Keepers Of The Gate E-Book

E. Denise Billups

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

In 1779 Kanadasaga, Sullivan's Expedition torches a Seneca village and many others, destroying the Iroquois Confederacy. Awakened from sleep, Pilan and Teka flee their blazing longhouse into the woodlands. After a soldier's bullet thwarts their escape, Pilan vows to meet his beloved Teka again in another life.

Two hundred years later in present-day Geneva, New York, historical relics rise. Twilight Ends, a grand Victorian bed-and-breakfast run by the Newhouse family, sits on the property the Iroquois village used to thrive on.

After Twilight Ends' long-standing matriarch Tessa Newhouse dies, her daughter and granddaughter, Skylar and Twyla, discover two artifacts under the maple tree in the backyard, and an ancient mystery as old as time begins to unravel.

But will they have the courage to follow the path their ancestors did?

Leseprobe

KEEPERS OF THE GATE

Twilight Ends Book 1

E. DENISE BILLUPS

Contents

Indian Names

Map of Iroquois Confederacy

Map of Sullivan Expedition’s Route 1779

Dramatis Personae

Prologue

1. Keepers Of The Gate

2. Twyla’s Fright

3. Cristal’s Promise

4. Skylar’s Foreboding

5. Ghostly Relics

6. Phantom Smoke

7. Tekakwitha

8. Sleepwalking Again

9. Sleeping Soul Walks With Spirits

10. Watery Trail

11. Call Me Dante

12. The Dreamcatcher

13. Tekakwitha

14. The Corridor

15. Confronting Mr. Dox

16. Silverware and Winter Florals

17. Cristal’s Revelation

18. The Steamer Trunk

19. Tessa’s Portfolio

20. The Balsam Fir

21. Soup and Secrets

22. Tactical Maps

23. Tessa’s Journal

24. Two Bodies, One Soul

25. Past Lives

26. Mercy Dox

27. Murder?

28. Harrison’s Plan

29. Hidden In Shadows

30. Stop Her

31. Unknown Destination

32. Mingin

33. Wolf Clan Longhouse

Acknowledgments

You may also like

About the Author

Copyright © 2020 by E. Denise Billups

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2022 by Next Chapter

Published 2022 by Next Chapter

Edited by Terry Hughes

Cover art by CoverMint

Twilight Ends is paranormal historical fiction. Apart from some well-known actual people, events, and locales that are part of this narrative, all names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either a product of this author’s imagination or are in all cases – used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events, locales or to living persons is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author’s permission.

Indian Names

Ye say they all have passed away,

That noble race and brave,

That their light canoes have vanished

From off the crested wave;

That 'mid the forest where they roamed

There rings no hunter’s shout;

But their name is on your waters,

Ye may not wash it out.

Ye say their cone-like cabins

That clustered o'er the vale,

Have fled like withered leaves

Before the autumn’s gale;

But their memory liveth on your hills,

Their baptism on your shore;

Your everlasting rivers speak

Their dialect of yore.

Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Map of Iroquois Confederacy

Map of Sullivan Expedition’s Route 1779

Dramatis Personae

Kanadasaga: Seneca Tribe Wolf Clan – 1779

Jawanda Newhouse – Wolf Clan Mother, Billy’s Wife

Billy Newhouse – Wolf Clan Sachem, Jawanda’s Husband

Tekakwitha (Teka) – Wolf Clan Warrior, Jawanda and Billy’s Daughter

Pilan – Wolf Clan Warrior, Teka’s Husband

Garrentha –Wolf Clan, Jawanda and Billy’s Daughter, Teka’s Sister

Sagoyewatha – Wolf Clan Warrior

Kane Dox, Mingin (AKA Gray Wolf) – Adopted son of the Wolf Clan

Postwar Colonial Village of Geneva, New York

Captain William Dox – Revolutionary War Soldier, Postwar Owner of Seneca Property

Mercy Dox – British Settler, Wife of Captain William Dox.

