Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Softcover

Cottingham, Kayla

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593814002 ISBN 13: 9780593814000

Verlag: Random House Children's Books, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

From the New York Times bestselling author of My Dearest Darkest comes a cozy fantasy romance about a teen witch who must complete her magical training by breaking a powerful family’s curse. But her own affliction—to never find true love—gets in the way when she falls for the girl she’s trying to save.

Magic is in Delilah Bea’s blood. Her absentee father is the world’s most famous cursebreaker, while all the women in her family are fated to never find true love. So when Delilah sets out to complete her magical Calling and gain her full powers as a witch, she has the perfect task in mind—breaking the Bea family curse.

But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, the spoiled son of the most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins is doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Kieran grows weaker while his sister, Briar, becomes…something monstrous. 

As Delilah and the twins set out on their quest, they quickly realize that breaking the Pelumbra curse isn’t going to be simple. For one thing, the rest of the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after the trio to ensure they fail. For another, something about Briar gets under Delilah’s skin, distracting her and making her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own true love curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their happily ever after.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kayla Cottingham (they/she) is a former teen librarian and New York Times bestselling author of sapphic horror and fantasy novels. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Kayla lives in Boston where they love to go hiking in the woods, play RPGs, and snuggle on the couch with their ridiculously large black cat, Squid.

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Chapter One

Rule #12: Even magical secrets are no match for small-town gossip.

“When you channel your magic,” Ruby Flick, the Kitfield village witch, explained, “it’s not about force. It’s allowing raw magic to flow into whatever medium you’re working with--be that packing a tea bag or performing a piece of music. Slow but sure.”

Delilah Bea, whose face was scrunched up as she drew magic from her chest and out through her fingers, exhaled and dropped her hands. She glared up at the ceiling. “I know, I just . . .”

“Lack patience?” Ruby guessed.

Delilah took on a look of melodramatic betrayal. “Me? No.”

“Check it out,” said Clarissa, Ruby’s fifteen-year-old daughter. Delilah paused in her attempt to shove tea leaves into a little gossamer bag and found that Clarissa had already tied off her own tea bag and placed it in water. As the tea steeped, curls of red from the hibiscus she’d added darkened the liquid to almost the color of blood. The steam rising from it curled into little heart shapes before fading into the air.

“Always the theatrics with you,” Delilah said, chuckling. She’d known Clarissa most of her life. While they were friends, their two-year age gap had always made Delilah view her more as a little sibling than a peer.

“Let’s test it,” Ruby said. She reached for her daughter’s teacup and took a careful sip. She paused, tasting. “You were going for a spell that mimics the feeling of romantic love?”

Clarissa nodded, eyes bright. She looked exactly like her mother, save the crow’s-feet and smile lines. They shared the same long blond hair and green eyes, and the faint smell of rosemary Clarissa gave off when she practiced her magic was almost identical to her mother’s trademark scent.

Ruby inhaled, closed her eyes, then exhaled. “This is closer to upliftment. But”--she pushed the cup back toward her daughter--“still lovely work.”

Clarissa’s face fell a bit. Delilah quickly said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s hard to channel an emotion-based spell if you’ve never felt the thing you’re trying to channel.”

Clarissa’s cheeks reddened. “I know what romantic love feels like.”

Delilah and Ruby both raised their eyebrows and said, “Oh?”

Clarissa’s eyes widened, and her blush only grew.

Delilah bit back a smile. Puppy love--how cute. “And who exactly are you in love with? Don’t tell me it’s Annamarie’s daughter--she may have great arms from kneading dough at the bakery, but she always smells like yeast.”

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Clarissa muttered.

Before Delilah could press her more, a knock sounded on the door.

A voice called, “Hello? It’s Charlotte.” The door pushed open the next moment, the little bell attached to it jingling.

Delilah’s mother stuck her head in. “Am I early?”

“No, we were just wrapping up,” Ruby said, collecting the piles of different leaves and buds the three witches had been using to concoct spelled teas. “Come on in.”

Charlotte Bea stepped inside. She wore her slightly graying sandy hair up in a bun with a few pieces loose. The gray eyes she shared with Delilah were hidden behind round glasses that she’d only started needing in the last couple years. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her loose canvas pants--the ones she usually wore for her shifts at the clinic--and leaned against the wall with a small smile.

Ruby lived in a cottage at the edge of the woods outside Kitfield. For generations, it had been the home of the village witch, whose title had been passed down from parent to child, just as Ruby would pass it to Clarissa someday. Thorny vines and twining flowers cloaked the old bungalow in a blanket of green and pink and white as soon as spring came. At the moment, just the four women were inside; but often on days like this, multiple townsfolk would have crossed the lake that divided the cottage from the edge of town to ask Ruby for custom spelled teas and brews.

Delilah began packing her things into her shoulder bag and told Clarissa, “You know, if you’re looking for a chance to ask someone out, you could always do it at my birthday party this evening. I’ll be your wingwoman.”

Clarissa muttered something under her breath that Delilah couldn’t hear and punctuated it with a sigh.

“This is a bit bittersweet,” Ruby said as Delilah rose out of her chair and shouldered her bag of magic tools--chalk for drawing runes, a wooden spoon for spelled baking, herbs and ingredients for teas or simmer pots, and parchment for notes.

“Last magic lesson before you leave on your Calling,” Charlotte agreed, smile not quite meeting her eyes.

“I’m going to miss our lessons together,” Clarissa added. “You’ll have to send me plenty of letters about your Calling so I know what to expect when I go on mine.”

Ruby asked, “How do you feel about it, Delilah?”

“Honestly? Overwhelmed,” Delilah said, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’m trying to think more about this evening and less about the fact that the Council is about to show up. You’re both coming tonight, right?”

Ruby nodded. “It would be wrong to send you out into the world without a proper goodbye.” She came to Delilah’s side and took her hand, holding it between her palms. “You’re going to do great things out there, Delilah. So long as you’re patient with yourself.”

Delilah sputtered a laugh. “Because I’m famously good at that.” She shook her head. “But thank you. I appreciate it.”

The mothers and daughters quickly said their goodbyes. Delilah and Charlotte headed out the door to where the lake lapped at the shore not far from the Flicks’ cottage. Charlotte had pulled their canoe onto the grass. She sat in the front while Delilah pushed them off from the back, then jumped in, her collection of magic-casting objects clanging around in her shoulder bag.

“If I were the village witch,” Delilah said as she gave the canoe one final push away from the shore with her oar, “I’d build a road.”

“But think of how much mother-daughter bonding time we’d miss if we didn’t do this,” Charlotte said with a laugh.

“We could bond in a car,” Delilah pointed out.

“Cars,” Charlotte spat. She shook her head, blond hair springing loose from her bun. Delilah had inherited very few of her mother’s features, a fact that made her increasingly bitter with every passing year. Her mother was small and slim with the face of a pixie, whereas Delilah had inherited her father’s height, thick frame, dark, curly hair, and obtrusively large nose. Every time she saw him grinning at her from the front page of the newspaper, she silently cursed his weirdly strong genetics.

“We don’t need that kind of thing,” Charlotte added. “No point.”

“But a car would mean we could leave Kitfield,” Delilah pointed out. “We could go anywhere! Maybe as far as Gellingham--you could finally take those medical classes at the university we always hear about on the radio. Get a legitimate medical license so you could practice in the city.”

After a brief pause, Charlotte mused, “Your father’s in...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Children's Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593814002
• ISBN 13: 9780593814000
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 433
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland