Witching Time: An Ante-Fae Adventure (Wild Hunt Book 14) Read online

  “Two missing people and the cops never did anything? That sounds about right.”

  “Well, the father didn’t go missing until later on, and the wife said that he ran off and left the family. As I said, I don’t know all the details—and what I do know is sketchy. But there were kids at school who, when they found out that we bought this place, said that it was haunted. I asked why but they didn’t know.”

  “Did you buy this farm from the original family?”

  Evie shook her head. “No. I gather the wife sold it and took the rest of her kids and moved away. We got it on foreclosure from someone else.” She looked uncomfortable. “I feel bad, because Marigold is so adamant about not telling anybody the history. The stuff that happened was a long time ago, forty or fifty years, I think.”

  That left a lot of possibilities wide open. I took a deep breath and turned to her. “Listen, I’ll look into things on the side. But I want you to tell me if you’ve ever had any weird experiences out here.”

  “All right,” Evie said. “Dray and I have talked about what we’ve seen. There are a lot of little things and they seem to be happening more frequently. I woke up one night a few months ago, and I got up to go to the bathroom. As I passed my window, I looked out and saw a white figure running toward the barn. It was misty, like a fog, but it looked like a person.”

  “And you’re sure it wasn’t somebody illuminated by moonlight?”

  “I wish,” she said. “Before it reached the barn, it vanished. Just…poof. We moved in three years ago, and during that time, I’ve heard strange noises in the barn, in the house, in some of the outbuildings. Now, some of them, when I checked them out, sure enough, were squirrels, raccoons, things like that. But I also swear I heard footsteps. Especially in the barn, I would hear someone walking around in the hayloft. I snuck up there, thinking maybe it was some kid or something goofing around, but there was nobody there.”

  “You shouldn’t do that,” I said, scolding her. “What if some pervert was hiding up there? Next time, you should call the police.”

  “My mom would kill me if I did that. I may be seventeen, but I’m not an idiot. If Marigold got mad enough, she’d kick me out. It’s like she’s become obsessed with this place and it means more to her than I do, more than Dray does, and I think even more than Rain does. You should talk to Rain privately—she’s more open, I think. I know that Mom’s personality has changed since we moved here, and all of us notice it. I heard her and Rain arguing a month or so ago about it.”

  Evie looked worried, and I felt for her. It never helped when your parents were at odds, and add to that, psychic activity, and it just made things that much more tense.

  “How has she changed?” We reached the actual maze and I pointed to it. “Which way do we go? You should know this maze.”

  “You don’t want to figure it out?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think I have time. I need to be back at the booth soon.”

  “Take a right, then a left. Come on, I’ll lead.” Evie took the front.

  The maze sprawled out. Whoever had made it, had done a good job. The pathway was wide enough to walk two abreast, though I noticed the orb weaver garden spiders had been busy and there were webs everywhere. Evie held up a stick.

  “We can use this to bring down the spiders. I grabbed one before we entered. We keep a bucket of them at the entrance for people to use.” She swept away a large web, and an even larger garden spider who had apparently had high hopes for a big payoff.

  “So, how has your mother changed?” I asked, listening as the breeze ruffled the corn husks. The rain had stopped for the moment and I could see the faint hints of sun as the clouds began to dissipate.

  “She’s become snappish…she gets irritated really easy, and it’s getting harder to make it through a meal without somebody getting yelled at. She also doesn’t sleep well. I hear her pacing in her room night after night. She’s slept on the sofa more than once, after I heard her and Rain arguing.”

  “Anything else?”

  “She slapped Dray a few weeks ago, and Mom never slaps us. She doesn’t believe in corporal punishment. But I was passing through the living room, and she was grilling him on why he didn’t make it home early enough to help out with the chores. He said he had stopped to talk to some friends, and she hauled off and smacked him. She told him his first duty was to the farm and if his afterschool activities interfered, she could easily remedy that.” Evie bit her lip. “To be honest, Raven, I’m worried sick about her. And…she scares me a little. I’ve never been scared of my mother—ever.”

