Includes a bonus short story by the same author.

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind which seems to speak through the wallsa t night, and about the history of this nameless boy.