Chapter Two: The Gift of the Lesser Magi

Blurb
Set in the year before a certain stock market crash would change American life forever, The Gift of the Lesser Magi is the second chapter of a new trilogy to be released on the hallowed days of the year. Christmas is a time when family can come together, forgive past grievances, and heal old wounds. In Esau County, Virginia, estranged family come looking to make amends with Miss Delia Hubbard, the young midwife and healer who lives in Boggs Holler.

Plot Synopsis
In Esau County Virginia in 1928, Christmas day has come. Delia Hubbard wakes to prepare breakfast for her and her cousin Indiana. Indiana and Delia inherited their grandmother Glory Ann’s farm, and Indiana has adjusted from a life of wealth to life on the farm well. Delia spends her time learning from Glory Ann’s notes the arts of witchcraft and healing.

After a hard first winter, Delia oversees the birth of a baby, and her reputation is boosted.

After exchanging Christmas gifts, Indiana and Delia, called Deely, go to church and visit family for Christmas dinner. They go to the town tree lighting, go caroling, and stop to visit Helen Cantrell, who Indiana is courting. Deely declines to stay for supper, and instead goes home.

As she settles in for the evening, she hears a knock at the door. She opens it to reveal her late mother’s husband Kenneth Carter, who she had never hoped to see again. The last time she saw him, after her mother’s death, was during an argument over the will. He offers her a gift, saying he wants to be friends.

The gift, in a solid wooden box, is a jeweled, bone hair comb. Deely doesn’t like the way it pulls at her, and realizes it is surrounded with power and darkness. She wants it, but closes the box and refuses it.

Kenneth tries to persuade her to take the comb and to let him guide her to a comfortable and wealthy life away from Glory Ann’s land, but she closes the door in his face.

It is revealed that he was hoping to get her to take the comb, which was given to him by a man from B&L, in an attempt to get her to leave Glory Ann’s land and sell it to the company. He had married her mother Mercy in the first place to try and acquire the land. Furious, Kenneth drives away to meet Amon Finley, his contact with B&L, to whom he was supposed to bring Deely.

A car pulls up behind him on the icy road and another comes alongside him, attempting to run him off the road. One car crashes, and he evades the other one.

He pulls up to the abandoned farmhouse where he is to meet Amon, and finds the windows glowing with light. Inside, he finds instead three women in front of the lit fireplace. They wear fine black clothing and have pale, almost grey hair and skin. They speak, finishing each other’s sentences as they welcome him. They state they’ve come for the “artefact,” referring to the comb.

After they threaten him, Kenneth resists and they transform into strange creatures with lamprey-like teeth. He attempts to run, but they attack him and devour him. They leave the house in Kenneth’s car, and snow begins to fall.