Unsettled, she snapped her gaze forward, focusing on the rock-strewn and uneven path of the mining tunnel.

  They arrived into a large cavern, slowly illuminated as the accompanying men lit several torches along the walls, a draft drawing the smoke upward. A stone altar stood at the center. As Eliza scanned the area, her eyes landed on a far corner with iron cages. A heap of something lay at the bottom of both.

  No!

  She bolted toward it, yanking the line that had her bound to Boggs, dragging him with her.

  “Dee! Cat!” Her voice shook as she dropped to her knees. She clasped the bars with both hands, her wrists tied together, and shook the doorway of the prison, trying to open it.

  Dee stirred, opening her eyes. “Eliza,” she whispered. “You shouldn’t have come.”

  Eliza threaded her fingers through the metal slats and grabbed Dee’s outstretched hand. Her cousin was filthy, with matted red hair, and a strong smell of waste and despair accosted Eliza. “I’m going to get you out of here,” she whispered.

  A spark of life ignited in Dee’s amber eyes. “Be careful.” She shifted her gaze over Eliza’s shoulder. “Who is that?”

  Eliza could feel Kit behind her. “He’s here to help.”

  Inside the adjacent cage, Cat had pushed herself to a sitting position. Her pale face—so similar to Dee’s that they were often mistaken for sisters—was streaked with dirt. Her eyes were also fixed on The Crow.

  Boggs clasped Eliza’s arm with his bound hands and forced her to stand. One of Hamish’s men pushed them to the stone altar.

  Hamish faced her. “A reunion with your sisters can wait.”

  “They’re my cousins,” she said before thinking.

  Hamish smiled. “No. They’re your sisters.”

  She didn’t respond, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a response but she had no idea what he was talking about.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you?” Hamish asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m your father.”

  “That’s not true.” Surely, he would lie about anything.

  “Didn’t Marta tell you that I took your family grimoire? Isn’t that why you traveled all this way?”

  Eliza didn’t answer.

  “Did she fail to mention that it was I who had lain with each of the McCulloch women?” He smirked and revealed a slice of the nasty man beneath the handsome face. “I bedded each of them—Aileen and Rose, and I saved Marta for last. They each produced a child.” He raised an eyebrow in triumph. “My child.”

  Dread filled Eliza. Was it true? Why hadn’t her mother ever told her?

  “And why didn’t you know, you’re asking,” Hamish said, as if reading her mind. “Honestly, I’m a little surprised, even hurt, that none of my paramours ever mentioned me to you girls. But, I suppose, perhaps they regretted the union. I made sure I planted a child in the womb of each.”

  “Why?” It was clear now that the scars her mama and aunts bore had come from this man. Eliza’s heart broke for them. “Why would you do such a thing?”

  Hamish’s face twisted, and his eyes flashed with anger. Eliza flinched when an explosion snapped from his fingers. “Because I need you girls, my daughters, to help me. I’ve waited a long time for this.” He stepped close and stared at her. “Those two”—he flicked his head toward the cages—“have proven themselves less than worthy, so I’ve pinned all my hopes on you.” He smiled, but it looked more like a sneer.

  Despite the rancid odor of his breath, Eliza held her ground. She needed to keep her wits about her if she had any hope of escape.

  “And what, exactly, would you have me do?” she asked, glad that her voice remained calm.

  Hamish stepped back, a pleased expression smoothing his features. He flicked a glance at Kit. “Open a portal to The Horseman.”

  The Horseman? “Why?”

  “The why is none of your business. Your sisters failed. I won’t have use for any of you if you fail.” He pinned her with a glare. “So don’t fail. I believe you have an advantage over your sisters. You have him.” Hamish’s eyes slid to Kit again. “One of the infamous Crow manhunters. There were never any orphans, were there?” he asked Kit. “I knew you weren’t dealing in the blood of youth, but I had a hunch that you could perhaps light a fire under little Eliza, here, being a witch like her feckless mother. Nothing like mixing a Boggs and a McCulloch.” He beamed with delight.