Present-day Geneva, New York, Twilight Ends B&B

Teresa (Tessa) Newhouse – Wife of Ian Newhouse and Owner of Twilight Ends B&B

Ian Blackfoot Newhouse – Tessa’s Husband and Owner of Twilight Ends B&B

Skylar Ferguson Newhouse – Tessa and Ian’s Daughter, Wife of Charlie Ferguson

Charlie Ferguson – Skylar’s Husband

Twyla Newhouse – Skylar and Charlie’s Daughter

Jayson Sundown – Twyla’s Fiancée

Cristal Whelan – Wife of Dante Whelan and Newhouse Family Friend

Dante Whelan – Husband of Cristal Whelan and Newhouse Family Friend

Old George – Caretaker of Twilight Ends

Young George – Caretaker of Twilight Ends

Prologue

September 1779

Kanadasga (Geneva, New York)

Seneca Lake’s basin shifts,spewing Tekakwitha’s roaring rage from its liquid mouth. She wakes from her watery grave to relive a death she’d died one warm September morn when Sullivan’s Expedition torched and destroyed everything her family owned and loved. Thunderous hooves sound with her waking, repeating past injustices against an unsuspecting sleeping village.

Inside Teka’s smoke-filled longhouse, she relives the chaos of a frightened family of 50 woken by whooping soldiers and a blazing fire. Unable to escape through the smoldering back door, her sisters, brothers, and elders crowd through a single egress and scatter into the dark, dense woodlands with nothing but the clothes they’d slept.

She watches her husband, Pilan, brave and determined to save as many as he can, racing about, waking the sleeping, pulling the feeble through the door before the fiery roof crumbles around them, and flames consume timber walls. When he pushes her toward the exit, his wrathful brown eyes hold hers as if for the last time. “It can’t be!”

“Teka, get to our tree. Wait for me there,” he says, gasping for air and rushing back inside for others.

Into the murky dawn, Teka flees for the thousandth time, away from the devil’s steed, through a thicket of trees where she’d gathered kindling, picked berries and dug up roots and shoots many times. Beyond the great wahda’, she and her sisters tapped sap every sugar moon. Toward the big water, their men trapped trout for many years. Her people wade barefoot into the ganyodae’ shallow stream, pile into canoes, and escape upstream or by foot through the deep woods. She waits under the sugar maple, a tree where Pilan carved a sacred eagle, a sacrosanct place immortals guard, the place they first kissed.

“I won’t… I can’t leave without him.”

Hidden, she watches the fiery backdrop blacken the village. Rampant flames, stoked by autumn winds, incinerate 30 longhouses, spread across scorched grounds, blaze through fences, devouring Deohako the “three sisters” – maize, beans, and squash – and the abundant fruit orchards beyond. Charred wood, burnt corn, berries, apples, stored venison and trout mingle, scenting the air, overwhelming the scorched terrain. Oak, maple, and birch trees crackle under raging fire. Stags, wolves, and owls retreat from brilliant orange skies, howlingdanger. Enraged clansmen yell alarm, securing their women and children away from deafening hooves as soldiers savage and torch everything they love.

Teka foresaw this day in a dream. She should have spoken of it to her elders, warned them to leave the encampment sooner. Now she shivers and weeps with remorse at devastation the soldiers unleash against her people. When tribes abandoned nearby Queanettquaga and Chequaga, her people made plans to escape further north to Niagara, away from their cherished home on the hill beside the lake. They should have left days ago when rumors spread of Sullivan’s men’s attack against British loyalists and the Iroquois tribe who sided with them. Now it’s too late.

Through the trees, she searches the fiery scene for her family, praying they’ve escaped, but fear feeble elders met with a fiery fate. No matter what, she’ll wait for Pilan until the soldiers depart or day breaks.

When thistle crackles nearby, she hides behind the tree, fearing soldiers have discovered her when movement rustles a few feet away. Then she hears Pilan whisper, “Teka.”

“Pilan,” she calls, stepping from behind the tree, noticing a soldier he’s bludgeoned at his feet and a tomahawk dangling from his hand. A bullet splits dawn, hitting her husband, piercing and ripping through his chest. “No! Pilan!” A second bullet misses Teka as she drops beside Pilan, bleeding on the ground. “Pilan, get up. Please, please, we can make it to the lake. You can’t leave me. Please get up!”

His fingers clutch the choker around her neck, a gift she’d worn at their wedding just three moons ago. Spluttering blood and choking on his words, he whispers, “I’ll see you again, my Teka. Now, desë:had:t, run, go, leave me,” he says with his final breath.

“Dëjihnyadade: gë’… I’ll see you again, my love.”

Jerking her head around with the sound of approaching men, the choker catches and unravels in Pilan’s lifeless fingers, slipping into his limp palm as she rises and races toward the water’s edge.

