Chapter 52

Nora had been stabbed and suffered a blow to the head, yet the nurse told me she was due to be discharged later that day. It seemed it really was hard to kill a banshee.

When I walked into the hospital room, she scowled at me. ‘Oh, it’s you again,’ she groused. Well, hello to you, too, Nora. Fluffy, in his new hospital approved therapy animal vest, whined and she softened slightly when she looked at him. Good: a dog lover. I’d use everything I could to get more from her.

‘I know we got off on the wrong foot and we’ve stayed there ever since. I’m sorry about that, but my focus has always been finding the gemstones and, after that, Aoife’s killer. I’m willing to start over. Neither of us will mention Ezra and that red spray paint ever again.’

Nora pressed her lips together, looked at me cautiously and gave a begrudging nod.

‘The nursing staff said you didn’t get to see your attacker. Is that right?’ I asked.

She shrugged. ‘If I saw them, the blow to the head has removed any memory of it. I don’t remember being attacked and I don’t remember why I was wandering around outside the house.’

Aoife had been in the vicinity and she was a powerful banshee: maybe she could tell us what had happened. ‘Can you summon Aoife’s spirit?’ I asked. ‘She was the one that made us find you. She might have seen something.’ I was half-afraid that Aoife was stuck in the kushtaka somehow because I hadn’t seen her since she’d dived into him to save us.

‘I can do that,’ Nora said.

‘Now?’ I suggested.

‘Why not?’

She closed her eyes and a wail burst from her chest. ‘Aoife Sullivan!’ The curtains swirled as if a gust of wind had caught them even though the window was closed.

My scalp prickled – and then Aoife was there, suspended in the air, white hair floating around her. She looked no worse for wear from the encounter with the kushtaka. I smiled at her. ‘Me again. Thanks for your help on the island. I need to ask, did you see who harmed your mum?’

Aoife’s lips moved but I couldn’t hear anything. Nora frowned. ‘She says it was Elsa Wintersteen. Why on earth would Wintersteen attack me?’

I tried not to grin in triumph even though I doubted the word of a banshee through her mother would be admissible in a court of law. But then Portlock had its own rules; maybe it would be fine.

Aoife’s lips continued to move and Nora’s eyebrows shot up. ‘She says she often spends time near home. Wintersteen came to find her spirit and tried to capture her in a holding bottle. Aoife screamed. I heard her wail and I tried to stop Elsa, but Elsa stopped me instead. What a bitch!’

I nodded grimly. ‘That brings me to the second reason I needed to see you. I’ve heard of banshee spirits possessing special objects. Do you know anything about that?’

‘You think she was trying to get Aoife’s spirit trapped in something?’ Nora was aghast.

‘I think so.’ I was almost certain that Elsa Wintersteen had been pulling strings for some time. I’d bet good money that she had hired Jayden to steal a jewel from Connor, then killed Aoife to make a powerful spirit banshee to inhabit it. As if it wasn’t bad enough that she already had two cursed gemstones under her control, she was trying to make her own. ‘What can you tell me about spirits being trapped like that?’

Aoife gestured for her mum to speak. ‘There’s some ancient folklore about powerful banshee spirits being trapped and used,’ Nora said reluctantly. She still didn’t trust me, but I guess she figured that telling me an ancient tale couldn’t do any harm. ‘I’m not sure how old this story is, but it came with my family from Ireland.’

I waited.

‘A long time ago, demons came to Ireland to look for powerful souls to use for their magic. They believed poltergeists and banshees were the strongest, but the poltergeists they found weren’t strong enough, so they came searching for the ancestors. The strongest clans at the time were the Cinnéide, Broin, Gallchobhair and my clan, Súilleabháin. The legend says that they captured one powerful banshee spirit from each clan then sealed them into stones for eternity. The demons used the stones to fight their battles against the angels, but the angels were blessed and they wrested the stones from the demons and scattered them to the corners of the Earth. They were gifted to supernatural custodians to guard them and see that they were only used for good.’

I looked at her expectantly.

‘That’s it.’ She shrugged. ‘Besides the fact that the legend says that one day the banshee spirits will come back to us more powerful than ever before.’ Her voice was hushed.

‘Were any of those clans linked to particular elements?’

‘Like the witches? No, banshees have nothing to do with elemental magic. Of course, banshee women usually mate with the strongest supernatural they can find and it was rumoured that my Súilleabháin ancestress was the daughter of a powerful fire elemental. But that’s another legend.’

Nora had verified Liv’s tale. ‘I’ll get out of your hair in a second, but would you be willing to tell that story in court?’ I asked.

‘I will if it brings my daughter’s killer to justice.’

‘Thanks. One last thing. Donaldson said Aoife stole something from him and that she wasn’t his real daughter?’

Nora sighed. ‘That’s bullshit. Around the time Aoife was conceived, I had an indiscretion. We wore condoms so I know Aoife was definitely Jayden’s. Unfortunately when he found out about the affair when Aoife was little, he wouldn’t listen to reason. He spouted off that she wasn’t his and walked out on us – that’s why I told everyone he was dead. I know I’m not blameless but Aoife was his. Always. And I never strayed again. It was a foolish mistake.’

She blew out a breath. ‘The kicker was that when Aoife was a kid she found one of Jayden’s gem stashes. She stole one and hid it. She never told him – or me – where she put it. For him it was the ultimate betrayal, a sign that she really wasn’t his daughter. Some people need to blame others for their actions. He blamed Aoife for his downward spiral into a life of crime again. I blamed him.’

Poor Aoife. I turned to speak to her, but at some point in our discussion she’d disappeared.