The Crows (Pagham-on-Sea #1)

by C.M. Rosens

Why aren’t you allowed in the house?” “A certain meddling old hedge-witch, name of Miss Eglantine Valmai Pritchard, if you please, thought Gran or her sisters had killed the kid,” Ricky said promptly, jerking a thumb at the chimney. “She stopped the Pendles setting foot here again. You have to tie a curse like that to something, some sort of condition. She thought she’d let the house decide to let us in, thought she was being clever. Of course, Fairwood wasn’t properly alive then, not like now, so she couldn’t decide shit. Oh, she called out, lured people in, but not, you know, coherently. Bit of a bitch for us, since that hearthstone from the old Pendle cottage is imbued with energies we need.” He grinned. “Bet no one told you that at the auction, did they? Caveat emptor applies, and all that.”