Read Online Darkest Hour (Age of Misrule, Book 2) by Mark Chadbourn - Free Book Online

she winced as its talons bit into her flesh, then pushed her head to one side for fear it would start flapping its wings. It was the first time it had come close enough for her to touch. The owl turned its eerie, blinking eyes on Veitch, who was grinning broadly.
    “What’s his name?” He reached out a hand, but the owl snapped its beak in the direction of his fingers and he withdrew sharply.
    “Who says it’s a he?”
    “Well what’s its fucking name then?”
    “It hasn’t got a name.” She paused. “Not one that I know, anyway.”
    “Well, don’t you think you should give him one? Or her. It. If it’s going to be on the team-“
    “Maybe I’ll ask it later.” Her eyes sparkled.
    Veitch looked at her for a second or two, but he couldn’t tell if she was serious or teasing him. He decided to opt for the latter and responded in kind with a faint smirk. “Witch.”
    “Fuckhead.”
    Their eyes locked for a long moment, then they burst out laughing. Turning, they threw the bags over their shoulders and marched towards the seafront.
    “So what exactly can you do?” Veitch said.
    Ruth shrugged. “I don’t know yet. It’s like spending all your life as a man and then someone coming up to you and telling you you’re actually a woman. How do you get your head round something as monumental as that? How can you comprehend you’ve been chosen by the gods for some task?”
    “Sounds pretty cool to me. I wouldn’t mind.”

    “You might think differently if it actually happened to you. It’s hard enough understanding that the world’s changed. That different rules operate now, fundamental rules, about the way everything works. The woman I met in the Lake District-“
    “The old magic-biddy?”
    “The Wiccan. She’d spent years practising certain rites and not getting anywhere. Then, earlier this year, she woke up and suddenly found out things happened. At her command.”
    “What kind of things?”
    “Altering the weather. Controlling animals …” Ruth had a sudden flashback to the spirit-flight she experienced and was surprised at the depth of her yearning to savour it again. “I don’t think it’s a matter of having any kind of power. It’s just an aptitude for controlling things. Like physicists bending nuclear power to their will. You have to learn how to access it.”
    “Any luck so far?”
    “I haven’t really tried. I’m a little nervous.”
    “I read sex helps with magic.” He didn’t look at her, but she could sense his grin.
    “Don’t go down that road. You’re still on probation.”
    “Okay. Just offering my services if you need me.”
    “Thanks, but I’d rather put my eyes out.”
    For a brief moment the wind shifted and the omnipresent stink of burning was replaced by the salty aroma of the sea and the heady tang of green hills. They both stopped and breathed deeply.
    The fire roared as Tom threw on another broken dining chair, the glow painting a dull red over his wire-rimmed spectacles. Shavi sat cross-legged in front of his tent, staring deep into the flames. His long hair hung limp around his face, his perfect Asian features so still he could have been a mannequin. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Tom eyed him surreptitiously as he turned from the blaze.
    “It was a terrible experience, but you gained wisdom from it.” He adjusted the elastic band holding his grey ponytail in place.
    Shavi’s eyes flickered, as if he were waking from a dream. “At the moment that seems little consolation.”
    “There’s always a price to pay for knowledge. What you did was a great leap forward in your abilities.” Tom sat next to him, but far enough away so as not to encroach on the invisible barrier Shavi had placed around himself.
    “I feel something has broken inside, deep in my head. Only I cannot tell exactly what. I simply feel different, damaged.”

    “You projected your consciousness, your very self, out of your body and into an unthinking beast. It was a triumph of