Category: Mira Morganstein: Queen of the Nearly Dead Fae

Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 017

The Pink Lemonade Club (Episode One)“Mira,” her mother fastened her gaze on the table cloth, still pristine and white, “I’m going to tell you a story. I need you not to interrupt me until I’m finished. All right?”

Not liking the sound of that, Mira nodded. How was she supposed to figure things out if she couldn’t ask questions?

“Once upon a time—”

“I thought you said this was a real story.” Mira folded her arms and raised a brow.

“It is.”

“Then why did you—”

“All the very best stories start with ‘Once upon a time,’” her mother said in her usual no-nonsense voice. “This one is no exception. May I continue?”

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Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 016

The Pink Lemonade Club (Episode One)To Nick a Knack,

First find a feary—

any of the Folk will do.

Bind the powers of the moon,

sun, and dust of starlight too.

Wait a mite with milk in hand,

And a needle for blood’s bright band.

Find a shadow, sew it shut.

Make the first, a shallow cut.

Wait to see what follows then,

For it shall find each of your ken.

For this Knack, you’ll surely pay,

For that it is the Folk’s only way.

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Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 015

The Pink Lemonade Club (Episode One)“Fine,” Mira breathed, wishing, in that moment, that she could take back her exhale. The Pink Lemonade Brigade’s scent was suffocating. Like she’d stumbled into a garden that had been bred for the smelliest of flowers. Individually, they might have been nice. But all together like this, overpowering was a more accurate word.

She tugged on the end of the ribbon, and the bow unknotted. The other ribbons fell away, leaving only the yellow paper to contend with. Mira slipped her finger into a fold in the paper and followed it up to the point where it had been stuck to itself with beeswax. (Another oddity of the Pink Lemonade Brigade was their inability to deal with a simple piece of tape. The one time she’d talked one of them into helping her wrap a present of her own had resulted in the entire roll of tape mummifying Auntie Marigold’s hand.)

The wax came away easily, and Mira pulled the paper away. Now all that remained was the box.

And what was inside it.Read More


Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 014

The Pink Lemonade Club (Episode One)A smile crept into the corners of Mira’s lips. Did this mean that she only had one more year to go with the Pink Lemonade Brigade? In general, she had nothing against the elderly, but there had always been something different—off—with the old ladies in the Pink Lemonade Brigade. Something that belied the way they looked and hinted at mystery.

Secrets.

Their eyes were too bright, too knowing, and they never came all at once. Instead, they seemed to prefer to visit one at a time over the course of a week or so every year. Most of them had long hair they twisted up into intricate knots that were often hidden by the ridiculously large floppy hats with flowers stuck round the bands they always wore.Read More


Mira Morganstein: The Pink Lemonade Club 013

The Pink Lemonade Club (Episode One)The meeting was worse than Mira could have imagined.

Rather than one pair of bright, inquisitive eyes studying her inside and out, she had twelve of them to contend with. Her mother didn’t count, mostly because of the worry line etched between her brows and the way her eyes jumped from one person to the next without ever seeming to find exactly what they were looking for.

If her mother was worried, well, that said something.

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