Witching There's Another Way: A Cozy Mystery (The Witchy Women of Coven Grove Book 4) by Constance Barker Page A
Authors: Constance Barker
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I found out you did something crazy like went walking into Faerie without me, I would be furious. You know that, right? And if you didn’t…”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Bailey whispered to him. “We don’t even know if we’re going yet.”
They passed the entrance to the Caves. The place they were going wasn’t in the main network.
Frances and Chloe had explained—if they were going to go into Faerie—any of them—there was only one way to do that, and it wasn’t going to be as simple as doing some spell or another. The keepers of the Caves, the crones of the coven, were the only ones who could urge the Genius Loci of the Caves to act against its nature.
The thought of finally seeing the eighth cave was one that made Bailey both excited and nervous. She knew that Anita and Rita Hope were the current leaders of the coven, the Crones who guarded the caves themselves; but she’d only met Rita a few times and had so far never met Anita. Officially, the two women vanished from public records in the seventies, although no one appeared to realize that in town. Rita rarely showed herself, but when she did everyone in town seemed to take it as a given that she was still puttering around, despite being well over a hundred years old.
Likely, it was some aspect of the Caves’ magic. Already Bailey knew that it had a strange effect on people in the vicinity, exerting a subtle influence intended to keep the Caves safe. Tourists that visited took souvenirs home, sometimes, but they rarely remembered the details and specifics of the trip. Geologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists had all come to study the Caves, but none had published papers. Professor Turner had been a strange exception, having visited several such cave networks around the world—and had even discovered that each of them had a particular set of symbols pointing toward Stonehenge in England—but even he had never managed to publish a paper or otherwise popularize his theories.
Given that his theories had to do with creatures of myth and fantasy, that wasn’t entirely surprising.
They descended the rocky slope carefully, picking their way in a line along the narrow path that wrapped around the exposed rock of the cave front and down the cliff side toward the ocean. Eventually, Chloe and Frances stopped.
Bailey gazed at the apparently solid rock wall. This was the place she’d first spied Chloe, Frances, and Aria making a visit to the deepest cave in the network. Then, she’d been certain they had something to do with Martha Tells’ death. That same night, Chloe had told Bailey the truth about herself.
Well, some of it, in any case.
Now she was standing with them in the same spot, and growing more and more curious about what they’d been doing here to begin with.
Frances reached a hand out to the rough, jagged rock wall, and rapped several times on it as though knocking on a door.
Several long moments crept by. Neither Frances nor Chloe seemed concerned by it. Then, from out of nowhere, a voice snapped at them.
“What do you think you’re doing, girl, bringing a maiden and two wizards to our door?”
It was so sudden, and so unexpectedly loud, that Bailey nearly leapt off the ground. Avery did, just a little, and grasped Bailey’s shoulder to steady himself. Aiden merely stiffened, but it was still as startled as she’d ever seen him get. Only the coven ladies seemed unperturbed. They turned toward the hunched, gnarled old woman standing a few feet away, supporting herself on a smooth, knotted cane.
Rita Hope rarely wore any expression other than a scowl. Bailey had never seen her smiling, never heard her speak with anything other than a clipped, sharp tone. That was no different now, except that her tone was a bit harder and her scowl a bit deeper. She stared daggers at Aiden, and then Avery, and for a moment Bailey wondered what Rita’s particular gift was and whether she would use it to send the two wizards away
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Bailey whispered to him. “We don’t even know if we’re going yet.”
They passed the entrance to the Caves. The place they were going wasn’t in the main network.
Frances and Chloe had explained—if they were going to go into Faerie—any of them—there was only one way to do that, and it wasn’t going to be as simple as doing some spell or another. The keepers of the Caves, the crones of the coven, were the only ones who could urge the Genius Loci of the Caves to act against its nature.
The thought of finally seeing the eighth cave was one that made Bailey both excited and nervous. She knew that Anita and Rita Hope were the current leaders of the coven, the Crones who guarded the caves themselves; but she’d only met Rita a few times and had so far never met Anita. Officially, the two women vanished from public records in the seventies, although no one appeared to realize that in town. Rita rarely showed herself, but when she did everyone in town seemed to take it as a given that she was still puttering around, despite being well over a hundred years old.
Likely, it was some aspect of the Caves’ magic. Already Bailey knew that it had a strange effect on people in the vicinity, exerting a subtle influence intended to keep the Caves safe. Tourists that visited took souvenirs home, sometimes, but they rarely remembered the details and specifics of the trip. Geologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists had all come to study the Caves, but none had published papers. Professor Turner had been a strange exception, having visited several such cave networks around the world—and had even discovered that each of them had a particular set of symbols pointing toward Stonehenge in England—but even he had never managed to publish a paper or otherwise popularize his theories.
Given that his theories had to do with creatures of myth and fantasy, that wasn’t entirely surprising.
They descended the rocky slope carefully, picking their way in a line along the narrow path that wrapped around the exposed rock of the cave front and down the cliff side toward the ocean. Eventually, Chloe and Frances stopped.
Bailey gazed at the apparently solid rock wall. This was the place she’d first spied Chloe, Frances, and Aria making a visit to the deepest cave in the network. Then, she’d been certain they had something to do with Martha Tells’ death. That same night, Chloe had told Bailey the truth about herself.
Well, some of it, in any case.
Now she was standing with them in the same spot, and growing more and more curious about what they’d been doing here to begin with.
Frances reached a hand out to the rough, jagged rock wall, and rapped several times on it as though knocking on a door.
Several long moments crept by. Neither Frances nor Chloe seemed concerned by it. Then, from out of nowhere, a voice snapped at them.
“What do you think you’re doing, girl, bringing a maiden and two wizards to our door?”
It was so sudden, and so unexpectedly loud, that Bailey nearly leapt off the ground. Avery did, just a little, and grasped Bailey’s shoulder to steady himself. Aiden merely stiffened, but it was still as startled as she’d ever seen him get. Only the coven ladies seemed unperturbed. They turned toward the hunched, gnarled old woman standing a few feet away, supporting herself on a smooth, knotted cane.
Rita Hope rarely wore any expression other than a scowl. Bailey had never seen her smiling, never heard her speak with anything other than a clipped, sharp tone. That was no different now, except that her tone was a bit harder and her scowl a bit deeper. She stared daggers at Aiden, and then Avery, and for a moment Bailey wondered what Rita’s particular gift was and whether she would use it to send the two wizards away
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