A gunshot echoes in the air. The instant immobilizing pain drops her to her knees. Her eyes linger on the harvest moon descending west and September’s Indian sun rising east over verdant mountaintops. Images of her homeland that she’ll never view again with corporeal eyes. Death is near, but she welcomes it, knowing she’ll join Pilan in the afterlife. The lake roars in sync with her last ragged breath. The earth shakes as she sinks into a watery grave.

Now, her unearthly eyes see what human sight cannot. An unnatural force forever imbues the land her people lived, claiming and trapping aggrieved souls in this place of recurrent deaths. An ending she’ll relive a thousand times. When Seneca Lake roars at dawn and the earth trembles, she’ll wake, and watch Sullivan’s men destroy her people’s land. And, once more, without end, she’ll wait for her beloved Pilan and for her people to reclaim their land.

Twilight Ends called to me in death, pulled me through its immortal womb.

A soul neither here nor there,

Christened with my people’s blood, Seneca’s eternal water,

Keeper of the Western Door.

I exist to protect, guard this sacred land,

a sentinel of the immortal gate.

1

Keepers Of The Gate

PRESENT DAY GENEVA, NEW YORK

George steps from the small cottage, gazes into the dark heavens, blowing tobacco smoke into the crisp night air. He glances over the yard with fumes fogging his vision, squinting beyond the ancient pipe wedged between his lips toward Twilight Ends, the grand Victorian bed-and-breakfast on the hillock. Before Twilight’s inception, he’d assumed his rank as caretaker, protector, the chosen sentinel of the property and of the Newhouse family. A role his ancestors undertook and one he’ll shoulder until his time dawns and a successor takes his place.

He strolls toward the firepit bordering the cottage and lingers over the warm blaze, listening to nightfall hum across the revered grounds. Tightening and relaxing his jaws, drawing rapid puffs, he lifts his head, releasing pungent whorls toward the starry constellation. George removes the pipe from his lips, assumes a worshipful stance, and recites to the heavens, “May all I say and all I do be in harmony with the Creator within me. Creator beyond me. Creator around me.” He taps the calabash over the fire and, as his ashy offering to the Great Spirit whirls above the flames, he begins his nightly ritual.

A silver canister glints in his hand as he packs more tobacco in the bowl. He pats his jacket, slips a box of matches from the inner pocket and ignites the bitter weed. When he faces the sentinel bench resting against the stone cottage, a boom detonates from Seneca Lake. Gazing at black water mirroring the bright moon, he mumbles, “Right on time.”

A shudder escapes a thicket of trees flanking the property. Dogwood blossoms scatter white everywhither among sugar maples and evergreen pines rustling, swaying sideways, not from Geha’s breath but a primordial force George forever guards. He narrows his keen vision on a spot his ancestors protected as he’s done most of his life, seizing the developing outline within the obscure flora passage.

A second boom sounds from the lake.

“Orenda, the Great Spirit speaks on cue,” he utters as if to his trusty pipe, turning his gaze inside the parting timber. He senses her presence on the second-floor balcony, where she watches the switch most evenings. He turns and nods at the matriarch of Twilight Ends, leaning into the ornate balustrade, a long-standing queen. She returns his nod with a quick head dip, a brief recognition before they both glimpse the emerging silhouette.

George wanders ahead through the sculpted yew garden with a steady stride toward a youthful, robust figure exiting the bent trees, admiring the man he once was sauntering across the lawn. A leather jacket hides the advancing sentinel’s tribal smock, deerskin leggings, and breechcloth. Parallel sparks split the dark. Future and past coalesce as young and old approach with identical grins and pipes, moving in opposite directions.

“Little squaw is visiting tonight. Watch out for her,” Old George murmurs, aware the night sentinel’s fealty is steadfast as his own.

Young George chuckles. “I got this, wise one,” he states in a hearty though similar voice.

“Dëjíhnyadade:gë’ hagëhjih. We’ll meet again, George,” they say in unison.

The night sentinel steps toward the cottage. The day sentinel moves toward the thicket. A strong pressure extracts and frees a gust of air, parting evergreen pines and sugar maple wings, engulfing Old George.

Heading into the sentry cottage, Young George finds a change of clothes where they always wait in the small bathroom off the kitchen. He lifts the buckskin top over his splendid torso, baring brownish-black plumage tattooed across his chest. Eagle wings expand and contract above his sculpted abs as he undoes the breechcloth and strips deerskin tights from his firm hips. On his upper left arm, a wolf howls under a bright moon, his manitou, sentinel spiritual guardian of the night. An eagle soars above a leaping wolf on his chiseled right calf, two spiritual guides, channeling him on a sentinel’s journey.

