{"product_id":"the-coven-of-old-salem-9798994998373","title":"The Coven of Old Salem","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThey didn't just hang the innocent. They foreclosed on their souls.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalem, Massachusetts. 1692. The history books call it a hysteria-a tragic, unpredictable fever of religious paranoia that tore a fragile community apart. But beneath the screaming of the afflicted and the fearful whispers of midnight specters lies a darker, much colder truth: the Witch Trials are a calculated, supernatural heist. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the gallows on the hill claim their victims, Prudence Blackwood and the Coven of Old Salem operate seamlessly in the shadows. They are weaponizing the town's fervent fear, using the panic as a smokescreen to legally steal the prime, riverfront real estate of the condemned. Bound by a dark, blood-inked ledger, the Coven isn't merely hoarding stolen land. They are actively siphoning the agonizing, spiritual unrest of the executed. They are trapping their souls in unhallowed ground. All to power an immortal, untouchable financial empire. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut their dark magic is strictly transactional. The earth keeps a ledger, and every stolen acre generates a massive, supernatural bankruptcy known as the \"Silent Blight.\" To keep their own estates blooming through a devastating drought, the Trust dumps the necrotic rot (their metaphysical transaction fee) into the village's wells, winter stores, and the very biology of the residents. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCaught in the crossfire of this ruthless occult monopoly are three unlikely allies who realize the true evil resides in the ledgers, not the dark woods: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eElara Alcott: \u003c\/strong\u003e An archivist's fiercely intelligent daughter who possesses the dangerous \"Sight.\" Burdened by the horrific discovery of her own family's complicity, she must race to decode the Coven's dark accounting before the entire river valley is irreversibly consumed by the suffocating blight. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThomas Vance: \u003c\/strong\u003e A conflicted young heir to a colonial fortune who foolishly signed the Coven's bloody contract. Now, he is quite literally rotting from the inside out, watching his own flesh decay into frost-bitten gray ash as the metaphysical debt relentlessly collects its due. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReverend John Hale: \u003c\/strong\u003e A pious, respected minister infected by a dormant, forty-year-old curse. He desperately tries to halt the momentum of the hangings, fighting a losing battle while physically gagged by a magical rot spreading rapidly through his own biology. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the agonizing, crushing stones placed upon the chest of Giles Corey to the brutal, subterranean forging of the Iron-Heart Chalice, this chilling prequel novel unearths the terrifying origins of Salem's darkest conspiracy. The hysteria will eventually break, and the blood will wash away, but the land-and the ledger-remains. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePerfect for fans of dark urban fantasy, New England folklore, and twisted historical fiction, The Coven of Old Salem trades broomsticks and cauldrons for blood-inked ledgers and magical foreclosures.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWelcome to Salem, where innocence is a liability, and survival is just a matter of balancing the books.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Marrow and Myth Media\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798994998373\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.88d","brand":"B. L. Masse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53459218858165,"sku":"9798994998373","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/9798994998373.jpg?v=1791297841","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-coven-of-old-salem-9798994998373","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}