Dane's a Decrypter down on his luck -- after accidentally dispatching the wrong creature, he's sent to a small town where the cryptids he hunts are sparse. Crypt Coffee becomes his business front, but instead of a thrilling new mission on the side, he's stuck sending ghosts back to where they came from. Dane can annoy customers, at least, and tries to scare off Professor Sean Sanderson when he starts poking around too much.<br><br>But Sean isn’t about to stay away. Not when he hears about the murder of a former student, and definitely not if young, exciting Dane has information about it. But the more he allows himself to get dragged into this supernatural world of monsters and ghosts, the more the danger escalates. And if Sean and Dane aren’t careful, tracking down a murderer who can use magic might just get them killed.

Bad Seed

“Here,” he said, pushing the tablet where Dane could see. “This is the official list of what Cauldron Cosmetics and More is legally allowed to produce and sell under Guild of Green Growers law. A bunch of plants, licensed for some amount of magical exposure that you probably understand more than I do, beeswax products, certain kinds of animal products…”


“Yeah, I’m not fluent in whatever measurements witches use. ‘Three source turns’? Bullshit.”


“I take it that’s not how the Order measures magic influence.” Sean sighed when Dane didn’t reply. “I take it you don’t actually know how the Order measures magic influence.”


“Right. You just shoot and slice things. So that magic well we ran into back at Bethany’s house—you have no idea how strong that is? Because we might not be looking at just the witches here as culprits.”


Chapter 38