15

A light but steady rain had been drumming against

the windowpanes all day. As Jane ate her midday meal of
bread and butter, she wondered whether that sound con-
stituted the sort of “irregular pattering” that her summoning de-
manded.
She was so lost in thought, she nearly jumped out of her skin
when Miriam cleared her throat.
“Someone will be stopping by this afternoon,” she said.
Jane stared in surprise at her almost-sister. It was a miserable
day ​— ​not one on which any reasonable person would expect visi-
tors, especially to their remote house on the outskirts of the village.
“Who?”
Jane and her mother asked it at the same time. Jane apparently
wasn’t the only one surprised by this information.
“I ordered something. For my research,” said Miriam, staring at
a nibbled bit of crust that lay hardening upon her plate. “From the ​
— ​the blacksmith.”
Jane stared at Miriam in astonishment. From the blacksmith, in-
deed! More like from the blacksmith’s handsome young son, given
the glow blooming like a rose in summer across Miriam’s nose and
cheekbones.
“I see,” said Nancy, to cover the awkward silence.
“It wasn’t ready last week, when we went into the village,” Mir-
iam began, looking as if she might burst, “but he’d said he was go-
ing to take the truck out today to make deliveries, and offered to
bring it by.” Jane couldn’t help the sly smile she wore as Miriam
said all this. Miriam had claimed she’d forgotten her gloves at the

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 130 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 Creature s of charm and hunger •  131
pub during that sojourn; now she knew what her friend had really
gone to get.
“Well!” said Jane’s mother. She was obviously experiencing a
whole host of emotions. “What a day for it! If you’d like to invite
him in for a cup of tea . . .”
“What? Why would I do that?” asked Miriam, looking abso-
lutely horrified by the idea of tea.
“He’ll want to come in and warm up, won’t he?” said Nancy.
Cruel as it might be, Jane was enjoying the awkwardness. It was
nice to have it not centered on her, at any rate.
“He’s just making a delivery.” Miriam’s blush deepened dramat-
ically. “I’m sure he won’t want to stay. Others will be waiting for
him.”
“Of course,” said Nancy, and did not press the issue further.
Jane was intrigued by Miriam’s caginess, but in truth she was
more curious about what Sam would be dropping off than about
what might be between the two of them. Regardless, she had other
matters to contemplate.
She found Smudge curled up in the lumpy blankets of her un-
made bed. He looked so peaceful and warm as the cold rain lashed
the old farmhouse.
Jane decided in that moment that if the storm continued into
the evening, she’d do the summoning that night. It was time.
She sat down beside her beloved cat, trailing her hands through
his fur. Smudge deigned to crack open one eye as she rubbed be-
neath his ears and under his chin. He began to purr, softly at first
but then butting his head into the palm of her hand and writhing
to expose the paler fur of his belly. Jane gazed upon it, resisting the
urge to touch it ​— ​for Smudge, showing his tummy was a sign of
trust rather than an invitation.
Even so, Jane would often chance it, knowing she risked tooth
or claw sunk into the meat of her hand as a consequence of strok-

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 131 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 132   • Molly Tanzer

ing the downy tufts that stood up in soft peaks reminiscent of

her mother’s meringues. Sometimes, she even petted his belly
not in the hopes of getting away with it, but the reverse ​— ​to see
Smudge’s outraged reaction.
She was not disappointed when he latched on like a bear trap,
sinking his teeth into the fleshy side of her hand and grabbing on
to her wrist with his front paws.
“Smudge!” cried Jane, though really she was delighted by his fe-
rocity. Naughty as her cat might be, Jane didn’t enjoy the idea that
soon he’d no longer be the cat she’d always known. Not entirely.
But also not for long. She’d banish the demon as soon as she
could.
It would be interesting to see how it all worked out. Jane
planned to command her diabolic servant to be as catlike ​— ​no, as
specifically Smudge-like ​— ​as it could manage. That said, if there
was one thing everyone agreed upon, it was that expecting a famil-
iar to indefinitely pass as a pet was foolish arrogance. They could
not conceal their true nature for long.
No one could.
Jane left the cat to his nap and returned to the kitchen to pass
the afternoon reading in the perpetual warmth of the AGA. Not
long after she settled in with a cup of tea and a book called The
Natural, the Supernatural, and the Unnatural, Miriam came down
to join her, and then Nancy did as well.
The distant rumble of a pickup truck made Jane look not to the
window, but to Miriam. Miriam looked everywhere but at anyone,
seemingly terrified rather than pleased, and Jane felt a warm sym-
pathy for her friend that she had not felt in a long time.
“Let’s go meet him,” said Nancy.
Jane had never felt any sort of romantic inclination toward any-
one, man or woman, nor was she interested in seeking out the ex-
perience. Frankly, she felt those who dabbled in love deserved the

