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CHAPTER THREE

My grandmother had told me not to eat dessert, so we had left after our entrees were finished. As we walked through the trellised gate, covered with ivy and climbing roses still barren from the winter, the front porch light was on.

My paternal grandmother was both the oldest witch in Moonshadow Bay and also the most powerful.

Her house, like Killian’s and mine, backed up against the Mystic Wood, a thicket that wove through Moonshadow Bay with a magical force almost unmatched in the area.

The woodland surrounded the town, shrouding it in a web of magic and mystery.

Filled with odd beings—some of whom were dangerous, others not so much—the Mystic Wood kept its secrets tight to its chest.

Rowan’s house was one-story, and it was one of the oldest houses in the town, but she kept it up. Its weathered look was from time, rather than disrepair, and it hearkened from before the town was properly founded. Lights flickered from within the mullioned windows.

The land it was on was a haven for trees: cedar and fir mostly, but also maple, and a weeping sequoia that looked like some tree creature that had stepped out of a fairytale. Three steps led up to the porch, and a gargoyle knocker was flush on the door.

I knocked and she answered immediately.

“Come in. It’s cold out there.” Rowan gave me a brief hug as Killian and I slipped through the door. She was not a demonstrative person, but her feelings were real and I never felt slighted by her.

Rowan nodded for the others to follow, then closed the door and led us into the living room.

Tarvish was sitting there, his massive frame comfortably draped in the oversized recliner.

He looked like Hellboy, only with his massive horns curved back around like those of a ram.

He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and an AC/DC T-shirt.

He was barefoot, his massive feet sporting enough hair for a hobbit.

Two young cats sat on his lap. Tarvish and Rowan had recently discovered a litter of kittens and, thanks to Tarvish, my grandmother now had four cats.

They were barely a year old, two silver tabbies, a gray tuxedo, and one that had a black and white cow pattern, and they ruled the house by now.

Tarvish gently placed the kittens on the floor and stood. He towered over the rest of us, and it was a good thing that Rowan’s house had tall ceilings.

“Welcome,” he said, giving me a hug. “Introduce us to your friends.”

I motioned for Kerris and Bryan to have a seat on the sofa. Killian sat in an armchair and I moved over to the rocker. “Kerris Fellwater and Bryan Tierney, meet my grandmother, Rowan Firesong and her beau, Tarvish.”

Rowan was lean but not gaunt, with long silver hair gathered back in a braid. She was sharp-witted and even sharper tongued, but she wasn’t mean. She was just blunt. When she cared about you, you knew it. If she thought you were being stupid, you knew it.

Tonight, Rowan was wearing a long plaid skirt and a turtleneck.

She took her seat and pointed to the coffee table, where a tray sat, piled high with cookies—oatmeal cranberry, chocolate chip, and molasses raisin.

Next to the tray of cookies was a bowl of strawberries and grapes, and a cheese plate, along with a stack of dessert plates.

“Please, help yourselves. I can make tea or coffee,” Rowan said.

“Thanks.” I glanced over at Kerris and Bryan, both of whom shook their heads. But they both leaned forward and filled plates with cookies and fruit.

“Thank you, but this is fine,” Kerris said.

Rowan waited till we all served ourselves, then she settled back in her chair and said, “Well, I’d love to just chitchat, but I think we need to get right to the point since there seems to be a problem. Tell me what’s going on.”

I took a deep breath. “Kerris has come to ask our help. It seems that the— What’s the group called?”

Kerris cleared her throat. “Cú Chulainn’s Hounds.”

“Right. Cú Chulainn’s Hounds have aligned with the Covenant of Chaos and they kidnapped Whisper Hollow’s Gatekeeper.” I wondered if my grandmother knew what I was talking about.

Rowan’s eyes widened. “They’ve kidnapped Penelope?”

Well, that answered that question. “And apparently, they brought her to Moonshadow Bay,” I said. “Kerris is asking us to help rescue her.”

Rowan exchanged glances with Tarvish. “Of course we’ll help. No question about this. Have you run this past the Court Magika?”

Kerris shook her head. “No. I’m not a witch. Perhaps one of the Crescent Moon Society has—maybe Starlight Williams. She’s a star witch. But this is for me to deal with, if I can.”

“Why you?” Tarvish asked.

Kerris nodded. “Penelope is my other half. She works on the other side of the Veil, while I work on the side of the living. We’re very much alike in what we do.

We’re also connected through the blood of the chalice.