George throws on present-day clothes – T-shirt, jeans, crewneck sweater, and a cap to cover a patch of hair atop his shaved head. He slips out of moccasins into tough leather boots, recalling his sister’s hardworking hands weaving in and out, stitching sinew through deerskin moccasins for warriors before the war. Before Conotocaurius, “Town Destroyer” uprooted their lives. It’s hard to believe war ever sullied the ground in this modern age, carpeted green, sculptured in foreign yew, graced with a palatial home. He’s never forgotten the spilled blood, the scorched terrain, his people’s cries and the burning flesh of elders too weak to run. Evidence time has eroded.

With virulence, he recalls two bullets taking the breath of his brave brother and sister, Pilan and Teka. Before he could secure them through the gate, toward the healing waters, the soldier appeared and struck them dead. George howled with rage, arching his bow with smoldering eyes, firing all his arrows, hitting the swift-dodging soldier's side and arm. The wounded man discharged his gun, blasting a gouge in the maple tree. George raced toward the sacred grounds with the injured soldier on his heels.

Just as he entered the sacred doorway, the soldier fired a bullet through his heart. When George fell back, immortal hands seized and sucked him into the forbidden gate, a dark passage as old as his people, a blazing asteroid forged through time. He died that night. His soul resurrected with an immortal breath, an invisible force no man can see, but he perceived. Over time, two brother dogwood trees grew, marking the gate's entrance.

George rubs the ruby scar tattooed with wings over his heart. A mortal wound immortal energy healed as he leapt inside the forbidden gate the blazing eve of Sullivan’s Crusade long ago, farther than the constellation. Yet, in this place, time-bound souls he’d sworn to protect exist.

In the mirror, he catches the image of a 21st-century man, his native heritage disguised beneath modern American clothing. Throwing the skeleton key around his neck, he leaves the cottage, chewing over the irony of his chosen name in this place, George, the name of the Six Nations’ destroyer.

“I am Sagoyewatha, keeper of the gate,” he affirms toward the timeless lake ahead.

The moment he enters the night, his spiritual guide tugs at his soul, his inner wolf gnawing at his gut, a sensation he never ignores. Striding wide up the hillock toward Twilight Ends, he fixes his scotopic vision on the sacred, two-foot stone foundation that imbues the home with mysterious energy. Stones his ancestors revered and feared. A recurrent tremble stirs beneath the ground, a reminder of his mission in this place.

Seldom does he check the home’s interior before his watch begins, but instincts spur him on to the porch and the skeleton key through the door lock. Inside the silent home, he pauses beneath the high archway when feet descend the main stairs with a low scuffle. The steps of Teresa and Ian Newhouse’s granddaughter, Twyla, an occasional sleepwalker.

Several times, he’d caught her roaming the backyard, strolling around and back inside without a bump or stumble. Twice she’d slipped his notice, wandering half a mile to the cemetery. The next morning, Old George discovered her asleep on a grave, the resting place of his brother warrior, Mingin (Gray Wolf). It wasn’t a coincidence she’d happened on that spot. The second time, he’d found her standing near the thicket of trees, staring at the old maple tree for several minutes before her legs revived, returning her to Twilight. Since that visit, he’s more vigilant during her overnight stays. His greatest fear is that she’ll wander through the immortal gate he guards.

The curly-haired one stumbles into the grand hall, wavy tresses sleep-disheveled. He senses her ability to fathom the spiral bend of life’s energy, unlike the straight-haired sentinels whose power flow as uniform water, an arrow from the source. One day, she will be a great sentinel, if she chooses.

Sightless with sleep, tugged by the home’s vibrations, the girl stops in the corridor, staring at but not seeing him in the doorway, only what she follows through the cellar door. He wonders what Twilight Ends is showing her tonight.

2

Twyla’s Fright

While occupants slumber inside the silent Victorian bed-and-breakfast, mysterious energy awakens beneath the home. On the second floor, Twyla sleepwalks through converging hallways, past stained-glass windows above the balcony, and descends the winding, gothic staircase.

