Katharine Corr

The Witch’s Kiss


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       Copyright

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2016

      HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

      1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

      The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Text © Katharine and Elizabeth Corr 2016

      Cover thorns © Josef Mohyla & Andrew Unangst

      Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com

      Katharine and Elizabeth Corr assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of the work.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008182984

      Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008188504

      Version: 2016-06-09

      For Laurence, who was my inspiration.

      E.C.

      In memory of Nana Pat, who really did make our

      childhood magical.

      K.C.

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Dedication

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Chapter Twenty-one

       Chapter Twenty-two

       Chapter Twenty-three

       Chapter Twenty-four

       Chapter Twenty-five

       Acknowledgements

       Keep Reading …

       About the Authors

       About the Publisher

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       THE KINGDOM OF THE SOUTH SAXONS, 522 AD

      Witches do not kneel.

      They do not grovel. They do not beg favours from any creature, mortal or immortal.

      At the most, they bargain.

      Meredith knew this; had known it for as long as she could remember. But, as she scrambled up the steep hillside, shredding her skirts and her skin on the long thorns of may trees, the things she had been certain of were no longer enough.

      Finally, she reached the summit. This place was not holy, but it was old. Very, very old.

      Meredith passed through the outer ring of pine trees, so tall and close growing they blocked out the sun and the wind, walking on until she got close to the single oak growing at the centre of the circle. The oak was twisted and split with age, green foliage flecked with cream. Not flowers, but bones: tied to the branches, littering the ground beneath.

      Then, Meredith knelt.

      She cleared a space in front of her, sweeping away the bones and dead leaves until the earth beneath was revealed, and pulled a knife out of her belt. She had no offering to bargain with. She had only herself.

      ‘This