I can’t really explain it, but we’re bonded through a ritual.

To some extent, we can sense one another.

And Starlight wants to keep this as quiet as possible. ”

“I understand why,” Rowan said. “Tell me about the cemetery Penelope guards.”

“Part of the graveyard is contemporary. But to the back, a gate cordons off an older section. That section belonged to a Pest House. And the Pest House cemetery contains more dangerous members of the dead. Penelope’s tomb straddles the line that divides them.

” Kerris bit into an oatmeal raisin cookie.

“These are good. Will you give me the recipe?”

“Of course,” Rowan said.

“What’s a Pest House?” I asked.

Kerris let out a long sigh. “Back in the late 1800s, a number of towns had a house marked for those with TB, cholera, typhus, and other contagious, deadly diseases. The doctors would quarantine patients to the Pest House until they either recovered or died. They were locked away, prevented from escaping, and left to tend to themselves for the most part. Recoveries were rare, and thousands of people died inside these places. Most Pest Houses had cemeteries connected to them, where patients were buried as soon as they died.”

“Cripes. That’s horrible,” I said, my imagination playing way too fast and loose. I could too easily imagine what went on.

“Right. The prisoners—and they were prisoners—were kept locked away and treated as though they were already dead. They were often abused, both by guards and by other inmates. The ghosts and spirits who inhabit those cemeteries and the Pest Houses are angry. They can be volatile. There are a lot of Haunts there, and other, even more dangerous creatures that form from fusions of creatures off the astral and the angry spirits.” Kerris looked over at Rowan.

“Can you think of any place that seems perfect for the Covenant of Chaos to hide Penelope?”

Rowan considered the question, then nodded.

“I can, actually. Not far from Moonshadow Bay there’s a state park—Larrabee.

I happen to know that, a decade or two before it became a state park, there was a Pest House there.

And the house still stands. The owners occasionally offer tours.

There was a cemetery there, too, and that still stands.

I would bet you anything that’s where they’re hiding her. ”

“How do you kidnap a Gatekeeper?” Tarvish asked. “She’s not fully corporeal, is she?”

“No, she phases in and out. As far as kidnapping her goes, they stole her sarcophagus while she was in it,” Kerris said.

“The thing is huge and heavy, so there had to be more than a couple men in on it. My guess is that Magda is behind this—that she engineered the connection between the Hounds and the Covenant of Chaos.”

Rowan asked, “Where does Magda get her power?”

“From Baba Volkov. Magda’s one of her disciples, so to speak. That’s how Magda got her last name. All those who follow the Wolf Hag take her name as part of their own.”

Rowan grimaced. “Oh dear gods. Baba Volkov is…bad news, at the best.”

“I’ve never heard of Baba Volkov. Who is she…or what ?” Baba Yaga came to mind, but I didn’t think they were the same.

Kerris frowned. “Baba Volkov, or Mother Wolf Witch, is—essentially—an evil necromancer. She hates everything to do with spirit shamans, because she enslaves the dead rather than tries to help them move on. Magda follows her. She killed her daughter because they refused to follow the family tradition. She killed Penelope and cursed Ellia with hands that impart madness on touch.”

“Way to love your kids,” Killian muttered.

“I know, right?” Bryan shook his head. “Magda is the epitome of the evil wicked witch out in the forest.”

“When did she join the Hounds?” I asked.

“Many years ago. Magda’s well over a hundred years old.

She’s not technically witchblood, but her lifespan is far longer than normal, and her magic is incredibly intense.

She’s deadly and cunning. And she has it out for me,” Kerris said.

“Her goal—the Hounds’ goal—is to destroy me, given the feud between the Morrígan and Cú Chulainn, and the hunger of Baba Volkov. ”

I thought about it. “Do you think any of Cú Chulainn’s Hounds live in Moonshadow Bay?”

“I doubt it,” Rowan said. “The Covenant of Chaos would have gobbled them up. While the two groups are working together now, the moment any of the Hounds tries to take control, the Covenant of Chaos will force them into obedience. So I can tell you, the Hounds may have come to the Covenant for help, but the Covenant of Chaos is the one running the show.”

She stood, pacing. “We need to check out the Wildcat Cove Pest House. That seems like the most obvious place they’d keep her.”

“Will they be expecting us to look there?” Killian asked.

Rowan shook her head. “I don’t think so. For one thing, I doubt they think you’ve noticed Penelope’s gone. How often do you contact the Gatekeeper?”