Witching Time

by Yasmine Galenorn

  Kipa slipped his arm around my waist. “So, what do we do now?”

  “Wager’s worried, so there must be bad news about this place. Tonight, we search for Aida’s body and whatever else we can find. And I hope to hell that we don’t meet more than we can cope with.” As I glanced at the sky, the lightning broke again, illuminating the dusk, and thunder rattled the ground around us. I shivered, the distinct impression washing over me that we were about to go swimming in a pool full of sharks.

  Chapter Eleven

  Once Rain and the kids, along with the dog and both cats, were bundled off to Vixen’s house, Kipa, Llew, Jordan, and I gathered near the center of the fair. With Jordan a tiger shifter and Llew one of the magic-born, I thought they could probably hold their own. We would search in pairs, and the two of them could protect each other—Jordan with his strength, Llew with his magic.

  “Can your men help us?” I asked Kipa.

  He nodded. “They’ll be here shortly.”

  Sure enough, he had barely finished speaking when six husky men leapt out of nowhere, appearing at his heels. They were the elite of the elite, always at the Wolf Lord’s beck and call. He motioned for them to join our huddled circle beneath one of the awnings.

  “All right. We’re looking for the remains of a fourteen-year-old girl. She probably died back in 1978 or so. Our primary goal tonight is to find her body. However, if you encounter anything else strange—any sub-Fae or other creatures like that—and can safely catch them, do so. If they’re big and bad, call for help.” I looked around the farm. “There’s a lot of acreage to search. My guess is the remains are hidden. If they weren’t, they would have been found years ago. So let’s get moving. Look in any nook and cranny you find.”

  We spread out. Kipa kept me with him, but we reassigned Jordan and Llew so they were split up, each going with one of Kipa’s guards. That just seemed the safest idea.

  As we began the search, flashlights and walking sticks in hand, it occurred to me how often people went missing, and how many were just forgotten. Over 600,000 people in the United States vanished every year, both human and otherwise, and over 60,000 to 80,000 were never found. They were labeled cold cases, runaways, or they had just mysteriously disappeared. He got lost in the woods…she ran off into the streets…the kid was abducted and is now on the back of a milk carton… The thought was overwhelming. A moderate-size city of people, just gone, without leaving a trace.

  Reeling with the numbers, I glanced up at Kipa. “Do you think we’ll be able to find her?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Is there anything you can do magically that will help?”

  I thought for a moment and then nodded. “I’ve got a spell that might help.” I stood back, focusing on my energy, willing it to coil up and channel through my thoughts and body. I held out my hands, palms facing up.

  That which is buried in the ground,

  That which is lost, now be found.

  That which is hidden, now come to light,

  That which is cloaked, come to sight.

  That which was silenced, now be heard,

  That which was glamoured, now be unblurred.

  Aida, let your bones rise to the sight.

  Show me the way, by arrow’s light.

  There was a faint trembling in the air in front of me. The next moment, I stiffened as a current of energy snaked through my body, traveling down my arms and out my hands. I slowly opened my eyes to see a silver arrow—much like a hologram—hovering above my palms. I took another breath, letting it out slowly, and slowly gave the arrow a little toss. It rose into the air and began to spin. Then, settling on a southern direction, it began to move.

  Kipa and I took off, following it. The arrow flew through the air faster than I could run, but Kipa was keeping pace with it. Ten minutes later, he and the arrow were well ahead of me. I paused to catch my breath by a stand of low-growing trees. I was strong, and I had stamina, but running over uneven ground wasn’t easy in the daylight, let alone at night. I leaned over, hands on my knees, then straightened and stretched, ready to race off again. I had barely started forward when there was a chuff from the bushes.

  I froze. It sounded like a cougar or some sort of big cat. Occasionally found in the area, they came down from the hills into the cities and outlying areas. Or it could be a bear. Or maybe a coyote, but it sounded very cat-like.

  Slowly, I turned to scan the trees with my flashlight. The light might frighten it off, if it was a big cat. Running would only make me prey in its eyes.

