My name is Lizzie

My name is Elizabeth Rose Malkin (after the famous coven leader) but you can call me Bony Lizzie. Everyone else does. I'm a bone witch, see, and quite a famous one. But you'll know all about that, won't you? Everyone does. I ain't writing this journal just to tell people things they already know, am I? No point in that, no point in that at all.

I'm writing this so people will still be able to know all about me even after I'm gone. I want them to know about my childhood and how I developed from an eager young girl with potential into one of the most powerful witches in the world. You could say it's a gift, in a way, for my daughter, Alice, who one day will become the most powerful witch in the world. That's if she takes her head out of the clouds and dedicates more.

That's the trouble with Alice: she's a dreamer and needs a good push to actually get the work done. Needs to be in proper danger. I didn't just do those things to her to be mean- did it all to help her, I did. Did it all to help her achieve her full potential. She's never believed that magic is necessary, I've tried to show her it is. This is my final attempt since I never managed to finish off the boy. Loves him, she does, and would do anything for him. That's bad enough but this boy is Old Gregory's apprentice and not far off becoming a spook himself. She's more potential than I had but she can be thick as anything sometimes.

Stupidity must run in our family because my parents and siblings were exactly the same. The others were always screaming when we were little, always running round. I didn't. Always been more of a thinker, me. I'd sit indoors and study. Read books I weren't supposed to. My dad would always beat me whenever he found me curled up in a cosy corner with one of the family grimoires but I knew he was secretly thrilled that I was already showing an interest.

I had two sisters and four brothers. Alexander, Lucas, Sophie, me, Mary, Robert and Paul. Alexander was the oldest, ten years older than me, but he was killed when he was twelve; Robert wandered off onto the marshes one day when he was six and was never seen since and Paul had only lived a few hours. Mam had died giving birth to him so there'd be no more siblings after that.. Life's tough in Pendle and only four of us ever reached our teens and Lucas and Mary are dead now as well. Wish Sophie and her useless kids had gone with them.

Sophie was the only other one to ever show an interest but she was a wet blanket and her whiny brats are even worse. Lucie, Freddie and Lorelli. Both girls want to do magic. Dream on, Sophie.

I remember the day I was taken to be tested. I'd visited Malkin Tower, before, but not as often as I'd have liked. What with my mam being gone, my dad had six kids to cope with for a while so days out were few and far between. I would never have got my training if it weren't for my grandmother, Mother Malkin. We bumped into her when our noisy rabble were leaving Malkin Tower after I'd just received the bad news that, although I showed plenty of potential, due to the recent war with the Deanes, there was no one to train me. I'd have to become a seamstress or something else equally useless like my sister, Mary. There was no chance of me being able to share mentors with Sophie because she'd almost finished and I was just starting.

She'd asked where the rest of the brood were (the last time she'd checked, I'd been two and we'd all been alive with Robert a newborn. Mam was even still alive). Now I was fourteen and just Lucas, Mary and me still lived at home. My dad had replied to tell her they were all dead, apart from Sophie.

"Taking those two for selection, were you?" She asked. We both looked young for our ages so Mary did look like she could be being taken but she wasn't interested.

"Lizzie's been selected- they say she's got great potential- but there's no one left to train her."

"Which one's Lizzie?" She asked warily. He rested his hand on my shoulder.

"The war? Or are they just giving her the brush-off?" She asked brusquely after looking me up and down three times.

"The war. Lizzie scored the fourth highest."

"Is she strong?"

"Very."

"Is she one of my daughter's girls?"

"This is her second girl: Lizzie."

"Very well, I'll take her on." This came out of nowhere but we weren't complaining. That night I packed up everything I owned and moved in with my grandmother. At last my training began.