That was what it would take to make her believe.

And for that . . . she’d have to go where he was.

With a Herculean effort she forced herself to go back up the lane. Her feet were so cold they ached, but she forced them to carry her through the frosty grass. Not to the cabin, but to the spot about halfway to the cabin where she would find Jolene—or Jolene would find her—the most often. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do when she got there, but—Jolene was a creature of Earth, and the other Earth creatures recognized her.

I thank I know . . . She could summon the little creatures of Earth, as many as she could, and beg them to bring Jolene to her, or lead her to Jolene.

Right now that was all she had.

Still walking, she pulled Earth power into herself, and prepared to call for the piskies first, since those were the ones she knew best. And it wasn’t until the moment she sent out the first summons that she realized the lane was blocked.

Someone, someone tall and broad, stood in the middle of the lane, blocking her passage.

“Heh,” said Bille McDaran. “Somehow I knowed y’all was still here, Miz Anna May Jones, no matter what yore aunt said.”

She froze in place, the magic to summon piskies still tingling at the ends of her fingers.

“Oh, but y’all don’t know me.” He puffed out his chest. “I’m Billie McDaran. I’m th’ foreman of th’ Burra Burra mine. I’m the bestest, meanest magician betwixt Charlotte an’ Memphis, I’m th’ best lookin’ man in Ducktown, I’m wuth twenny puny pissants like Josh Holcroft, an’ ev’body’ll tell y’all so.”

“What d’y’all want with me?” she demanded. “I ain’t no concern o’ yourn. We ain’t livin’ on Company land, we ain’t got no Company house, an’ we got no debt at th’ Company store.”

He snickered. “Y’all’s my concern iffen I makes y’all my concern. Seems y’all’s a witch, like yore aunt. An’ thet makes y’all my bizness. Ary a one in th’ Ducktown Basin what makes magic answers t’me.”

“We ain’t in th’ Basin,” she pointed out.

“Don’t care.” He cracked his knuckles. “Don’t care nohow. I makes m’own rules. I got a hankerin’ t’ hev a look at y’all arter Jolene tol’ me all ’bout y’all. Don’t mind what I sees. Y’all ain’t bad lookin’, an’ y’all got power, an’ thet’s jest fine. I takes what I wants, an’ I reckon y’all are a-gonna be mine.”

His words shocked her out of her despair—and into anger. “You!” she spat. “Y’all’s th’ one what set Jolene fer Josh Holcroft!”

He laughed, still scarcely more than a dark gray shape with eyes gleaming in the thin gray light under the trees, and somehow all the more menacing for that. It was an ugly laugh. “Y’all’s smarter than yore kin,” he said. “’Course I did. I knowed Jolene since I come t’Ducktown, an’ she knows me. We got a sorta arrangement, th’ two of us. She lets me know ’bout thangs. Jolene tol’ me ’bout y’all when I reckoned that ole cat Jinny was gettin’ more powerful than she had any right t’be. An’ she tol’ me y’all was sweet on thet boy. So I done her a favor right back, an’ tol’ her thet Holcroft boy was jest the sorta tasty bite she likes best. Arter thet?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Ain’t no man nor woman c’n stop Jolene when she hankers fer somethin’.” His eyes narrowed dangerously in the gray morning light. “Now, le’s jest make this easy. Y’all come with me, now. I c’n make y’all fergit thet boy in no time a-tall, an’ y’all is gonna thank me fer it. Play yore cards right, an’ I’ll even marry y’all.”