She shuffles into the Grand Hall, pauses on chilly parquet, vibrating beneath her tiny, bare feet as faint voices swell in her ear. Twyla stirs from somnambulance, opening her eyes to a sable-haired woman with a V-dipped hairline, dressed in an ivory nightgown. Her vacant eyes hold Twyla's gaze before she moves through the open basement door.

Rubbing her seven-year-old eyes, Twyla follows, descending the steep cellar stairs on cautious feet. She pauses at the bottom, uncertain where the woman went.

Clank! Clank! Clank! Reverberates around the basement, coming from the storage room, stopping and starting several times.

She creeps into the dim room, freezing in place. Metal hooks jingle up and down as gossamer hands tinker at the antique steamer trunk. The woman’s dark-brown hair shakes across her translucent skin as she toils with the lock. She thrusts back her head with a sharp wail, flinging tresses from her tear-streaked face.

Twyla flinches backward, rattling items on a rack. The woman twists her head, wailing an icy breath. The terrifying chill tears terror through Twyla’s heart, launching a hair-raising scream from her throat. Warmth trickles below her pajama legs, puddling on the wooden planks between her feet.

The woman’s eyes soften beneath her bewildered brows. She steps forward and the floor rumbles as she fades through the impermeable metal chest. Gripped with fear, Twyla stares at the menacing trunk towering in the corner, picturing the woman locked inside, trying to get out.

The basement door flies open, and swift feet descend the stairs. Grams Tessa enters, shakes her shoulders, and yells, “Twyla, wake up, sweetie,”mistaking her frozen stance for sleepwalking. But she’s wide awake.

Embarrassed she pissed her pajamas, Twyla slips into a weepy, blather of unintelligible words. “I-I she, woman, cried, jiggled through the trunk.”

“Shh, honey, it was just a dream. You’re OK, there’s nothing there,” Tessa says, brushing her face and glancing toward the fear-rousing trunk.

Twyla stares across the long storage room toward the ornate metal box nestled against the stone wall. “She’s there, inside,” Twyla screams.

“Shh, now, honey, there’s nothing but antiques and my sketches inside the trunk,” Tessa says, taking her hand and guiding her toward the steamer.

Twyla grips her hand tight, clutches her bathrobe, and follows with squinted eyes.

Tessa lifts the gold, egg-shaped locket she always wears around her neck from her coral nightie and retrieves the item it protects, the trunk’s brass barrel key.

“Come see, Twyla. There’s nothing here,” she says. Tessa grips the metal latches the woman had been jiggling moments ago. The dome top groans and squeaks open.

Twyla lets go of Tessa’s robe and steps back. Her eyes widen on the rising top, expecting the woman to pop out. Sharp breaths swell and cave in her chest. Twyla inches to the rear and screams, “She’s hiding inside!” She turns, races from the room, up the stairs, rounding the corner, bumping into George.

“Whoa, hold on, little one,” George exclaims. He grasps her shoulders, stoops to his knees, brushing tears from her cheeks. “It's OK, little squaw. The weeping woman can’t hurt you. She’s returned to her time.” Lowering his lips to her ears, he whispers, “Akdo:gëh, koh ëswënöhdö’he’t, gegwas,” knowing there was no need for translation. In the past, when he’d spoken his people’s language, the little one grasped every word. Now, staring into her liquid brown eyes, he sees her expression alter with perception.

“I’ve seen them, too, and you will come to know it, accept it.” His words translate themselves in her mind without explanation, a remnant of her history. A sudden wave of relief floods Twyla as she folds into his open arms. She’s always liked Young George, an affinity from the start. For an instant, the woman and trunk escape her thoughts. Fear abates for now but lives forever in her subconscious mind, along with George’s remarkable words and his comforting arms.

3

Cristal’s Promise

SIXTEEN YEARS LATER

Cristal stands at the open bedroom window, oblivious to autumn’s nippy breeze and curtains billowing around her frame into the low-lit room like gauzy wings. She glances over her shoulder at the tranquil figure on the canopy bed and wrenches her gaze from the painful image. For an instant, she closes her eyes, listening to silk flutter on the breeze and a boat droning nearby.

When she opens her eyes, Twilight end’s faithful caretaker stands at the edge of the garden, staring up at the window, catching her gaze. He hangs his head in solemn respect, arousing a stab of emotions. Cristal tightens her arms around her waist, repressing swelling tears and recalling Tessa’s fondness for George. “He's an extraordinary man,” she'd said years ago when George arranged flowers around the gazebo for a guest's wedding. The meaning of her words flew over her head until Tessa handed her a manila envelope a year ago with a secret too far-fetched to believe. She’d promised to uphold Tessa’s confidence, and keep the information from her family until the right moment.

