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She knew it like no one else did. She divined all its secrets, and
gave it even more. It was a land woven together by stories, threaded
through with magic. Lately no one saw the magic but her, and it
broke her heart.
But tonight! Tonight she had two new boys, and her Arthur.
She’d even managed to get Cora out.
In Minnie’s darkest moods, which struck like storms from the
sea, brutal and overpowering and then gone without a trace, she
hated her father for dying. Her father’s death had killed the sister
she knew, and replaced fun, dazzling, brave Cora with a soft and
prim version of their mother.
Minnie had a mother. She wanted her Cora again.
A small worm of guilt wriggled through her stomach. She
knew it wasn’t right to force Cora to come along with them to spy
on the witch. Minnie knew how terrified Cora had been that day,
knew that she still woke with nightmares.
But curse that witch, Minnie hated who her sister had
become. Maybe another trip would finally convince her that their
father’s heart attack had nothing to do with Cora climbing that
wretched tree.
Maybe, as Minnie sometimes suspected, the witch had sto-
len part of her sister’s soul through the small cut at the back of
Cora’s head.
In which case Minnie would simply have to steal it back.
“Are you twins?” one of the brothers asked. Thomas. He was
taller, but Charles was handsomer, with a sort of tragic romance to
his face, and Minnie fancied him immediately for it. She fancied
nearly everyone, though, and never let it bother her to distraction.
There was only one person her heart held close, but it was a secret,
and a dangerous one to nourish.
