Michelle Harrison - A Storm of Sisters: Bring the magic home with the Pinch of Magic Adventures

SpellbindingAbi Elphinstone

A Pinch of Magic Adventure

A Storm of Sisters

Bestselling Author Michelle Harrison

I was glued to the pages from start to finish.a Children will be spellbound by this tale

ABI ELPHINSTONE ON A PINCH OF MAGIC

The wry enchantment of an E. Nesbit classic

DAILY MAIL ON A PINCH OF MAGIC

This delightful tale fizzes with magic. It completely charmed my socks off!

ALEX BELL ON A PINCH OF MAGIC

An eerie adventure sure to enchant readers

SOPHIE ANDERSON ON A SPRINKLE OF SORCERY

A spellbinding story with feisty characters that spring to life on the page

SUNDAY EXPRESS ON A SPRINKLE OF SORCERY

Totally brilliant with a killer twist that I didnt see coming at all!

EMMA CARROLL ON A TANGLE OF SPELLS

A stunner, with such great writing

PETER BUNZL ON A TANGLE OF SPELLS

The Pinch of Magic Adventures

A Pinch of Magic

A Sprinkle of Sorcery

A Tangle of Spells

A Storm of Sisters

The Thirteen Treasures series

The Thirteen Treasures

The Thirteen Curses

The Thirteen Secrets

One Wish

The Other Alice

For older readers

Unrest

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

Text, map and chapter illustrations Michelle Harrison 2022

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction without permission.

All rights reserved.

The right of Michelle Harrison to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

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222 Grays Inn Road

London WC1X 8HB

www.simonandschuster.co.uk

www.simonandschuster.com.au

www.simonandschuster.co.in

Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

PB ISBN 978-1-4711-9765-9

eBook ISBN 978-1-4711-9766-6

eAudio ISBN 978-1-3985-1605-2

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover illustration Melissa Castrilln

For Aunt Janet and Unc

Dear Reader

Growing up as the youngest of three girls there were plenty of stories, adventures (and squabbles!) in our household. As most siblings know, you can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies in a heartbeat. Thats why my three Widdershins sisters, Betty, Fliss and Charlie, feel so real to me because theyre inspired by my own experiences as a sister. Their Pinch of Magic Adventures take them from breaking a curse in misty Crowstone to outwitting pirates on the high seas, and even to a witch-infested village.

Now, in deepest winter, the Widdershins sisters and Granny are visiting cousin Clarissa in far away Wilderness and one by one they fall under its icy spell. For explorer Betty its the festive market, animal-loving Charlie is drawn to Echo Halls resident wolf-dog, and romantic Fliss is enchanted by the ghostly tale of a doomed highwayman.

But the legend, and its hauntings, are closer than the sisters realise. Soon they find themselves skating on thin ice where the highwaymans loot a magical crystal ball is said to lie at the bottom of a frozen lake. And someone dangerous is searching for it

Come a little closer and wrap up warm things are about to get chilly!

Wishing you a spine-tingling read.

Michelle Harrison

T he crystal ball lay hidden, as it had for many years: its smooth surface untouched, and any secrets it had to impart, unknown. It had once rested in its own wooden box inscribed with strange silver symbols, but the box was long gone and the two would never meet again. Yet time had not changed the crystal ball in any way. It was still as perfect, as beautiful and as mesmerising as it had always been.

And it had lost none of its magic.

The crystal ball had once belonged to a family of famous fortune tellers. Within its glassy depths, visions of the future and even the past had been revealed. It had glimpsed births, money, marriages and deaths, and had earned its owners many a pretty penny. But while the fortune tellers were the ones with the fame and glory, they were only as good as the crystal ball allowed them to be. Without it, they would be powerless and penniless, reduced to tricks and clever illusions.

At first, the crystal ball had filled with a furious black fogwhen it had been stolen. It had been rather attached to its owner and missed her attention and soft murmurs of encouragement. Gradually, the fog faded and the crystal cleared, and it found that it quite liked being alone without curious eyes peering into it and constant demands to show the future. But occasionally, when it sensed people were near, it could not resist conjuring a vision to look into their lives and see what lay in store for them.

One day, almost forty years after it had been stolen, the crystal ball sensed a new presence and it was an intriguing one. The glassy orb swirled with such a vision of white snowflakes that for a moment it seemed as though the crystal itself was a formation of carved ice. Then, from within the depths, an image of three girls appeared within swirling snow. Three girls who were no strangers to enchanted objects.

Three sisters with their own pinch of magic

I T WAS A CRISP FEBRUARY morning when the letter arrived at Blackbird Cottage. Betty Widdershins saw it first as she galloped down the crooked stairs towards the smell of breakfast. She scooped up the white envelope from the doormat and read the small, neat writing before heading into the kitchen where her grandmother was pouring tea from a large pot.

Letter for you, Granny, she said, handing over the envelope while taking in the smudged postmark. The Widdershins didnt get much post, and the stamp suggested this hadnt come from anywhere local, which immediately got Bettys attention.