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 132 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 Creature s of charm and hunger •  133
ensuing headaches it seemed to cause. But even so, when Miriam
looked yet more panicked, Jane did her best to help.
“Mother, let’s let Miriam have her secrets,” she said.
“It’s not a secret,” snapped Miriam. Jane recoiled a bit and saw
Miriam repent immediately. Her reaction had been from nerves,
not anger. “I’m sorry ​— ​it’s just . . .”
“It’s private. That’s completely fine,” Jane assured her, having
plenty of her own secrets these days. “If you’d rather go out on
your own ​—”
“No!”
Jane suppressed a smile. Poor Miriam. “I’ll get my coat.”
Miriam didn’t seem over-pleased, but neither did she screech in
protest. Sometimes all anyone could do was seize upon the best of
two bad options.
“I’ll stay in and fix some tea,” said Nancy. “For you girls when
you get back,” she added, when Miriam turned her wild and pan-
icked gaze her way, “but enough for Sam if he does fancy a cup.”
Bundled up in coats, hats, scarves, boots, and mittens, for it was
still quite cold as well as wet, Jane and Miriam squelched their way
up the hill, last year’s dead leaves hopping in the breeze around
their feet like a flock of small strange birds. Sam was standing be-
side his truck, looking handsome and manly and unbothered by
the foul weather.
The idea of commissioning an outsider to make an item crucial
to her diabolic work was bizarre to Jane ​— ​but probably Miriam
would likewise fault her for attempting to turn Smudge into her
familiar. To each their own.
“Hello!” called Sam, as they approached. “I’ve got your mirror!”
A mirror.
Jane didn’t stop walking, but she did pause mentally. Interesting,
that she and Miriam were both using mirrors for their diabolic
Practicals.

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 133 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 134   • Molly Tanzer

A sidelong glance at her friend told Jane that it had been no

mere coincidence that Modern Mirror Methods had been missing
from the Library just after her father had mentioned it. Somehow
Miriam had read that letter and had gleaned something from it
that had led her to retrieve the same book for her own purposes.
Which meant Miriam knew Jane was in touch with her father.
“You little ​—”
“I’m sorry!”
“All this time ​— ​you’ve known!” said Jane. She didn’t have to
say about my father. Miriam knew very well what she was talking
about.
“Yes,” said Miriam, “but I haven’t said anything to anyone about
it, I promise! I would never, Jane, I just ​—”
“You just what? ” It came out more harshly than Jane intended,
but her blood was up. “You just read my letter and then ​—”
“I did read it,” said Miriam, folding into herself in the face
of Jane’s rage like candy floss in the rain. “I took the book, but I
brought it back as quickly as I could! Something your ​—”
“Don’t you dare!” Jane wasn’t sure what she was saying Miriam
ought not dare to do ​— ​it might have been acknowledging the ex-
istence of Jane’s father, it might have been explaining her treach-
ery as if it were reasonable, it might have been just speaking to
Jane at all in that moment. For some time now, Jane had borne the
word Miriam writ in jagged bloody letters upon her heart, and this
knowledge opened up many of the older wounds at once. “You ​— ​
you ​— ​you little beast! Knowing what it meant to me, you still ​—”
“You don’t know why I did what I did, Jane Blackwood!”
Miriam did not often raise her voice like that, or call Jane by her
full name. In spite of her righteous anger, Jane cringed.
“You’re not the only one who uses the Library, and you’re not
the only one for whom this is all very high stakes.” Miriam had
lowered her voice, but the intensity was still there. “I needed the

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 134 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 Creature s of charm and hunger •  135
book, so I took it, and then I returned it. It’s not fair to yell at me
for that!”
“What would it be fair to yell at you for?” snapped Jane. “How
about snooping?”
Miriam crossed her arms. “Clearly I can keep a secret!”
“That’s not the point!”
“Girls, girls!”
Jane had forgotten Sam was there at all.
“You stay out of this!” said Jane, sounding exactly like her mother.
“Something I said was the cause of all this,” he said. “I didn’t
mean to. I didn’t realize the mirror was a secret.”
“Oh, Miriam loves her secrets,” said Jane, with a level of venom
that felt good to express, even if she knew it to be unfair. “And the
best thing is, the more you get to know her, the more secrets you’ll
discover she has!”
And with that, Jane stalked off toward the old farmhouse with
such determined footfalls that her heels didn’t even slip in the
mud. She burst in upon her mother as Nancy was just setting the
teapot upon the table.
“What happened?” said Nancy, chasing after Jane as she headed
for the stairs and the privacy of her room.
“Nothing!” snarled Jane, not even trying to hide the lie of her
words.
“Where’s Miriam?”
“How should I know!”
“Jane, wait!”
Jane did not obey her mother. She stormed straight up to her
room, more hurt in that moment than she could ever remember
being. She wanted to collapse upon her bed to cry, but Smudge
was still there, half-buried in the bedclothes, so she flung herself
into her chair.
She found it was just as easy to cry there, so she did ​— ​copiously

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 135 1/23/20 11:14 AM

 136   • Molly Tanzer

and angrily, until Smudge jumped onto her lap to twine around
himself in anxious figure eights. Though usually Smudge’s solid
weight calmed her, today it just made Jane cry all the harder. The
irregular pattering of the rain on her bedroom window reminded
Jane that this might very well be the last time she would ever ex-
perience her beloved companion’s pure and instinctive concern for
her.
Maybe her mother had been right, and there really were no
shortcuts to becoming a diabolist.
Only sacrifices.

Tanzer_CREATURES-OF-CHARM-AND-HUNGER_interior_FINAL.indd 136 1/23/20 11:14 AM