Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough Read Free Book Online Page A

sister snorts, something that would seem inelegant when done by anyone else. "She'll never believe it."
    I shake her grip off. " Make her believe it," I say.
    My sister turns pale. "I can't use my Talent on Mom."
    "And Gabriel," I add.
    "I can't use it on either of them. You—"
    "You used it on Silda," I say.
    "That was different. That was about a dress. This is just a little more serious." She holds her thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart.
    "Please, Ro. I need a time to try and do this on my own. I don't need anyone else getting hurt. You heard what the stranger said tonight. Don't be angry with your young man. He did put up a good fight. Don't you get what that means?"
    My sister starts to shake her head, and then her eyes widen. "He Traveled here. Using Gabriel's Talent. Which means Gabriel Travels to the past and—"
    "And they get him. Somehow. But that doesn't have to happen. That can all be changed."
    But my sister gives my wrists a little shake. "Three days. You're coming home. No matter what happens. Three days, Tam, and then you'll find a way home, no matter what. Promise."
    "I promise," I whisper. "In time for your wedding."
    I've never felt so bad lying to my sister.

    "There," Rowena says, pinning the last of my curls into place and turning me by the shoulder to face the mirror. "You look somewhat respectable."
    I blink. Rowena has managed to tame my hair into a tight knot and has pinned and tucked me into my costume, mending the worst of the rips and tatters. She also made me remove the two silver studs I had in my right ear and the two pink hearts in my left. "And, here, take these," she adds, metal glinting between her fingers.
    I look down at the small hoard of dollar coins, fifty-cent pieces, and copper nickels she pressed into my hand. I can't help but smile. Uncle Chester had given us each a few of these old coins throughout the years, and we used to fight over them all the time. "I knew you stole these from me."
    "I did not," Rowena says. "You lost yours. These were from my collection. Anyway, I made sure none of them was from after 1886, so you should be safe."
    I slide the coins into the inner petticoat pocket, where they feel agreeably heavy. "I promise not to spend all of these at once," I say, because the weight of everything else I should say is pressing at my throat. And then, because there's nothing left to do, I pick up the Domani very carefully by the chain. With a deep breath, I release the catch. The locket springs open and I brush my finger against the glass face.
    Between one ticking second and the next, the clock hands freeze in place. Tiny letters begin arranging themselves into an inscription on the back of the open lid. Letters written in a language that I'll never be able to understand. "Hurry, Rowena," I whisper.
    For one horrible instant I think my sister has changed her mind when she folds her lower lip between her teeth. Then she leans forward and reads the inscription in a soft, trembling voice: "Fire in the East and Water for the South, Air for the North and Earth in the West. All of these now Blood does bind. Yet even now Time erases what Blood would buy."
    We stare at each other.
    I find my voice first. "That's not what it said—"
    "The last time," she says, finishing my thought. A cold wind curls around my ankles, pulling at my clothes, and a splinter of lightning stabs across the blue sky outside my bedroom window. All at once, dark clouds race from the west to meet the growing light in the east. Glancing down at the watch in my hand, I notice the tiny second hand is spinning wildly backwards, followed more slowly by the hour hand. I reach out, brush the air above my sister's shoulder, careful not to touch her. "Tell Gabriel ... tell him I love him. That I'm sorry," I whisper.
    Rowena frowns. "Tell him yourself, Tamsin. When you see him in three days." Then she narrows her eyes at me. "You're not—"
    But whatever else she is going to say is lost as my windows rattle