The Witchfinder Wars Read Online Free

the group came closer. They were all boys I'd known
for years, Michael Pitts and Chuck Donovan, Billy Barnes and, worst
of all, Jordan Raquel. Jordan had become their unspoken leader
before preschool and they circled around him now like wolves around
their alpha male, awaiting his permission to strike. Jordan tossed
his books to the one closest to him.
    "Hey there, magic maker."
    Jordan's smile would have been charming if
it had been aimed at anyone else. To me it was full of nothing more
than malice as he stopped inches away from where I stood
frozen.
    I seemed to stop breathing as I waited for
the worst to come. Teasing and spitefulness had become a part of my
daily life when I was forced out into the world Manning had to
offer, but never before had the others allowed themselves this
close.
    I knew, without quite knowing how, I was in
danger.
    I wonder if Aunt Evie saw this in her
charts... .

Chapter Two
    Tommy
    "Tommy?"
    I pulled a pillow over my head and hoped the
voice would go away.
    "Tommy!"
    I grabbed out blindly, not daring to open my
eyes, and a second pillow joined the first. I burrowed deeper under
my covers.
    "Thomas Carlisle Matthew Hopkins!"
    I moaned and rolled over, pillows escaping
from my bed as if they knew something I didn't.
    A rattle. I was pretty sure it wasn't a
rattlesnake, but I wouldn't have bet on it.
    A shard of light from newly-opened blinds
sliced into the eye I had cracked opened. I squeezed it shut again to offer up a hopeful groan.
    "Out of that bed right this instant, young
man!"
    "Five more minutes, Grand? Please?"
    If it had been my dad, I would never have
dared to even make the request. But I was lucky today. Dad hadn't
arrived yet.
    "No time to dawdle, Tommy. Come on now, out
of bed. It's time to get up. You know what day it is."
    Lucky. Hah. How lucky can anyone be on the
first day of school? And a new school at that. Not just new school
either: new town, new house, heck—new state. New country, if it
came to it, since we'd just moved back to the States from
Italy.
    I sat up, all thoughts of sleep escaping
with those turncoat pillows.
    "Grand, say it ain't so!" I begged. "Please
tell me it's not the first day of school already! We just got
here!"
    My grandmother stood at one of the windows
of my room, the blind cord still in her hand. She is known
officially as Mrs. Harcourt Jamieson Matthew Hopkins; to friends,
family and acquaintances as Katherine; but to her thirteen
grandchildren, of which motley crew I was the oldest at seventeen,
as Grand. Both her nickname and a title, at least to me.
    When you grow up in a very rich family
always on the move, not just from city to city but from country to
country, you look for a fixed point in your life.
    My point is Grand.
    "Now get those long legs in the shower,
Tommy. Brent will have breakfast ready in fifteen minutes and you
know how he hates it when anyone is late." She tucked the cord into
a fancy holder at the side of the big window. Our new house—one of
what seemed like dozens we'd lived in over the last few years—was a
remodeled Victorian, Grand had told me on our trip here. Big and
old, with lots of room for Grand, my dad, my sisters and me, and
all our servants.
    Brent, for one, is our chef. I know.
Pretentious. But we Hopkins have tons of money and, as my dad once
explained to me, we can't be expected to do menial things for
ourselves when we can hire someone and provide them with a useful
job. Well, that's not exactly how he said it, but I'm pretty sure
that's what he meant.
    "And if you don't hustle, I'll make you ride
the limo to school, and drop off your sisters on the way."
    I hit the floor and ran toward where I
thought the bathroom was but, since we'd only got to this house
late yesterday, wasn't exactly sure. I made it, though, and reached
in to start the shower. Steam rose and I looked around to see if
there was any soap.
    Sure there was. Our maids took care of those
things. One day, one of them will forget something.