The Once and Future Witches

Your sister sends her love, Hansel.”

Maybe magic is just the space between what you have and what you nee

Ask for me when you get there, Hill. I’ll be waiting.”

To just—live, to be—is one that I was signed up for before I was even born. I don’t get to walk away.”

who will break the laws of the universe rather than leave her daughter alone.

If behind every witch is a woman wronged.”

If behind every witch is a woman wronged.”

James Juniper is just a girl, most of the time. The rest of the Sisters of Avalon are just maids or mill workers, dancers or fortune-tellers, mothers or daughters. Everyday sorts of women with everyday sorts of lives, not worth mentioning in any story worth telling.

But tonight, beneath the Rose Moon of June, they are witches. They are crones and maidens, villains and temptresses, and all the stories belong to them.

James Juniper is just a girl, most of the time. The rest of the Sisters of Avalon are just maids or mill workers, dancers or fortune-tellers, mothers or daughters. Everyday sorts of women with everyday sorts of lives, not worth mentioning in any story worth telling.

But tonight, beneath the Rose Moon of June, they are witches. They are crones and maidens, villains and temptresses, and all the stories belong to them.

Her daughter will not grow up in the sunless dark of the mill, breathing dust and fumes, huddling next to the steam pipes in winter to keep warm. Her daughter will not be nothing.