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

back. Infuriating man. This was about far more than survival of the fittest; it was about pulling together as a team and creating a new community of Mancunian survivors. No one was dying yet – in fact no one would die at all, not if I had anything to say about it.

‘I know you’re making faces at me,’ Monroe muttered. ‘It’s incredibly childish and a complete waste of energy.’

‘I don’t have to make faces at you behind your back,’ I told him. I moved round so I was facing him and stuck my tongue out. Unfortunately that made it rather difficult to speak. ‘I an ake aces ile i am acing oo.’

He straightened up and gazed at me implacably. ‘Am I supposed to understand what you’re saying?’

I blew out my cheeks and pulled on my ears. Then, for added effect, I scrunched up my face. The tiniest corner of Monroe’s mouth tugged up. Ah ha! I had him.

‘This is ridiculous,’ he said. ‘You’re the one who was concerned about time. Stop messing around.’

I started hopping from foot to foot, still pulling the same face. I’d have continued that way too if I hadn’t slipped on a patch of slimy ash and lost my footing. I landed flat on my back with a surprised oomph. Monroe suddenly laughed. I wouldn’t have pegged him for a slapstick kind of guy, but I guess it takes all sorts.

He placed his piled-up boxes down on the ground before extending a hand to pull me up. ‘Never let it be said that I’m not a gentleman,’ he murmured in my ear.

‘Yeah, yeah.’

He smiled, then he inhaled and his expression went curiously blank. ‘You still smell of sunshine,’ he said quietly, before releasing me and returning his attention to the boxes.

I sucked in a breath and stared at him. Surreptitiously, I sniffed my armpits. As far as I could tell, I smelled like I needed a good hot shower. What the hell did sunshine smell like anyway?

I shrugged awkwardly. Boxes, Charley, I reminded myself. Focus on the boxes.

In the end, we managed to fill most of the Jeep. When we left the football ground, there were still boxes upon boxes remaining. I had the desperate notion that the government really wasn’t planning on any more supply drops, otherwise they wouldn’t have dropped so much this time around. Of course, if anyone else had spotted Liung flapping around last night, it wasn’t surprising that aircraft wanted to keep a wide berth if they could. Neither would thick swarms of locusts be good for rotating helicopter blades.

I balanced five of the boxes on my knee, my vision wholly obscured. That was fine until Monroe slammed on the brakes when we’d barely driven fifty metres away from the stadium. ‘What the fuck?’ I spluttered, squashed against the boxes that were now squashed against the windscreen.

‘Wait here,’ Monroe said. I heard rather than saw him unclip his seatbelt and climb out of the car.

I hastily extricated myself and half fell out of the car after him. As soon as I did, I regretted it. We had only made it to the first bridge over the canal; thrashing around in the murky water was some sort of gigantic creature. When I blinked and looked more closely, it appeared to have a human being in its saw-toothed mouth. It was difficult to tell for sure because the monster wouldn’t stay still for more than a heartbeat at a time.

‘What the bejesus is that?’ I gasped.

Monroe, whose body was ramrod straight, gave me an annoyed look. ‘I told you to stay in the Jeep. Come on, we’ve still got things to do. We’re not getting involved in this.’

Like hell we weren’t. While he marched back and got into the driver’s seat, I turned away and jogged across the bridge, looking for a way to reach the water’s edge. If I really were some kind of enchantress, surely dealing with a slimy monster from the depths of Manchester’s canals would be a piece of cake.

‘Goddammit, Charlotte!’ Monroe exploded from behind me.

I grimaced. I didn’t remember telling him what my full name was. ‘It’s Charley,’ I yelled over my shoulder.

I picked up my pace and skidded down until water lapped at my toes and the Canal Beast was merely metres away. I hadn’t been wrong: there was definitely some poor, hapless person trapped in its jaws. At that point, it was difficult to tell whether they were still alive or not. I crossed my fingers and prayed for the former.

I stilled my body, trying to think. When I’d rescued Cath, all I’d had to do was thrust my hands out and that had been enough. Now I held up both hands in the air. They looked normal but they felt … strange. It was as if the magic contained within me was straining to get out. If that were the case, I’d certainly let it. I drew in a deep breath and flicked my wrists.

I felt it leaving my body. The magic surged from me like some strange, immutable force I was powerless to stop. It pulsated out, hitting the water and causing a sudden wave of tsunami-like proportions to rise up and cascade over the monster. It dropped the human, who crashed to the surface as my magical wave hit the bank on the other side and flooded the road opposite. It also submerged the bridge, the Jeep, Monroe and the other people who’d emerged from the stadium with their supplies and were staring downwards.

There were several screams and cries, but I didn’t have time to worry about those people. They were simply wet; the guy – or gal – in the water might well be dead. And if they weren’t already, they soon would be.

The canal subsided into smaller, tumescent waves. There was no sign of the monster but I thought I spotted a body in the bobbing detritus. I kicked off my shoes and stripped off my jacket and T-shirt.

‘Charley!’