‘Is he . . . dead?’ Cora asked, unsure.
Geraldine shook her head. ‘No, but he is trapped forever in Salty Harbour. And without his ice-stone bracelet, it will be only a matter of days until he becomes a Havoc.’
Cora let out the breath she had been holding in. They had done it. They had stopped Kaede.
‘It’s over,’ Cora said, not quite believing it.
Tick and Tock grabbed her in a hug. She hugged them back tightly. If it weren’t for the fairies, she didn’t know what would have happened.
‘Thank you,’ Cora said to them. ‘Thank you for everything. Especially for being my friends.’
Cora turned to Geraldine and Henry.
‘Your parents would be so proud of you both,’ the sea witch said.
A pang of sadness tugged at Cora as she held tightly to the small memories of her parents she had. She pulled away from the fairies and looked at Henry. He smiled up at her and she ruffled his hair with her hand.
‘One last thing,’ Henry said. He turned his hand and the water falling from the mountain evaporated. Then he used some of Kaede’s magic to push the rocks on the mountain. They tumbled down on top of one another, creating a rock pile so that nobody could accidentally stumble upon Salty Harbour. ‘That’s better,’ he said.
Cora turned around and saw with relief that Belle and Dot had been magicked out of Salty Harbour too. The golem had shrunk back down to its normal size, and he clung to one of Belle’s legs.
Cora ran over to Dot and hugged her.
‘You’re okay,’ Cora said.
The old woman laughed. ‘I’m getting there.’
‘Thank you,’ Cora said to Belle.
The hobgoblin smiled.
‘How did you find us?’ Cora asked.
‘The charms I put on The Oak Wood went off like fireworks,’ Belle said. Cora remembered that the hobgoblin had put charms on the wood when they arrived days ago with an injured Dot.
Geraldine and Henry walked over to them.
‘It’s been a long time, old friend,’ Geraldine said to Dot.
Dot hugged the sea witch.
‘Dot, this is my brother,’ Cora said. ‘Henry.’
Dot bent down and extended a hand. ‘Pleasure to meet you, young man.’
Cora turned to Ogg, the fairy guards and the flock of large golden birds. With a crack, Artemis turned back into his human self.
‘Thank you,’ Cora said to them. ‘If you all hadn’t have come when you did . . .’
‘It’s the least we could do after you helped me in Jade City,’ said Artemis. The man bowed and then with another crack, turned back into a giant golden bird and all five of them flew up into the sky and back to the avian kingdom.
‘Visit Troll Town again,’ said Ogg. ‘Save me from all the stuffy prince stuff.’ The troll stuck out his tongue.
The fairy guards saluted Cora and then with many POPs! of magic, they disappeared with Ogg in hand.
Then Cora remembered. The warlock. Cora glanced about for any sign of Archibald Drake. Her eye caught sight of him, standing off to the side. He met her gaze, nodded and then with a wave of his hand, he was gone.
As she stared at the empty space where the warlock once stood, everything Cora had been holding onto fell from her. Everything she had been running from. Everything she had been searching for now surrounded her. Henry. Dot. Tick and Tock. Geraldine. Belle.
‘Now what?’ asked Tock.
Tick’s stomach gurgled loudly. ‘Definitely food,’ said the fairy, patting his belly.
Cora didn’t mind what happened next.
She had found her family.
Epilogue
‘Hurry up, Cora!’ Henry called out to her from the other room.
‘I’m coming! I’m coming!’ she yelled back. Scratch had cornered the golem in Belle’s garden room. The golem held a yellow flower out in front of him, keeping the cat at bay.
Cora picked up Scratch, gave the relieved golem a pat, and walked out into Belle’s living room.
‘Is it ready?’ she asked.
Tick and Tock were sitting in Belle’s kitchen eating an entire plate of blueberry biscuits that Dot had just made.
‘Almost,’ said Geraldine. She stood next to Belle as the two of them glanced over the piece of paper that Cora had found in her pocket many months ago.
It had been a year since Salty Harbour, and days after they had defeated Kaede, Cora remembered the transfer spell she had found in Archibald’s study. It had taken many months for Belle, Geraldine and Dot to find the required ingredients and piece together the full spell.
Since Kaede’s attacks on the northern towns, King Clang the fairy king had formed a new and much larger council. Instead of just six of the most powerful magical beings, the council was now made up of one of every magical being in the whole magical kingdom. The new council quickly rebuilt the northern towns, and they’d also made it illegal for any magical being to hunt, kill or capture syphons — much to the relief of Cora and Henry.
‘You two,’ said Geraldine pointing to Cora and Henry, ‘stand over there.’
Cora and her brother walked over to a circle that was drawn on the floor in flour and stepped inside it.
‘Now, close your eyes,’ said Geraldine.
‘Wait, wait,’ said Tock interrupting. ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’
‘All that magic. Gone like this biscuit,’ Tick said, shoving a whole blueberry biscuit into his mouth.
Cora looked at Henry, and Henry nodded.
‘It was never ours to begin with,’ she said.
Over the past year Cora had enjoyed learning everything there was to know about her brother. What he liked (music) and what he didn’t like (onions). They had used the magic they’d syphoned from Kaede every once in a while, but every day that it bubbled beneath their skin it reminded them of the evil syphon. And sometimes Cora and Henry found themselves wandering through The Oak Wood to where the waterfall used to be, just to make sure the rock pile hadn’t moved.
‘What about the magic Cora and Henry syphoned from Kaede?’ Dot asked. ‘Now that he is trapped in Salty Harbour, will it go back to him?’
Belle shook her head. ‘The magic will return to its original owners.’
Cora thought about Princess Avette’s magic. ‘What if the original owner is . . . no longer here?’
‘The magic will still return to them . . . wherever they may be,’ Belle said.
Dot placed a candle with a green flame on the floor. She handed Belle and Geraldine a long, red feather and two gemstones and then placed a spinning orb and a metal triangle in the circle. Geraldine and Belle moved to stand next to the green flame candle.
‘Are you ready?’ Geraldine asked.
Henry grabbed hold of Cora’s hand. Cora looked down at him, warmth filling her heart. She thought of her parents and then she smiled at her brother.
‘Ready,’ Cora said.
the end
About the Author and Illustrator
REBECCA MCRITCHIE would love to tell you that she was raised by wolves in the depths of a snow-laden forest until she stumbled upon and saved a village from the fiery peril of a disgruntled dragon.
But, truthfully, she works as a children’s book editor and lives in Sydney.
Whimsy and Woe and the sequel, Whimsy and Woe: The Final Act, were her first fiction titles, followed by the Jinxed! series.
SHARON O’CONNOR is a freelance illustrator who lives in Melbourne with her husband and triplet sons.
After graduating from R.M.I.T. Graphic Design, she has spent many years designing and illustrating in publishing, textiles and packaging with a particular love of character design. In her spare time she likes to paint, bake, hang out with animals and take lots of photos.
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Copyright
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, Australia
HarperCollinsPublishers
Australia • Bra
zil • Canada • France • Germany • Holland • Hungary
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Switzerland • United Kingdom • United States of America
First published in Australia in 2021
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Rebecca McRitchie 2021
Illustrations copyright © Sharon O’Connor 2021
The rights of Rebecca McRitchie and Sharon O’Connor to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 4607 5766 6 (paperback)
ISBN: 978 1 4607 1132 3 (ebook)
ISBN: 978 1 4607 8879 0 (audiobook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
Cover design by HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover and internal illustrations by Sharon O’Connor
Witched! Page 17