Chapter 13

Before I could say anything, Gunnar said, ‘There’s been another fire.’

I groaned. This was my fault. ‘For fuck’s sake! I had Aoife inches from my grasp. Was anyone hurt?’

‘Thankfully not. Another empty property.’

‘Small blessings.’

Gunnar looked at me expectantly, so I laid out everything that Luke and Aoife had told me. ‘Dumb kids,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Aoife believes there’s a credible threat to the barrier, but Luke doesn’t know who from except those who hate the barrier – including Aoife’s mother. Is that the gist?’

‘More or less.’

‘Well, we have about thirty protestors to watch and that’s more than the three of us can handle. We’ll need to narrow this down. Take that list of protestors and cross-reference it with the database. We’re looking for any previous arrests for theft, destruction of property, violence – anything really.’

I nodded. He opened his mouth to say something but his phone rang. He stared at the tiny screen. ‘Goddammit, it’s Liv.’

‘Do you want me to leave?’ I offered. Sometimes witnesses were the last things you wanted.

He shook his head, swiped the screen and hit the speaker button. ‘Liv, how can I help you?’ His voice was polite but distant.

‘Have you found the fire gem yet?’ she demanded.

Gunnar looked up at me and I wondered for a moment if he was – rightfully – going to throw me under a bus. ‘We don’t have it yet but we do have a good lead,’ he said instead.

‘That doesn’t help. We need it back in place immediately.’

My blood ran cold. I squeaked out, ‘Why?’

‘Bunny?’ Liv asked.

‘Yes, it’s me.’

She harrumphed but continued. ‘There’s been another tear reported. It’s small, but we can’t seal it permanently without the gems in their places.’

‘Noted. We’re doing our best,’ Gunnar growled.

‘Well, your best needs to be better,’ she snarled. ‘We’re all in danger. I’m sending you the coordinates of the tear.’ She hung up.

A few seconds later Gunnar’s phone vibrated with an incoming text. He looked at it and stood up. ‘I’m heading over to patch the tear and put up a camera. You narrow down the list of protestors we need to see.’

Gunnar’s magic was unique and mysterious. I knew he could open doors, heal rifts in the barrier and chuck lightening at the monsters. The witches were under huge pressure to fix the growing rifts, so he had been drafted in to help with the repairs. That sometimes left me without a boss, but this really did feel like DEFCON 1.

Part of the problem was that we didn’t have enough people to watch the new tears to make sure the creature didn’t come through any of the temporary patch-ups. We also wanted to see if someone on our side popped up and try to enlarge them.

Gunnar’s face was serious. ‘And Bunny? Find that damned banshee girl.’ He was starting to walk out as Sidnee walked back in.

‘What are you doing here?’ I demanded. ‘You’re supposed to be getting some rest.’ Gunnar hovered to hear her answer; he was worried about her, too.

She sighed. ‘I forgot to cancel the redirect sending the hotline calls to my mobile. We got a call. Someone thinks they’ve found a body at the edge of the woods.’

Gunnar hesitated then grimaced at me. ‘You’ll have to go, Bunny. Start securing the scene. I’ll head over as soon as I’ve put up the camera. I can’t leave the tear like it is.’

Liv was being a bitch; she might be short staffed, but she could have fixed the tear. Instead she’d put it on Gunnar. I was getting ready to give her a piece of my mind next time I saw her, no matter how scary she was.

The Nomo left and I collected the kit. ‘You going back home?’ I asked Sidnee.

‘And leave you to deal with a dead body by yourself? No way. You can’t have all the fun.’

I smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks. Are you sure, though? You must be tired.’

‘I’m fine. I drank a potion on the way over – it’s like an energy drink on steroids. I’ll be fine. Heck, I’ll be better than fine.’ That didn’t seem like the best idea, but it was done now so I didn’t criticise her.

I debated taking Fluffy with us but, since I knew nothing about the scene, I decided against it. If it was messy, I didn’t want to have to tie him up to keep him and his fur away from the evidence. Instead I had him stay on his bed and watch Shadow, who I put in his crate. ‘Sorry,’ I said to them both. ‘We need someone to man the Nomo’s office. You two are it.’ What a sad state of affairs that we only had a dog to hold the fort.

Shadow sat down with his back pointedly turned towards me. Fluffy looked sad, whined and resignedly put his head on his paws. It killed me, but it was for the best.

We locked up and headed round back where Gunnar had left the Nomo SUV for me. Sidnee gave me the address and we headed out. When we arrived, an anxious-looking woman met us. ‘It’s back here,’ she said. ‘I found her while I was walking my dog.’

We followed dutifully. From a distance, the corpse could have been a hillock or an animal lying down, but as we drew closer it was clear that it was a woman. She was lying with her back to us and her long colourless hair had fanned out around her. Oh fuck.

My breath caught. Once we were close enough, I bent down to look at her face even though my gut already knew who it was. My heart gave a sluggish beat. I used a gloved hand to gently brush the damp hair away from her face so I could identify her.

It was Aoife Sullivan.

Double fuck. Well, I’d certainly found the damned banshee girl.