Forbidden Highway (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 5)

by Catie Rhodes

  I thought about it. “Maybe not. All it said was ‘Palmore Pond.’”

  “Now, I might be able to help you find that place. It’s on the maps Daddy bought from B.B. Longstreet. Seen it with my own eyes.” Hooty stood from the table. “Your daddy, uncle, and me used to go out there some when we were teenagers. Deep, deep hole. Ain’t really even a pond. Palmore had it mined for some kinda stones. More of a quarry.” He left the room.

  “You two are going out there, aren’t you?” Rainey glanced at Wade to include him.

  “Maybe.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “I’m going too.” She turned to her mother. “Do I still have some clothes here? Jeans. Stuff I don’t mind ruining?”

  “You’re not going.” Wade stared Rainey down. “I can’t take care of you and Peri Jean at the same time.”

  “I don’t need you to take care of me.” She rose from the table and left the room, not even bothering to glance back.

  “She’s going, you know.” Esther Bruce began clearing the plates.

  Wade was still huffing when Hooty came out with a copy of the section of map we needed.

  “Now, I’m going to tell you a way to get to this where you’ll only have to hike about a half-mile through the woods.” Hooty stood between Wade and me, pointing to a spot on the map.

  Fifteen minutes later, Rainey, Wade and I left Spence Street, headed for a place where I had no idea what we’d find or if it would help us at all.

  12

  The final leg of the drive out to Palmore’s Pond was on an unmarked dirt road. Branches screamed against my Nova’s paint and rocks thumped against the undercarriage. In front of me, Wade rolled to a stop.

  I got out of the Nova and stared out into the darkness of woods. Gray clouds slid over the sun, scumming its light into something dim and sickly. Rainey stood beside me and made a face.

  “I bet we’ll all get ticks and chiggers.” She scratched at one bare arm.

  “Scratching makes it worse.” A mosquito lit on my arm, and I killed it.

  Wade ignored us both, squatting next to his motorcycle and rummaging in the saddlebags. He held a semi-automatic pistol.

  “You legal to carry that?” Rainey glared at him.

  “You want to go in those woods without it?” Wade stuffed the pistol in the back of his pants. “Michael Gage might be out there.” He reached into his saddlebag again and drew out a machete.

  “Do you know where the trail starts?” Rainey’s change of subject was the closest she’d ever come to conceding an argument.

  “Your father said to drive three miles down this trail and stop. The path is on the east side of the woods.” Wade crossed the road. “This is the east side. Anybody see a trail?”

  “How many years since Hooty’s even been out here?” I walked along the edge of the woods.

  “Way he acted, probably thirty or more.” Rainey walked behind me. “Trail’s grown up if nobody’s been using it.”

  Wade grunted and took the first step into the woods. The clouds rolled off the sun, glaring against the white sky and heating up the humid air. Wade held his cellphone in front of him. I craned to see the screen. He had it open to a compass.

  “Hooty said it’s about a half mile east of the road.” He stared at my face.

  I averted my gaze. After everything, I no longer knew what to say to him or how to act with him. Crazy story about his sister’s card-reading aside, Wade had been right. Us trying to be anything other than friends had ruined our friendship. After a few seconds, he turned away from me and began crashing through the brush. He swung at hanging vines hard enough to make his big knife whistle through the air. He even kicked a felled log out of the way as though it had somehow offended him.

  “I see the sparkle of the sun on the water.” Wade stopped so quickly I ran into him.

  His solidness knocked me backward several steps. He grabbed my arm to steady me. An electric current of desire ran up my arm, invaded my brain, and begged me to get stupid. I told it to shut the fuck up. We pushed on a few more minutes until Wade grabbed my arm and pulled me to a rough stop.

  “Look down,” he said.

  I did and gasped. The ground dropped off two feet from where I stood. Twenty or more feet below was the bluest water I’d ever seen in real life. It might have been two feet deep or a hundred.

  Rainey stopped on the other side of me and stared at the blue water. Chill bumps marred her perfect skin. She rubbed at them. “It’s creepy here. What are we looking for, Peri Jean?”

