"You are hopeless with an axe, ya know that?" Ellie drawled, shaking her head. "Here, gimmie that. I'll do the splittin', and you chuck the logs in a pile."

"I am perfectly strong enough to split wood," Kaz grumbled.

"Moot point if ya can't aim right." Ellie laughed loudly and took the axe, going back to splitting logs with a vengeance.

The radio broadcast informed them that a late winter storm was headed their way, and now Ellie and all her neighbors were prepping for snow. The town residents were likely doing their own prep in Boone proper, but there wasn't time to make any kind of journey down there on foot today. There was plenty of work to be done in preparation to hunker down inside for a couple of days after the storm swept through.

Ellie and Kaz were splitting logs in her yard, restocking the firewood they'd need for the next several days.

"Hey, Ellie!" Simon called as he walked by the yard. "Looks like Granny made it back just in time."

Ellie went absolutely stiff. She paused with the axe in midair, raised over her shoulder for a strike, and turned to Simon, eyes wide.

"Granny's back early?"

She never came back early from her yearly trip down the mountain. Never. She said her old bones couldn't take the mountain cold, but Ellie thought she just liked spending time with her old witch friends down in the piedmont.

"Yep. Tyler's off unloading her things from the pickup. Just in time, too! Wouldn't want her gettin' caught in the snow on the way here."

"Yeah, definitely," Ellie said with a shaky smile.

She went back to chopping wood, but the next two pieces were terrible splits. Her aim was almost as bad as Kaz's was, now that her mind wasn't on chopping wood at all.

"Fuck," Ellie hissed as soon Simon was out of an earshot.

"What's wrong?"

"I was hoping to get this... business... all tidied up before Granny got back from her trip, but I guess she came back early 'cause the storm's on the way," she muttered.

"And risk getting caught in it on the way up the mountain?" Kaz's eyes narrowed, and Ellie couldn't blame him for being suspicious.

"She's got a ride," Ellie said with a shrug. "She's good with the weather, too. Never was my strength, but you can plant your garden according to Granny and make out just fine every time. She probably knew when she needed to leave."

"If there's a storm coming, couldn't we just... avoid seeing her? If you're that concerned," Kaz suggested, leaning against the fence around Ellie's yard.

"It's either we go to Granny, or Granny comes to us, and if we go to Granny, at least we have the power to walk off and leave if we need to," she said with a sigh, rubbing her temples with both hands. "She raised me, and I love her dearly, but when she wants to talk to ya, you ain't gettin' out of it."

"It can't be that bad. She's just an old woman— hey!" He cut off as Ellie picked up the besom she kept outside for her yard and smacked his rear with the softer end.

"Don't you talk 'bout Granny like that," she snapped, though there was no real malice in it. "She'll have your hide if she hears you call her old. And while you're stacking wood, fill that wheelbarrow up, too. I'll cut extra and we'll drop some off at her place."

"Bossy mood today, I see."

"Oh, you like having something to do," she said, flashing him a brief smile before going back to cutting wood.

"I do," he admitted. "What can I say? Makes me feel useful."

"See? Even big scary demons want to feel like they're contributing," Ellie said with a grunt as she brought down the axe once more.

"Couple of things you need to know," Ellie said as they walked towards Granny's house on the far side of the village. She pushed a wheelbarrow laden down with wood while Kaz walked beside her. He'd offered to push, but Ellie seemed calmer when she had something to do. "Granny raised me. After my momma passed, she came and got me from our little town, brought me back here, and started trainin' me as a witch."

"And why are we going to see her if you're this stressed about it?"

"Because she's gonna find out you're here one way or another, and when she does, she's gonna be madder'n a hornet that I did a conjuring," Ellie muttered. "It'll be worse because you're a demon, too. No offense." She winced slightly at this, but Kaz didn't mind.

"None taken." He simply shrugged, gaze moving between Ellie's face and her death grip on the wheelbarrow handles.

"I was hoping to be all tidied up by the time she got back, but clearly that ain't happening. Might as well bite the bullet, I guess," she muttered.

