And yet he did not wish to speak with them before it was time.ĭubh watched the house. After years of faded recollections and fuzzy, half-dreamed memories, he hadn’t been sure they were real. Out, tipping his head back, blowing smoke onto the breeze.

In, burning his lungs, filling his insides with fire. He raised the cigarette to his lips and took a drag. In his pocket his cell phone buzzed violently, and Dubh shut his eyes. There were too many witches here for one small town. At his feet, spent filters scattered the ground. The ember burned orange in the darkness, sending a thin spiral of smoke trickling up. He set his back to one of the oak trees lining the driveway, an ashy cigarette hanging between two fingers. There was something unnatural about how still he was, the type of stillness reserved for death, or very deep water. A farmhouse with three crooked chimneys, windows shuttered against the dark forest. He’d turned the rental car around and followed the sensation down a rambling back road that twisted endlessly through green fields, leading him to this driveway in the woods. Something had pulled at his insides as he’d reached the village limits, tugging painfully at his guts.

He’d blown past the welcome sign without a glance, almost continuing into County Wexford. His tourist map was filled with colorful pins at every stopover- Kiss the Blarney Stone! Visit the Irish National Heritage Park!-but this miserable little village didn’t warrant a mention. In fact, he’d almost driven past the place. Find the house of threes, and you’d find the coven.ĭubh had traveled for days. Three gates before the inner sanctuary-each more heavily spelled than the last. Three chimneys sending twisting ribbons of smoke into a clear sky. Three stones set into a wild, overgrown path. The best way to hunt a witch was to look for patterns of three. I love you guys.Īnd to all the women out there who have a little witch in them.

Visit To the witches: Rebecca, Kayla, and Tiffany. For information address Freeform Books, 125 West End Avenue, New York, New York 10023.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Published by Freeform Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Raven and stock photo – KHIUS/SHUTTERSTOCKĪll rights reserved.

Witches of ash and ruin by e latimer