Chapter 10

Gunnar suggested I take Sidnee with me to search the Sullivan residence. She’d already finished her shift, but we all knew there were no such things as set hours in this job; besides, she might need the distraction. I called her on the off chance that she wanted to keep busy and she readily agreed to ride shotgun.

With our schedules overlapping more and more lately, we’d advertised for someone to take over the paperwork and filing. So far there’d been no qualified takers; it was a poorly paid job, so it either attracted very young job seekers or desperate ones with no skills. Gunnar wanted to take on the latter and give someone a much-needed chance, but no one had struck the right chord with him.

When Fluffy and I picked up Sidnee, my brand-new Alaskan driver’s licence was burning a hole in my pocket. It had been surprisingly easy to get one: I’d had to show my passport and visa, my British licence – and pass the test, of course. After one read through of the driver’s manual, I had passed with flying colours.

I carefully pulled onto the road. I still had to think about staying on the wrong side, but I was getting the hang of it.

‘Do you think we’ll find the gem at the house?’ Sidnee asked. She seemed brighter, almost bouncing on her seat with excitement. Maybe she’d just needed some downtime to recharge.

‘Yeah.’ I flashed her a grin. ‘I really think we will.’

‘This is going to be epic!’

I laughed and Fluffy barked loudly. We were all thinking the same thing: this would be a slam dunk! I was trying to play it cool but I was really excited to find the gem, especially before it set any more empty houses on fire.

We pulled into the driveway where a battered old dark-grey Subaru was parked by the house. I stopped behind it so nobody could make a quick getaway. Sidnee frowned. ‘Would you have a car if you could teleport?’

‘No way! I’d be so annoying, zipping everywhere.’ I frowned at the car, too. ‘Maybe the teleportation range is short.’

‘Or they can’t teleport at all,’ she muttered darkly.

‘It’s a reported ability, not a guaranteed one, although the signs point to at least one of them being able to do it. I’m sure we’ll soon find out. Arresting someone that can zip away might be tricky.’ Maybe Gunnar had sent us because he didn’t feel like doing a chase that should be linked to the Benny Hill theme tune.

‘So how do we arrest someone who can teleport?’ Sidnee asked.

I did have an answer for that one. ‘The magic-cancelling cuffs. Slap ’em on quick.’

‘Let’s hope we can hold them still long enough to get them on.’

We pulled on plastic gloves, grabbed the scene-of-the-crime bag and opened the car doors. The outside of the house was neat and well kept, so it was noticeable that a bin had been pulled over and rubbish had spilled out of it. I set it upright then knocked on the carefully painted front door.

Nora answered it and gave me a polite but quizzical smile, which made me feel like a twat for what was coming next. ‘Nora Sullivan, we have a search warrant for your house and grounds,’ I stated.

Her brows drew together. ‘Why?’ She looked completely perplexed.

‘We suspect that an item has been stolen and is being hidden here.’ The council was trying to keep a lid on the fact that the barrier fire gem had been taken, so I didn’t want to clarify what had been stolen.

She looked at my documentation then grudgingly let us in. She was shaking but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, guilt or rage.

‘We’ll try to be careful so we don’t disturb you more than we need to,’ I promised gently. She shot me an unfriendly look; I guessed a search warrant wiped out welcoming smiles. ‘I picked up your rubbish bin,’ I said in an effort to curry favour. ‘It had been knocked over.’

She paled. ‘The keelut.’

I blinked. ‘It could have been something else,’ I suggested. The keelut was a magical creature, a harbinger of death, though it seemed a bit incongruous for it to be a harbinger of death and a scrounger of bins.

‘My neighbour said she saw it.’ Nora licked dry lips. ‘I thought she was lying but now…’ She looked spooked.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Can we come in?’

She stepped back. ‘I suppose I have no choice.’

Sidnee, Fluffy, and I started at the back of the house. It was a simple bungalow, not much different from mine: three bedrooms, two that were in use and one that was obviously a spare. There were two bathrooms, a kitchen diner, and a modest living room.

We started in Nora’s room. Sidnee took the bathroom and I looked in the closet. Fluffy had a good sniff around whilst I checked inside Nora’s shoes and rifled through the pockets of her clothes. Remembering the boys who’d vaped fisheye, I checked the same hiding places: under the mattress, under the bed, the dresser drawers, the nightstands, and even the window seat. Nothing.

‘Nothing in here,’ Sidnee noted glumly. We moved to the next bedroom – Aoife’s – which had a bathroom across the hall. This time Fluffy and Sidnee took the bedroom and I took the bathroom. It was much smaller than Nora’s, but I took my time to check the cabinet and between every single towel; I even looked in the toilet cistern. Nothing again.