  “I have no idea. Adam’s note didn’t say anything other than he came out here not long before he died. Nothing about what he came looking for.” My mind buzzed like a hive, but no good ideas came to the surface.

  “So the theory is what? The clue is in the water?” Rainey stepped away from the edge as though afraid she might fall in. Which made no sense. She was the most graceful person I knew. “Because I won’t go in the water. Gives me the creeps.”

  “If anybody has to go in the water, I’ll go.” I watched the water, shoulders tensed, as though something might rise out of it any second.

  “Nobody’s going in the water.” Wade put his hands on his hips. “In case you two have forgotten, the Mace Treasure is cursed. People who get too close to clues get sick, die, or both.”

  “I won’t. And, if I do, I bet you can heal me.” I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of my safety or of Wade’s ability to fix whatever I broke, but I couldn’t let Hannah down. Priscilla Herrera said I had to prove myself before she’d give her mantle to me. Showing her I would go to any length, put myself in any danger, to find the Mace Treasure might convince her. “Let’s walk around the edge of the water. Maybe I’ll get an idea what we’re here for.”

  A bird’s grating call came from the woods. I squinted into the treetops until I saw the raven perched on a branch. Soon as I saw him, he raised his wings and made his odd call again. He cawed again and lowered his wings. Did he mean I was doing the right thing? Or was he trying to warn me? No way to know. He squawked again, flickered out of sight and back in again.

  “Y’all see that?” I pointed at the raven.

  Rainey stared into the trees and shook her head. “I don’t. What is it?”

  “Those ravens I told you about? They’re back.”

  Rainey turned a slow circle, hands on her hips, staring at the sky. She drifted closer to the edge of the drop-off with each step, almost as though a magnet pulled her. Wade caught her arm just as she stepped off. Eyes wide, hands trembling, she moved several feet away from the edge.

  “I don’t see the ravens.” Wade stared up into the trees. “But I feel the magic. Bad magic. We should just go.”

  “I can’t. There’s something here for me to do.”

  Wade stared down at the water. He shifted and stood on his tiptoes. He pulled me to stand next to him. His arm went around my waist, and I thought about all the ways I could make myself look and feel like a jackass. He pointed. “Look over that bluff. See that little beach? It’ll be safer over there. Let’s—”

  The raven let out another husky caw. I quit listening to Wade and looked for the bird. It went past my head, so close I could see the skin around its eyes, and flew out over the water. The clouds covering the sun rolled off. The sun peeked over the trees and beamed down hard on the deep blue pool of water. Something sparkled in the water’s depths, drawing my gaze and holding it.

  “Where are you going?” Wade’s voice came from behind me.

  His voice woke me out of something like a daze. I’d walked away from him without realizing it and stood on the edge of the drop-off, staring down at the water.

  “Something’s down here.” I pointed one finger at the water.

  “Wade, get her away from that edge.” Rainey crashed over the ground, reaching for me. “She’s going to—”

  The water rushed up to meet me, slapping my face and shooting up my nose. I flapped my arms, trying to regain control. Water sluiced over my
head, cutting off my air supply. Something grabbed my ankle and pulled me deeper. My lungs pounded, begging for fresh oxygen. The airless wall of water pressed at my face. I was going to die.

  The black opal pendant heated my skin. I braced myself for the worst and opened my eyes. In front of me was a figure made of rough-edged shadow. Its burning red eyes raked over me. In one sharp-clawed hand, it held my ankle. Panic ripped apart both my willpower and my good sense. I kicked and wiggled, trying to get out of the thing’s grip. It yanked me deeper.

  My oxygen starved lungs burned and ached. I wouldn’t last much longer. Sooner or later, I’d be unable to keep myself from opening my mouth and gulping water into my lungs. Then I’d drown and die down here.

  Wade would come to get me, and this awful shadowy thing would kill him. And it would be my fault. Another dead friend who I could have saved. I called on the power of the black opal, drawing it into me and letting it build. When it filled my head so completely bright spots of light peppered the edges of my vision, I pushed it at the dark thing and thought, “Let go now,” at it as hard as I could. I kicked for good measure and floated upward. Lungs crying for oxygen, cutting away all reason, I used the last of my energy to kick and stroke to get there faster. My head broke water in time to see Wade jump into the water.

