I hurried down the winding path, pulling on my charcoal cloak as I went. It was long, reaching almost down to my ankles, and clasped at the neck with a metal pin. I had never once been late for a coven meeting and I wasn’t about to start now.

The Briar Grove coven was a small one. There were only four members - Morwenna Merrick, Peregrine Proudfoot, Cecily Sykes and me. Morwenna was… intense. She was never seen without her black cat, she knew every poisonous mushroom in the forest and she found sunlight “irritating.” Cecily was the sweetest, kindest witch you could ever meet… with a competitive streak wider than that of most sports teams. And Peregrine… well, Perry was lovely. Not the most successful warlock, but he tried very hard. And I-

I was cut off by a shocking sight. I caught a glimpse of a stranger on the path up ahead. In the woods. At sundown. When the rustling branches were nothing more than shadowy figures, watching and whispering, ready to snag the unprepared. When the calls of the day birds are replaced with the song of the owl and the nightingale. The woods at night are beautiful to a witch, but for anyone else to be in here was highly unusual.

And if the person arrived at Briar Grove… well, Madam Hicks would certainly put them in their place. I shuddered at the thought. Madam Hicks was an incredible witch, but she could be… terrifying… at times. She had been the leader of Briar Grove coven since time immemorial and she wanted people to know it. But, tonight… she wasn’t here.

I glanced around at my fellow witches. Morwenna, inscrutable as always. Cecily, fidgeting in her chair. Peregrine gave me a nervous smile. I took my place in the circle, glancing up at the sky. It was fully dark, and still no Madam Hicks.

I wouldn’t have noticed the girl had she not fallen out of a tree. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Had she really just done that? How did she get into the tree in the first place? The girl was only a few years older than we were, with flaming red hair and a permanently shocked expression. “Now, who went and put that tree there?” she asked no-one in particular. “I was just about to reach Briar Grove, I’m sure of it…”

She stopped and looked around. “This is Briar Grove, isn’t it! How fortunate.” She picked herself up from under the tree and took only two steps forward before she managed to trip over her own scarf.

No, I don’t know how she did it. I was there myself and I still don’t understand.

She clambered to her feet, something tumbling from her bag as she did so. It looked suspiciously like a dead rat.

“Why do you have a dead rat in your pouch… ma’am?” Asked Perry uncertainly.

“It never hurts to be prepared,” she replied vaguely. “Oh! And speaking of prepared, Aunt Imelda - you’d call her Madam Hicks, I suppose - asked me to look after the coven while she’s on holiday. My name is Millicent Hicks. Probably not Madam Hicks or things might get confusing.” As she rambled on, she searched through her pockets for something.

“Let’s see,” she murmured, pulling a very grubby list from the eighth pocket she tried. “Aunt Imelda will have my toads if we don’t get through everything on this list. Oh!” This last as she tripped over a log. “Um, it says here that we’re supposed to start with some stargazing, so… let’s do that.”

Millicent Hicks laid down on the ground and stared up at the sky for a while. Bemused, we joined her. I wasn’t sure how productive we were being, but the stars were absolutely stunning. Glimmering and jewellike in the sky, they seemed like eyes peering down at the heavens to watch me even as I gazed at them. They-

“Help… me…”

I froze, wondering if I had simply imagined the voice from the trees. But then it came again. “Help… me…”

“Can anyone else hear that?” I asked.

“Help… me…”

“I can,” Cecily agreed. Peregrine nodded.

“Help… me…”

“Maybe,” Morwenna asked, eyes gleaming, “it’s a departed spirit, returned to haunt the woods again.”

“Morwenna, that’s… quite disturbing,” Millicent murmured. “I’m sure it’s nothing…” She didn’t sound sure.

“Help… me…” The voice was barely a whisper, yet it clearly carried through the trees. It had a mournful, keening tone. I tried to focus on the night skies, to clear my mind again, but it was impossible.

“We should find out what that is,” I said, getting to my feet.

Cecily shot up immediately, Morwenna following more slowly. Perry began to get up, then asked, “shouldn’t we check with Mada- Millicent Hicks first?”

“Well,” she said, “if that’s what you want to do, then… I suppose that’s fine…”

And with that we were off, as she scrambled to catch up, plunging into the darkness of the woods knowing only that someone - or something - needed our help.