I’m standing alone on a beach at night.A cold winds blows around me, whipping the dark ocean into a roaring maelstrom. My whole world is sand and sea and the freezing air, but my mind is lost in the distant patterns high above me.I lift one hand to point at the black sky, tracing a curved line between five glimmering stars to form a perfect ring.Silver flame snakes through the distant spaces where my finger passes.The heavens are burning.The stars are screaming.“Silver circle,” I whisper.I wake with a start, bolting upright in my bed. I’m having a panic attack. My heart is racing; my skin is cold and clammy. I must have been crying in my sleep, because my cheeks are wet with tears.Struggling for breath, I try to remember what happened and how I got here.A hand touches my shoulder,

I hurry over to where Jamie, Zee and Grace are sitting at our usual spot near the Night Owl’s stage.“Oh my god, finally!” Jamie exclaims, jumping up and pulling me into a tight hug. “We were getting worried. What with your fainting habit and all. Your coffee’s probably cold by now, and Zee ate half your cranberry muffin.”I give Zee and Grace a quick hug before flopping down into a faded burgundy velvet armchair.“Sorry,” I say, taking a sip of my lukewarm but still delicious coffee. I steal a quick glance back behind me. Mrs. Leyton and her spidery suitor have left. Thank god. “I got sort of… caught up in something.”“Oooh, do tell!” Jamie says, her eyes widening. “It doesn’t have anything to do with five super hot boys you’re mingling with, does it?”I hesitate for a mom

It’s 8.45pm.Today’s Thursday, which is always a busy night at Biblio. So the earliest I should expect my parents back is 11pm. That gives me plenty of time.Walking quietly up the stairs so that my friends in the living room don’t realize where I’m going, I try to picture the last time I rummaged through mom’s jewelry box. I would have been a kid back then, maybe five or six years old.I clearly remember one sunny afternoon in Fall, left at home with gran while mom and dad were at the restaurant. While gran was in the kitchen making our lunch, I crept upstairs to my parent’s bedroom. I went for mom’s makeup drawer first, smearing first my lips, then my eyelids, with her pale silver eye shadow. Then I took the talcum powder from her dresser and sprinkled it all over my head, watching the snowy clouds of talc floating behind me in the mirror. I think I was trying to tur

The silver circle. The ring in mom’s jewelry box. The five princes. Bea. The sea witch. Try as I might, I still can’t quite piece together the mystery I’ve stepped into. Words, tunes, images and ideas swirl through my mind all the way back to the cabin, as I puzzle over the greater meaning – but I’m still as lost as ever. From time to time a bird or a squirrel darts through the leafy labyrinth of branches overhead, scattering the early morning sunlight and bringing me to a standstill. Even now, I feel like there’s someone or something following me, just a few steps behind at all times. I turn around every few minutes to check, but all I see is green, and more green. My parents were surprisingly relaxed about the shattered coffee table. I thought they were just trying not to make a scene in front of my friends, but they didn’t even mention it after Zee and Grace drove off with Jamie (who w

“Lame. Lame lame lame lame.”Kitty leans against the hood of the black Jeep parked at the Forest Park entrance.“I don’t have the car keys,” she says. “They’re at the cabin.”No surprise there, after Kitty and I practically ran away from the cabin without warning, Kitty in nothing but a silk nightgown and her slippers.I look back in the direction of the forest. It’s at least a forty-minute walk back to the cabin, and after our grand exit in front of Felix and Alastaire, I’d feel really stupid going back.“Let’s go to my house,” I say. “You can borrow some of my clothes. And we can probably take my mom’s car or something.”“No,” says Kitty firmly. “There’s no time for dealing with the parentals. Let’s just go straight into town. It’s ju