  Eliza watched Kit, and it was like looking into an endless void. A frisson of fear tickled the back of her neck. Was Boggs even human? She swayed, dizzy from the implication.

  She had always taken pride in her skills, in her ability to weave and work the energies of nature. The fearful called it witchcraft, but Eliza knew that it was a skill available to anyone. Most people were simply never taught The Way, so most never believed. And what was misunderstood was so often labeled evil.

  Eliza steadied herself. Among the McCulloch women, she had one ability the others did not. She could open pathways to the other side. With this skill, she had always been able to summon The Horseman, a guide from beyond. For the past three hundred years, he’d been a protector to her family.

  “What does Boggs have to do with me?” Eliza asked, but her body hummed enough when she was around him that if the mood were lighter, she might have laughed over the obviously rhetorical question.

  “You’re stronger when you combine your magic with his. I tested you three times. And three times you worked together. First with the flash flood, then with the mountain lion, and then with the fire. Catriona and Deirdre have failed to open a portal.” Hamish released a loud sigh of disappointment. “So you, dear Eliza, will channel yourself through him. If you don’t, I’ll dispose of your sisters once and for all.”

  Frightened by the threat, Eliza sought to make a plan.

  Did she really need Boggs’s help? She’d opened doorways before. But the bubble she had created to protect her and Kit from the fire had been something new, as if she had bent the doorway back on itself. She had never before accomplished such a complicated manipulation of time and space. Was it possible that Kit’s presence had enhanced her abilities?

  If true, what other extraordinary things could she accomplish with him by her side?

  “I’ll need a platter, a wand, a chalice, a dagger, a sword, and a whip,” she said, trying to stall.

  Hamish laughed as if she’d told an amusing joke. “No.”

  “Then I can’t possibly perform the ritual of summoning.”

  “I’m not giving you a sword and a whip. I’ve read the grimoire.”

  “Then you know that the tools are necessary.”

  He eyed her. “Perhaps. However, a good witch doesn’t need tools.”

  “Maybe I’m not a good witch,” she replied coolly.

  “Don’t try my patience.” He handed her a smooth piece of dark wood about two feet long. “Will this do?”

  As soon as she touched the wand, her hand warmed from the energy present. Using a device not her own was folly.

  She flicked it from her bound hands in an act of desecration. “You know I can’t use that.”

  “Then why are we still talking? It is November Eve, and this place is touched by the Hallow.”

  They stood in sacred space? Eliza glanced around the cave. Hallows harbored both the seen and the unseen, and were places where the dead could cross into the material plane. But The Horseman wasn’t dead. He was a spirit beyond that. She wasn’t certain why the Hallow would be necessary to Hamish’s plan, but the in-between place—where the realms of the manifest and the non-manifest could co-exist—would increase the likelihood of successful contact with the other side.

  “If we stand in a Hallow, then why don’t you contact him yourself?” she asked.

  “Believe me,” Hamish said through gritted teeth, “I’ve tried. Enough talk. Do it. Now.”

  She stepped to the stone altar. Hamish cocked his head to his men and they shoved Kit to one side. Hamish stood in the north position, she in the south, and Kit to the west.

  “I need my hands free,” she said. “I need ash. And it would be helpful to have someone in the east.”

  Hamish waved at one of his men, who went to the iron cage and pulled Dee out. While she was dragged to the open side of the altar, Hamish cut Eliza’s hands free.

  Eliza rubbed her wrists as she saw fear in Dee’s eyes. Her cousin—no, her sister, if Hamish was to be believed—flicked her gaze from Kerr to Boggs. Eliza slid a glance at Kit, wondering if he was still alive, so quiet had his energy been during all of this.

  She focused on the task at hand. Normally, she would prepare herself for a summoning by bathing in saltwater and consuming water purified in sunlight, but since that ritual wasn’t possible she tried to quiet her mind, no easy task considering the circumstances.

