A WITCH IN CENTRAL PARK

a novel for young adults

           Megan Fortress is a witch. A dark figure in a velvet park, the neophyte Guardian at the Gates glides silently through her domain—watching, listening, and perceiving what others will never see, hear or sense. There are twenty gates in Manhattan’s Central Park. Engraved titles on stone walls bear quaint names like the Stranger’s Gate, Hunter's Gate, and Scholar’s Gate. However, these twenty entrances into New York’s luscious haven are not the only gates in the park.

            In the unseen landscape of the park are thirteen others. Six gates are located from Columbus Circle to the Bandshell. Six more are in the park’s center, from Bethesda Fountain to the Great Lawn. One gate, the thirteenth gate, is yet-to-be discovered. Megan’s unwavering vow is to protect the twelve million inhabitants of New York City and twenty-five million tourists who visit every year, because the invisible Spirit Gates are occult portals to other times and secret worlds.

            Megan wanders the landscaped meadows, perches on lookout boulders, and roams in the controlled wildness of her favored Ramble. She travels at dawn or midnight, especially when the moon is waxing or full, just prior to a storm, or in its aftermath. Relying on psychic intuition, Megan’s powers are enhanced by the canine instincts of her dog, Loki, named after the mythological god of mischief and the Spirit Gate where she found him.

            Forests and fertile clearings echo with life when Megan and Loki pass by. Observed by curious onlookers, the beautiful witch and her dog are seldom approached. An aura of mystery surrounds the two, but Megan is neither angel nor demon. She is merely a seventeen-year-old girl who believes in magic. In response to her intuition, she acts. Through her powers Megan affects the park she loves and the great city she calls home.

            Until a tempestuous January night with an ominous full moon, Megan has never faced a crisis with monumental consequences. As blood spills over the sacred ground of Central Park, a spirit of vengeance is unleashed on the placid earth. In seventy-two hours, the young witch must become a woman. If she can uncover the secrets hidden within Central Park, she will live. The answers lie in the dark corners of her forgotten memories. If she fails, she will die.