Butcherbird

by Cassie Hart

  Will frowned. ‘And what if I had a sudden urge to go jaunting across the farm and stumbled upon it?’

  She levelled an even stare at him. ‘Then I would have ended you the same way I did the others. This thing, this dark entity, has wanted the light inside me for more than half a lifetime, and I’m not going to let it take me now.’

  ‘You’re a tough woman, Rose.’ Will couldn’t help but grin at her. She was fierce, despite death all but knocking on her door. He didn’t know what this light was, not yet. But if he was doing the maths right then this entity felt it was worth the fight. ‘I think it’s time to let Jena in on what you know, though. If this watch really is possessed, if it caused your husband and then Jena’s father to change, then we need to deal with it once and for all. We can’t just leave it out there waiting for some unsuspecting soul to find it.’

  ‘Before I go. It might be the last thing I do.’

  ‘Or you could let Jena do it for you.’ He licked his lips, wondering how she might respond to that. Whether he was asking one question too many. But he had to know. There was something about the magpies. ‘Because you did something to her, right? Something with the birds. Something to help protect her against the darkness.’

  ‘You’re cleverer than you look,’ Rose said stiffly, though her voice held warmth. ‘My people come from a line of druids and clever folk. I abandoned my heritage when I left, but I thought perhaps I could tap into that, combine it with the magic of this land to create something new, something to maybe keep her safe.’

  ‘Why birds?’

  ‘Why not?’ Rose raised an eyebrow. ‘We don’t have many creatures to choose from here, and there are always birds. Magpies are common and drawn to shiny things. Whenever she might need them, they won’t be far.’

  ‘Rose,’ he said, exasperation returning. ‘You have to tell her. You might have done all this to protect her, but sending her away and keeping her in the dark is more likely to put her in danger. There are other things in this world than what you brought with you. My mother had something that twisted her too, pulled at her, warped her in unexpected ways. You’re not special, not the only one susceptible.’ He gripped the arms of the chair, his knuckles white.

  ‘I’m sorry, about your mother,’ Rose said. She reached out with her fingers and patted his hand. ‘I’m glad it stopped at her.’

  He shivered. He hadn’t thought about the fact that whatever had taken his mother might jump to him, because her violence had mostly been directed towards herself. But then, he’d just been a kid, hadn’t known what he knew now.

  ‘She has to come into it on her own, Will. I planted the seed but if she doesn’t feed it, it won’t grow. Has she figured it out yet? Any of it?’ She looked him in the eyes, her gaze unwavering.

  He shrugged. He thought Jena was beginning to see, but the fact that Rose wouldn’t just tell her straight was infuriating. ‘I don’t know. I want to help, but I need to know more.’

  She patted his hand again. ‘It will happen. Just wait. I barely know her now, but she’s of my blood. I think she’ll get there.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  JENA

  Dinner ended awkwardly, and Jena excused them straight after dessert, feigning a headache. Really, she just wanted not to have to sit there and keep her questions to herself.

  She’d learned a bit, though, at least about why John thought things had gone wrong; and it sounded like he thought her dad was to blame.

  But if that had been the case, why didn’t any of the articles she’d seen in Will’s folder reflect that? It should have been straightforward: Man kills family before setting barn on fire. She might have been hurt over that, might have found it hard to believe her beloved father could do such a thing, but at least she’d have had closure. An answer to what exactly had happened, even if it didn’t tell her why.

  Cade was quieter than normal, and Jena didn’t really know what to say to him. He was flicking that pocket watch open and closed, the glass inside catching a glint of moonlight through the trees every now and then.

  In fact, he’d been quieter than normal since the swamp. Everything that happened there had been weird; the way he’d behaved, the way the birds had made such a racket, had seemed determined to keep her from the floating island – the way those magpies had fallen from the sky, their bodies plummeting to the ground, the tiny heart fluttering once before stopping.