  One of Hamish’s men scooped ash from the remnants of a nearby campfire, then dumped it onto the altar. Eliza smoothed out the pile with the palm of her hand. Using her forefinger, she traced out a triangle. Inside, she added the symbol for The Horseman—a bow and arrow. Then she placed her left hand, palm down, atop the symbol and whispered the incantation under her breath.

  “The protector of the unseen, and the shadows that beckon;

  The giver of visions, and the keeper of ancient words.

  I call you, Horseman, to pass through the veils.

  I call you, Horace, to leave the darkness and walk in the path of light.”

  Eliza opened her eyes. The shock on Hamish’s face tugged a faint smile to her lips.

  He sputtered in a hushed tone. “How do you know his name?”

  The one thing needed to summon the spirit that had watched over the McCulloch women for hundreds of years had never been inscribed into the grimoire. Eliza knew, even as a young child, that this had been a special—and secret—gift given to her. She hoped she hadn’t just made a terrible mistake.

  “He told me,” she said.

  Chapter Eight

  Kit knew immediately when The Horseman entered the vicinity. The whispers began once again in his ears. He had suspected that Hamish had somehow suppressed them, and now it would seem that this Horseman had the ability to overcome Hamish’s influence.

  A wind blew through the cavern, lifting Eliza’s hair into a web-like dance. It was obvious that Eliza was stronger than her sisters, and not because the other two women had been chained and imprisoned. Something in Eliza pulsed loud and clear. She was a channel. This place that served as a Hallow for Hamish was enhanced by Eliza’s presence. It was apparent now that Kit needed her to accomplish his task. And Hamish obviously needed her, as well.

  The Horseman controls one of the entryways to the other side, his granny began chatting in his ear. Your McCulloch witch is more powerful than I’d thought. Why are you still with her?

  Kit didn’t respond, since the answer was more involved than he cared to admit.

  A dust devil of spinning dirt formed and grew larger just beyond them. When the melee settled, a giant man with a muscled torso stood before them. A large bow was secured to his back and a beard of shrubs and leaves spilled from his face. As his gaze took in those before him, his countenance seemed to slump ever so slightly, a look of resignation settling over him.

  “Hamish,” he said. “This is forbidden.”

  Hamish stepped closer to the spirit that Eliza had summoned. “You won’t speak to me. It’s been eons. It’s been long enough.”

  The Horseman shifted his focus to Eliza. “Why have you done this?”

  “He gave me no choice. He threatened Catriona and Deirdre. Who is he? What has he done to warrant your disfavor?”

  Hamish began to pace. “It was all a misunderstanding. Let me come home.”

  The Horseman locked his gaze onto Kit but said nothing. Instead, he answered Eliza’s question. “Hamish is my son. There was a time when he was lazy and careless, and allowed much to cross the barrier from here to there and there to here.”

  “I said I was sorry,” Hamish cried.

  The Horseman ignored him. “So his access was denied.”

  “You abandoned me here. I want to come home!”

  “But you have not behaved while living amongst the humans, have you?”

  Hamish scoffed. “You expect too much. Was I not allowed to play with them? It’s been an eternity. What else was I to do?”

  “I had hoped the time away would strengthen your convictions, but instead, you practice the dark arts.”

  “You left me with humans. They’re gutless, immoral, and without honor.”

  “So you sink to their level?” The Horseman demanded.

  Hamish trembled. “I did what I had to in order to survive.”

  “Perhaps.” The Horseman looked at the men with Hamish. “Unchain the McCulloch girl.” He indicated Cat, who was still restrained in her iron cage. The men obeyed. Eliza rushed over and helped Cat from the prison and to her feet. Dee joined them.

  “Is it true that Hamish is our father?” Eliza’s voice echoed off the cavern walls.

  “Hamish believes himself to have beget all three of you—I believe in an effort to gain access to a Hallow such as this one—but he isn’t your father, Eliza.”

  “Then who is?” she asked.

  But Kit knew. And from Eliza’s expression, she suspected as well.

  “But how?” She looked at The Horseman, at her father. “You’re not … human.”