  A minute passed, then another. I couldn’t see any sign of eyeshine or movement to indicate where the sound had come from. Slowly, I began to walk toward the bushes, raising my voice.

  “So, who’s in there? Anybody there? Big kitty-cat, maybe? If you are, run along. I’m not your dinner.” Making noise was a good way to frighten off animals. But there was still no sound and I began to wonder if I had imagined the noise.

  I reached the edge of the tree line. Still no sign, but now I could smell something. It wasn’t musky, like an animal, but it smelled vaguely of…gunpowder? No, not that. Not gunpowder but…ozone. That was it—the same smell I smelled before thunderstorms and snow storms. At that moment, a prickle of energy raced through me. Magic was thick here, and whatever kind of magic it was, it was like walking through mud, thick and oozing all around me.

  Shuddering, I turned to go, but then the energy coiled around me, swirling to embrace me. I struggled to breathe—it was as though a great constrictor had me by the waist and was sucking the breath out of me. I tried to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth and I realized that I couldn’t even hear the breeze through the trees. All around me, the world was suddenly silent.

  I fought against the magic, trying to shake it off, but it was stronger than I was. And it was old—old and treacherous. I clawed at my waist, trying to loosen whatever had hold of me, but there was nothing to latch onto.

  A moment later, I began to see spots and realized I wasn’t breathing. I was going to suffocate. I thought of Kipa, but the world remained quiet and I couldn’t scream.

  Everything began to fade.

  And then, right before I blacked out, I caught sight of a tiger racing toward me. He was gorgeous and huge, and he leapt for me. I stiffened. As he landed atop me, I fell, hitting the ground so hard I was seeing stars. Suddenly, I could hear his growling, and then I gasped for air as the sweet rush of oxygen flowed into my lungs.

  I rolled away, coming up to a sitting position, dazed.

  The tiger was grappling with something that I couldn’t see—but I could see ripples in the air, almost in the shape of a person. The tiger had hold of whatever it was, and was trying to maul it. But the creature broke free and the trees rustled as it raced deep into the thicket.

  The tiger paused, watching it go, but then turned to me and came padding over. I froze, staring at it wide-eyed, wondering what the hell was going on.

  “Raven? Are you all right?” One of Kipa’s men came running up from the path behind the tiger. “Jordan, are you okay?”

  My gaze shifted back to the tiger. Of course, it was Jordan! He sat down on the ground, shaking his big fluffy head as though he was a little confused. The guard was holding his clothes.

  A moment later, Jordan began to shift, a blur of light around him, rippling as he transformed. Another moment and he was sitting nude on the ground beside me, looking vaguely bewildered.

  I realized I could speak again. “You saved my life.”

  “What happened?” Jordan asked, still looking puzzled.

  “You suddenly shifted form and raced off. I have your clothes, though they aren’t much good now—you ripped out of them like the Hulk,” Kipa’s guard said. I recognized him as being the guard named Emrys. He was a good man, steady and patient.

  “Are you all right?” Jordan asked me. “I saw you—something was trying to kill you.”

  I took stock of what shape I was in. I was breathless, but okay.
No broken ribs, maybe a few bruises. “I’m all right, thanks to you. Whatever it was, it was sucking the life out of me. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t hear or speak. Did you get a glimpse of it?”

  He shook his head. “You’ve seen the movie Predator?”

  I nodded. “A long time ago.”

  “It was like that. I saw a ripple in the air around you. But it was obvious you were in trouble.” He looked down at his naked groin and sighed. “Sorry for the peep show.”

  “Not a problem. Nothing I haven’t seen already,” I said. Truth was, it had barely registered that he was naked. But now, I gave him a faint smile. “Tell Llew he’s lucky, though.”

  “Heh. Thanks.” Jordan allowed the guard to help him up. He took the remains of his clothing and fashioned a loincloth while Emrys helped me to my feet.

  I had a massive headache, probably from being squeezed so hard, and my clothes were muddy from sprawling on the ground, but I was alive. “I cast a spell to help us find Aida’s remains. Kipa ran on ahead, but I couldn’t keep up.”

