A Northward Gaze: A Novella

Previously published as The Crossroads Bargain by F.T. McKinstry.

Elspet’s mother died between the worlds, staring with eyes of lily white. A common occurrence in their bloodline, it is said. Denied a grave in hallowed ground, she is now only a whisper in the dark forest that borders the estate.

Grieving amidst a turbulent household of superstitious servants, the mysterious departure of her father, and an ambitious aunt with a draconian agenda, Elspet begins to see faces and shapes in the floral patterns of her bedroom wallpaper. Only she knows the reason for the series of grisly, unexplained deaths that follow her seduction by the beautiful elven lord who appears to her amidst the leaves.

What Elspet doesn’t know is the high cost of consorting with the Fae. For not even her mother’s books, the village witch, or the Fae themselves can stop her inexorable descent into the labyrinth of a faerie curse put on her bloodline in a centuries-old crossroads bargain—a curse she can only end with blood magic and the name of her lover’s most terrible enemy.