The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Hundreds of people do the same thing, you know. The whole witch aesthetic is very popular!”

“Witchcore,” Hilda said, nodding wisely. “Not quite as popular as cottagecore or fairycore, but it’s up there.”

It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong,” Jamie said, his eyes on the house ahead. “Sometimes we need to make that place.”

And that, of course, was the moment it began to rain.

Altamira.

“Those are called white lies and, yes, I suppose Ken’s right. If you have to choose between being kind or being truthful, it’s usually better to be kind.

Mika put two freshly washed teacups down on the table and scooped up her jars of tea leaves. “What’ll it be today?”

Noah perked up. He studied the labels on the jars, considering the question as if it was of the utmost importance. “Luck,”

It was always irksome when an idea went nowhere, but Mika knew by now that there would always be new ideas.

To be at Nowhere House was to put herself in very real peril, so why, then, did she feel safer than she ever had before?

“I don’t pretend to know much about people,” she offered, fixing her eyes on the road ahead, “but one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that some people are nice and some people are kind. Lillian sounds like she’s more nice than she is kind. Does that make sense? Niceness is good manners, and stopping to give someone directions, and smiling at the overworked cashier at the supermarket. These are all good things, but they have nothing to do with what’s underneath. Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”

She’d be fighting them because she was ferociously protective of her sisters, the grown-ups who looked after them, and this safe haven they’d built together.

It made Mika ache in a way that was as joyful as it was painful. She couldn’t fathom what it must be like to be so loved and to be so sure of that love that you would fight tooth and nail to protect it, but she was incredibly glad that these girls had that.

Danger rarely wore a monstrous face and a wielded a pitchfork.