Cristal releases her grip from her waist, waves at George, and glances toward the dock at two Adirondack chairs, a spot where she and Tessa enjoyed the picturesque view from the jetty a year ago. The day Tessa shared an incredible secret.

“Cristal, I need to see you.”

Tessa’s voice springs from her memory as if it were yesterday. When her worried tone echoed through the phone, she’d instantly sensed trouble and asked what was wrong. Tessa’s low sigh lingered in a silent digital void before she’d answered, “It's a family matter.” She’d detected trouble the moment Tessa’s voice wavered with distress-laden sighs. Never in 14 years had she hesitated over her words. Teresa Newhouse was always forceful, direct and way too independent to ask for help.

For years, she’d been a loyal friend and second mother. She was the only person for whom she’d ever driven several hours nonstop on a whim, except her husband. So, when Tessa had asked to see her, she’d replied in a heartbeat, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Three hours later, she turned on to the private road leading to Twilight Ends. The grand Victorian bed-and-breakfast emerged animate in September’s afternoon light. An illusion created as the sun roved west, and clouds drifted over precipitous gabled roofs, elaborate bargeboards, and ornamented chimney pots, casting three-dimensional shadows. Light from hanging lanterns blinked through stately white columns as the car neared the wrap-around porch.

On many visits, Cristal sensed the air shift, reverse, and change course around the home. But she’d never given much thought to the mysterious sensation as anomalous as Seneca Lake’s recurring boom, the Seneca Drums, as townspeople called the watery thunder, believing the phenomenon from Revolutionary War ghosts on the battlefield. But she’s inclined to believe the scientific reason – natural shift in the basin occurring in most Great Lakes, not a ghostly cannon firing from Seneca’s shadowy depths.

Cristal steered the car into Twilight Ends driveway, crawled through the porte-cochére and parked beside the inn, confident she’d find Tessa in a place she’d often visited when worried. A spot she’d spent many blissful moments with her husband, Ian. She hastened from her car to the backyard and glanced beyond the spacious green lawn.

Below the hillock, toward the dock, she approached Tessa, reclined in a baby-blue Adirondack chair that looked white in the late-afternoon light. A rowdy group waved and whooped, “Hello!” as they sped past on the lake in a red-and-white bow rider. Simultaneously, both she and Tessa waved back as she continued toward the landing.

“Tessa, I knew you’d be here.”

“My radiant Cristal, where else would I enjoy a glorious Indian-summer day?” she asked in a high, witty voice before glancing back. When she leaned and glanced around, strands of octogenarian-silver hair blew across her face.

Cristal kicked off her flip-flops and stepped on to the breezy dock, relishing the wind on her face, the sweep of her sheer dress and long, brown hair blown back as she neared the chair. Tessa’s expression distressed her when she lifted her head with a smile that never touched her eyes, dimmed after her husband’s death the previous year. Her characteristic straight shoulders had thinned with a slight hunch. After a 50-year marriage and business partnership, it must have been tough at Twilight without her constant partner. In her lap, Mystik, her beloved cat, basked and purred with Tessa’s soft strokes.

“Cristal, you’re bewitching. You haven’t changed a bit since your first visit to Twilight 14 years ago.”

“I assure you it’s just the make-up,” Cristal said with a grin, amazed by Tessa’s stunning native-American features, even at 80. Tessa was 40 years older, but age never defined an instant friendship that had flourished over the years. She was one of the strongest, wisest, and most vibrant women she knew and time hadn’t changed her until Ian’s death.

When she leaned over to kiss Tessa’s forehead, the lake breeze ballooned her dress around her hips with a soft whoomph. She seized the hem, collapsed on to the adjacent Adirondack chair, and rested her head back. Across the choppy water, nascent saffron mountaintops appeared magnificent. She sighed and tilted her face into direct sunlight. With her busy workload, she hadn’t gotten much sun, except filtered office sunlight or quick five-minute rays back-and-forth to her car on appointments that summer. Determined to seize the moment to tan her pale, Irish skin, she pulled her dress over her bare legs and wiggled her toes in the breeze. “Aww, sun, just what I need. I love this spot and wish Dante and I could visit more often,” she said. With a sweep of her hair over the chair, she closed her eyes, inhaled Seneca’s earthy breeze as waves lapped against the white cedar dock.