  “I’ll find him. The two of you…get away from the trees so you’re in the middle of the path and don’t move.” Emrys took off in the direction I pointed, racing off to find Kipa.

  I turned to Jordan. “Are you cold? You can have my cloak.” I took my cloak off and, even though he protested, I wrapped it around him. “You’ll catch a cold if you stand out here naked. How did you guys end up over here? I thought you went to the north.”

  “We did, but then it was…we found ourselves walking down this path. I remember a lot of twists and turns, so I guess we were pixie-led? Something threw us off-track, and now I’m grateful it did, because otherwise…” He stopped, staring at me, leaving the thought unsaid.

  “Yeah. I’d be toast,” I said. “I wonder if it was pixies that brought you here—though they usually aren’t all that helpful. Maybe it was Aida. I think she just wants her remains found so she can be laid to rest. She might have been the one who brought you roundabout.”

  Jordan was about to say something when Emrys returned with Kipa. Kipa took one look at Jordan, then raced forward to me and picked me up, swinging me around.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I should never have left you alone like that. It’s all my fault.”

  “Don’t squeeze too hard, I’m still catching my breath,” I said.

  He backed away. “I’m sorry.” To Jordan, he said, “Thank you so much. You saved Raven, and I’ll never forget that. What the hell happened?”

  “I couldn’t keep up, so I was just resting a moment when that…thing…whatever it was, caught me.” I told him about hearing the chuffing sound and thinking it was a big cat and going over to check. “I didn’t want to walk away because if it was a big cat, it would have encouraged it to chase me.”

  “Yeah,” Jordan said. “Cougars will do that, especially. But I think, maybe that’s what the creature used to lull you into staying as still as you could. But why, I wonder? If it’s invisible, why couldn’t it sneak up on you that way?”

  “I don’t know.” I thought for a moment. “You know, the creature in the corn stayed hidden, too. As far as I know, it didn’t emerge onto the paths between the rows. Or maybe… I smelled ozone when I got close enough. Maybe it tries to keep itself hidden and the smell would give it away when it got too close? We know it can’t be a vampire—it was out in the light yesterday. And vamps aren’t invisible. They can take different forms—bats, rats, and mist—but they can’t turn invisible.”

  “That’s something to go on,” Kipa said. “Did your father come up with anything?”

  “I’ll call him. What about the arrow? Did it come to land?”

  “I think so—but right when it was starting to slow down, Emrys came running up.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Why don’t we head back to where I last saw it and start searching near there? Meanwhile, call your father. And stick together. Jordan, do you have your phone?”

  Jordan nodded. “Emrys found it when he picked up my clothes.” He held up his phone. He had created a bag out of the remains of his shirt and had put his keys, wallet, and phone in there.

  “Call Llew and tell him to meet us. The guard will find his way to me.”

  I was walking with Kipa on one side and Jordan on the other, and now Kipa and I exchanged places so Jordan and I could make calls without drowning each other out.

  As we walked along, Jordan called Llew while I called my father.

  Curikan picked up on the second ring. “Are you all right? I had a bad feeling earlier and have been worried sick.”

  “You weren’t wrong, but yes, I’m okay now. I almost wasn’t. Have you come up with any possibilities?”

  “Yeah, I found about five possibilities. You want me to read them off?”

  “First, before you do that, can any of them turn invisible?” That could easily narrow it down. If none of them could, then we were dealing with something incredibly rare. Most all Cryptos were listed in Beltan’s Bestiary.

  My father paused, then said, “One of them is listed as ‘might as well be invisible.’ ”

  “Then that’s probably what we’re dealing with. What is it?”

  He hesitated, then said, “You’d better put me on speaker phone. I really, really hoped it wouldn’t be this creature.”

  “All right, hold on.” I glanced over at Jordan, who was just closing his phone. “You called Llew?”

  He nodded. “He and the guard are on their way.”