  “I was dismayed when I saw that Hamish was seducing females to produce children with enhanced gifts. Your mother and her sisters weren’t the first women with whom he succeeded, but they were by far the most powerful. The McCulloch line is steeped in enchantment. But I managed to get to Marta in time, to undo the spell of the child in her womb. But to save the life that had already begun to grow, I had to weave myself into the seed. I gave you the breath of life, the breath of my life.”

  “That’s why you told me your name,” she said quietly.

  “And it’s why we’ve always been able to connect so easily. You are my beloved daughter, Eliza McCulloch.”

  “And I’m your son!” Hamish yelled. “Where is the love and mercy for me? I’m sick and tired of living in this place. Please, by all things holy, let me come home.”

  An eerie stillness settled. The air became chilled and a tingle ran down Kit’s spine.

  It was here.

  Just as he’d hoped, El Viejo del Saco had followed Hamish.

  And Kit was ready for him.

  Chapter Nine

  Eliza couldn’t breathe.

  With panic in her eyes, Dee grabbed hold of Eliza’s hand, but Eliza couldn’t hear what she was saying. The world began to close in as Dee tried to keep her from falling to the ground. She struggled to speak, but Dee didn’t seem to understand.

  What was happening?

  Strong arms bolstered her from behind as Eliza felt herself slipping away. Black wings spanned out and encircled her.

  She gasped, able to inhale air again. She was in the cave, with everyone also present, but their forms were muted and distant.

  “We don’t have much time.” Kit’s voice echoed around her.

  She spun around.

  They were in the cave, but out of phase. He must have shifted to his crow form and shielded her, and then she had brought them both to this parallel place inside the Hallow.

  Kit filled the space, half-man and half-crow, a blending that continuously shifted before her. He spread his wings wide, the feathers as black as a starless night sky. Around him, within him, a void was forming, a swirling vortex that tugged at her. She shifted her stance to avoid being sucked in.

  “What are you?” Her voice trembled.

  “I’m a fighter, Eliza, for the balance of good and evil. There’s a creature attached to Hamish called El Viejo del Saco, and I’m here to destroy it.”

  “What can I do?”

  “He was trying to take hold of you. I managed to stop him, and you brought us here. When I capture him, can you send him from the earthly plane in the same way?”

  “I…I don’t know.”

  “Is it true that your skills have increased since being near me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then use me, Eliza.”

  “How?”

  “Since I’ve met you, my skills have changed, as well. I’ve never fully been The Crow, and as far as I know, neither have my brothers possessed the skills I seem to be acquiring. I can only guess it’s because of you. If I can capture the demon, I’ll need a prison. One that can be sealed for all time. Can you access a dimension not of this time or place? Can you open it so that I can banish El Viejo del Saco once and for all?”

  With panic clawing in her belly, she nodded, the gesture stiff and disjointed.

  “Eliza, you can’t leave the portal open once I enter. You need to close it as soon as possible. Do you understand?”

  Her heart began to break, sliding into despair in the same way that the flood had knocked her from her feet and carried her away.

  No!

  An energy—fierce and strong and white-hot—burst inside her.

  Now that I’ve found you, Boggs, I’m not letting you go.

  She squared her shoulders. She wasn’t going to lose him without a fight, to hell with the dictum that a Boggs and a McCulloch should never join forces, should never share their bodies, should never fall in love.

  If she was enhanced by Kit’s presence, then it stood to reason that Dee and Cat would be, as well. Her cousins were strong witches in their own right, and although Hamish had beaten them down and somehow dampened their abilities, if Eliza could revive them then they could help. There was power in three. And three McCulloch witches boosted with the presence of The Crow might have the capability to prevail in a way that none of them ever could alone.

  Chapter Ten

  When Kit shifted back from the bubble Eliza had created, it was clear that one way or another he would banish the demon parasite that Hamish had likely enabled for centuries. If he didn’t, then not only was the world at risk, but even more pressing, so was Eliza.

 

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