was turning back to the house. She paused for a moment before answering.
“People stop trusting you when they think you can control them.”
Belle rolled slowly along the walk, and Willa watched her go. People like Grandpa, I bet, she thought.
Chapter Three
Silent, soft, and slow descends the snow
Of course Willa didn’t spend all her time at Eldritch Manor. She went home for supper and to sleep, though whenever she had a spare moment before or after school, she wandered over to the old house see her friends. It was a strange notion that she would rather have tea with old folks than hang out with kids her own age. Her schoolmates found it strange, that’s for sure, and they started to write her off. The strange silvery streak in her hair didn’t help. It had appeared suddenly the day Eldritch Manor burned down, a mark that set her apart from normal people. Willa found it funny that her mom was more anxious about her “fitting in” at school than Willa herself was, and the streak in her hair drove her mom nutty.
“We can dye that out,” she said two or three times a week, but Willa refused. She liked to be different from the other kids. She didn’t even mind that she was no longer a part of their world. Well, not much anyway. It’s true she occasionally missed talking to other twelve-year-olds, but she had nothing in common with them anymore. Now Willa preferred to sit back and observe the other kids, and soon found she could detect things about them. Not their exact thoughts or anything like that, but if she kept her own mind very still, she could feel what they were feeling. It was like hearing very faint music from another room. This new skill fascinated her, but she had to stay apart from the chatter and interaction to do it. Soon she was fading into the background so effectively, it was almost like she was invisible.
It’s easier this way, she thought.
As for her time at Eldritch Manor, the more she got to know the seniors there, the more she enjoyed their company. The sulky moods and childish tantrums were now few and far between, but even those ratty moments had become rather dear to Willa. She was unaccountably fond of them all; their bad behaviour just made her love them more.
Days at Eldritch had become much simpler. The old folks were calm — there were no outright wars, anyway — and with everyone back in the house, they were pretty content. And in a stroke of luck, the Hackers had left for the winter months, off to a sunny southern beach or something. Keeping a houseful of magical creatures secret from nosy neighbours is pretty much a full-time job, and Willa was relieved to be free of them for a while. With fewer worries, she slept better at night, and the extra sleep enabled her to think clearly, do better in school, and develop her new telepathic skills.
Even her home life was calm and happy. With Belle, Baz, and the bird Roshni all out of the house, it was just her, Mom, and Dad once more. Everyone relaxed, and it was nice to be around her parents again. Mom and Belle weren’t exactly friends, a fact that used to drive Willa crazy, but now she knew that wasn’t her problem, really. It was their battle, and they might never see eye-to-eye, which would be sad, but at least Willa had both of them in her life, and she was immensely grateful for that. And while they weren’t talking, at least they weren’t staring daggers at each other when they accidentally found themselves in the same room. That was a step forward, anyway.
The only thing that niggled at the back of her mind was that trouble always seemed to pop up, eventually. Trouble in the form of extremely evil beasts and monsters from the dark side that were always circling, just out of sight, ready to pounce. Willa resolved to stay vigilant and watch for any signs of them. She clung to a vague feeling that, after the last battle on Hallowe’en night, she and her friends could handle nearly anything if they stood together.
This was the state of things when the snow came. In mid-December it began to fall, more snow than the town had seen in many years. It drifted down, soft and silent, all night long, and the sun rose on sparkling snowbanks and snow piled high on every available surface: roofs, cars, fences, power lines, railings, posts, clotheslines, mailboxes. The scene was jaw-droppingly beautiful.
That afternoon, Willa shuffled through the snow, creating two parallel tracks all the way to Eldritch Manor and enjoying the puffs her breath made in the air. She entered the front hall, stamping the snow from her boots, and walked right into the chandelier. As usual. She bonked into that thing every time she came into the house.
“Aaargh!” She reached up to steady it and looked into the parlour. Horace was gazing out the window.
“Hi, Horace. Isn’t the snow amazing?”
“It wasn’t me,” he blurted, starting a little.
“What wasn’t you?”
“Nothing.” Horace pursed his lips like he was holding in a secret.
“Horace … what have you been up to?” said Willa with a smile. “You look guilty of something.”
Horace looked out the window again, wincing. “I was fiddling with some weather charms, but I really don’t think… This is probably not my doing,” he ended quickly.
Willa laughed. “If it is your doing, I’m impressed! I love it.”
Horace looked very pleased. “You don’t think it’s too much? I just wanted a picturesque dusting of snow, not record-setting heaps of it.”
“You don’t know your own strength,” Willa said, pulling an afghan off an armchair and draping it over his shoulders. Horace grinned brightly.
“Hmph!” tinkled a little voice behind them. “I HATE the snow!”
Willa turned to see Mab sitting in the bowl on the mantle, knitting away.
“Hello Mab, how’s it going?” Willa walked over and lifted the scarf, which was about the length of her arm. “You’ve been busy!”
Mab paused to flex her fingers. “I have to knit to keep warm! Wretched winter!” She gave Horace a nasty look.
“It most likely has nothing to do with anything I was doing,” he protested weakly.
Skritch skritch skritch. Willa turned. Roshni was pacing toward her, bobbing her head excitedly.
“Hello, Roshni.” Willa smoothed the feathers on the bird’s head, and Roshni nuzzled into her side, like a cat. Then the bird hopped over to the fireplace, dark and cold. She breathed on the log lying there and fanned it with her wings. There was a fwoomp and a flash of light as the log burst into flame.
Willa clapped her hands. “Bravo! I didn’t know you could do that!”
Roshni hopped up and down, squawking. The log gave off a nice amount of heat, and Horace drew near to warm his hands. Willa made a mental note to gather more firewood, but as it turned out, that single log burned continuously until the spring, so there was no need for more.
The merry blaze transformed the parlour into the social centre of the house. Baz curled up happily on the braided rug in front of the fire while the others sat and chatted. Pots of tea, scones, and bowls of soup emerged periodically from the kitchen, courtesy of the dwarves, who slept there in hammocks strung from the ceiling. All in all, life at the house was pretty cozy.
No one had heard from Miss Trang since the snow started, but one afternoon she opened her bedroom door and started across the front hall toward
