flyers,” he said. “I think we should get them out soon as.” I was impressed and even felt slightly guilty that I wasn’t staying to help. Grabbing my bag, I walked towards the changing room.
“Oh fuck, no!” Xander cried.
My stomach lurched.