They stopped outside a small, neatly kept house. It looked about the size of Ellie's, perhaps a little bigger, but the wooden boards that lined the outside were painted a bright, cheery lilac color instead of the faded yellow of Ellie's home. The shutters were dark blue, and there was a wooden cross hanging on the outside of the front door.

Ellie walked past the main door and around the back, stopping in front of a small, nearly empty shed that was obviously used to house firewood. One by one, she loaded log after log into the structure. Kaz helped where he could, but it almost seemed better to let Ellie get out her excess energy. There was, unfortunately, no way to unload the wood very quietly, and eventually their thumping alerted someone inside the house.

"Ellie, baby? That you out there?" a voice called from inside, slightly muffled through the door.

Ellie swore a blue streak under her breath, or it sounded like she did from the tone. He couldn't make out any of the exact words.

"Dropping off some firewood for ya, Granny!" she called.

"Come on inside the house, darlin'. Lemme look at'cha."

The back door swung open, and a squat woman poked her head out to wave at them, smiling in a way that didn't reach her eyes when her gaze landed on Kaz. Something about it made him suspicious, but he couldn't say why.

"Aw, you've gotta introduce me to your friend, too. We haven't met yet, and I hear y'all are well on your way to... A special connection, if you will." She kept that smile plastered on her face, never faltering once.

Ellie looked like she wanted to curse again, but she smiled, a mirror to the older woman's expression, and nodded at her grandmother. "Okay, Granny, be right in."

The back door closed, and Ellie shot him a look like she'd rather be digging up graves than unloading the wood from that wheelbarrow. It didn't take long to finish the task, though, and she seemed to steel herself, take a deep breath, and open the back door.

"Hey, Granny," she called hesitantly.

"Come on in, baby, you're lettin' in the cold," the short woman called.

Kaz scuttled inside after Ellie, shutting the door behind him. Granny ushered them into her kitchen. A steamer trunk and a large carpetbag sat in the middle of the living area, yet to be unpacked, though it looked like there was a fire in the iron stove and the house was toasty warm. Granny seemed to be bustling around doing... something... but Kaz couldn't quite figure out what. There were a number of odd ingredients scattered around the table, many of which he didn't recognize at all, and frankly, he was afraid to ask.

"Now, first give Granny some sugar," the little woman said, opening her arms. Ellie bent slightly to give her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek, and in that moment Kaz could see the resemblance between the two of them. They had the same noses, the same blue-green eyes, and something made him think they probably had the same stubborn streak, too.

"Second, what in blue blazes are you doin' walking around in plain daylight with a demon?!" Granny yelled in a voice almost too big for her small body. Ellie visibly flinched. Even Kaz jumped, a little shocked at how quickly the woman's temperament could swing from one extreme to another.

In the two weeks he'd been here, he hadn't seen Ellie cower often. It was hard to make her cower, he'd learned, and even if she was scared, she wasn't going to show it. With Granny... something was different. Ellie looked like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Girl, you got one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel, bringing him here!" she continued, pulling a dishtowel off a hook and using it to swat at her granddaughter. Ellie managed to avoid the towel, but only barely.

"You, uh... heard?" she asked, cringing.

"I heard the whole damn town talkin', if that's what'cha mean! Said you'd been walking around with a strange man with white hair, and then I get back here, and Jeannie says 'oh, ain't it great, Ellie's brought us a demon, maybe he'll marry in.'"

"I know it's not great, but I had to tell 'em something—"

"So you told 'em you got engaged?!"

He tilted his head as he watched them. Truth be told, the longer he looked, the more he could tell Ellie wasn't cowering. She wasn't scared, not truly. She was... something else. The hairs at the nape of his neck prickled, muscles tensed and ready just in case he needed to fight, but... no. Even he could see that Granny wasn't actually going to hurt Ellie.

"I know good and well y'ain't engaged to nobody, nohow! Only Jeannie would be stupid enough to believe that!" Swat. "If you're out there conjuring demons like a dumbass, the least you can do is tell the truth about it!" Another swat.

"Ow!" Ellie jumped away from the second swat with the dish towel as it smacked her shoulder.

"That is the least you deserve!" Granny cried, swatting at her again.