  Until she’d held that bird in her hands, she hadn’t realised how beautiful they were; these things she’d feared her whole life, their feathers soft, the black and white a stunning combination. She’d held it fast and felt like she had a piece of home with her, a flash of her brother, running down that hallway away from her, always on the move.

  She shook her head. None of it made sense. But she had a feeling like … like spiders along her neck, or a heavy meal in her belly. Discomforted by the things that were happening, by how she’d still not found an answer that really explained the why. Not one that satisfied her.

  What drove her father to kill the people he was meant to love? What drove Rose to burn them all?

  Why did it matter so much to her?

  She sure as hell couldn’t talk to Cade about any of it. Jena glanced over at him; his eyes were on the track, one of his hands in hers, the other gripping the watch.

  She thought she might have seen it before. Maybe it had been her father’s? Maybe in one of the photos in the hallway.

  A brisk wind caught the leaves, making them shudder and scrape together. Jena shivered and Cade gripped her hand tighter.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah, the breeze is just picking up. I bet it’ll rain again soon.’ She looked out to the hills that rose above and beyond the trees around them, and pointed. ‘Rose always said that when you could see the dead branches it was going to rain. I don’t know how it can be true, but it is.’ Even in the moonlight you could see them, their bare, stark arms reaching up from the dark mass of the other trees as though they were trying not to drown in the depths.

  ‘Huh, that’s interesting. Farmers have a lot of those kinds of sayings though, right? Red at night, shepherd’s delight, red in the morning, shepherd’s warning. That kind of thing.’

  Jena had to force herself not to tense up. Her father had always said that when she was a kid. They’d often sat outside as the sun went down, having a mug of hot chocolate. She’d never heard Cade say it before, though.

  ‘Yup, that’s one of them. I guess you spend enough time outside you get to know the signs.’

  ‘And the birds?’ he asked.

  ‘Huh?’ She whipped her head around to look at him.

  ‘What are the birds a sign of?’

  That slow creep of fear was crawling up her spine again. He’d barely been here, and certainly the birds hadn’t behaved strangely around him, not until today. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, trying to shrug it off, but she knew she was too tense for it to read as honest. ‘The magpies have always freaked me out; they’re pretty protective of their territory,’ she added, trying to speak the truth. And then she remembered. ‘They like shiny things, so maybe that was why they were trying to scare me off today. They thought I was going to take their treasure.’ She grinned. It felt wooden, but his face lit up in response.

  ‘But I got it, anyway.’

  ‘You did.’

  She needed to get the conversation away from the swamp, needed to feel closer to him again, like they were a team somehow. ‘What do you want for dinner tomorrow night? I think it’s Will’s turn to cook, but if you feel like something special, I can make it. Your fav?’ The way to a man’s heart is through his belly, after all.

  ‘Steak, barely cooked?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘With chunky wedges.’

  ‘Sure.’ She smiled, then leaned towards him and kissed his cheek, trying to brush off the fact that his answer was different to what she’d expected. Sure, he loved steak, but she knew that spaghetti bolognaise was his favourite. It was a littl
e thing. It didn’t mean anything. He could have just forgotten about that.

  Different day, different favourite meal.

  He was Cade. She still cared about him; enough to let the other things slide.

  A bird cawed from a tree directly above them and she jumped, banging into Cade. He grabbed her by the shoulders and laughed.

  ‘Scared of a bird?’ he asked. ‘Or is it the Dark Man?’ He raised an eyebrow, and then let go of her and brought his hands up near his face, waggling his fingers. ‘The Dark Man’s gonna get you, better run.’ He made his eyes big and scary and the smile disappeared off his face.

  Jena took a step away, surprised by the sudden change in him.

  He shouted, his voice deep and raw and chillier than the wind. ‘Run!’

  And she did, spinning and taking off down the path towards the house, her feet only moving at a quarter of the pace of her racing heartbeat. She could hear his footfalls behind her, could hear him calling to her.

