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Matthew and I laughed, but as far as Sarah was concerned, this ar From that moment my aunt and the house were in an all-out battle for supre, thanks to its chief weapon: Fleetwood Mac Sarah had bashed Mo a never-ending concert of "The Chain" The house retaliated by re all the toilet-paper rolls fro thedeterred the house fro selections from the band’s first two albums--not even Sarah’s defenestration of three record players, an eight-track tape machine, and an ancient Dictaphone

The house sih the furnace, the bass notes reverberating in the ducthile the treble wafted fro vents

With all her ire directed at the house, Sarah was surprisingly patient and gentle withfor Mo so far as to remove all the drawers and shelves froraphic love letters from the 1820s hidden beneath one drawer’s false bottom and a macabre collection of rodent skulls tacked in orderly rows behind a sliding panel at the back of the shelving, but no spell book The house would present it when it was ready

When the music and , Sarah and I escaped to the garden or the woods Today my aunt had offered to shohere baneful plants could be found Theof a new cycle of growth It would be a propitious tiic Matthew followed us like a shadoended our way through the vegetable patch and the teaching garden When we reached her witch’s garden, Sarah kept walking A giant arden and the woods It sprawled in every direction, obscuring the fence and the gate underneath

"Allowthe latch Until now he’d been sauntering behind us, see up the rear placed hiate, erous lurked there, and pulled the vine away so Sarah and I could pass through into another world

There were roves dedicated to the goddess, long avenues between yew trees that were once old roads and still showed the deep ruts of wagons laden ood and produce for the rove between the garden and the forest was h its center, es past, it round was thick with toadstools andthat grew there Now I understood why: Every plant here was either baneful or associated with the darker aspects of the craft Two paths intersected in the rove

"A crossroads" I froze

"The crossroads have been here longer than the house Solish settled here" Sarah beckoned htshade or black nightshade?"

Instead of listening, I was corove

There was power there Knowledge, too I felt the fa through the eyes of those who had walked these paths before

"What is it?" Matthew asked, his instincts warning hih faint, had captured randmother, and others unknown to me Wolfsbane, the voices whispered Skullcap Devil’s bit Adder’s tongue Witch’s brooestions, and their litany of spells included plants that featured in fairy tales

Gather cinquefoil when the moon is full to extend the reach of your power

Helleborespellyou love and many children

To see the future htened, hands on hips

"Coobediently to ave rove Her words went in one ear and out the other, flowing through me in a way that would have made my father proud My aunt could recite all the common and botanical names for every wildfloeed, root, and herb as well as their uses, both benign and baneful But herand study Sarah had no instinctive feel for what grew here I had learned the lie in Mary Sidney’s alchemical laboratory, when I was confronted for the first ti and writing about as a scholar There I had discovered that being able to cite alcheainst experience But oing to walk the dark paths of higherto have to do it alone

The prospect terrified o back out with her to gather the plants she would need for this o along But it was the insistent call of the voices at the crossroads that o to the woods tonight have so to do with your trip there this afternoon?" Matthew asked

"Perhaps," I said, staring out the"Sarah and Fernando are back"

My aunt was carrying a basket full of greenery The kitchen screen slammed shut behind her, and then the stillroom door creaked open A few minutes later, she and Fernando cli less than she had last week Fernando’s health regi back the covers

The night was dark, illuht, the rew louder

"I have to go" I pushed past Matthew and headed downstairs

"We have to go," he said fir to the woods by yourself"

"There’s power there, Matthew Dark power I could feel it And it’s been calling to me since the sun set!"

He took me by the elbow and propelled me out the front door He didn’t want anyone to hear the rest of this conversation

"Then answer its call," he snapped "Say yes or say no, but don’t expect me to sit here and wait quietly for you to return"

"And if I say yes?" I deether"

"I don’t believe you You toldwith life and death

That’s the kind of power that’s waiting for me where the paths cross in the woods And I want it!" I wrested er in his chest "I hateit, but I do!"

I turned from the revulsion that I kneould be in his eyes Matthew turned my face back toward him

"I’ve known that the darkness was in you since I found you in the Bodleian, hiding froht His eyes held mine

"I felt its allure, and the darkness in me responded to it Should I loathe myself, then?" Matthew’s voice dropped to a barely audible whisper "Should you?"