  “Don’t,” I shouted even though it was too late.

  Wade surfaced next to me. “I thought you’d broken something or got tangled up. You can’t see the bottom from up there.”

  “You can’t from down here either. Something had me. Holding me under. We have to get out. This was a mistake.” I’d have to think of some other way to prove myself to Priscilla Herrera. I swam toward the beach on the other side of the pond, my out-of-shape lungs still crying.

  Wade went under first. I went after him, water stinging my eyes. The sun beamed down on the water again. I caught a glimpse of the shiny thing I’d seen from the drop-off. I looked harder at it, opening the part of me who saw ghosts and made things happen with witchcraft.

  The beam of sunlight brightened, lighting a rusted anchor lying on the bottom of the pond. The anchor no longer sparkled, but something tethered to it did. I bet it was my clue. My lungs, already pleading for air, reminded me what was important.

  I drew on the black opal again, this time feeling the drain of power in my stores. If I kept on, I would get too weak to swim for shore. What else can I do? Drown? Let Wade drown? I concentrated until my head felt like it might explode. Then I directed the power of the black opal at the thing holding both Wade and I under water. I pushed the magic at it as hard as I could.

  A bubble of light separated from me and moved toward the shadow creature, expanding as it got close. It bumped the creature and bounced away.

  My spirits fell. All I had was in that bubble, and now it was headed the wrong way. I went limp. I had no more fight to give.

  Wade, his eyes wide and full of fear, watched the bubble float close to him. He punched one finger into it. The bubble popped. The ground shuddered. Gold liquid spilled from the bubble, leaking into a thin ribbon, and drifted toward the sand bottom of the pond where it puddled. Something rose from the puddle of gold, turning black as it grew. Wings formed, and a beak opened. A raven’s caw is less than beautiful on the surface. It’s even worse underwater.

  The raven opened its wings and went at the dark figure. The water churned as the raven attacked the shadow. It struggled to hold on to Wade. The raven pecked at the shadow, tearing out clumps of its body.

  The black shadow let go of Wade and fought its way clear of the raven. Wade kicked away from it, probably headed to the surface for air. The black mass shot toward me, featureless face growing a nose and eyes and a mouth as it came. The mouth yawned open and locked on mine. Bitter poison burned down my throat and settled in my stomach. The bird hit the shadow again and drove it away from me.

  The shadow threw its arms up to fight, but the bird dove into its midsection. Its head moved as though it was eating a particularly good meal. The shadow backed away from the bird, trailing a stem of black entrails. The bird tilted its head up and began to suck down its meal, just like a bird eating worms. The shadow swirled, trying to pull itself away from the bird, but only causing itself to elongate and make the bird’s end of things easier.

  A loud clunk drew my attention away from the sickening sight. The anchor lay in two pieces. The trinket tethered to it began to float away in the cloud of dust produced by the melee. No, no, no. That was my clue. I had to have it or this whole ordeal, including whatever poison the shadow breathed into me, was for nothing. My head was too light, and my lungs too strained to go after it. All I could do was watch it float away.

  Strong fingers gripped my arm and dragged me toward the surface. Wade and I both broke the water, taking ugly gulps of the sweet oxygen. Wade grabbed me and towed me toward the beach before I caught my breath. My arms gave the water weak slaps. My legs barely moved in a kicking motion. The ordeal had weakened me, and my insides boiled and stung from the dose of poison the shadow breathed into me.

  Bony hands grabbed my arm and gave me several hard jerks. I opened my eyes to see Rainey thigh deep in the water, teeth bared, and pulling me toward shore. She got me into knee-deep water and let me go. She splashed toward Wade and gave him the same treatment. Hands on her knees, Rainey dropped her head and gasped for several seconds but raised again and trekked back through the water.

  I wanted to ask her where she thought she was going, to tell her to come back, but I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs to do it. I crawled to shore and lay panting on the sand. My guts flamed with the bad stuff the shadow monster breathed into me. I could feel it speeding through me, withering everything it touched.