  ‘Jena, I’m coming to get you! Run, run, run, the Dark Man has come.’

  That only pushed her harder. It was the same tune she and Joel had sung to each other when they’d been playing the game, whoever was playing that role ….

  Jena broke free of the trees, her shoes skidding on the gravel as she turned towards the house. Someone had left the porch light on and it beckoned to her, a pool of safety in the darkness.

  ‘Jena!’ Cade called. His voice seemed normal now, and she’d probably imagined it morphing before, surrounded by the dark and the trees and her past. He laughed, the laugh he used when he was playing, but she didn’t stop running. Not until her feet hit the welcome mat and her hands were on the door, her breath bouncing back into her face off the wood, sour and tainted by fear.

  He came up behind her, breathless with laughter. ‘Don’t think I’ve ever run so fast before. You weren’t scared, were you?’ he said teasingly, tickling her sides.

  She couldn’t help but laugh, though it came out strangled. ‘No, of course not,’ she said, turning towards him, composing her face into a smile she didn’t feel. ‘I was just playing.’

  He leaned in for a kiss and she kissed him back, feeling his warmth seep into her as he pressed her against the door with his body, making her breath come fast and shallow again.

  ‘Not here,’ she whispered, pushing him away.

  ‘Where then?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘We didn’t get to have any fun out in the swamp.’

  ‘Soon.’ Jena wrinkled her nose and then poked her tongue out at him.

  He laughed and opened the door, heading for the stairs.

  ‘I’ll be up in a minute,’ she called after him as she kicked off her shoes. She left them outside because they were covered in muck from the path; Rose would have given her no end of grief about that if she’d been up and about.

  For the first time it really hit her, how her childhood seemed like it had happened to someone else. On the one hand she could remember things much more clearly now that she was home, but sometimes they didn’t feel like her memories. They could have happened to a best friend who had shared all the details at camp. Not that she’d ever been to camp. Or really had friends.

  And here she was, back to feeling bitter at Rose for sending her away, for ruining her life – maybe for burning her family to a crisp. She tried to tamp those feelings down, but her throat hurt and she couldn’t tell whether it was from emotion or the fact that she’d just been running in the dark.

  She took a few steps towards the kitchen and then stopped, waiting until she heard the bedroom door close before she tiptoed back up the stairs, making sure to take the quiet steps.

  Her eyes skimmed over the paintings and photographs on the wall. They were mostly of her family, of the farm, but there were a few that Rose had brought with her when she’d moved from overseas, smaller ones in sepia tones. Jena made it to the top of the staircase and peered at them, one by one.

  ‘Jena?’

  She spun, thinking it must be Cade, but Will had come up behind her. She placed a finger against her lips, motioning for him to be quiet, then turned back, cocking her head to listen, but Cade hadn’t stirred.

  Jena grabbed Will’s hand and dragged him down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she headed straight for the fridge. She grabbed the Coke and poured a glass for herself, then returned the bottle to the fridge before finally facing Will.

  ‘Well?’ she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  ‘I told Rose why I’m here. I told her about my files.’

  ‘You did what?’ Jena planted her hands on the bench, stunned at his admission, shocked that he’d been so bold as to throw it all out there.

  Furious that he’d taken away the only thing she had to hold over him.

  ‘I can’t afford to lose this job. I’ve got nowhere else to go.’ He dragged a hand through his hair, looking tired. Worn out.

  ‘And she’s letting you stay?’

  ‘She is. Because she knows something else is going on here too, and she wants to make sure you’re safe.’ Will took a step towards her, but kept the kitchen counter between them, as if that barrier could protect him from her wrath.

  Jena scoffed. ‘And she expects you to keep me safe?’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘She’s old anyway, confused.’ Even as she said the words, she knew they weren’t true. Rose was still as onto it as ever. ‘And I don’t plan to be here long. We’re going to get the house prepped, get it on the market and get out of here. I’m done.’

