When Delaney Fox made up her mind to attend a session at The Tilted Plume Writers' Retreat in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, she had no idea how winding and treacherous the road was going to be.

Eerily, none of the other students showed up. And perhaps Delaney should have stayed home, too. After all, she was five months pregnant.

Mavis Beasom, a renowned romance writer, enjoyed the life of a hermit at her glorious but isolated retreat. She was a towering and formidable woman nearing sixty, and she was certainly not one to mince words or hide her black cape with its pointed hood.

Mavis soon made it clear that she wasn't interested in teaching her new student how to write. She was only interested in a thirteenth member for her coven. The celebration of the spring equinox was imminent!

The previous student was never seen again.