Autumn Thorns: A Whisper Hollow Novel Book 1 Read online

  “Yes. Although almost every family in town called us in to perform the rites for their dead, we still noticed a rise in spirit activity.”

  “Even from the ones who went through the rites?”

  She nodded, somber. “Yes. The dead are returning from the Veil. Haunts… Mournfuls… the Wandering Ones. I fear we’ll see a rise in sightings of the Unliving. And only a spirit shaman can take on the Haunts and the Unliving.”

  I bit my lip. “As I said, over the years, I have developed some rites and rituals, but I don’t know how well they’ll work against the more powerful dead. Lila was the only one who could teach me and now she’s gone.”

  Oriel spoke up. “We can guide you. We can’t teach you, but we’ll do our best.” She reached across the coffee table to pat my hand. “Penelope might be able to help.” She paused. “Kerris, you know I’m the guardian of Whisper Hollow. But I also worked with your grandmother when the need arose.”

  So Oriel was more than an interested bystander. I glanced over at Ellia. I knew how she fit into the equation. But Ivy, I wasn’t so sure.

  “How do you play into all of this?” I asked her.

  Ivy stared into her cocoa mug. After a moment, she sat back, crossing her legs smoothly. “I’m your other grandmother. Your father was my son.”

  Cue a dozen bombs going off.

  Ellia caught my cup as I dropped it. Hot chocolate splashed across the knees of my jeans, as well as the floor. She set the cup on the table, then handed me a napkin.

  Your father. The words echoed in my head. Your father was my son… Words I never thought I’d hear. Especially from a woman who looked like she could be my sister rather than my grandmother.

  “I’m a shapeshifter. Your father was, too. He was paired to your mother.”

  Another round of explosions.

  But that explained her looks. Shapeshifters were long lived, aging normally till they reached their twenties when the process drastically slowed. That was why she looked so young.

  My world shifting with every breath, I searched for something to say. I’d long ago given up hope of knowing anything about my father, and now the opportunity was sitting right in front of me, staring at me with clear brown eyes. No wonder she had seemed familiar to me—she was my blood kin.

  “I suppose you’d better tell me everything,” I said. All along, the answers about my father had been living right down the street.

  When I was three, my mother disappeared. Tamil vanished one day, never to be heard from again. For a long time, I would think I caught a glimpse of her, walking down the street, or in a crowd on a corner. Or I’d turn to find her standing behind me, watching me with worried eyes. But I’d blink and she’d be gone. Eventually, I stopped seeing her. From the beginning, I told myself she ran off to find my father, and that someday, they’d come back to get me. But someday never came.

  My father had vanished before I was born. When I was old enough to realize that other kids had fathers and I didn’t, I asked Grandma Lila why. She told me that he had gone away, that he was very important and was on a secret mission. I bought her story.

  Later, when I asked her if my mother had gone to be with my father, she just murmured a soft answer that could have been yes or no. What I didn’t realize was that her stories were a source of vicious arguments between her and my grandfather. I learned that the hard way when I was eleven, when I asked Grandpa Duvall when my father would be allowed to come home from his mission.

  Grandpa Duvall, who stood well over six feet, with eyebrows the color of ink, glared down at me. “You’re old enough to know the truth. Your father skipped town when he found out your mother was pregnant with you. He disappeared, leaving her pregnant and unwed. That’s why she ran off. She couldn’t face raising you alone. So let that be a lesson to you, young lady. Keep your legs together until you have a ring on that finger.”

  The gleam in his eye told me he had enjoyed destroying my dreams. And right then, I realized just how much I hated him.

  Without a word, I turned and walked out of the room. Ten minutes later, I was on Grandma Lila’s lap, sobbing. Half an hour later, I knew little more except that my father—like my mother—had simply vanished. There was no secret government job, no mission, no romantic tryst half a world away. Just two people who had disappeared as though they never existed.

  Lila gave me a picture of them, though she warned me not to tell Grandpa Duvall. Tamil and Avery were standing together. Avery had wrapped his arms around her shoulders. They looked happy. I hid the picture behind a book and Duvall never found it. When I ran away, I took it with me, and it was still in my jewelry box.

