Witching Time (The Wild Hunt #14) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,40

said. “Nothing was ever heard from her again and nobody ever reported seeing her anywhere.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Five years later, the father vanished. He just…disappeared, like the daughter. Elzabeth told everyone who would listen that he had abandoned her and the kids, and that he ran off with a girlfriend. Nobody ever questioned it. Two years later, she gathered up her four sons, sold the farm, and moved away.” Yutani paused for a moment, then added, “Thing is, nobody’s ever heard from the father again, either. Jericho vanished as completely as his daughter did. I did as many searches as I could think of and while the name comes up, none of them match his information.”

This was getting odder and odder. “Do you know what the earth witches did on the farm? Did they sell anything? Crops? Or did they just live there?”

“They actually sold a number of things, but mostly trees. The father was a woodcutter, and he stripped a lot of the land over the years to sell the logs. For an earth witch, he wasn’t all that sustainable in practice.” Yutani sounded puzzled. “Actually, it’s odd all the way around. Given they were earth witches, they could have turned that land into a spectacular showplace, but they stripped the land and let the house go to ruin. By the time Elzabeth sold it, records say it was drastically in need of some TLC.”

“Fascinating. What about the people who bought it?” I knew there had to have been at least one buyer between the Lanchesters and Rain and Marigold.

“The farm sold to Avon Doughtan, in 1985. Then the farm sold a whopping twenty times between Doughtan and your friends. That’s twenty-two owners—including the Lanchesters—in fifty-five years. Now, granted, houses sell over and over, but usually not at that rate. That works out to a sale about every two-point-five years.” He paused, then said, “Okay, I have to go, we’re heading into the staff meeting. Herne wants me to ask Kipa to come in as soon as he can.”

“I’ve got a prior engagement this morning, but I’ll try to make it there this afternoon. I can’t promise, though,” Kipa said. “That’s the best I can do.”

“No problem. Talk to you later, and if I can find out more, I will.” Yutani ended the call.

I stared at my phone. The house had sold twenty-two times in fifty-five years. Had they inadvertently summoned something that kept driving people off the land? The last person to own it had gone into foreclosure, just abandoning it. I decided that more research was necessary and was about to jot down notes from the call when I received an email from Yutani detailing everything he told me.

As I pulled on a plum-colored cold-shoulder dress over a pair of black leggings, I decided that it might be time to call Wager Chance. A PI, Wager was also a friend and he cut me a special rate when I needed to hire him. While Rain hadn’t hired me to look into what was going on, I was worried enough about them that I was more than willing to spring for Wager’s fees.

“I’m going to ask Wager to help out on this,” I told Kipa, slipping on a pair of knee-high purple and white striped socks before sliding into my ankle boots.

“That might be a good idea,” he said, handing me a silver belt.

Heading to feed the ferrets, I thought that my mother was right. I always seemed to get myself into problematic situations. Maybe, one day I’d learn how to avoid doing so, but for now, I just blundered my way through, doing the best that I could.

By the time we arrived at the farm, I had called Wager and asked him to start investigating the background of the place. He said he’d get right on it—business was slow at the moment—and so I tried to relax.

“I’ll get right to harvesting the corn,” Kipa said. “I’ll summon several of my men to help.”

Kipa’s elite guard—the Elitvartijat—were a group of wolf shifters from a clan known as the SuVahta. They were more elemental than they were shifter. Massively strong, they were prime specimens who were absolutely devoted to him. They followed the Wolf Lord anywhere he went, and if there was one thing Kipa was sure of, it was their loyalty.

“Good. The sooner that maze is down, the better.” I shuddered. “It gives me the creeps.”

“Be cautious today. I have a feeling that whatever is out here is