Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley (best ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

I wonder what the world will be like without it.

Without me.

I wonder who Tamsin will be without me too.

Beside her, Wren inhaled sharply. Tamsin stared down at the diary, trying to ignore the way Wren’s eyes lingered on her face. She was hot and cold at the same time, a squirming, slithering wrongness settling in her bones. She hated that Wren had seen her sister’s words.

Tamsin hated that she had seen them too.

She flung the diary down on the floor beside her, wrapped her arms around herself. She hadn’t known the forest was on fire. There had been no window, just a tiny cot that she had hardly been able to pull herself from. She had been so tired. Dark magic didn’t take a physical toll on the witch using it, but Tamsin had felt it emotionally. The reality of what she’d done—the consequences of her spell—had left her broken. Exhausted. A shell of the girl she had once been.

And then, the next day in the Grand Hall, when the Coven had gone to break the bond, Marlena would not meet Tamsin’s eye. Soria, one of the Coven’s sources, had asked them to stand face-to-face, their noses mere inches apart, and still Marlena would not acknowledge her. Tamsin had been desperate, had reached for Marlena’s hand, but Councillor Mari had quickly restrained her.

So Tamsin could do nothing but watch as Soria dug deep in the space between them. She located the bond, and Vera cut it swiftly like a knife through flesh.

Tamsin had felt the life rush back into her at the same time it rushed out of her sister.

What she had done was undone in the blink of an eye.

She would never forget the sound of her sister’s body hitting the floor. And now she knew that after that horrible day, Marlena had taken her place in the tower, sealed away from the world by stone without so much as a window.

“I don’t know what to do.” Tamsin’s voice was rough. “I don’t know how to find her. I never did. I never knew her at all.” She kicked idly at a shard of broken mirror.

For a brief moment, she would have sworn she saw something flash in its depths.

She and Marlena had played a game when they were younger where they sat face-to-face, keeping their movements the same, their expressions exact. Back then, the imaginary glass between them had been clear and smooth. And then their magic had appeared, sending cracks running through them both. Cracks that still remained.

Tamsin picked up the shard of mirror and turned it over in her hands. She startled as the glass caught the reflection of a second pair of blinking brown eyes behind her. Eyes identical to her own.

She dropped the mirror and turned to face her sister.

“Hello, Tamsin.” Marlena’s voice was as dark as the night sky, and just as endless. “I see you found my diary.”

TWENTY

WREN

Wren was seeing double. Of course she had known that Tamsin’s sister would look like her. They were twins, after all. Still, it was disconcerting how identical they were—the long, dark hair, the round brown eyes. The way their foreheads wrinkled and pinched when they frowned. Their expressions were even the same: The scowl Wren had often seen plastered across Tamsin’s face sat comfortably on Marlena’s as she towered over them.

“How have you been, sister?”

Their voices were the same too. Lush and dark as night.

“You’re alive,” Tamsin said, getting shakily to her feet. They were even the same height. Wren pressed a hand to her eyes, but when she looked back, the sisters remained unchanged. Exactly the same.

“Well spotted.” The scowl was still in place on Marlena’s face.

“I didn’t know.” Wren’s heart broke the same way Tamsin’s voice did. Tamsin was staring at her sister as though she were a ghost.

“Yes, well, neither did I until recently.” Marlena rolled her eyes. “Who’s your friend?” She finally turned toward Wren, who felt self-conscious beneath Marlena’s judgmental stare.

“I’m Wren.” She pulled herself up, wavering slightly as another whiff of sulfur snaked into her lungs. She swallowed thickly, forcing down the bile that threatened to rise in her throat.

“Huh.” Marlena did not seem particularly interested in her.

Wren couldn’t blame her. The air between the sisters was ripe with tension and thick with words unspoken. Wren wondered if she ought to excuse herself, but then, where would she go?

“I’m glad you’re here,” Marlena said, her attention firmly fixed on Tamsin. “I wasn’t certain they would let you back Within.”

“I would have been here sooner, if I’d known.” Tamsin’s face was pained.

Marlena barked out a laugh. “Of course you would have been. Always the doting sister. I knew I could count on you. Although”—Marlena paused, her gaze far away—“the last few weeks have been rather eye-opening. Did you know that life is actually quite peaceful when you don’t have to compare yourself to your sister? To the ‘golden girl’ of the world Within?” Marlena’s lips had curled up into a sneer. “Did you know that once you were gone, I found my own power? I can do proper magic now. So maybe it wasn’t that I was the weak one. Maybe it was that you were holding me back.”

Marlena sent a stream of sparks from her hands. The room around them transformed before their eyes: A stone fireplace built itself quickly, housing a roaring orange fire. The walls lined themselves with bookshelves and giant potted plants. A carpet unrolled itself at their feet, slipping silently beneath their shoes. The shattered mirror put itself back together and hung itself on a wall above two green armchairs. A chandelier snaked its way around the newly repaired rafters, bathing them all in warm yellow light.

Marlena’s magic made Wren woozy. She sank quietly onto the plush carpet, although neither sister seemed to notice. Marlena was smiling triumphantly. Tamsin was watching her sister with awe. Wren studied Marlena as