  The only thing that became clear that day was the fact that I would forever hate my grandfather. Our relationship was tenuous to begin with. After that, no matter how polite he was, I kept my feelings shielded. He was a stranger to me from that day forward, and I would never trust him.

  “You’re Avery’s mother?”

  “Yes, your other grandmother.” She paused, glancing at Oriel and then Ellia. “This isn’t the way I wanted you to find out. I tried to get Duvall to let me tell you when you were young, but the old bas—” She paused.

  I shrugged. “Call him whatever you like. I’m glad he’s dead, and my only regret is that he came between Grandma Lila and me.”

  Ivy nodded. “Duvall was a bitter man. He wouldn’t let me near you. He threatened me, and when your grandfather made threats, he followed through. Lila kept me updated on your progress. She gave me pictures of you.”

  So Duvall had fucked us all over.

  “Grandpa Duvall was a mean son of a bitch. He never hit my grandmother, not that I knew, but he was cold and bitter. I never understood why she married him. Spirit shamans are supposed to have guardians—a shapeshifter born to each of us, but she didn’t. At least, not that I know of. Tell me about my father, please. Did he really run out on my mother like Duvall told me?”

  Ivy let out a soft sigh. “Avery worshipped your mother. One morning, shortly after Tamil announced she was pregnant, Avery headed up to Timber Peak on a hunting trip. He never returned. My ex-husband—Roger—came back to Whisper Hollow as soon as I called him. He led a search and rescue team, but they couldn’t find any evidence that Avery had ever set foot in those woods. The store he normally bought his hunting gear from hadn’t seen him that day, and he was supposed to have stopped there for ammo. Roger stayed for two months before he finally gave up and returned to the city. Avery’s disappearance almost brought us back together, but Whisper Hollow doesn’t like Roger, so I told him to leave. He wasn’t born here. If he stayed, Whisper Hollow would offer him up to the Lady, I feared.”

  I frowned. “My grandfather told me that my father just up and left during the middle of the night. He never said anything about Avery disappearing in the woods.”

  “Duvall hated Avery. He was furious when he found out that Tamil had gotten pregnant. When Tamil announced they were engaged, the blowup was epic.” Ivy snorted, shaking her head. “The shot heard ’round the world, so to speak.”

  Ellia nodded. “Tamil showed up at my doorstep, begging me to let her stay here. I was helping Lila train her to be a spirit shaman. I took her in, but Duvall insisted she return home a week later. Neither Tamil nor I dared go against his wishes. Lila did her best to intervene but he insisted.”

  My ears perked up. “You helped my mother with her training? I thought only another spirit shaman could do that.”

  “I was teaching her how to work with a lament singer,” Ellia said. “Your mother’s gifts were incredibly strong. But the minute we found out she was pregnant, we had to stop. Working with the spirits while pregnant can be dangerous. We don’t know if what she was doing affected you or not, since she was four months gone before she let anybody know.”

  Four months. I frowned. “Why did she wait so long to say anything?”

  Ivy glanced over at Ellia, who nodded. “We think she and Avery kept it secret so your grandfather couldn
’t force her to have an abortion. When they did reveal that you were on the way, they told a lot of people all at once so the word got around. Otherwise, Duvall would have tried to force her to get rid of you.”

  Stunned, I sat back to mull over everything that I had learned in the past ten minutes. The three women waited quietly.

  One: I had a grandmother I never knew about. A grandmother who looked close to my age and was a shapeshifter.

  Two: My father didn’t run out on my mother. In fact, he had disappeared as silently and abruptly as Tamil. Which brought to mind another question: What if they agreed that he would leave and she would join him later. What if she meant to take me with her, but something had interfered?

  Three: My grandfather had a secret he could no longer keep hidden, and had died hours before he was to reveal it.

  Four: My mother’s training might have affected me in the womb.

  I let the information settle in, then glanced over at Ivy. Suddenly hungry for answers, I decided to put to rest some of the questions that I’d been carrying around my entire life.

