City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

I wasn’t surprised that Monroe had come to the same conclusion that I had so quickly. ‘That’s what I figure,’ I said. ‘And that’s why we need to act fast. That,’ I added, ‘and the fact that we’re about to be shut off from the world. It might not be for a long time but if it is…’

‘Manchester is doomed,’ he broke in.

I started. ‘That’s a bit extreme.’

He waved a hand and swerved, narrowly avoiding a large crater that had opened in the road. ‘Magic is still here. I can feel it. You can bet your blue hair that the vampire can feel it. All the faeries have gone, and I seriously doubt they’ll come back. Humans don’t know how to cope with the supernatural. They’re a technology-based society. This whole area is about to become like Chernobyl.’ He bared his teeth. ‘Apart from the likes of you and me, that is.’ He shot me a sidelong glance. ‘Because if you really are some sort of enchantress, you belong here now. Not out there in the land of broadband speeds and satellite television.’ He paused. ‘What is this Max?’

‘Human,’ I answered. ‘I think.’

Monroe snorted. ‘Then I’ll track him down and snap his neck. Job done.’

I gritted my teeth. ‘And someone else will take his place. Besides, killing people willy-nilly is wrong.’

‘Willy-nilly? What kind of word is that? Stop being so prissy.’ He leaned towards me, taking his eyes off the road. ‘The world you knew no longer exists. Get with the programme.’

I reminded myself that he was a man in pain and hurting a wounded animal would be cruel. ‘There will be no killing,’ I said stiffly. ‘Not unless it’s completely warranted.’

‘And,’ Monroe answered softly, ‘you don’t think that purple bruises across a teenage girl’s face warrant it?’

I folded my arms and looked out of the window. ‘It’s not a proportional response.’

‘I haven’t even met this Max and I have his measure. Either stop him now or reap the consequences later.’ His lip curled. ‘But if he’s human, he’s not my concern. There’s no place in this city for the likes of him. Not any more.’

‘You seem very sure about what’s going to happen. This situation is unprecedented. I don’t believe for a second that the British government will simply abandon one of its largest cities because of a few days’ craziness. Give it a couple of weeks and things will go back to normal.’

Monroe slammed on the brakes. I was yanked forward, the seatbelt pressing sharply against my chest. A heartbeat later, a gigantic beast passed in front of us without giving our vehicle, which was tiny in comparison, a second glance. It was more than a pink elephant; it was closer to some kind of mammoth, with lethal-looking tusks and legs as wide as tree trunks. The pink colour didn’t make it less imposing; if anything, it made the beast all the more terrifying.

‘Sure,’ Monroe murmured as it thundered past us. ‘Things are definitely going back to normal any day now.’

My mouth felt painfully dry. I licked my lips and swallowed. ‘That was on television. That – pink thing. If it was the same one, it used to be a hell of a lot smaller.’

‘I told you.’ There was grim satisfaction in his voice. ‘The magic is still here, and you know it. Come midnight tonight, Manchester will be left to us ghouls. The only thing left to expect is the unexpected.’

He changed gears and moved the Jeep forward again. The elephant, if that’s what it was, had vanished again but there were cracks in the tarmac indicating its trail.

I pressed the palms of my hands against my temples. Yeah. Maybe Monroe was right about Manchester’s future.

We continued in silence until we reached a large supermarket on the very fringes of the city. Both of us were absorbed in our own thoughts. It wasn’t until Monroe came to a halt and turned off the engine that he spoke again. ‘One final question before we do this,’ he said.

‘Mmm?’

He was silent for a moment. ‘You said you knew grief. That you understood what it was like to be responsible for the death of another person.’ His voice was almost a whisper. ‘What happened?’

I looked away. Out of the window, the blue hue, which apparently only I could see, was still covering the horizon. ‘My brother,’ I answered eventually. ‘He died and it was my fault. I could have saved him but I didn’t.’ I paused, my voice dropping to a whisper. ‘His name was Joshua.’

The old, familiar pain wrenched deep within my heart. Monroe reached over and took my hand, squeezing it tightly. For a few seconds we sat there in silence, lost in the swirl of our own hurt.

Finally he released his grip. ‘Let’s get a move on.’

The plan was simple. There were too few of us to make much of a dent in the vast supplies that lay in the supermarkets and shops across the city. Even if we’d had the wherewithal to transport what we might need for the weeks, months and possibly years ahead, we had nowhere to store it. Neither could we deny the other brave souls who remained in Manchester the chance to get hold of their own rations.

So, for the time being we were going to be like squirrels. We’d create our own special stashes, locking away as much as we could so that the likes of Max couldn’t get their grubby mitts on it. We wouldn’t be greedy; this was about survival more than anything else.

By starting at the outskirts of the city and working inwards, we’d be able to create drop points that could be used in the future. We couldn’t count on every stash surviving or the situation returning to some kind of normality, not if Monroe was right and Manchester was going to become the lost city of England with no more of a future than Chernobyl.

We worked quickly and quietly. We hadn’t chosen this supermarket