The Sisters of Luna Island - Hardcover

Hackney, Stacy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1534488693 ISBN 13: 9781534488694

Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Little Women gets a Nevermoor twist in this “captivating…charming” (Kirkus Reviews) novel about a young girl tasked to break a centuries-old curse or risk losing her beloved sisters.

Twelve-year-old Marigold Lafleur is the last of a long line of aromages: witches who blend scents into practical charms using aromagic. But ever since a terrible accident injured her father and damaged Luna Island, Marigold and her sisters, Birdie and Lou, have vowed to abandon their family legacy and mama’s way of life. Shunned by their neighbors and overlooked by their parents, Marigold relies on her big sisters above all else.

But when Marigold discovers a secret curse that threatens her family, her sisters can’t stop the impending danger. It’s up to Marigold and her best friend, Sam, to uncover the origins of the curse and break the spell. To do so, she must learn to trust her instincts and believe in her own unique magic or risk losing her sisters forever.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stacy Hackney grew up in Virginia where she spent her early years forcing the neighborhood kids into performing plays she wrote, reading everything she could get her hands on, and singing in the school choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in English literature and received a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. She currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, four sons, and their rescue dog named Albert. Stacy is the author of Forever Glimmer Creek and Sisters of Luna Island. Learn more at StacyHackney.com.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One CHAPTER ONE


Cinnamon will attract prosperity and wealth.

The knock came at midnight. Sharp and staccato, it cracked open the silence of the house. Marigold Lafleur nestled farther under the blankets, but her eyes popped open all the same, her heart keeping pace with the rap-tap-tap that had awoken her.

Someone was here.

The stillness of sleep gave way to the softest of sounds behind the thin walls—covers rustling, arms stretching, heads lifting. Lou groaned from the room next door, and Birdie exhaled a tiny breath. Mama’s footsteps pattered past. All the while, Marigold wondered who dared to turn up on their stoop.

No one came to Lilac Cottage in the daylight. In truth, no one had come much at all ever since the earthquake. Whoever was at the door needed something, and they needed it badly.

Marigold slid off the edge of her mattress. Through her open window the moonlight was a ribbon of silver rippling over her dresser tucked under the eaves, and the single bed that just fit inside the narrow walls. Tiptoeing across the room, Marigold shrugged on a robe. She crept down the hall, careful to avoid the creaky floorboards on the other side of her bedroom door.

Staying pressed against the wall, Marigold snuck halfway down the stairs and stopped before the landing where the stairs turned toward the front door. She peeked her head around the corner and spied Tara Ricketts in the doorway. Her brown hair was messy and tangled, and her face was streaked with tears. Behind her, the night stretched out like the ocean behind it, dark and full of secrets.

“He’ll never straighten up. It doesn’t matter what I do. He can’t hold a job to save his sorry life. We’re broke. We might lose the house.” Tara was sobbing so hard, her face had disintegrated into the wrinkles and folds of a crushed flower petal.

Mama clucked in sympathy, ushering Tara into the front hall. “You could look for opportunity elsewhere, leave Luna Island.”

“I’ve got nowhere to go,” Tara said.

Mama took a deep, slow breath, her shoulders rising with the movement. It was a telltale sign. She was smelling Tara’s fears. “I’m guessing you’re most worried about that baby daughter of yours.”

Tara nodded. “I want her to get off this island someday.”

“I might have something to help, but it comes at a price,” Mama said.

Marigold shrank back, her stomach dropping like a stone in water. Mama was tampering in someone else’s life. Again.

“I’ll pay, whatever it is. My mama gave me some money. You can have it all.” Tara’s voice creaked out, high-pitched and clogged with tears.

“The cost I’m referring to isn’t related to money. There’s a price for changing one’s future, and I can’t predict what it will be,” Mama said.

Mama called them vexes—the consequences for altering fate. She could fix one part of Tara’s life, but a vex might make something awful happen to another part. It was the unpredictability and danger of aromagic.

“I don’t care,” Tara said in a defiant tone. She held out several crumpled green bills.

Mama plucked the money from Tara’s hand. “You’d better come on back, then.”

Marigold’s mouth flooded with a sour taste. Sure, they needed the money, but what Mama did to get it—Marigold couldn’t excuse it, not after last spring. She pushed back into a corner of her mind the memory of the ground shaking and a pale, still face.

Mama cleared her throat and called up the stairs, “I wouldn’t count on winning the role of a spy anytime soon.”

Stupid. Marigold should have known Mama would catch her. Mama couldn’t remember to lock their back door, but she always knew when someone was watching. Marigold stepped out from behind the wall.

“Since you’re awake, why don’t you come on down?” A half smile tugged at Mama’s lips.

Marigold’s nose flooded with the scent of wildflowers and herbs, memories of the past overwhelming her senses. She pictured Mama beaming at her above the burner, the tingling of Marigold’s fingertips as she concentrated on the flame. It was powerful and exciting and… wrong. Marigold pressed her heels into the wooden floorboards and reminded herself she wanted nothing to do with aromagic anymore.

Birdie appeared beside her on the landing, hands on her hips. Her pajamas hung in a creaseless line on her thin frame, and her auburn hair was swept up in a perfect ponytail even though she’d just been asleep. “Marigold needs her rest. It’s the first day of school tomorrow.”

“As far as I can see, she’s already awake,” Mama said.

“?’Cause of all the commotion,” Lou said, pushing past Birdie on long legs corded with muscle. She sat down on the bottom step. “Half the island could hear you carrying on down here.”

“I’m sorry,” Tara said quickly.

Birdie didn’t even look at Tara, her gaze burning into Mama as she strode down the remaining stairs. “Marigold needs to get back to bed like any other normal seventh grader. Not that there’s anything normal about this family.”

Mama closed her eyes a second too long at Birdie’s jab. Marigold tried to think of something to say to dissolve the tension blanketing the room. Yet Mama was already shuffling Tara down the narrow hallway covered in peeling flowered wallpaper and past the crooked stairs stretching up in a maple-patterned jigsaw puzzle.

“I’m sorry for getting up, but we haven’t had a visitor in a while.” Marigold scampered down to where Birdie and Lou stood. She couldn’t wait to tell Sam about this the next day.

“You go on to bed, M,” Birdie said. “I’ll keep watch over Mrs. Ricketts. I don’t know what Mama is thinking. Heading into the basement to work and planning to leave some woman we barely know alone in our kitchen in the middle of the night.”

“Stop worrying for once,” Lou said, exasperated. “We all need sleep, and Tara Ricketts isn’t going to hurt anything. She’s too much of a mess.”

“Exactly. She’s in no shape to make a reasonable decision. Someone needs to keep an eye on her,” Birdie said.

Lou rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll come with you. I’m not going to stick you alone with Mama’s latest bad decision.”

“If you’re both going, I’m going too,” Marigold declared. Now that her sisters were awake and staying up, she didn’t want to miss any of the action.

Birdie held up her hand to stop Marigold.

“I’ll go to bed right after.” Marigold clasped her hands together in a plea. “I know it’s late, but at least we’re all up late together. It’s an adventure.” If this were a movie and Marigold were the star, she’d sweep into the kitchen with her white nightgown swirling behind her. With the power of her own persuasion she’d convince Tara to dump her no-good husband.

Marigold deflated as Birdie frowned instead of answering. Sometimes it seemed as though Birdie helped Marigold, only to boss her around a minute...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1534488693
• ISBN 13: 9781534488694
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: webstar; casetta@mondadori.it; ; Via Mondadori 1,; Segrate Milano; 20090; Italien