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

wide with fear. ‘I’ve seen some pretty horrendous things happen over the last week but if you go to this place, and hand yourself over to this man, you’re going to regret it.’

Julie nodded. ‘It’s not often that I agree with that annoying young chit,’ she said, ignoring Jodie’s scowl. ‘But, darling, on this occasion she’s right. He says that he’ll release Lizzy when you offer yourself in her place. But he’ll have no reason to keep to his word once he has you. And what does this mean?’ She jabbed at the letter. ‘Work for him? We know enough from poor Cath here that he is the last person anyone would want to work for. I’m sorry about the Australian girl, but you can’t put yourself in jeopardy. Besides, he sounds like the kind of man who has a short attention span. He’ll get tired of her soon enough and let her go. Acceding to his demands will cause problems. Lots of problems.’

Anna reached over, took the bottle of gin from Julie, and had a long swig from it. She didn’t even flinch. ‘Max Stone is known to me. He’s known to all the police. He’s scum, Charley. The trouble is that he’s clever scum. We’ve never been able to pin anything on him to lock him up for more than a night or two, but there are plenty of stories about the sort of things he’s capable of. You can’t give yourself to him in return for Lizzy – you’ll be consigning yourself to hell. He wants you because he’s seen that magic shit you can do. There’s no chance he’s going to use you for the powers of good. I don’t think he has any good in him at all. The Manpocalypse is what he’s always dreamed of.’

‘Manpocalypse?’

Cath put her hand up. ‘That was me. We need some kind of catchy name for what’s happening. We can’t keep calling it the Magical Apocalypse That Only Affects Manchester. It’s far too wordy.’

‘You know, Manpocalypse sounds like it’s a man’s problem. Like mansplaining or manspreading.’

‘Yes, but we’re all women here so it doesn’t matter. Besides, you’re changing the subject. You can’t do this. It’ll end badly.’

I pushed myself off the counter and straightened my shoulder. ‘We can’t leave Lizzy with him. First of all because we’re not monsters, and secondly because Max is a monster. Third of all, because so is Lizzy. She won’t be able to contain her bunyip form forever. When she shifts again, he’ll want to keep her in his employ as much as me. There’s no chance that he’ll get tired of her and let her go. Not when he discovers the truth.’

Jodie threw up her hands. ‘But if you go to him he won’t just have a bunny thing to use. He’ll have an enchantress too!’

‘He won’t have anything or anyone,’ I answered calmly, ‘because I won’t let him. I told Timmons not to negotiate with terrorists. I’m not going to either.’ I bared my teeth in a smile. ‘But I will play the poker game of my life and bluff like my life depends on it. Because it does. Max doesn’t win here.’

‘Does that mean you have a plan?’

Not exactly; I was working on one, though. It was going to come to me at any moment. ‘Yes.’ I nodded vigorously. ‘I have an excellent plan.’

They all stared at me. I cleared my throat.

‘It’s too complicated to explain right now,’ I said, with an airy wave. Then my eyes hardened. ‘But it will work.’

Lizzy’s life might depend upon it.

It was fortunate that one of my departed neighbours down the street was a despiser of all things technological, including satnav, and had a vast collection of A–Z street maps. I smoothed out the relevant section and grabbed a highlighter purloined from the secondary-school teacher at number fifty-eight who had appeared perpetually harassed. I could get used to this kind of ‘shopping’. Who knew what hidden gems we might find in other houses in the area?

‘Right,’ I said, circling the tiny park indicated by a splash of green. ‘This is where Max wants me to meet him and where we’re all expected to ante up, him with Lizzy and me with – well, me.’

We leaned over the map. Julie hissed through her teeth. ‘I know that area, darling. I shot an advert there back in the day. The park is surrounded by tall buildings. It’s a cul-de-sac with only one way in or out.’

I nodded. ‘You can guarantee that Max already has eyes all over it. There’s no way to sneak anyone in there before the meet in order to put the odds in our favour. But it doesn’t matter – Max might think he’s got the big hand, but he’s not holding all the cards.’ I jabbed the end of the highlighter in Cath’s direction. ‘Which houses in this area has Max already tried?’

Cath’s face tightened. ‘None.’ She took the pen from me. ‘He was here the first night,’ she added a dab of neon pink to indicate the spot, ‘and here the second night,’ she marked the map again. ‘And we were moving here for the third night.’

I examined her marks. The first one was in the small suburb that had been evacuated almost at the outset of the Manpocalypse. The second was to the west and in a more upmarket area. The third was one of Manchester’s wealthiest addresses. None of them were remotely close to where Max wanted me to meet him.

‘Hang on,’ Jodie said. ‘That means you were with him from the start, before any of us knew how bad things were going to get.’

Cath avoided our eyes. ‘I’ve been working for him for a while.’ She shrugged awkwardly. ‘A couple of months maybe. I only did small stuff, running errands and picking things up for him. Nothing major.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘I needed the money, alright? University doesn’t come cheap and my parents certainly weren’t going to cough