The Black Bird Oracle

“What kind of omen?” I asked, worried. Miriam had been born back in the days when consulting auguries was part of daily life. Dead birds couldn’t signify anything good, but an omen was on an entirely different level. “The kind that comes wrapped in a prophecy.”

This was baneberry, the poisonous plant

using a shadowlight rather than a witchlight.”

Salem trials: Proctor, Jackson, Perkins, Varnum, Green, Skelling, Braybrooke, Wildes, Prince, and Eastey.

an ouroboros, the snake with its tail in its mouth. It was the de Clermont family symbol, as well as a representation of the tenth knot of creation and destruction that so few weavers had the power to tie.

Bridget’s stone was the first, and the only one to read June 10, 1692.

the raven joined the rest of his unkindness—though

Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat, Mary Beth whispered. Up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman. I blinked, surprised at this outburst of Ben Jonson from a girl not yet ten.

There’s nothing for you here, he said. Hearth and cauldron will never be home for witches like us. You must climb higher to find what you seek.