  “All right. Curikan—my father—wants us on speaker phone. He may know what we’re dealing with.” I stopped, looking around to find a nearby rock large enough to sit on. I sat down, while the men gathered around me. I punched the speaker option and held out my phone. “You’re on, Dad.”

  Curikan cleared his throat. “In the research I did, I found one creature that…it might as well be invisible. I’ll explain that in a moment. It hibernates most of the year except during the autumn, and when it comes out, it’s ravenous. It feeds on life energy, and it can control weaker individuals.”

  “What is it? And it must be long-lived if it’s been here forty years or more.” I wondered if it had killed Aida. I had been thinking her father killed her, but maybe I was wrong.

  “Oh, it’s long-lived. It’s a specific form of land wight. It’s connected to farming cultures, and—you’ll love this—while some are naturally born, the majority are actually created.”

  I stared at the phone. “Say what?”

  “You heard me right. Most autumn wights are created when someone is sacrificed to Reyas, an obscure harvest lord worshipped by a few of the ancient Fae and some of the magic-born. He requires human sacrifice, and that person is used as a scarecrow in the fields. The sacrifice isn’t exactly killed…” My father paused, and I could hear the hesitation in his voice.

  “Go ahead,” Kipa said.

  “The sacrifice is punctured using needles, so he—and specifically, only males are sacrificed—so he has hundreds of tiny wounds. He’s tied to a stake in the fields, and his aura frightens off the crows. As the blood seeps out into the earth, Reyas very slowly turns the sacrifice into an autumn wight who is then tied to the land. The wight won’t hurt the family that originally summoned it, but anybody else is fair game. Over the years, he fades—literally—and becomes invisible.”

  My stomach churned. “You mean this creature is still alive?”

  “Yes. And as I said, only men are sacrificed. Women are considered to be representative of the goddess because of their wombs—they create life. They are left untouched by the god.”

  “Then who killed Aida?” I frowned. “And who’s the wight?”

  By then, Llew and the others had shown up. I asked my father to repeat what he said. After he was done, I looked over at Llew. “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know why Aida was killed, but my guess is that the father who vanished might have been offered as a sacrifice.”

  “Holy crap. That would mea
n that the father is still here, alive.” I thought for a moment. “Dad, can these autumn wights control others, or possess them?”

  “Not in the normal sense of a possession, but they can change behavior and if there’s any tendency for mental illness, the autumn wight’s mere presence can trigger it. Once it has corded into a person, however, their influence extends as long as the wight is alive. Once the wight is killed, then anyone affected should go back to normal.”

  Crap. That meant if we couldn’t find the wight and dispatch it, Marigold might never be free.

  “Then if we catch and kill the wight, Marigold should be able to snap out of it, right? She might need counseling, but she’d be back to herself, more or less?”

  “I suppose so, but there isn’t much here about them because the autumn wights are rare and… Oh.” He paused.

  “What is it?” Kipa asked, leaning toward the phone.

  “They can be summoned by a powerful earth witch.” Curikan cleared his throat. “Or, when they’re created through the ritual, it’s usually the worshippers of Reyas behind it. And his worshippers are usually earth witches and, most often, women. You said the family who owned that place was a family of earth witches?”

  A whole bevy of thoughts ran through my head. “All this time I’ve been thinking that the father probably killed Aida but now, I’m thinking…”

  “That it was the mother?” Kipa asked.

  I nodded. “Suppose—just suppose the mother worshipped Reyas. Maybe the crops weren’t doing so well, and so as a petition to Reyas, she sacrificed her husband and he became an autumn wight?”

  “What about the daughter?” Llew asked.

  I bit my lip, trying to think. “What if she found out her mother was planning to sacrifice the father and tried to warn him? Or talk her mother out of it? Maybe her mother killed her to silence her. It sounds hideous, but we’ve dealt with worse.” I shook my head, convinced I was on the right track.

  “It would fit,” my father said. “Some of the earth witches can be scary-assed people. They’re powerful and among the most powerful, they can cause earthquakes and summon earth elementals. I think there are one or two of the Force Majeure who work with the energy of the earth.”