But Malice only said that she did. The truth was, she hated everything they did to her. She wanted to kill them both. She wouldn’t be content with making them lie with dogs or Jheleck or old drooling men. When she grew up, she would murder her sisters. She would cut them into pieces. ‘Make me grow up fast,’ she said.

Spite’s smile broadened, and her hand tightened about Malice’s throat.

When she couldn’t breathe, she began struggling, trying to scratch Spite’s face, but Envy lunged close and grasped her wrists, pushing her arms down. Malice kicked, but Spite moved round and sat on her. And the hand kept squeezing, and it was terrifyingly strong.

Spite laughed, her eyes shining. ‘I dreamed this last night,’ she whispered. ‘I dreamed a murder far away. It was wonderful.’

Malice felt her eyes bulging, her face growing impossibly hot. Blackness closed in around her, swallowing everything.

* * *

Envy heard something break in Malice’s neck and tore Spite’s hands away. Their little sister’s head lolled back, as if to show them the deep imprint on her throat – the ribbons made by the fingers, the white knobs made by knuckles and the crescent cuts from nails digging in.

Neither said a word as they stared down at Malice.

Then Spite grunted. ‘It didn’t work,’ she said. ‘Not like with Arathan. It didn’t work at all, Envy.’

‘I’m not blind,’ Envy snapped. ‘You must have done it wrong.’

‘I did what you told me to!’

‘No – the choking was your idea, Spite! From your dream!’

‘Now,’ whispered Spite, ‘now I’ve done it twice. I’ve killed twice, both times the same way. I choked them to death.’

‘That’s what you get for going too far in your dreams,’ Envy said. ‘I told you to stay closer to home. You look through too many eyes.’

‘I didn’t just look,’ Spite said. ‘I made him like it.’

‘That’s your power then. Father said we had powers. He said we had aspects, that’s what he said.’

‘I know what he said. I was there.’

‘You make them like it. I make them want it.’ Envy looked down at Malice’s body. ‘I wonder what her aspect was.’

‘We’ll never know,’ said Spite. ‘And neither will she.’

‘You killed her, Spite.’

‘It was an accident. An experiment. It’s Father’s fault, for what he said.’

‘You killed Malice.’

‘An accident.’

‘Spite?’

‘What?’

‘What did it feel like?’

* * *

There was a niche under the foundations of the oven, where someone had pulled away a number of stones at the base as if to hide something, but nothing was there. It was just about big enough to fit Malice’s body, and once they pushed, sitting down and using their feet, and once a bone or two had snapped, they managed to get all of her inside. The stones that had been pulled away were the ones they always used to sit on. Now Spite and Envy pushed them back to at least block the niche.