Read Online Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror by Holly Webb - Free Book Online

“If you must know, she pulled my hair.”
    Robin didn’t look convinced. “I pull your hair, Emily, all the time. What did she really do?”
    â€œYou don’t pull chunks of it out .”
    Robin sucked in a breath through his teeth and stroked his thin fingers across the side of her hair. Emily could feel each separate hair tingling with his magic, and she was sure that when she next looked in a mirror, her hair would be about three times more curly than usual. But probably nice and shiny too.
    â€œI’ll make all her hair fall out,” Robin snarled as he came across the raw patch, and Emily flinched. “How dare she?” There was a sudden warmth all through the roots of Emily’s hair, and the dull ache of the torn patch disappeared.
    â€œThanks!” Emily explored it carefully with her fingertips, but now it was just a patch of soft new skin.
    â€œI can’t make the hair grow back all at once,” Robin said. He sounded rather annoyed about it. “Mum could, but I’m not strong enough.”
    â€œDon’t tell her!”
    Robin rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t going to.” Then he smiled. The smile made his eyes sparkle, but Emily shivered. It was an icy sort of glint, and he looked furious, even with the smile. “I may not be able to make your hair grow, but I can deal with the rest of it quite well by myself.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Emily asked suspiciously. “You don’t need to deal with anything. It’s nothing to do with you!”
    Robin shook his hair back, and Emily could see the pointed tips of his ears, and the unnatural whiteness of his teeth. “You’re my sister. It’s up to me to protect you.”
    Emily gave a little snort of laughter at the thought of her eight-year-old brother protecting her. But the tightness that had been knotting up inside her chest seemed to ease a little more every time Robin said something like this. “Since when do you need to protect me?” she demanded. “You don’t go round protecting Lark and Lory, do you?”
    Robin shrugged. “You can’t fly away. No slug gets to hurt my sister.” He frowned and ran a finger round one of Emily’s curls. “What shall we do to the slug?” Then he looked round at her excitedly. “Oh, we could turn her into one for real!”
    â€œNo!” Emily squeaked. “We can’t! Not even Katie Meadows deserves to be a slug.”
    â€œNot for ever…” Robin suggested pleadingly. “Only for a day, maybe.”
    â€œHow are we supposed to explain that she’s disappeared?” Emily shook her head violently. “Honestly, Robin, you can’t.”
    Robin looked at her suspiciously. “Are you just going to let her get away with it? You do that with me and Lark and Lory all the time, you know. You’re such a wuss.”
    Emily stood up. “You put spells on me!” she snapped. “I can hardly do that back, can I? What do you expect?”
    Robin shrugged. “You’re just too nice. Look, can I at least put a slug in Katie’s sandwiches? Not even by magic? I’ll just catch one in the garden.”
    â€œNo,” Emily snapped, although the thought of Katie Meadows chewing a slug was very, very tempting. “You can’t. I’ll sort it out! I’ll do something. I just haven’t worked out what yet.”
    But as she hurried upstairs, she glanced back and caught Robin smiling to himself – a thoughtful, planning sort of smile.

Emily was curled up on her window seat with her chin on her arms, scowling at the misty glass. Everything around her reminded her of the fairy world. She couldn’t even walk past the mirror on the landing without feeling guilty.
    What was she going to do about the fairy girl from the riverbank?
    Emily shook her head, trying to clear it a little. There were far too many things to worry about, what with