Dark wish use

I sprang to my feet. I was on a mountain path with steep crags on both sides. Whether or not it was the same track I’d been following the night before was impossible to say, but there was no sign of the cleft in the rock with its lamia cave, nor of the evidence of their feeding.

‘Tom!’

I turned and saw Alice walking along the path towards me, tears streaming down her face. I’d thought she was dead, so without thinking I ran forward and wrapped my arms about her. All my doubts had disappeared. What did it matter what the Spook thought? At that moment, after all we’d been through, I didn’t care. Alice returned my embrace, and for a long time we didn’t move, but then she stepped back and held me at arm’s length, her hands resting lightly on my shoulders.

‘Oh, Tom – did last night really happen? It was dark and the lamia’s teeth were tearing at me. I was growing faint with loss of blood and I thought it was all over. I was dying. Then, the next moment, the sun was shining. And there isn’t a single mark on my body. Was it just a nightmare?’

‘It did happen,’ I told her. ‘But you see, Grimalkin gave me two gifts – a blade and a dark wish. So when the lamia dragged you into her lair I used the wish to save you. Then your father appeared.’

B6 C12