Page 6 of The Midwinter Mirror
Of course she did.“You will. You’ll see—we’ll phone her as soon as we get home.” At least that will put an end to this nonsense. Dad can bring her back from the village in the tractor.
He goes quiet then, and we head home, but I can feel his sadness pulsing through the cold air between us. This is why I hate all the magic crap that goes on in this place. It drives me crazy. I mean, get real, people.
We move slowly, and it takes about four times as long to walk back as it did to get to Silvergate. Just as we get in sight of the house, the snow starts falling again. But it looks like Dad’s already back, and we’ve got company. What’s going on? There are at least five cars on the driveway in front of the house. My family have been Lords of the Manor for as long as history has been recorded, and while we don’t have any legal power, the villagers tend to come straight here when anything goes wrong.
My hand tightens around Milo’s.
“Ouch,” he mutters.
Maybe they heard Milo was missing and came to help us search for him.
As we approach the house, I recognize Tansy’s aunt’s car. While I love Tansy dearly—she’s a sweet girl—I hate her aunt with a deep, dark loathing. I will never forgive her for how she treated Zayne when he needed her the most. Likely, he would still be here if she had behaved like a decent human being. Or if I had, that little voice whispers. Though maybe not. Zayne will be twenty now—he’s a month older than me—and the village was never big enough to hold him.
I can’t see Tansy anywhere. I would have expected her to come running. A lump forms in my stomach. I glance down at Milo; his lower lip quivers.
The group of villagers is standing at the top of the steps leading to the house, along with my father and mother. My mother glances at us as we approach, her eyes widening at the sight of Milo beside me. “I told you I’d find him,” I say.
She hurries over and clutches him to her, wrapping her arms tight around him. He’ll suffocate if she hugs him any harder.I look at my dad, then at the people surrounding him, their expressions grim. They’re clearly not here to look for Milo.
Dread crawls up my throat. “What’s going on?” I ask.
“The children are missing,” my father says.
“Which children?”
“All of them.”
My stomach drops.
Chapter 3
The Prodigal Returns
Zayne
Iwake to the echo of bells. Not church bells—but thin, bright, wrong. The kind that only ring in Elderfell when the snow has teeth. I haven’t heard them in five years.
Just a dream. All the same, panic grips me. I roll out of bed and drag the box from beneath the mattress. It contains the few things I kept from my life in Elderfell. A photo of my mum anddad and Tansy. Happy. Another of the silver-haired girl who shredded my fifteen-year-old heart.
And a red paper star on a gold thread.
It’s time to bring home my little sister. I’m not a fifteen-year-old loser anymore. I’m not the scared boy who thought he was losing his mind. I can offer Tansy a home now. A family—albeit a slightly unconventional one.
“What is it?” Josh says sleepily from the bed next to mine.
“I have to go back to Earth.”
He sits up and looks at me solemnly, at the red star clutched in my hand, and nods. “It’s time.”
I shake my head. He doesn’t even know why we’re going. Or maybe he does. Who knows with Josh? He’s been a little…strange since he got hit by that bolt of dark mirror magic.
“We’d better pack,” he says, jumping out of bed. “Come on, Grimlet, we’re going to Earth for Christmas. Maybe it will snow.”
I fucking hope not.
Grimlet’s tiny gray head pops out of the blankets. He yawns, stretches, then scrambles to the floor in a scratchy rustle of wings.
Then I watch, bewildered, as the two of them tear around the room. I’d thought I was going alone. Clearly not. This is what having a family is like. I smile.
