Free The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset Page B

and sewing circles, it's ridiculous.'
    'Will hates the Witch and Ward Society,'says Ben, 'but
    I've always found them quite reasonable to deal with.''Well, they didn't steal your book, did they?'grumbles Will. 'I'd rather deal with them than the Sewing Circle,'
    remarks Ben. Will makes a noise of abject disgust. 'Who's that?'I ask.
    'The Sewing Circle is the link between Boston and the Otherworld. The Witch and Ward, if they could, would close all borders entirely. The Sewing Circle insists on keeping Park Street open.'
    'The Witch and Ward has never understood that Boston's power is in balance,'says Will. 'Half-Thisworld, half- Otherworld. It must stay locked into overlapping to keep its power. Unlock the worlds, and the supernatural powers would cease to be augmented by the presence of the humans and the Seelies would be able to get in. Safety from exposure'I've never understood what's so tricky about that for them.'
    'Safety for everyone except faeries,'remarks Ben. 'Faeries you locked into the Otherworld, good riddance to them.'
    'Faeries caused the disturbance in the Otherworld in the first place,'Will tells him.
    'A few faeries. Was it our fault the Seelie Court happened to be composed of faeries?'
    'How did you get involved?'I ask Ben.
    'He found you,'Aunt True answers, looking displeased. 'Even here.'
    'Well, it's my job: locate faeries trapped in the Thisworld. It happens, you know. And I'm unusually good at Thisworld magic, so it falls to me to do it. So I snuck into Boston''
    'He jumped,'says Aunt True, glaring. 'Which strictly speaking isn't allowed. This is why the goblins tried to get rid of all the travelers.'
    Ben flickers a glare of displeasure at her but otherwise ignores her. 'I jumped in, and there you were. And I knew what you were and I knew about the prophecy, so I knew you had to be protected.
    'Ogre magic can only do so much to hide a faerie. Faerie blood is powerful. It calls to other faeries. As I explained to your aunts, if they wanted to hide you, they needed a faerie to cast the enchantment over you.'
    'You,'I conclude.
    'Yes.'
    'We didn't want to have to trust a faerie,'says Aunt True.
    'Never trust a faerie,'adds Aunt Virtue.
    'But we didn't have a choice, and of course, Will said Benedict was on our side.'
    'All faeries outside of the Seelie Court are on your side,'says Ben. 'Things are bad in the Otherworld. Faeries disappear all the time, named for no reason. Everyone exists in a state of terror, waiting''Ben actually shudders. 'All of you panicked when you shut us out of here.'
    'No, it was the only way for us to be sure to keep the Seelies out,'retorts Aunt True. 'Make sure there was no faerie blood allowed here at all.'
    'Well, there is faerie blood allowed here,'replies Ben and gestures at me. 'There she is.'
    'She is an ogre,'Aunt Virtue proclaims grandly.
    'Only half. She is only half-ogre. You cannot claim all of her.'
    'Maybe no one should claim me at all,'I interrupt. 'Maybe I'm just me. Why has no one considered that ever, in my entire life? I'm more than just a pawn in some stupid prophecy. So let me get this straight: to keep me safe, all of you decided an enchantment should be placed over me?'
    'Yes,'Aunt True says.
    'And I wouldn't know who I was'what I was?'
    'You couldn't,'Aunt Virtue says desperately. 'You couldn't know. We had to hide you from everything, even yourself, in order to hide you from them.'
    'Did it never occur to you that maybe I didn't want to be enchanted?'
    'It was for your own good,'Aunt True says.
    'You don't understand,'says Aunt Virtue. 'Benedict was supposed to kill you. Immediately.'
    'What?'I exclaim.
    'Long-standing order,'replies Ben, not looking at me. 'Kill any changelings I might find born of the Seelie Court.'
    'But you didn't.'
    Ben gives me a look that can only be described as disbelieving. 'I don't kill babies, Selkie. That's a terrible thing to do. To take a baby's laugh out of the world is one of the most dangerous types of black magic that