  “So, definite changes in her behavior. How long as this been going on?” I had dealt with a number of hauntings where the living had been affected by the dead. Not many people realized just how much damage spirits could do to the living just by their presence. Oh, sure, there were lots of friendly spirits, but quite often, the ghosts who were trapped in our world were angry or frightened, and their energy could easily affect the living.

  “It started…oh…a few months after we moved here, but it was gradual. It wasn’t like she just flipped on a dime. I don’t think I even noticed what was going on for the first six months. We were so busy trying to get the farm back into shape. The land was littered with debris—layers of dead leaves, tangles of weeds, a lot of branches that had been blown down and so forth from being abandoned for years. We also had to fix up the house to make it livable. It had stood abandoned for quite a while—it’s changed hands a lot over the years.”

  “So, you said you didn’t buy it from the original owners?” I asked.

  Evie shook her head. “Right. The family that first farmed this land was named Lanchester. Jericho Lanchester was the father. They bought it from some big timber company that was going out of business. When Jericho disappeared, the mother gathered up her brood and sold the house, then moved to the East Coast. It sold several times after that, but I don’t know how many. The last owners abandoned the place and it went into foreclosure. That’s the only way we were able to afford it.”

  I paused, pulled out my phone, and—switching on the digital recorder—quickly detailed what Evie had told me. Then I turned back to the maze.

  “Which way should we go?” I asked as we came to a T-junction.

  Evie glanced around, looking puzzled. “I… I’m not sure. I built this maze and I know it inside out but I don’t remember this part of it. How odd.”

  “It’s not like it’s dark,” I said, glancing around. I turned back the way we had come. “Maybe we should just retrace our steps?”

  “I think that might be a good idea.” Evie sounded wary. “I have an uneasy feeling.”

  I nodded, thinking that she wasn’t the only one. My alarm bells were clanging loud and clear. But I didn’t want to scare her. “Lead the way.”

  We started back the way we had come, retracing our steps. After a few moments, there was a rustling in the corn to our right.

  Evie shouted and pointed. “There—I see…” She paused. “It’s gone.”

  I had seen a shadow dart by, as well. “What did you see?”

  “I’m not sure. A movement.” She worried her lip. “I wish Marigold had never thought of putting in a maze. I don’t like them.”

  “I know,” I said, trying to sound soothing. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  But as we turned left, onto what should be the way out, we found ourselves back at the T-junction. I knew it was the same one because one of the corn stalks had been broken in a peculiar way, and that same stalk was directly in front of us again.

  “Damn it, this isn’t funny,” Evie said, looking more frightened than angry.

  “Hold on. I’ll text Kipa. He’ll find us.” I quickly texted to Kipa. we’re stuck in the corn maze. can you come find us? we can’t seem to find the way out. and keep your eyes open—there’s something in here with us.

  Immediately, he pinged me back. i’ll be there as soon as i can.

  I took a deep bre
ath and let it out slowly. “Kipa will be here soon. We’ll just wait for him right here.” I looked around. The ground was wet and I didn’t fancy sitting in a mud puddle. And the gravel they had spread through the maze to help with traction wasn’t exactly my idea of comfort, either.

  “So, you said this was Marigold’s idea?”

  “Right,” Evie said. “She thought a corn maze would be fun, and it sounded like it. But it was such a headache to map out and make. I originally had the idea to plant the corn in the shape of the maze, but nope—my mother wanted to utilize every space. So I spent days figuring out the maze on paper and then culling my way through, carving out the maze with an actual sickle. I’ll never do this again. If they want the maze again next year, they can go with my idea or they can do it themselves. Besides, next year I expect to be off to college.”

  “Where are you going?” I wanted to keep up the patter of small talk—it might keep whatever we had seen away from us.

  “University of Washington. I’ve won a full scholarship. It’s a sports scholarship, but my goal is to focus on languages. I’d like to be an interpreter and travel the world.” Evie smiled. “I can speak French, Spanish, and a smattering of Japanese now.”

