Species: Hexengeist Bestien

Magical Scent: Frankincense and myrrh

Ingredients to Conjure:

1. One Chalice of Thieves
2. A fresh bundle of spun flax
3. Bundle of holly berries
4. Chalk to draw the Hexengeist ring around the Hexenspiegel (Witch Mirror) that the Hexengeist is trapped in
5. One living sacrifice to take the Hexengeist’s place in their living tomb.

Incantation: “Spiegelgrab, spiegelgrab, Spiegelgrab von Frau Perchta, dem Hexengeist. Free thy spirit, let it rise.

Spiegelgrab, spiegelgrab, spiegelgrab, accept this blood offering of ivy and gold. Move this bride from here to there so you may rise.

With my heart’s desire known, I release you from this hexenspiegel to take my body as thine own.”

Frau Perchta, the Christams Witch, was once a goddess who guided the dead from the land of the living to their afterlife. She became a Hexenfrau after falling in love with Krampus, a Hexenmänner and the son of Hel.

It is said that Hel, the queen of the underworld, was jealous of Frau Perchta’s ability as a goddess to roam between worlds since she herself was tethered to the land of the undworld. So, she devised a rotten plan to trap Frau Perchta through her heart. She sent her son, Krampus, to lure her and, to Hel’s delight, her evil plot worked.

Upon Krampus and Frau Perchta’s first kiss, a potion upon his lips forced her to fall from grace, turning her into an old hag and condemned to prey on the souls of the living during Yuletide. The spell twisted her inner and outer beauty until her heart was as black as the coal in Krampus’s sack.

When she realized she’d been tricked, she swore that no one should ever be cursed to mourn a lost lover and her mission became to rid the world of the disease of love.

She preys on those in mourning over lost loved ones, possessing their spirit. But Hexengeists are spirit beasts and must possess a human vessel in order to enter the land of the living. Frau Perchta can only possess a human with a broken heart and a thirst for revenge as strong as her own.

In most situations, Hexengeists can only possess humans who conjure them, though there are exceptions to his rule.

Once in a human vessel, Frau Perchta can hunt in the land of the living. She controls the human and helps them take the revenge their heart truly desires by cutting open their victim’s stomach or stomachs and replacing them with hay as a symbol of their emptpiness.

The last known sighting of this spirit was in 1748 on the shores of the Alpsee in Bavaria, Germany after a young boy’s father died in the war. The recently orphaned boy was so overwhelmed by the news that she cried out for days.

The spirit of Frau Perchta heard his plea and took hold of the boy. Together they rampaged the village, leaving a string of stomachless victims in their wake.

Finally, after years of strife, the boy was caught and exorcised by the village priest who specialized in bestien (a.k.a. “beast”) containment. The spirit of Frau Perchta was trapped in the only thing they found that could contain such spirits known as the Hexenspiegel (Witch Mirror) and performed an enchantment on it to turn it into a Spiegelgrab (spirit tomb).

Unfortunately, a spirit tomb cannot be destroyed while a spirit is contained and Frau Perchta has escaped in the little town of Halifax. But who conjured her? Will she be caught before all is lost? Find out in The Yuletide Killer (A Beaumont Bros Circus Mystery #3)