Nearby, a motor droned, slicing through their peaceful silence. She opened her eyes and rolled her head sideways just as the jam-packed Stroller turned the bend. “Wow! The tour business is booming for the Simiele family. I’ve never seen that boat so crowded.”

“That faithful vintage boat motors by every hour with tourists. But I’m not complaining. William Simiele’s business has brought a steady stream of customers to Twilight Ends over the years.”

“I remember seeing Twilight End’s windows sparkling like a jewel from the water. If I hadn’t taken a boat tour, I’d never have met you or found the love of my life the same day, standing in Twilight’s Great Hall. Was it fate, Twilights Ends magic, or the host’s persistent matchmaking?” Cristal asked with a wink. She knew fate brought her to the B&B just as Dante arrived.

“How is my beloved Doctor Whelan?”

“You know Dante, always busy helping the less fortunate at the hospital or the free clinic.”

“That man, what an amazing heart. You two are meant to be together.”

Cristal grinned at Tessa’s regular sentiment expressed since the first day she and Dante ogled each other in Twilight’s parlor.

“I expect you both at Twilight’s annual trimming party and your wedding anniversary.”

“We couldn’t stay away if we tried.” For a second, they slipped into silence and watched the tour boat glide toward Watkins Glen at the southern tip of the lake. “This view never changes.”

“Seneca Lake is ageless. The Great Spirit’s fingerprints were here before us and will persist long after we're gone,” she said, staring at the sky. “My people were such storytellers, believing a divine hand created the Finger Lakes. For them, nature was God. Maybe they had it right.”

Cristal’s muscles melted into the wooden chair as Tessa’s mesmeric voice drove thoughts of work from her mind. She wished she could suspend time before worries spoiled the serene respite, but Tessa’s troubled expression dashed the blissful moment.

Although she’d sat beside her a full 10 minutes, Tessa addressed her as if she’d just stepped on the dock. “I’m so glad to see you, Cristal. Thanks for coming so promptly. I hope I didn’t drag you from important work.”

“You’re much more important than my clients. Besides, I needed a day away from that hectic law office and Rochester. You sounded urgent on the phone. What’s happened?”

“With Ian’s death and my daughter and her family moving in soon, I got to thinking after our last conversation. It’s time to revise my will,” she said, pulling a packet from her colorful fringe shawl. “Please guard this well. There’s a letter inside explaining everything. No need to read it now, but when you’re alone,” she explained. Her slender veiny hand reached over the armrest, placed and patted the envelope on Cristal’s lap.

“What is it?”

“My people safeguarded this information for eons. An ancient pact protects this property against those who may try to claim it. Cristal, promise me when the time comes, you will be here for my family.”

Cristal had taken a moment to compose her emotions because the second Tessa handed her the envelope, she’d sensed she wouldn’t be with them much longer. “You know you can count on me. I promise both Dante and I will be here for your family.”

“They will need your gift when Mr. Dox shows up again, not just your legal skills.”

“Mr. Dox? Who’s he?”

“I've never told you what happened to my family years ago. I figured there was no need to dredge up the past until Harrison Dox showed up three months ago. During the Great Depression, Anson Dox, his great-grandfather, stole Twilight Ends from my parents. Like many during that era, the Newhouse family had a tough time making ends meet. So my parents opened the house as a bed-and-breakfast. Then, out of the blue, Anson Dox showed up, riding to the rescue with fake promises. He’d had his eye on Twilight before that first meeting. He duped my family into a partnership, but most of the funding came from Anson’s pockets. Soon after, he procured my family’s half of the business and moved into Twilight. He was only on the property a year before dying.”

“How did he die?”

Tessa glanced to the right at the shoreline’s shallow, rocky edge and pointed past the maple and dogwood tree toward the wrought-iron-gated fence protecting private grounds. “Beyond those gates exists a secret my people have protected for many centuries. Those sacred grounds are protected by forces not to be tampered with. Well, they found his body right over there, at the private gate, with three holes in his chest.”

“Gunshot wounds?”

“No, arrows.”

“What?”

“The coroner’s report stated that three arrowheads had entered his body through the heart, lungs, and abdomen but there were no exit wounds. The assailant was an expert and aimed to kill. But it’s obvious they weren’t modern-day arrows. As a teen, I took a few archery classes and I know today’s broadheads pierce clean through the body. Without a weapon, arrows or witnesses, Dox’s case remains a mystery.”

