In the Shadows

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.