"Hey, hey now— wait a minute—" Ellie protested, trying and failing to dodge the smacks from her Granny. They didn't seem particularly painful, but it was enough to make a point.

"I don't care how old y'are, I should be pickin' a switch and takin' ya out back for a lickin' for this," Granny grumbled, shaking her head as she smacked Ellie's shoulder with the towel one last time, but it seemed a little halfhearted. "Now, make us all some of that tea you're so good at brewing, and tell me why on God's green earth you brought a demon to my house."

Ellie jumped to it without questioning, picking up the kettle from beside the sink. There wasn't an iron or gas stove here like at her home, just a fireplace, but she put the kettle on the crane and settled it over the flames as though she'd done it a hundred times before. She probably had, Kaz thought. Granny raised her, so this was probably home for a long time.

"And you," Granny said, making Kaz jump to attention. Something about that woman told him that she was certainly someone he didn't want to cross. "Bolt the door behind you, and sit down at the table. Can you make wards?"

"Yes, ma'am," Kaz said, surprised at himself. Granny was just the kind of person you called ma'am, though. She nodded, expression softening slightly.

"Good boy. You put one around the house so nobody can listen in on us." She paused, squinting at him for a long moment. "I'm watching you. You step one toe outta line, I'll spray ya in holy water just like I'm training a stray hellcat."

"Chamomile?" Ellie asked, as if all of these were perfectly normal phrases.

"Anything that'll knit my poor nerves back into place," Granny said with a sigh, sinking into a chair on the opposite side of the table. "I didn't get'cha too hard with the cloth, did I?"

"Nah," she said, shrugging it off. "Didn't feel it much, honestly."

Kaz closed his eyes as they chattered softly, mouthing the words to his basic warding spell. It only took a moment to set up. Privacy wards could be tricky, but he put them up often. It was a familiar dance to weave the wards in place around the home, especially ones that wouldn't need to last days at a time. An hour would likely be more than enough, and that was hardly trouble for him. When he finished, Kaz caught Granny's eye and nodded. No one should be able to hear them from outside by physical or magical means.

"Thank you," Granny said, putting a little liquid from a bottle on a cleaning cloth to wipe down her window ledges. Kaz squinted, realizing that she was cleaning and warding her home with holy water.

"Do all witches in this village keep holy water sitting around?" Kaz asked, thinking of the deluge that assaulted him via bucket that day. Granny was using a small bottle, no bigger than a quart, but a few gallons had poured out from the bucket and onto Ellie's yard.

"Not all. Mostly me an' my girl here. It's good for cleaning and... emergencies," Granny said in a tone that made it very, very clear to Kaz that he was the emergency.

Ellie plonked three mugs full of steaming tea down on the table. She took one for herself, but didn't drink, holding the cup between her hands like a lifeline.

"He listens better'n you," Granny said with a chuckle, turning to Ellie. "Sit, child."

Ellie sat, but did not speak. For some reason, Kaz assumed that Granny would make it known when they were supposed to say something.

"I would say I don't know where to start, but I think we've already covered that one," Granny said after a sip of tea just long enough to make Kaz want to squirm. "Did you bargain?"

"Yes," Ellie said, eyes firmly on her mug. She managed to let go of it for a moment, tucking her hands in her lap instead, but she was clearly tense.

"I hope whatever you're gettin' is worth it," Granny scoffed.

"We're solving Ben's murder," she said quietly. Kaz noticed that her hands were in fists, knuckles white as they rested on the table. Though Ellie didn't look up, Granny stopped with her mug halfway to her lips as though frozen in time.

"That..." the old woman said, shaking her head as she sat the mug down without drinking. "That is about the only explanation you could have given that I understand."

Ellie looked up, her eyes filled with tears and cheeks blotchy. "Really?"

"Don't get me wrong. I don't like it," she clarified. "But I do understand it."

Ellie swallowed hard before she spoke, and to her credit, her voice barely shook. "I gotta know, Granny. I can't... It hurts not knowing."

"You think it's gonna hurt less after you solve it? He's still gonna be gone, baby girl," Granny said with a sigh, placing her hand over her granddaughter's.

"I don't know," Ellie said. "I have to try, though."

