Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,38

worry. I’m not doing much of anything right now,” he said. A coyote shifter and son of the Great Coyote, Yutani worked for Herne over at the Wild Hunt. For a while he had pursued me, and I had worried that he might be like one of the incels—refusing to take “No” for an answer and blaming women for his lack of a relationship. But he apologized and now we were friends.

“I was wondering if you could do some research for me? I’m trying to find out everything I can about the original owners of Dream Circle Farms, and the land itself. I think the father was named Jericho Lanchester, and the farm’s located on 175th Street in Woodinville. There are some freaky things happening there, and I’m trying to help out a friend.”

“Hold on. Okay, you said Dream Circle Farms?”

I heard him tapping away on his keyboard. “Right. And Jericho Lanchester.”

“On 175th Street…Woodinville. All right, let me get on this. As I said, I’m not really doing anything right now. I’ll call you when I find out anything. If it’s late, I’ll text you.” He paused, then said, “You know, when you mentioned the farm’s name, I got a very uneasy feeling. Be careful, Raven.”

“We have creatures hiding in the corn maze, but we can’t figure out what they are. The spirit of a young woman is haunting the land. There’s something sneaking around the ravines. I don’t know—just a lot of stuff going on and I’m not sure how it’s all related. I gather that a family of earth witches owned the farm some forty to fifty years ago, and the daughter vanished. But that’s all I know about the history. One of the current owners seems to be affected by the paranormal activity going on there, as well. Not possessed, so much but…mood shifts and personality change.”

Yutani tapped away some more. “I’m taking this all down. Okay, I’ll get right on this. Talk to you soon.”

As I hung up, Kipa returned, three piping-hot pizza boxes in hand. He put them in the back seat. As we headed home, I told him what Yutani had said.

“I’m glad you asked him to help out. He’s good at ferreting out secrets.”

The rest of the way home, I stared out the window, wondering if whatever was on the land could follow us, and praying that the answer was a big, fat “No.”

My father and Raj had cleaned the house till it sparkled. Or rather, my father had, with Raj’s dubious help. But the place looked fantastic.

We set the pizzas on the table and Kipa brought in paper plates and a bottle of wine. I got the wine goblets out of the china cabinet, and within minutes, we were all settled in the living room, pizza and a merlot in hand. Raj was eating his pizza over at his corner in the living room, making a mess on the tray that kept his crumbs off the floor. But he was enjoying himself, and that was what mattered.

Kipa and I told my father about what had happened.

“That sounds like the work of sub-Fae,” Curikan said. “At least, the rustling in the corn.”

“I don’t know—I normally would agree with you, but I’m not so sure. I think there’s something bigger going on, something that ties in with the earth witches who owned the place.” I helped myself to another slice of pizza—pepperoni, sausage, and extra cheese—and bit into it.

“What could an earth witch scare up?” Kipa asked. “Elementals?”

“An earth elemental for sure, but you would have seen it. There’s no way to hide an earth elemental in a corn field.” I shook my head. “No, this is something different. As far as the ghost, Kipa said he thought that she was trying to stay away from the creature.”

“If a ghost is afraid of something, then yes—it’s big. Very few things can harm a ghost except, well—a necromancer, or a bone witch. Sometimes electromagnetic radiation can disrupt them, but I doubt this farm has a giant microwave or a nuclear power plant hanging around in the back yard.” Curikan shook his head. “I’m at a loss. I honestly don’t know what to tell you. I’ve seen a lot of things in my day, since hills and mountains are filled with odd creatures and energies. But this has me baffled.”

I was tired of talking about the farm. I really didn’t want to go back out there tomorrow, but I had promised and I didn’t want to