Alyce had never planned on getting a cat. In fact, she had a perfectly reasonable list of reasons why a cat wouldn't fit into her life. There was the expense, the responsibility, the fur on everything, and the rather inconvenient fact that she had grown quite fond of being able to leave a glass of... Continue Reading →
The Witch Who Borrowed Tomorrow – Part One
Part One The first time Isolde Ashbourne travelled through time, she was twenty-seven years old, standing barefoot in a circle of salt beneath a blood-red moon, and absolutely certain she was about to die. She had been born in 1590, in a small English village surrounded by ancient woodland, where the trees grew so close... Continue Reading →
Chapter Six: The Others
For several seconds, neither Jessie nor Gabriel moved. Daniel's voice had stopped, leaving only the faint hiss of the recording. Outside, police radios crackled and doors slammed. Officers were moving through the property, Dr. Vale was in custody, and somewhere near the river Emily Carter and Mrs. Alvarez were being brought to safety. Jessie should... Continue Reading →
Chapter Five: The Place That Remembered Her
St. Catherine's looked smaller than Jessie remembered. That bothered her. Places from childhood were supposed to shrink with age. Schools, playgrounds, childhood bedrooms - the things that once seemed enormous became ordinary when viewed through adult eyes. But St. Catherine's didn't belong to Jessie's childhood. It belonged to a part of her life that had... Continue Reading →
Chapter Four: What Jessie Did
Jessie said nothing. For several seconds, the only sound in Mrs. Alvarez's apartment was the television playing softly behind her. Someone on the screen was laughing, the kind of canned, cheerful laughter that belonged in a completely different universe. Jessie stared at the photograph of Emily and Mrs. Alvarez and tried to make Gabriel's words... Continue Reading →
The Five-Minute Choice
By 7:42 on Thursday morning, Hannah had already decided the day was terrible. She had slept through her alarm, discovered there was no coffee left, stepped in something suspiciously wet while wearing clean socks, and received an email from her boss containing the horrifying sentence, “Can we chat when you get in?” Nothing good had... Continue Reading →
Chapter Three: The Missing Year
Jessie Wilson did not frighten easily. Fear was useful. She had learned that young. Fear sharpened the senses, accelerated thought and reminded you that whatever was happening mattered. Panic was the problem and panic made people stupid. Jessie had watched armed men panic. She had watched experienced criminals make catastrophic decisions because somebody unexpected knocked... Continue Reading →
The Day the Rain Changed Everything
Brooke had been planning the community picnic for almost three months, which meant she had spent almost three months worrying about things no reasonable human being should ever have to worry about. Were sixty folding chairs enough? Would anyone actually eat the quinoa salad someone had volunteered to bring? How many balloons constituted “festive” before... Continue Reading →
The Witch Who Never Touched Anyone
Everyone in Briar Hollow knew that Isobel Leach wore gloves. She wore them in summer, when the heat made the roads shimmer and everyone else rolled their sleeves above their elbows. She wore them while buying bread, while gathering herbs beside the river, and even while standing alone beneath the rain. What no one knew... Continue Reading →
Chapter Two: The Girl Who Wasn’t Supposed to Matter
Jessie Wilson had spent eleven months learning how to sleep like a normal person. It had not gone particularly well. Normal people, she had discovered, apparently went to bed without checking the hallway twice, without noticing whether the same car had been parked across the street for three consecutive nights, and without waking instantly when... Continue Reading →