At that moment, Granny turned to Kaz, eyes narrowed. "What are you charging her?"

"Room and board for the duration of the investigation, plus one treasured item upon solving the case," he said smoothly.

Granny's nose wrinkled as she blinked furiously.

"I know I really shouldn't be telling you that you're undercharging, but... This is a case most demons would want a soul for. Or at least a murder committed as a price for solving one."

"I'm not interested in a blood bath," he huffed.

"And you're not making her sleep with you?"

"Granny—"

One look silenced Ellie.

"I'm not interested in forcing anyone to take me to bed, either," Kaz snorted. "Incubus I may be, but I can find a willing partner without issue if the need arises."

"What are you interested in, then?" Granny asked, keen eyes searching his expression. "No one makes a bargain without something in it for them."

"You... have no idea how incredibly boring it is being stuck here for fifty years, do you?" Kaz sighed, rubbing at his temples. "I am so tired of people only ever wanting to make a bargain so I'll sleep with them. I'm sick of love spells and lust spells and power spells, I'm sick of all the awful shit that everyone wants to do to other people just to increase their own power. I thought that it would be nice to do something that doesn't hurt anyone for a change, and Ellie..."

He paused, sighing. What could he even say about Ellie?

"She's restoring what little faith in other people I had left," he finally said.

Granny raised an eyebrow. Her eyes widened very, very subtly as she looked between Kaz and her granddaughter. Ellie, for her part, kept her eyes very, very carefully glued on the floor, hands in her coat pockets and posture ramrod straight.

A shame. He'd have loved to see her blushing at him. Instead the tips of her ears turned slightly red as she looked down, but Kaz doubted that Granny's sharp eyes missed that detail. Instead of waiting for either of them to respond, he kept talking, hoping to disperse some of the nearly unbearable tension building in the room.

"I never got the chance to explain fully to your granddaughter, but I am unaffiliated with any higher power. I come from a hellscape that mostly exists on its own terms, a different plane that still has demonic beings. It's rural village life, for the most part. We're... farmers and teachers. Sexual energy is... yes, it's a part of our existence, but it's a food source. It would be like me only ever calling you to talk about your potatoes."

Granny looked at him for a long, long time. Long enough that it made Kaz highly uncomfortable, long enough that he found himself drinking from his mug of tea to avoid squirming in his chair. When she finally did speak, she let out a large breath and rolled her shoulders, and what came out of her mouth was not at all what Kaz expected to hear.

"You got damn lucky, girl," she huffed.

Kaz breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't trusted that she wouldn't attempt to exorcise him or something else equally bad. After all, this was a woman who cleaned her kitchen with holy water. He thought it best to expect the worst and hope for the best rather than letting his guard down.

Ellie visibly relaxed as she looked up at her grandmother. The old woman reached over and grabbed her by the ear, shaking gently enough that it wouldn't hurt but hard enough to make her point. "You ever, ever go conjuring and bargaining with a damn demon again, I'll douse you in holy water and leave you outside the night of the first frost."

"So... I can conjure a Fae, right?" she asked, a Cheshire Cat smile spreading across her face.

Granny just glared. "You wanna push me, youngin'?"

"No, ma'am," Ellie said quickly, grin immediately dropping.

"Good." The old woman released her granddaughter's ear and hugged her instead. "I was so worried about you, baby."

"I'm sorry to make you worry," Ellie said, voice muffled against Granny's shoulder. "I'm not sorry I called for help finding who killed Ben, though."

Granny pulled away and looked at her for a long moment.

"I know the state ain't gonna do a thing if you write to 'em about this, and the town... is the town. They need some adjustin' sometimes," she said distastefully. "It was a stupid plan, but I understand why you did it."

"So... you're not mad?" Ellie squeaked.

"Oh, I'm pissed as hell, but Ben was a good boy, and I liked him," Granny said firmly, hands on Ellie's shoulders. "I'll help ya if I can."

"Another set of eyes and ears would be useful," Kaz said. "I can blend into shadows and investigate in ways I won't be seen, but I'm only one person, and your village... doesn't exactly trust me."

