The First Midnight Spell by Claudia Gray Read Free Book Online Page A

seeing how the world kept trying to pry her apart from Nat only strengthened her determination, and her impatience.
    Let Pru quote her rules. Let Widow Porter try her distractions. Elizabeth meant to work her magic now, and all their efforts would never be able to stop her.
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    That night, when Aunt Ruth and the others had fallen asleep, Elizabeth pulled out her Book of Shadows.
    Every witch created her own Book of Shadows, if she was lucky enough to have access to paper, and to have been educated enough to write down her spells. Elizabeth’s “book” was still mostly a collection of paper fragments she’d bound together with twine, but someday she intended to have it properly bound. She would turn it into a volume as real as any sermon book or Bible.
    This was not merely a desire to keep her spells together and safe, though surely having a bound Book of Shadows would do that. Nor was it sentimentality, even though some of the scraps of paper were from Elizabeth’s childhood, and she could remember her mother’s hand on hers, helping her to form the letters. No, Elizabeth wanted a real Book of Shadows because—over the course of a witch’s life—her spell book could change. It could become more than a mere repository for magic spells; after decades of holding magic within its pages, the Book of Shadows could possess magic of its own. There were legends of witches old and powerful enough that their Books of Shadows even had a sort of consciousness. Those spell books weren’t merely reference sources; they were partners in a witch’s spellcasting.
    Elizabeth was tired of people arguing with her and setting limits on her magic. She liked the idea of a partner, even if it were only a book.
    Paper had been in short supply for a while. By now she was “crossing” spells—writing one atop the other, at an angle so that both sets of instructions remained legible. Elizabeth went over each and every page, from her oldest spells to her newest, searching for guidance.
    I want to create a spell to inspire the deepest love, she thought—then hesitated. No. Even very deep love for a woman might not be enough to make a man leave the rest of his family and life behind, not if he felt he were needed at home.
    Elizabeth focused anew. I want to create a spell to inspire . . . overwhelming passion. Uncontrollable desire. I want Nat to be unable to think of anything in the world but me. Love alone could not make him abandon Fortune’s Sound; only obsession could do that.
    So she would create a spell of obsession.
    What would be the right ingredients? Love, surely. That had to be a part of it; Elizabeth wanted that for herself, and besides, obsession without love could easily turn to hate.
    Single-mindedness, too: Nat shouldn’t be able to worry about trivial details such as his work or his chores. He shouldn’t ask himself what the preacher would say, or what his mother might think. He shouldn’t so much as remember that a girl named Rebecca Hornby even existed.
    Passion. She longed to know what Nat would be like, when he was overcome by passion. Would he be tentative, longing, almost shy but unable to keep himself from acting? Or would he be eager, even desperate to be with her? Just the daydreams made Elizabeth’s cheeks go hot.
    Those were the three key elements—but Elizabeth felt as though something might still be lacking. He could love her, even love nothing in the world but her, and yet still fail to do what she needed him to do. If they didn’t elope from Fortune’s Sound almost immediately, Widow Porter would find a way to stop them.
    Worse, Widow Porter would realize her son had been spelled, and it wouldn’t take long for her to realize who was responsible. Although Elizabeth no longer feared the so-called First Laws for their own sake, she feared Widow Porter’s magic. She wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Elizabeth if she thought