Chapter 33

Gunnar, Fluffy and I loaded into the Nomo’s SUV and headed for the Sullivan home. I still wasn’t sure that Nora had killed her daughter – something about the whole thing struck me as wrong – but maybe my morals were getting in the way of me perceiving the truth. Either way, I was positive that Nora knew something she wasn’t telling us. Was she protecting her ex-husband, Jayden? Had they been working together? Why had she lied and said he was dead?

We turned the last corner to the Sullivan’s residence and Gunnar slammed on the brakes as a figure ran out in front of the car. ‘Fuck!’ he shouted a rare expletive as we juddered to a halt. The person had disappeared but there had been no impact with the car. What the hell?

Oh shit. ‘What if that was Nora teleporting away?’ I asked. Gunnar muttered under his breath and we both climbed out to look for the running figure. Fluffy climbed out of the open door and I gave him a reproachful glance. ‘Heel.’ I patted my hip and he trotted over obediently. He stuck to my side as we searched the area.

Suddenly the spirit of Aoife Sullivan wavered in front of us, solidifying before our eyes. ‘Shit a brick!’ I yelled as she scared the life out of me.

Her yellow eyes shone like molten gold and her wax-white hair floated around her. She was dressed in white, like a deathly bride. Fear trickled down my spine. I’d seen Aoife dead, her insides pouring onto the ground, yet here she was: a banshee in the truest sense of the word. And the last time she’d screamed until Sidnee’s ears had bled.

Aoife raised an arm and gestured to the woods. Her wail was a sound of endless sorrow and suffering that made me double over, clutching my hands to my ears. Obviously frustrated, she moved closer to me. ‘Go!’ she shrieked, cutting off her wail with an effort.

When the noise ended, I cautiously pulled my hands away from my ears. ‘Go where?’ I asked.

She lifted her arm again impatiently and pointed into the distance. Gunnar and I peered in that direction but all I could see were the woods. She repeated her instruction, her screech increasing tenfold in volume. ‘GO!’

Fluffy lifted his muzzle and howled in pain. I clutched my hands to my ears and this time when I removed them there was a trickle of blood on my fingers. That gave a whole new meaning to a girl being a screamer.

I wiped my hand on my trousers and obediently plunged into the woods with Gunnar next to me and Fluffy at my heels. We slowed as the forest canopy blotted out the moon; I could still see but I doubted that Gunnar could, and I wasn’t leaving him behind while I stumbled in the woods at the behest of a dead banshee.

Fluffy took the lead confidently and Aoife’s spirit followed behind before impatiently deciding we were being too slow. She shoved forward to lead the way to wherever the heck we were going; hopefully it wasn’t to our doom.

‘I hope she isn’t leading us off a cliff,’ Gunnar huffed, echoing my dark thoughts.

‘Are there any cliffs around here?’ I sassed, knowing full well we weren’t anywhere near one.

‘Smart-ass,’ he muttered.

Following Aoife was no easy task. Trees were no obstacle to her and she ploughed through them, but we had to manoeuvre around them. Suddenly Fluffy stopped and gave a low growl. I skidded to a stop behind him.

We were in a clearing and the scent of coppery blood was hanging in the air. I could feel the hum of the barrier nearby. Aoife was standing in front of us, her feet about six inches off the ground, staring ahead. She seemed more solid here and I walked around her to see what had captured her and Fluffy’s attention.

In the moonlit clearing lay a beaten and bloodied Nora Sullivan. Fuck.

I raced over and hastily felt for a pulse in her neck; it was weak but it was there. Blood was pooling around her – she’d been beaten, stabbed and left for dead. Now she was clinging to her life with a thread.

Gunnar pulled out a roll of bandage from one of his many pockets, applied a dressing and pressed hard on it while I called the medics. There was no way they’d get an ambulance into the woods so I directed them to where our vehicle was still standing near Nora’s house.

I hung up. Gunnar had done what he could, but he was no paramedic. ‘We need to get her to the street,’ I said. ‘I’ll carry her.’

‘I’ve got her,’ he said softly. He lifted Nora gently into his arms and she looked small and frail against his Viking stature. As he went back through the trees, I quickly searched the area where Nora had been lying. There were no cursed gemstones to be seen.

I looked at Aoife. Soundless tears were tracking down her face as she watched Gunnar carry her mum away. ‘I’m sorry, Aoife,’ I said. She looked at me. ‘I need to know. Did your mum kill you?’ I asked.

Her spirit rushed at me. Her mouth was open wide and she screamed, ‘NO!’ so loudly I thought my eardrums would burst again. Aoife’s spirit-self flew through me with an icy chill and I shuddered and doubled over, feeling sick. When I stood up, she was gone. Dammit, I should have asked who had killed her – maybe she could have screeched a name before she bolted off.

I was trembling with cold. I took a few deep, shuddering breaths and tried to shake the chill from my limbs. Fluffy barked with concern. ‘I’m okay,’ I lied. ‘Let’s go.’

We followed Gunnar – but I still couldn’t shake the all-encompassing cold that Aoife had left me with.

As we neared the edge of the woods we heard the distant call of the ambulance’s sirens. We picked up the pace and made it out of the woods as it turned the corner. We flagged it down and it screeched to a halt. Gunnar rattled off Nora’s name, age and details then handed her over to the paramedics. We watched them drive away with our only suspect barely clinging to life.

Nothing about this case was going to plan. We didn’t have Nora and we didn’t have the gems. Dammit.