  “Wow, big plans,” I said. “It sounds fun, actually. I’ve never been to college. But then again, given I’m Ante-Fae, we have our own ways of learning and doing things. The Fae go to school along with shifters and humans, but we learn at home.”

  Very few of the Ante-Fae interacted with human institutions, and very few of the Ante-Fae actually interacted with humans in general. I was one of the Exosan, the newer generation of Ante-Fae who preferred interacting with human society. We weren’t accepted by most of the older Ante-Fae, who tended to live on the outskirts of the world.

  “Will you be living in the dorm—” I started to ask when another rustle in the corn startled both of us. We slowly turned to the rows of corn behind us, and I motioned for Evie to get behind me. I pulled out my dagger and waited.

  The day was cool but bright now, and steam was rising off the corn where the sun burned away the residue of the rain. But there was no wind at the moment, yet we could see some of the stalks moving—swaying as if something were passing through them. I thought about asking whatever was there to show itself, but I didn’t want to put Evie in danger. Instead, I just kept her behind me, following the movement as it rippled through the corn.

  “Hey, girls.” The voice came from behind us on the path and I shrieked, so intent had I been on watching the movement among the stalks.

  “Don’t freaking do that!” I said, turning around. “But thank gods you’re here.”

  Kipa started to laugh, but then stopped, staring beyond us at the corn. “What the hell is in there? I can feel something…and it’s not friendly.”

  “I don’t know, but I think it’s been following us. We got lost. Evie built this maze but even she can’t figure out how to get out of here.” I turned around to look at the rows of corn again. “We saw some shadow streak by a few minutes ago.”

  Kipa frowned. “I’m going to lead you two out of here, then I’ll come back in and search my way through. Evie, you might want to keep this closed for now.”

  “I can’t. My mom would want to know why and then she’d blow up.” Evie looked around nervously. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt in here. I’m not sure what to do.”

  I looped my arm through her elbow as we followed Kipa. “Marigold seems to have undergone a personality change,” I said. “Ever since they bought the farm.”

  “Do you think there’s something out here haunting the place?” Kipa asked.

  “I don’t know, but there’s definitely something off-kilter. I know there’s a ghost, but this isn’t her. I’m not sure what it is. Possibly one of the sub-Fae, or maybe something else that we haven’t encountered yet. There are a lot of creatures who aren’t from the spirit world that can pack a punch of danger.”

  Evie scooted closer to me. “The past few months I’ve actually found myself afraid to walk out alone at night. When we first moved here, I was fine. Everything seemed fine. As we renovated the house and began to spruce up the land, that’s when the energy changed and that’s when my mother—Marigold—began to change.”

  “I’d like to look into this,” I said. “I’m not sure if I should, though, without your mothers’ permission.”

  “Can you talk to both of them? Or maybe talk to Rain first. I don’t know why, but she doesn’t seem to be affected.”

  “All right, I’ll start with her. Meanwhile, there has to be some way we can shut down this maze for even an hour while Kipa looks through it.” I looked around. “There was a lot of wind last night. Maybe we could break a few of the stalks and say that the maze needs to be tidied up first?”

  Evie shook her head. “Mom would send me in to fix it, and frankly, I have no intention on setting foot in this maze again.”

  At that moment, we found ourselves at the entrance to the maze again. I took a deep breath, feeling a rush of relief as we stepped out into the open. It was nearly eleven, and people were starting to line up at the entrance, waiting to pay.

  Marigold was walking by and she caught sight of Evie and Kipa and me. “Where the hell have you been, Evie? I’ve been looking all over for you. Get your ass over there and start letting people in. Honestly, sometimes you’re so damned lazy that I’m ashamed to be your mother.”

  I stared at Marigold as Evie burst into tears. I had known the family for over a year and I had never heard Marigold sound so bitchy toward her kids.

  “Evie was helping me out,” I said. “It’s my fault she’s late.”

