Page 3

Three

ELSPETH

I turned back to Adelaide as the cart rolled along the road. “So?” I asked, arms crossed.

She shrugged innocently. “So . . . what?”

“You really think we should’ve stayed behind, gotten to know this Elm, let him know us.”

Adelaide sighed heavily. “Elspeth, I know you’ve been hurt in the past.”

I looked away, not wanting to think about the person who hurt me, who’d broken my heart. That had been long ago. I’d been a naive girl. Now I was a grown woman of thirty, and I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I had before.

“It’s not about that,” I said.

“Not entirely,” Adelaide agreed. She laid a hand on my arm. “But I think it is part of it. You know nothing about Elm, yet you assume he’s going to discover our secrets and turn us in to Witch Superior.”

The only way that wouldn’t happen was if, by some miracle, the Witch Trials were invoked before the current Witch Superior was ready to step down.

Typically, the Witch Trials happened when the current Witch Superior invoked them herself, signaling she was ready for her reign to end. But if someone else called for the trials to happen, that was a different situation entirely.

In that case, Witch Superior would be forced to compete against the most powerful witches in our realm to keep her position. Witch Superior was at least eighty years old, so she wouldn’t fare well in the trials, would likely lose to her challengers. But it wasn’t easy to invoke the Witch Trials early. It took a great number of petitioners to do so, a trip to the capital, a presentation before the witch council as to why the trials needed to be invoked. In short, it was extremely difficult. The Witch Trials hadn’t been invoked by the people for over three hundred years.

It wasn’t likely to happen. The next Witch Trials would come about when Witch Superior was ready to step down, and then she’d invoke them herself and wouldn’t have to compete. She’d get to preside over the event, retire with a great legacy behind her. A legacy full of harsh laws and even harsher punishments.

Exactly why we had to be careful about who we fraternized with.

The wind gusted past us, and I shivered. Once we were far enough away, I would stop the cart and grab my cloak, but right now that damned tree line was still too close for comfort.

Adelaide brushed some stray blonde hairs from her forehead. “You don’t always have to shut the world out. You’re so scared we’re going to be caught, I’m afraid you’re missing out on making connections, on letting anyone in.”

Adelaide didn’t get it. She was kind. Too kind, which made her a pushover. Auggie was too self-involved and immature. Prue didn’t care about anything but her books. And Mama... well, Mama was like a child instead of an actual mother. I was the only one who could keep us safe. Who had kept us safe all these years after I messed up and almost cost us everything by revealing our secret to the wrong person. I wouldn’t ever make that mistake again.

I was about to tell Adelaide exactly that when our cart hit a bump. We jolted forward, a horrible crack splitting the air as the cart skidded off the road.

Screams erupted from inside, Mama and my sisters squealing in terror. My heart shot up to my throat, and my lungs squeezed tight. Adelaide gripped onto me while I held on tight to the cart. I couldn’t do anything but watch the events unfold as it rolled off the side of the road.

The cart lurched to a stop, but my body went flying through the air. My stomach heaved, the world becoming a dizzying flood of color and sound until I crashed into the ground.

My knees and hands made impact first, pain jolting through my joints. I tried to lift my hand from the ground, but it was stuck, which was when I realized we’d landed in mud. Thick, sticky mud. I groaned and slowly came to a stand. Mud splattered across my green dress, the hem and sleeves now ripped. My boots were encased in the thick substance.

The cart lay on its side behind me, one of the wheels broken off and another one with a crack through it. Mama, Auggie, and Prue were climbing out of the back, all of them with scratches and their hair going in all directions—but other than that, they seemed okay.

Auggie stopped when she saw the mud. “Mama, my dress is ruined!” She lifted the skirts of her pale pink dress, covered in splotches of our broken potions. She’d begged me to let her buy that dress. Auggie loved pretty things.

Prue poked her head out. “My books,” she cried, lifting one up that was now blue and dripping. “The potions soaked them.”

They were worried about clothes and books when we had much, much bigger problems on our hands. I stared at the cart, my stomach sinking. This cart was our entire business. It was our transportation. It was everything, and we didn’t have the money to fix it. If the cart was broken, that effectively broke the spell cast over it. We’d need to both fix the cart and find a woodsmith who could recast the spell. None of us knew how to do such powerful magic. This was a complete disaster.

“Where is Adelaide?” Mama cried.

I gasped, realizing I’d forgotten about my older sister.

“I’ve got her,” a masculine voice said.

Chills skittered down my arms as Elm Kingsley appeared from behind the cart, carrying Adelaide in his arms as he sloshed his way through the muddy field.

“I’m really okay,” she said, cheeks pink and dotted with mud. “You don’t have to carry me. ”

He gave her the most tender look I’d ever seen. “I don’t mind. You all left in such a hurry. Was everything okay?”

Mama hopped down off the cart, tromping through the field to get to Elm and Adelaide, the skirts of her dress caked in mud. “Oh, it was so silly,” she said. “Elspeth remembered we had an appointment with a merchant who wanted to buy our potions. I’m so sorry we had to leave like that. We were planning on returning after the appointment, but well...” She gestured to our cart.

Elm set Adelaide down but kept his arm around her waist. He loomed over her, massive, his dark, curly hair tied back at his nape with curls escaping and framing his chiseled face. He rubbed his stubbled chin, and Auggie sighed, practically swooning as she gawked at him. Prue smacked her with a book, and Auggie jolted, then glared at our youngest sister.

“I’m sorry.” Elm gestured to our cart. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No,” I said quickly while everyone else said, “Yes.”

This was turning into a nightmare.

“We can handle this on our own.” I tried to keep the edge from my voice.

“How?” Auggie gestured to the cracked wheel. “We can’t fix this ourselves.” She looked behind her into the cart. “Most of our potion bottles are broken. Our cauldron is overturned. The entire inside is a mess with the spilled liquid everywhere.”

I swallowed back my tears. I’d been so distracted by the outside, I hadn’t even thought about the disaster that was on the inside.

“Come to town with me,” Elm said to Adelaide, taking her small hands in his large ones. “Thistlegrove has a talented woodsmith who can get your cart fixed.”

My pulse jumped at the suggestion. I didn’t want to go into town. Towns were full of people, of gossip, of prying eyes.

“Does Thistlegrove have a bookstore?” Prue asked, eyeing Elm.

A slow smile spread across his face. “It does.”

“I’m in,” she said and hopped off the cart, a huge splat of mud spraying everywhere as her boots sank into the ground. She pushed her spectacles farther up her nose .

“Watch it!” Auggie raised her hands up to shield herself from the onslaught of mud.

I crossed my arms. “How are we even going to get our cart to town?”

“I happen to be very strong.” Elm shot me a confident smile.

Right. Werewolves had enormous strength.

“I can pull it to town for you, and then we’ll find the local woodsmith. Everyone in Thistlegrove is very welcoming.”

I’d heard that before, and it never stayed true for long.

“I bet you have a dress shop too.” Auggie pressed her hands together.

“We do,” Elm replied. “With many beautiful silks and a talented dressmaker.”

“Can we please go to town?” Auggie said, but she wasn’t asking Mama. She was asking me.

I looked from the cart to the road to the sky above, where clouds were gathering and darkening. It would rain soon, and we didn’t want to be stuck in this field when it happened.

“Where are we going to stay?” I asked helplessly, knowing we wouldn’t have enough gold to pay for an inn for more than a few nights.

Elm stroked his jaw. “I have an idea about that.”

I sighed heavily. “It doesn’t look like we have much choice.”

“Perfect,” Elm said. “You’re going to love Thistlegrove and all the people in it. I promise.”