Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall Page A

said, making air quotes when she said the word friends. “She wants us to stay away from them. She said something about Kate taking ‘the left-hand path’ and seeing darkness and then when Kate pulled the Devil card, well…whatever.”
    Maddie wouldn’t let it go. “What did that card mean? What did Rebecca see?”
    Cordelia explained, “Seeing the Devil card in any reading isn’t a great thing, which is why Kate probably tried to hide it from my mom. But it’s especially bad when it’s reversed. It means a lot of things, actually—none of them good. The reversed Devil card signifies true evil, abuse of authority, greed, bondage to a person or situation or thing, emotional blackmail, and even death.”
    Cordelia’s words hung over them for a few moments as they stared at each other.
    Finally, she shifted her gaze back to the price tags. “Whatever,” she muttered. “Why did they even come here? God, it’s bad enough that we have to deal with those snobs at school, but here? That just sucks.”
    “What did Rebecca mean when she mentioned chaos—er something?” Maddie asked. She’d always thought the little rituals that Kate orchestrated out on Misery Island were just pretend games. But were they?
    “Chaos magic. It’s a kind of black magic. One where you kind of make stuff up as you go.”
    “You sell that stuff here?” Maddie asked.
    “We sell magic supplies and Wiccan tools. We hope that people use them for good magic. But it depends on the person,” Cordelia said flatly. “We have no control over what’s done with the stuff once it leaves the store.”
    “Well,” Maddie stated, “no one has ever been able to control anything that Kate Endicott does, so it’s no big surprise there.”
    “Here, this is for you,” Cordelia said, handing her a silk brocade purse.
    Maddie opened the purse and found that it was filled with rocks and herbs.
    “What’s this for?”
    “Protection. It’s called a mojo bag. I figure with those girls as your friends, you need all the strength you can get, right? And now that my mom is all freaked out about Kate, you probably need it more than ever,” Cordelia said offhandedly, retrieving the small silken purse from Maddie’s hands. She opened it and pointed carefully to its contents. “Mandrake for protection, thyme for courage, and tiger’s eye stones—they’ll help you overcome your fears and give you a little more independence. I figure it can’t hurt. See, I even made one up for myself.”
    Cordelia reached around her neck and pulled the silk bag up from under her shirt. She opened the bag, displaying the herbs and stones that made up her protective charm. “I’ve put in some nettle—that keeps away petty jealousies,” she laughed.
    Maddie had never realized how difficult living in Hawthorne would be for her cousin. Kate and the others made no effort to hide their feelings of contempt. But Cordelia didn’t seem to care. It was as though she could endure thousands of insults hurled at her like stones without feeling a thing. No one could touch her.
    Of course, Cordelia knew about the rumors that swarmed around her like angry insects surrounding their nest, stinging, swelling, but eventually subsiding. She could handle the taunts and insults that would have forced even the thickest-skinned kids at Hawthorne Academy to tears. And this angered Kate more than anyone. The more Cordelia withstood the girls’ attacks, the harder they tried to break her down. Even when someone scrawled WITCH in bright red letters down Cordelia’s locker door, she simply shrugged it off and proceeded to cover the word up with stickers of flowers, rainbows, and peace sign stickers.
    The boys in their class, most of them sweaty-palmed and snickering, gazed at her through half-lidded eyes, making bullish, clumsy advances. But when Cordelia ignored them, she was teased and taunted, called a lesbian or a prude.
    “I also added bloodstone to get rid of sadness and rose quartz for