

Cantanker gradually reveals herself to be a dark force to be reckoned with. There’s also the scary matter of her family, bewitched and moldering in the dining room. But there is much to learn and no one she can fully rely upon, not even Minnifer, the maid, and Bram, the cook, both of whom are friendly toward her.

Cantanker, to take her rightful place as the last of a family of powerful witches, it seems almost like a dream come true. When she’s summoned to Blackbird Castle, which is ruled over by the unpleasant Mrs. Although a 12-year-old servant girl doesn’t recall the time before she was an orphan, she remembers her secret, powerful name: Zita Brydgeborn.