  Wade crawled to me and pushed me onto my back. He sat back on his knees and put his hands on my chest, head thrown back, lips moving. His healing magic seeped into me, quelling the death spreading through me but not quite killing it all the way. I pulled on my black opal to help Wade but found it empty. I’d have to rest before it would work for me again.

  Wade squeezed his eyes shut, straining to access his gift. His face darkened. His effort crackled through him and into me. The blight spreading through me hardened into a ball. It had to come up. I shoved Wade away and turned onto my side where I choked and gagged. And puked up a gout of black shadow. It hit the sand and absorbed into it, leaving nary a trace it had ever been. I turned back to Wade.

  He hunched forward, wheezing and dripping sweat. “That’s all I’ve got, but it’s still in you.” He stumbled away, hand clapped over his mouth. He vomited into the bushes.

  I curled on my side, clutching my burning stomach, and watched my friend hurt. Wade staggered from his mess and knelt at the edge of the water to clean his face.

  Rainey came ashore, water streaming from her clothes and puddling in the sand. She held something cupped in her hand. She dropped it on the sand and whirled on me, eyes wide, mouth fixed in a snarl.

  “You made me mess up my hair.” She dropped to the sand next to me, fists clenched.

  I cowered away and held up both hands, expecting her to hit me. Instead she threw her arms around me and held me tight. I returned her hug. She squeezed too hard. Sobs shook her shoulders.

  “You made me mess up my hair.” She cried harder. “Don’t do that again. Never do that again.” She hugged me until her sobs faded and pulled away from me. She used her faded t-shirt to wipe at her face. “Your face is pale. Dark circles under your eyes. It made you sick to touch it.”

  I nodded. But I did what had to be done. I made things progress. “You feel okay?”

  She ignored my question and let go of me to pick up the object she’d dropped in the sand. “Here’s what you came to get. Thing floated right to the surface. Gold isn’t supposed to float, is it?” She glanced at Wade, who was still pale and shivering, and answered her own question. “Of course it doesn’t.” Her nervous laugh sounded like the yowl of a lost cat.

  I leaned clos
e to see what had been tethered to the anchor. Rainey handed it to me, possibly afraid she’d soak up some of my poison if I got too close. The thing was covered with mud, which I wiped off on my t-shirt. I realized what I held in my hand and almost dropped it. “It’s Polly Mace’s missing cameo brooch.”

  “You have got to be kidding.” Rainey gathered herself and came to take a closer look.

  I wiped more mud off the front of the cameo and held it out to Rainey. “See? The Diana of Versailles.”

  Wade stumbled over and leaned over me. “How did you recognize it so fast?”

  “Polly Mace is part of the talk I give every week at the museum. Her missing brooch is one of the mysteries of Burns County. It disappeared right around the time William Mace took off for the Alaska Gold Rush. His wife accused everybody she ever met of stealing it.” I took in Wade’s puzzled expression. “You know who she is. She’s the lady in the painting whose hair you said looks like Bride of Frankenstein.”

  “Aw, you can’t know this is that woman’s brooch.” Wade tried to turn away from me, but I grabbed his arm.

  “Can too. Here’s her initials engraved on the back. MAM,” I read out loud. “Her real first name was Mary, and Polly was a nickname for Mary.”

  “So that clue means what I think it means?” Rainey wrung out one corner of her sodden shirt.

  “Next stop, the Mace crypt.” I stood up on my wobbly legs.

  “We’re not going in the crypt.” Wade stood up very straight and towered over me. “This little adventure almost killed you, and it made me damn sick.”

  “What else do you suggest we do?” I glared up at Wade. My swaying back and forth ruined the effect. “Just wait until Michael Gage starts sending us pieces of Hannah?”

  Wade turned away from me and marched back towards the road. He’d go to the cemetery. He’d go anywhere I said. Rubbing it in would only make him have a hissy fit, so I followed him with my mouth shut.

  After a stop at my house to pick up fresh clothes for Wade and me, we spent the rest of the day and early evening at Rainey’s fancy house, located in the only gated community in Burns County.