The Once and Future Witches

by Alix E. Harrow

Books and tales are as close as she can come to a place where magic is still real, where women and their words have power.

She understands that the Women’s Association wants one kind of power—the kind you can wear in public or argue in the courtroom or write on a slip of paper and drop in a ballot box—and that Juniper wants another. The kind that cuts, the kind with sharp teeth and talons, the kind that starts fires and dances merry around the blaze.

The rules aren’t written down anywhere, but the important rules rarely are.

MICAH 5:12.

Mags had helped them all, every one, and buried their secrets deep in the woods. The preacher called it the Devil’s darkest work, but Mags said it was just women’s work, like everything else.