The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke - Sample Chapters

wound one of her father’s old scarves around her neck. Finn didn’t put on a coat. Ghosts don’t feel the cold.

Cat ran out the front door. The air was filled with swirls of white, and some of the snow had already stuck to the dark ground in patches, like sugar dusted across the top of a chocolate cake. The cars parked along the drive were fringed with ice, and whenever Cat breathed out she could see her breath like a miniature cloud. She tilted her head back and felt a cold stinging thrill as the snowflakes melted on her tongue.

Finn walked into the middle of the yard, his hands held out in front of him. The snow piled up along the ridge of his fingers. Cat scooped up a tiny handful of snow and mud. The fabric of her neat little white gloves stuck uncomfortably to her skin, but she shaped the snow into a ball and threw it at Finn. He jumped when it disintegrated across his back and turned around.

When Cat laughed, he smiled.

“Do you think any of those old people are going to come out here?” she asked. “I hope not. I don’t like them.”

“I believe they wished to finish their meal.”

“They just wanted to keep on talking about you when you weren’t there.” Cat formed another snowball, not caring that her embroidered gloves were getting wet and dirty. She threw this one at a red car parked on the yard. “They’re weird.”

“Do you know how snow is formed?”