“The arrows were never recovered? Did the killer pull them from his body?”

“No, it doesn’t appear that way. The coroner’s report said there was no sign they were removed, only the broadheads’ entry wounds were present. It’s as if the arrow vanished inside his flesh,” she’d said, lowering her gaze.

Cristal believed she’d seen a trace of a smile on Tessa’s lips before a gust swept hair across her face, hiding the sudden hint of humor. At that moment Cristal wondered if Tessa knew who Dox’s murderer was. Or was his life taken by mysterious forces beyond the gate Tessa alluded to? “Don’t you find that odd?”

“Well,” she said and sighed, “my parents believed he met with unnatural opposition. Someone, something, whether human or supernatural, didn’t want him here.”

“Vanishing arrows? Your parents might be right.”

“To this day, Anson Dox’s death remains a mystery, but not to my ancestors. Soon after recovering his body, they found Anson’s signed testament in his office, instructing that the property should revert to its original owners, the Newhouse family. That raised questions and suspicion fell on my family, though there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Now, 81 years later, his great-grandson claims Twilight Ends belongs to the Dox family.”

“Why does he believe that? You have the testament to disprove his claim.”

“Incapacity. He’s claiming his great grandfather’s mind was impaired when he wrote the will, and that no money ever changed hands when my family regained the property. But Harrison doesn’t realize his great-grandfather paid my family a paltry sum. It was plain thievery! And I heard he plans to turn this land into a flashy resort.”

“Great heavens, no!” Cristal screeched in outrage.

“As long as I’m alive and the Western Door Society thrives, it will never happen. Since your last visit, and after receiving Harrison Dox’s letter, I’ve sensed my ancestors’ restless energy stir each gloaming. I believe they’re waiting for Dox. That pesky man doesn’t understand what trouble awaits him. I hope not his great-grandfather’s fate,” she said with a hint of worry.

Cristal believed Tessa’s words were in jest. Another Dox’s heart pierced with an arrow is highly improbable, she thought at that moment. “Let’s pray Harrison goes away, finds another property for his resort.”

“Well, time will tell. I can’t concern myself with that now. But I pray when my darling daughter Skylar takes over the inn, she and her family will fight for what’s theirs. And I’m sure my gutsy granddaughter, Twyla, will keep this place safe,” she said as she spun a gold locket between her fingers.

Whenever Tessa touched that locket, an heirloom she always wore, an elusive sensation weighted Cristal’s hand, and a phantom spiral looped around her fingers as if it were she who was twirling the gold chain. She’d never owned or spun a locket. But the disconcerting motion felt tangible, as if she’d done so a thousand times. She squeezed and palm rubbed the tickle from her hands, glowered at the antique necklace, pondering its heir – daughter or granddaughter? “Do you think Skylar and Charlie are ready to assume roles in Keepers of The Western Door Society?”

Tessa shook her head and pinned her eyes across the lake. “No. Not now, but they will when they understand the property’s significance. My precious girls bear the gift of sight, but Skylar’s adamant and disdains a life at Twilight. When Dox arrives, she’ll see her fate is connected to the property. My daughter has a keen nose for dishonesty and will sense Harrison’s chicanery the moment he speaks.”

“And Twyla?”

“Gutsy, forever-curious and determined, that granddaughter of mine,” she’d said, clutching the gold locket. “Twyla will travel a rare path I’ve journeyed many times. I know this for sure.”

“What do you mean?”

Tessa’s eyes were brimming with mystery. “Everything’s explained in the envelope.”

“My curiosity’s piqued,” she said, squeezing the packet, pondering its contents and Tessa’s comment. “Twyla has always reminded me of you in both body and temperament.”

A whimsical chuckle leapt from Tessa’s lips carried on the breeze around the dock. “Yes, she’s a mini-me. After everything she’d seen as a child, she’s still passionate about the home and family business.”

“Seen?”

“That child’s nosier than a cat and roamed the inn, searching every nook and cranny, looking for secret passages, just as I did as a child,” she said and stroked Mystik’s fur. “She has a fascination with Twilight, even now that she’s grown.”

As if bored by the conversation, Mystik stretched her front legs across her lap, leapt on to the dock, and strutted off. The tiny bell around her neck tinkled as she pranced away.

Cristal glanced back as Mystik slunk up the slope. “I love that sound.”