  “What can you tell me about my father? What was he like?”

  “Avery’s last name was Forrester. When I left his father, I went back to my maiden name of Primrose, but I left Avery with his father’s name. Avery liked to cook. He loved rockabilly music, he drove an old pickup truck. His favorite color was green, and he lived on hot dogs, pizza, and lasagna. He was smart and had planned on attending college until Tamil got pregnant, but he adjusted quickly. In fact, the day they broke the news about you and their engagement, Avery secured a job with Earl—the publisher of the Whisper Hollow Gazette. He also asked me for his grandmother’s wedding ring, to give to Tamil. He had already proposed but hadn’t been able to give her a ring.” Her smile faded. “I don’t know if he ever got the chance to give it to her. I never saw the ring again after that evening.”

  I drank in the information. “You said he was a shapeshifter. So he was her guardian? And how does that affect me? I’ve never even had a whiff of that ability.”

  “He was a wolf shifter, as am I. As for you, when shapeshifters mate with spirit shamans, the daughters always are born as spirit shamans. Not all are called to take the post, but all the daughters possess the ability. If Tamil had been a typical human, you would have had been born a wolf shifter, because the shapeshifter gene is dominant. We can talk more about that later,” Ivy said.

  And that was enough for the night. There were a million other things I wanted to know, but they would keep. I hesitantly wrapped my arms around her. “Thank you. Thank you for telling me. Thank you for being here.”

  She looked startled, but hugged me back, kissing me on the forehead. “Kerris, you don’t know how many times over the years I wanted to send you a note, or stop you on the way home from school. But Duvall…” With a shudder, she shook her head. “He was a dangerous man.”

  I shook my hair out of my eyes. “What did the ring look like? Your mother’s ring? If I find it, I can at least give it back to you.” I wanted to comfort her, to do something to make up for the way my grandfather had treated her and her son.

  Ivy’s eyes glimmered. “If you find it, please keep it, because that would mean that he actually gave it to Tamil. I never was allowed to talk to her again after they announced their engagement. As for the ring, it was a rose gold filigree setting, with a half-carat diamond in the center. My father had it made for my mother when they got engaged.”

  I nodded. Not sure what else to say, I glanced at Oriel and Ellia. “So where should I start?”

  Ellia stood. “I suppose we can begin by going out to the cemetery. That seems the best plan. You’ve been gone so long, I don’t know how much you remember from your grandmother. We should start tonight.”

  “Don’t take her to the Pest House graveyard,” Oriel warned. “Not yet. Even your music can’t calm the spirits who walk there, Ellia.” She opened her bag and pulled out a pendant on a chain. “Here, this was your grandmother’s. I took it from her body for safekeeping until you came home. You’ll need it. Wear it at all times, even in the shower. It’s charmed to protect.”

  The pendant weighed heavy in my hands. A silver five-pointed star in a circle, it hung on a chain that also looked to be silver. A pentacle. But atop the pentacle rested a skull. Not a screaming, Halloween skull, but a somber skull, carved from crystal, affixed firmly to the metal.

  “It’s magical, isn’t it?” A vague memory stirred—I remembered seeing Grandma Lila wear it, though she usually kept it beneath her shirt or dress.

  Oriel laughed. “Dear Kerris, it’s all magic. The world is a magical place, if people would only open their eyes. Magic runs through these forests. The rain forest is primeval, so deep and thick with magic that you’d have to be headblind to not feel it.”

  With that, she and Ivy headed for the door. Feeling shy, I asked Ivy if I could come over later in the week.

  “I want to get to know you better,” I said.

  “Of course. Here’s my number.” She gave me her number and I typed it into my contacts, then gave her my cell number.

  Alone in the hallway with Ellia, I shrugged into my jacket and slung my purse over my shoulder. Ellia opened the hall closet and withdrew her violin case. She settled a long cloak around her shoulders, fastening it with a Celtic knotwork brooch, looking like she’d stepped right out of the pages of some historical romance.

  “Do you remember the rules?” she asked me.

