Daria’s POV

And the earth was still hot as I stopped my feet, when the witches had at last secured the final crevice in the earth. Smoke was blowing through the clearing, and it was thin and grey, as though the forest had its mouth open. Harriet was sitting in a fallen log next to me, with her little hands clenched in her sleeves, and her eyes big and still. Too quiet.

"Is it over?" she asked in a small voice.

I touched her head with my hand and pressed her hair. "Yes. It's over. You're safe."

A snorting witch in the neighbourhood. "Safe for now."

I whirled about my...