My certainty that we’d find the gem wavered a little, but just as I was sinking into the doldrums I heard a triumphant bark from Aoife’s bedroom. ‘Bunny, come in here!’ Sidnee shouted in panic as I was searching the bathroom bin.

When I joined her, she was staring at something on the floor on the other side of the bed: it was the metal box that had held the fire gem. ‘Great work!’ I said, but Sidnee’s face was grim. What was I missing? ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked as I took some photographs.

Sidnee sighed and flipped open the lid. ‘It’s empty.’ We stared inside the box. Damn it! ‘This isn’t good,’ she murmured. ‘It’s very not good.’

‘We’ll find it,’ I said with false bravado. ‘It’s got to be hidden around here, or maybe Aoife has it in her pocket.’

‘You don’t understand,’ she whispered. The look on her face was indecipherable as she licked her dry lips. ‘Bunny, the objects, the four gems – they’re cursed.’

I blinked. ‘Gunnar mentioned that. Why is it a big deal?’

‘The boxes don’t hold the gems – they protect everyone from them. While the jewels are in their boxes, their magic powers the barrier. But when they’re outside their boxes? This is bad. Very, very bad.’

‘Is Aoife in danger?’

‘We’re all in danger. Grave danger.’

A chill ran down my spine and I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. I ran to the living room with Fluffy on my heels. Nora was sitting on the sofa, wringing her hands. ‘Where’s Aoife?’ I demanded.

She folded her arms defiantly. ‘I don’t know – and I wouldn’t tell you if I did.’

‘She’s in danger,’ I said urgently. Spreading panic about the stone be damned: Nora needed to understand the severity of the situation. ‘We think that Aoife stole the box with the fire gem inside but then she took it out. The gem is cursed and the box protects us from it. Aoife is in grave danger!’

Nora looked worried for a beat but then she seemed to shrug it off. I waited for her to wail and gnash her teeth but she merely said, ‘She’ll be fine. Not many things can harm a banshee.’

I wanted to shake her; how could she not get it?

Sidnee heard the last bit as she joined us in the living room. She was carrying the metal box in an evidence bag under her arm. Nora’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open at the sight of it. She hadn’t believed me until now. If Nora was shocked to see the metal box then she hadn’t been an accomplice in her daughter’s theft.

‘Not much can harm a banshee,’ Sidnee agreed, ‘but it could hurt someone around her. It’s the fire gem. I’m not sure what the curse is or what it does, but it involves fire. Can banshees burn? And even if you can’t, your house sure can.’

Things started slotting into place. The fires around town: both properties that had burnt down had been unoccupied, but was that by accident or design? Both had been available for rent, and I suddenly wondered if Aoife was house shopping. Had she gone to the empty properties looking for a place to rent and lost control of the gem? If so, she had to be carrying it around with her. The thought of walking around with a cursed gem in my pocket made me touch my nana’s protective charm that hung around my neck.

‘Is Aoife looking to move out?’ I asked Nora.

Aoife’s mum was still staring at the box under Sidnee’s arm. ‘Yes,’ she said almost absently. ‘How did you know that?’

I looked her straight in the eye. ‘Because Portlock has had two houses burn to the ground since the gem was stolen and each of them was empty and up for rent.’

For the first time Nora looked worried.

‘Where is she?’ I asked. Nora said nothing. Bad cop it was, then. ‘Do you think she can afford to replace the destroyed properties?’ I asked harshly.

She pressed her lips together tightly. ‘No,’ she admitted grudgingly. ‘She can’t.’

Unless Aoife sold the stolen gem to make an absolute killing – but how would she go about fencing the jewel? She was nineteen and a student, not a hardened criminal. ‘So, where is she?’ I demanded again.

Her mum answered reluctantly. ‘Her boyfriend’s house, I think.’

‘Who’s her boyfriend?’ I pressed.

‘His name is Luke Savik.’

‘Related to Lukas or Akiak Savik?’ I frowned. The dead hunters we’d retrieved from the other side of the barrier had been Saviks. How many Saviks could there be in this small town? I remembered from Lukas’s file that he had a son called Luke. It couldn’t be a common name.

Nora confirmed my suspicions. ‘Lukas was his father.’

The Savik brothers had died when they were hunting on the other side of the barrier. If Aoife was dating Luke, she must know that the monster was real. Why on earth would she try to bring the barrier down?

If she was with Luke, the most pressing issue right now was his family and their safety. The gem was deadly and Aoife was strolling around with it in her pocket. The last thing the Saviks’ deserved was for their family home to go up in flames.

‘We’d better hurry before the gem incinerates a house full of people,’ I said urgently to Sidnee. She nodded and we ran out to the car, Sidnee still carrying the box. I opened the car for Fluffy to jump in and we sped off.

I prayed we’d get to the Saviks’ house before the gem did its thing and burned everything in its path.