  Marigold frowned, staring at me for a moment, and by the look on her face, she couldn’t decide whether to yell some more or let it go. Finally, she shrugged. “Well, don’t just stand there. People are waiting.” Then, stalking off, she muttered something under her breath that I couldn’t quite catch.

  I turned to Evie. “I’m so sorry—but damn, girl.”

  Evie nodded. “She never used to act like that. I can never do anything right anymore.”

  “Well, run along. I’ll see what I can do. Kipa, start hunting through the maze. If anybody comes in there, try to encourage them to leave and visit one of the other exhibits instead.”

  “Will do.” He took off back into the maze as Evie slowly moved toward the entrance. I glanced back at the maze. Even in the sunlight, the thing looked ominous to me and, as I headed over toward Llew’s booth, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were all being watched.

  Chapter Seven

  Llew took one look at me and knew something was wrong. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you in a moment. First, I need caffeine. Is Jordan here yet?” I scanned the vendors, looking for the A Taste of Latte’s booth. It was across the fairway, two booths down, tucked between a stand selling fresh vegetables and a leather worker’s booth. “I’ll be right back. Do you want anything?”

  “Get me a bear claw and a large coffee, would you? Jordan knows how I like it.”

  I hustled across the way and leaned on the counter. Jordan, Llew’s husband, was a good-looking tiger shifter. He was tall and lanky, and his long blond hair had amber highlights that mimicked a tiger’s stripes. He wore it in a ponytail most days, and it contrasted with his olive skin and chocolate-brown eyes.

  “Hey, if it isn’t my favorite bone witch! What can I get for you?” He seemed unusually chipper. Jordan had sarcasm down to an art, but actually, he was a caring person and he treated Llew like a king.

  “Llew wants a large coffee and a bear claw. I’d like a quadruple-shot caramel mocha, and…let’s see…give me a cinnamon roll.” I inhaled deeply as the scent of caramel and cinnamon and apple spice washed over me from the assorted pastries.

  Jordan started fixing my mocha. “What do you think of the fair so far?”

  I stared at the tray of pastries under the plastic lid, trying to think of what to say. I wasn’t go
od with chitchat. Then a thought occurred to me. “Jordan, you’re a tiger shifter. You have good instincts. You tell me, what does the fair feel like to you?”

  He paused, staring at me. “I know you well enough to know that’s not just some random question. Something’s going on, isn’t it?”

  I nodded, keeping my voice low. “Yeah, but we’re not sure what. And Marigold doesn’t seem open to holding a conversation about it. Keep alert, just saying.”

  He furrowed his brow, pouring the frothed milk into my to-go cup and adding a thick swirl of whipped cream. He squeezed caramel sauce onto the cream, then carefully placed the lid on and nestled the cup into a tray, along with Llew’s coffee. Then he slid a bear claw into one small waxed-paper sheath and my cinnamon roll into another and put them both into a small sack.

  “Here you go. No charge, of course. If I happen to sense anything amiss, I’ll be sure to let you know.” He paused, then added, “Be careful, Raven. I can already tell you that the air here is charged. My predatory instincts are fully on alert. That doesn’t happen unless there’s something dangerous around.”

  I took the pastries and tray from him. “Thanks, Jordan. And yes, there’s something dangerous here and I think it’s looking for a victim. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.”

  Carrying the coffees and pastries back to the booth along with a handful of paper napkins, I settled at my table. Before I could even eat two bites of my cinnamon roll or talk to Llew about what was happening, a customer came up wanting a tarot reading. I glanced at Llew, thinking we needed to talk, but there wasn’t time right now. He was already engaged with a couple of customers, so I filed away a mental note to fill him in as soon as our booth had a lull. Pulling out my cards, I got to work.

  I had a steady train of customers until after six readings I could barely think straight. I needed food, so I put up my sign that read out for lunch and pushed my chair back, sighing as I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs. Even for someone as experienced as I was, reading the cards required a great deal of energy and after a while, it was like I was walking in a fog. Coming up for air required a few minutes to decompress.