Small Town Witch (The Fae of Calaveras County)

by Kristen S. Walker

  I ran across the hallway to my mom’s room. A few drawers in the dresser were sitting open and half-empty. Some of my mom’s clothes lying in piles on the floor, as if she had packed in a hurry. The closet door stood open and I could see that her organized system had gotten messed up in there, too.

  I had one place left to check. I went up the second flight of stairs into the attic.

  The room had been stripped bare. All of my mom’s magical tools, all of her herbs and other ingredients that she stored up here, totally gone. The furniture was pushed all over the room. Boards were missing from the walls and floor, leaving behind little dark holes, all empty now. I would never know what she had been hiding.

  Then I saw something on the wall across from me. One of the shelves had been pushed away from it, and behind that I could see part of a drawing—something scratched into the wood.

  I stepped over a fallen chair to get closer and pushed the shelf the rest of the way aside. I stopped and stared at what I had revealed.

  It was the image of a half-lidded eye, surrounded by a thorny vine, and above that was a rose. The symbol of the Unseelie Court.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks go to my writing teachers, including my mother, who shared her love of books with me and listened to my stories; and Julie Almquist, my junior high school teacher, who taught me how to follow the rules of English grammar so that I could break them creatively, and encouraged me to keep trying.

  My family gave me invaluable support throughout the creative process, from advice to backrubs, from hot dinners to cover design.

  Thanks also to my friends online who re-read this book many times and helped fix the problems. Any errors that remain are my own.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kristen Sarasvati Walker grew up in Northern California, running around barefoot in the woods and climbing trees with a notebook to write down stories. She lives with her family, including two rescued cats, in a house full of books. This is her first novel.

  For more information about Kristen and her upcoming works, please visit kristenwalker.net and smalltownwitch.com