The Mark of Cain

Damaris lowers her voice still more. I hold my breath to catch the words: “You know, there is something about the girl, Zillah. The spirits come to her.” Damaris pauses. “I—I have heard the child whispering in the voice of another.”

In 1567, baby Aphra is found among the reeds and rushes by two outcast witches. Even as an infant, her gifts in the dark craft are plain. But when her guardians succumb to an angry mob, Aphra is left to fend for herself. She is shunned and feared by everyone she encounters, except one man: the leper Long Lankin. Hounded and ostracized, the two find solace only in each other, but even this respite is doomed, and Aphra’s bitterness poisons her entire being. Afflicted with leprosy, about to be burned as a witch, she manages one final enchantment—a curse on her tormentor’s heirs.

Now, in 1962, Cora and Mimi, the last of a cursed line, are trapped in an ancient home on a crumbling estate in deepest winter, menaced by a spirit bent on revenge.