"Mmm. Other or not, you're still an outsider. As desperate as the witches in this village are to have a full-blooded Other in their bloodline, they won't tell ya to leave, but they damn well only want you to see the sunny side of things."

"Doesn't help that they all hate me," Ellie muttered.

"Oh, they can hush up about that. We all know why they're petty."

Kaz's brow furrowed as he looked back and forth between the women. Ellie seemed to shrink in her chair, shoulders slumping as she sighed and avoided his eyes.

"She didn't tell you, did she?" Granny said with a smile. "Our bloodline might not be the purest or the most full of Other blood, but it's one of the oldest in these parts."

"Ellie said they... found her comparatively weak?" He remembered that conversation very clearly.

Granny snorted. "Child. Stop telling your man lies."

"He's not my—"

"He is for the duration of this bargain, and you best tell him the truth," she said, shaking her head. "Ellie isn't weak. They all torment her because they know she's the strongest witch on this mountain."

"I'm not. You are," Ellie protested. "Then Jeannie right after you."

"Baby, you have so much more locked inside of you than I ever have, you just need to let it be free. On top of that, you know good and well that Jeannie never put in the work to develop her gifts the way she should have." The older woman shook her head and ran a hand through her gray hair.

"Whatever you say, Granny," Ellie said softly, but it was easy enough to tell they'd had that conversation many, many times before. She downed the rest of her tea and put her mug down on the table with a clunk, but no sooner had she done that than Granny made a shooing motion towards her.

"Now that you're warmed up, lemme talk to the boy. Shoo," she said, gently swatting Ellie's shoulder.

"Granny, you know we're not actually engaged, right?" She rolled her eyes, but stood from her chair all the same.

"I'm aware," she said firmly. "Lemme talk to the boy. Out. Scoot."

Ellie walked a short distance towards the back door, and then looked over her shoulder, like she was wondering if that was far enough.

"All the way out," Granny said. "Go take your wheelbarrow home and come back."

Ellie grumbled under her breath, but she put her hat on her head and walked out the door, leaving Kaz alone with her grandmother.

"You like her," Granny said, eyeing him pointedly. It wasn't a question.

"She's different."

"I imagine she is compared to the people who usually call Others for bargains," Granny said, finally putting the dish towel back in its place on a hook. "Let me be clear: You hurt her, and I will make you wish for Hell."

"I have no intentions to hurt her."

"That's what worries me," Granny muttered. "You break her heart— on purpose or not— and you can forget wishing for Hell. I'll make Hell seem like a spa day."

"I..." Kaz paused, throat suddenly closing. "I want to help her grieve. Anything else is secondary."

"Listen son, I'm old, not blind, and I'm certainly not stupid," Granny said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm older than you are," Kaz said pointedly.

"Does this really seem like the time to be pointin' that out? You want me to tell my granddaughter you're a cradle robbing demon, too?" She shook a wooden spoon at him as she spoke in a way that seemed somehow more threatening than a real weapon.

"N— no, ma'am," Kaz stuttered.

"That's better." Granny smiled brightly, and this time it did reach her eyes.

"I... want her safe," he sighed. "I want her happy."

"What about when it's done? You goin' your own way again?"

"I... like it here," he said slowly. "It hasn't been long, but it reminds me of my home, in a way."

Granny paused, like she was trying to read his intentions in the same way he could read other people's emotions. Hell, she might have been able to read everything going through his mind. Kaz wasn't sure what the upper limits of witch powers could be, and he wasn't particularly interested in finding out by pissing one off. However, it seemed as though they had, for the moment, survived Granny's interrogation. He wasn't sure they gained her approval, but she was willing to help with the case, and that was a start.

"You better take good care of my baby girl, or I'm coming after you myself, y'hear?" she finally said. "Oh, and give her this. I picked up the mail on the way here."

She reached into her pocket and smacked a battered-looking letter down on the table in front of him. It was clearly addressed to Ellie, and though he didn't understand how Granny had managed to get her hands on it, the envelope was still sealed, and Kaz didn't mind being a delivery boy.

"Nice to meet you, Granny Sader," he said with a tip of his hat. Granny smiled broadly at him as he stood from his chair and walked towards the back door.

"Don't be a stranger, boy."