Witchcraft is a diverse spiritual and magical practice that draws upon nature, intention, symbolism, folklore, and personal intuition. For centuries, practitioners have worked with herbs, candles, stones, and rituals to seek protection, encourage prosperity, honour natural cycles, and deepen their connection with the world around them. Although traditions differ, many witches believe that the most... Continue Reading →
The Beautiful Things We Throw Away
For most of his life, Beau Marco had been paid extraordinary amounts of money to make beautiful things for people who already owned everything. His sculptures stood in the entrance halls of luxury hotels in Dubai. His paintings hung in private collections in Paris, London, and New York. One of his installations, a twelve-foot chandelier... Continue Reading →
Casting A Circle
Casting a circle is one of the most recognizable rituals in many forms of modern witchcraft. It involves creating a symbolic boundary around a chosen space, setting it apart from everyday surroundings and preparing it for spellwork, meditation, divination, or spiritual ceremonies. The circle is traditionally considered a sacred space where a practitioner can focus... Continue Reading →
Chapter Twenty-One: The Truth Catherine Buried
Jessie had spent most of her life believing there were two kinds of lies. There were the lies people told to take something from you, and the lies people told because they were afraid of what the truth might cost them. She had told both kinds herself, sometimes so convincingly that she could no longer... Continue Reading →
The Little Flower Stand That Changed Everything
There were two things everyone in the little town of Willow Creek seemed to agree on. The first was that nothing much ever happened there. The second was that if you wanted something badly enough, you had better figure out how to get it yourself. Willow Creek had once been a bustling place, with busy... Continue Reading →
Chapter Twenty: The Price of Knowing Who You Are
The morning of Peter Vale’s deadline arrived beneath a sky the colour of dirty silver. A cold rain had begun falling over Hamilton shortly before dawn, turning the streets into dark ribbons of reflected headlights and making the city seem quieter than it was. Jessie Wilson stood beside the window of the police office, watching... Continue Reading →
The Light That Never Went Out
The first thing Emma Sullivan noticed about the lighthouse was that it looked lonely. It stood at the farthest edge of a rocky peninsula, where the Atlantic Ocean crashed against black stones and the wind seemed determined to carry away anything that wasn't properly secured. Its white paint had faded to the colour of old... Continue Reading →
Chapter Nineteen: The Keeper of Stolen Names
By the time the sun disappeared behind the buildings of downtown Hamilton, Jessie had begun to understand that the most dangerous person in the investigation might not be the woman who had designed the experiments at St Catherine’s. Miriam Cross had spent decades perfecting methods of psychological manipulation, but Peter Vale had grown up inside... Continue Reading →
The Beautiful Things That Grow After the Storm
When thirty-eight-year-old Hazel Bennett lost her job, her home, and the future she had spent fifteen years building, she discovered something rather inconvenient about life: it had absolutely no interest in following the plans she had so carefully made. It happened over the course of six months. First, the little bookstore where she worked closed... Continue Reading →
The Goddess Who Became the Morning Star: The Ancient Mystery of Inanna, Ishtar, and the Planet Venus
Long before humanity understood that the brilliant light appearing before sunrise was another planet, the people of ancient Mesopotamia believed they were witnessing something divine. In the darkness before dawn, when the world was still quiet and the horizon had only begun to brighten, a magnificent celestial light appeared in the eastern sky. It shone... Continue Reading →