On October 31, 1999, Wendy Ward, college co-ed and practicing Wiccan, assisted in the destruction of Elizabeth Wither, leader of the murderous witches coven that had terrorized Windale every hundred years since the colonial days. With the death of the three demonic creatures that comprised Wither's coven, the Windale "curse" had finally been broken. Just as Wendy has begun to pick up the pieces of her life and find solace in her Wiccan studies, an apparition of an old woman appears, calling herself the "Crone" and claiming to be from the future, Wendy's future. The Crone brings a warning: the ancient evil that is Wither has somehow survived, has begun a new cycle of life in the body of an unsuspecting young woman. With the Crone as her mentor, Wendy learns to develop her Wiccan magic, freeing herself from the constraints of ritual to become powerful enough to face her demonic adversary. Yet time is running out. As the new "Wither" recovers her fragmented memories and discovers her own dark powers, her first order of business will be revenge, the complete destruction of Gwendolyn Alice Ward. But first she will make Wendy suffer?

Author Biography

In 2000, John Passarella won the Horror Writer Association's Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for WITHER. He has also written novels for the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE & ANGEL series. John lives in Swedesboro, New Jersey.