  “Oh yes,” I murmured. Nobody who lived in Whisper Hollow ever forgot the rules. In fact, they were printed on a sign at the entrance to the town and drilled into children during kindergarten.

  “Recite them, then, please.”

  I let out a slow breath. “Okay.” I felt like I was in grade school again. We had recited them every day instead of the Pledge of Allegiance.

  1. If you hear someone call your name from the forest, don’t answer.

  2. Never interrupt Ellia when she’s playing to the dead.

  3. If you see the Girl in the Window, set your affairs in order.

  4. Try not to end up in the hospital.

  5. If the Crow Man summons you, follow him.

  6. Remember: Sometimes the foul are actually fair.

  7: And most important: Don’t drive down by the lake at night.”

  Ellia nodded. “You remember. Good. Put on your necklace and let’s head to the cemetery. It’s time you met the dead.”

  Chapter Three

  The cemetery wasn’t far from either of our houses. Ellia rode with me. She lived close enough to walk home but I told her I would give her a ride. The thought of her walking the streets after dark didn’t set well with me. Not in Whisper Hollow.

  The cemetery was on the appropriately named Cemetery Avenue. At the end of an L-shaped intersection, Cemetery Avenue connected with Bramblewood Way, the road running past my house. In turn, Bramblewood Way bordered Bramblewood Thicket, a dense patch of forest on the western side of Whisper Hollow that was home to a spirit called the Grey Man. It was also the home to the Tree of Skulls—a very gruesome little patch of woods.

  The fog was rising as we pulled into the circular parking lot where you could either park and walk into the gated graveyard, or drive down a narrow access road to reach the areas farthest away. Ellia directed me to drive down the access road until we were overlooking the shore of Lake Crescent. We turned to the right and followed the narrow road to the end of the marked graves. I parked in a small turnoff and killed the ignition.

  “Who’s the undertaker now?” The undertaker was also the caretaker of the cemetery. When I had been young, an old man had been in charge of the dead, but I couldn’t remember his name.

  “Jonah Westwood, the nephew of old Elijah. You probably remember Elijah. He held the job for sixty years. About seven years back, he died and his nephew moved to Whisper Hollow and took over.” She paused. “I played for Elijah, and Penelope escorted him through the Veil. He deserved to rest af
ter giving so many years of service to the dead. His nephew is an odd duck, though. We have to work together, but I steer clear of him during the rest of the time.”

  I frowned. “What’s the matter with him?”

  She shook her head. “Just a feeling. I’m not sure, to be honest. Maybe nothing, but I’ll tell you this: I hope when it’s my turn to leave this world, that he’s not still in charge.”

  “Well, that makes me feel ever so much better.”

  Laughing softly, I locked the car and followed her down one of the narrow walkways. The air was damp, and even my jacket couldn’t keep the moisture from seeping into my lungs. In Whisper Hollow, unlike graveyards in other towns, families didn’t come to the cemetery to picnic, and most of the teenagers stayed away.

  One glance at the headstones and a barrage of whispering hit me. Misty forms swept through the graveyard. I caught sight of them, watching as they swirled in the damp night air.

  “You’re right. They’re stirred up.”

  Ellia started to say something, then shook her head.

  I watched the spirits dance. “Do you know anything that might explain it?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I know something’s afoot. There’s a force moving against the town, Kerris. The signs are all there. The Crow Man has been calling those of us with power. The Walker in the Woods has been spotted five times in the past two months. The Girl in the Window appeared to Douglas McPherson and he died the next week. And the Lady’s appetite is growing.”

  I grimaced. Those were signs, all right, and not good ones. “Do you think something’s coming out of the forest?”

  The Hoh rain forest held its own spirits—Sasquatch, for one, and a number of other creatures. They bordered the edge of my work with the dead. While I knew about them, I tried to steer clear because spirit shamans weren’t geared to dealing with elementals and monsters.

  “Oh, Sasquatch has been active lately, but I don’t think he has anything to do with whatever’s going on. Though a hunter was attacked three months ago up on Timber Peak, and a handful of mutilated deer have been found.” She stopped along the path, pointing toward a pair of graves. “Watch.”