  But was she? Jena vacillated between wanting to get the fuck out of here, and wanting to stay and know more – if there was more to know. And yet, hadn’t she learned enough? Wasn’t it better to make a clean break, again, and get on with her life?

  Yet, she had barely considered what that life would look like. This had been her focus, her desire, for so long that she had no future to look forward to.

  She was almost thirty with no real skills, a relationship she wasn’t sure she still wanted, and no drive.

  Rose was right. She needed to grow up.

  And boy, did Jena hate that she was right.

  Will’s face was placid, like he wasn’t fazed by anything she said. Like he just wanted to make her understand. ‘Jena, I don’t want it to be like this. We don’t have to be enemies. We don’t have to be on different sides—’

  Jena laughed. ‘You’re on her side, so yeah, we do. Besides, I don’t want in on your theories about spirits and ghosts. My family have issues, I have issues too, and the sooner I can put those behind me and get on with life, the better.’ She left her glass on the bench and marched past him.

  ‘Can I have my laptop back?’ he called after her.

  Jena just laughed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  WILL

  Will wasn’t sure what to make of his conversation with Jena. He felt like she was lying to herself, but then, maybe he would be too.

  Except he hadn’t. Not now, and not back when his mother had been possessed. Because he was sure that was what had happened. His conversations with Rose had given him the confidence to call it what it was.

  Now he just needed Jena to see it too.

  But why? Why was it so important to him that she understood?

  His gut tightened.

  Because we’re the same.

  Both touched by the other, as Rose had said. Lives messed up by the supernatural. He didn’t want to be alone in that any more. He could see in Jena the potential for a friend who actually understood what it meant.

  He just had to make her see that too.

  Will headed for the front door, then paused when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Cade swung over the bannister at the top and landed just in front of him without even a wince. It was one hell of a height to jump from so casually.

  ‘Will, how’s it going?’ Cade grinned. ‘Hope you’ve been taking good care of Rose. I know Jena was worried.’ The glimmer in his eyes negated his words. Cade cared, but it wasn’t about Jena, it was abo
ut the money they were going to make from this, Will thought. Cade’s innocuous word choice would have been so easy to read as innocent if Will hadn’t known better.

  ‘Yeah, she’s doing okay. Hopefully soon we can get the farm sold and her into a rest home.’

  ‘Oh, does she really want that?’ Cade leaned against the wall, blocking Will’s path. ‘She loves it here. Jena always said she thought Rose would rather die here than anywhere else.’

  ‘Well, things change. She knows she can’t keep this place running on her own and that it’s time to sell up. It’s not like Jena has her heart set on being a farmer. Or has she?’ Will raised an eyebrow.

  Cade just shrugged. ‘Who knows what Jena has her heart set on these days. Anyway, you look like a man on a mission. I’ll leave you to it.’ He strode past Will, knocking into his shoulder as he went, nudging Will into the wall. A picture frame rattled behind him and he spun to still it, not wanting anything to break.

  He watched Cade walk away, shaking his head. That guy had no respect for anything.

  But that wasn’t Will’s problem. Right now, he was more interested in learning about possession than figuring out why Cade was such an ass.

  He quickly crossed the space between the house and the barn, making sure to close the door behind him. He had a sudden fear that someone might lock him inside, burn the place to the ground. He couldn’t let Rose’s worries infect him, though. He climbed the steps to get to his equipment, turned on the rural broadband device and pulled his phone out.

  This would be so much easier on my laptop ….

  Will searched everything he could think of: demons, possession, possessed objects, how to exorcise an object or person.

  There were a lot of websites, most with similar information and all with a religious bent. And yet, Rose hadn’t said that whatever had possessed her lover was related to the Christian faith. But then, did it matter?

  Will groaned and rolled his shoulders.

  There was a lot of information about the signs of possession: increased aggression, erratic behaviour, differences in cadence of voice, or in the way a person moved, possessiveness over objects or people.