Bones of the Witch

by A. L. Knorr

  Gavin and Bonnie were in conversation with one another so I took the opportunity to pull Jasher to a quiet corner where we wouldn’t be overheard. With a glance toward the waiting room, I saw that Inspector Hamilton and the constable had both vacated it.

  By the time we were in the waiting area, Jasher was pulling me more than I was pulling him. “What did you see?”

  “It was the eldritch thing,” I muttered with an uneasy glance at the camera mounted high in the corner of the room. Shuffling him off to the side and out of its range, I wondered too late if it only served to make us look suspicious. “The shadow that scared me so badly when we went to the ruin that night. It did this to Evelyn.”

  Jasher’s normally ruddy complexion washed out and his eyes stretched wide. “But, it was in a memory that’s hundreds of years old…”

  I nodded. “Whatever it is, it’s immortal. I’m wondering if it orchestrated the whole thing with the woman who was walled up, and now it orchestrated this.” My voice hitched. “Jasher, it was awful.”

  Jasher’s hands gripped my arms as he pulled me down into a chair. “Start from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”

  With a glance over at the rest of our party, I saw that Gavin and Bonnie were hugging Evelyn’s parents. “Not here. It’ll take too long and it won’t look good. When we get home, I’ll tell you everything.”

  I straightened as I saw Gavin, Bonnie, and Evelyn’s parents heading our way. Evelyn’s mother opened her arms wide as she headed straight for me, tears streaming down her face. I stood and let her enfold me in a hug that smelled like cloves.

  “Thank you,” she whispered into my hair.

  Evelyn’s father stood nearby and patted my shoulder awkwardly while his wife leaked tears onto my neck. My heart ached for them.

  “I’m only sorry she wasn’t found sooner,” I said as Evie’s mother released me.

  “What possessed you to go walking through the graveyard alone in the middle of the night?” Evie’s dad asked, shaking his head. But his expression wasn’t condescending or suspicious; his eyes were soft with gratitude.

  I gave them the story I told the inspector, and no one seemed to think that I should be implicated in a crime, which made me feel better. When I came to the part about wanting to see the mummy’s grave as my reason for going to the graveyard in the first place, Gavin was nodding and said to Evelyn’s father, “She wanted to pay her respects. Big softie, this one.”

  Evelyn’s parents explained that the doctors had put Evie on an IV and were monitoring her vitals. She could breathe on her own but she had minimal brain activity and would receive a brain scan as soon as she was properly hydrated.

  “They’re concerned about brain damage,” Evelyn’s mother said and her face crumpled. Her husband wrapped an arm around her.

  “Don’t let’s make any assumptions,” he murmured with a loving tone. “Come on, let’s allow these good people to get some rest.”

  Evelyn’s parents moved arm in arm through the lobby and disappeared down a hallway to the left.

  “Are they going to stay with her?” I asked Bonnie.

  Bonnie nodded. “Normally, there are no overnight visitors, but they’re making an exception for them, just for tonight.”

  “What a weird night,” Gavin said, rubbing the top of his head and making his hair bush out. “You must be exhausted, Georjie. Come on, let’s go home.”

  In the car, Jasher reached across the back seat and took my hand, squeezing it gently all the way back to Blackmouth Castle.

  “Did anyone call Lachlan?” I asked as Gavin pulled the car into the parking lot.

  “There wasn’t time,” Jasher replied as he released my hand and unbuckled his seatbelt. “When Ainslie woke us, all we could think to do was get down to the hospital as fast as we could.”

  “Lad will be sleeping anyway, Georjie,” Bonnie threw over her shoulder, the shadows under her eyes as deep as I’d ever seen them. “Call him in the morning.”

  We got out of the car and headed into the castle. Murmuring goodnight and giving hugs all around, we headed to our respective quarters. Jasher trailed me to my room and closed my door softly behind us before we each sat on a different bed, facing one another.

  Jasher’s work-roughened hands twisted together in his lap. Little bags of exhaustion had sprouted below his eyes. For the first time since I’d met him, he looked much older than his years.

  “I wouldn’t have known where to look or even how to see Evie if it wasn’t for what happened during the search party earlier tonight,” I began.

  Jasher’s brows tightened. “During the search?”

  I nodded. “I was walking along between you and Lachlan, I could see the light from your headlamps and flashlights through the trees on either side of me. Out of nowhere, a man was just…there. He didn’t walk out of the gloom or drop out of a tree; he was not there and then he was there. He had—” I took a shaky breath, reminding me that this was Jasher I was talking to. A friend who could see faery cocoons and used to be able to talk to the dead.

  “He had no shirt on, only a pair of pants that looked homemade, and bare feet.”

  Jasher recoiled with surprise. “A random crazy?”

  “No. He had pointed ears, Jasher. He looked a lot like a faery, only he had no wings and he was as big as we are. Everything about him screamed magic, not the least of which was the fact that your lights totally disappeared, then reappeared when he went away. I even called for you when he was there, because I was frightened. But you didn’t answer.”

  Jasher looked pale. “I never heard a thing.”

  “I know. It was like there was something between us for a few minutes, a veil or something. He said his name was Laec, and he said that I was from without.”

  Jasher shook his head, his nose wrinkling with confusion. “Without what?”

  “Just, without. And,” I leaned forward to emphasize this part, “he knew what I was. He called me ‘little Wise.’”

  Jasher’s mouth opened but no words came out. He looked, well…like he’d begun seeing ghosts again.

  I went on. “He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was looking for a friend. I told him about not being able to see residuals over pavement. He scoffed and told me I was basically an idiot not to know that I just needed to use a certain plant.”

  Jasher closed his mouth finally and processed what I was saying.

  “Did you feel threatened?”

  “A little, at first. He was a bit aggressive, but in the end he was right. The advice he gave me led me to find Evelyn.”

  Jasher rubbed his fingers across his brow as though he was fighting a headache.

  “You remember how I asked if you heard drum music?”

  Jasher nodded. “Not for the first time.”

  “I heard it while we were searching, and when Laec appeared, it got louder. Before I saw him, it just sounded muffled and distant, but not coming from any one direction. Just from everywhere. But when he was there, it seemed like it was coming from the southeast.”

  “Southeast from where you were…” Jasher calculated thoughtfully, “as in back toward the castle?”

  “Yes. And when Laec disappeared, the music went dim again. And your torchlights reappeared.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as we got back to Blackmouth?”

  “Everyone was so tired. I couldn’t sleep and I went out not knowing if his advice was going to work. Besides,” I added with a touch of bitterness, twisting the edge of my pillowcase in my fingers, “the inspector acted like he suspects me of something. It’s better that I was alone.”

  Jasher looked aghast and moved over to sit beside me. “What do you mean he suspects you? Of what?”

  “I don’t know.” I raked my fingers through my hair, frustrated. “It doesn’t matter, I think he was just being a jerk. He’s got no evidence of any foul play; if he did, he would have arrested me. But Jasher,” I turned toward him, “most importantly, the advice
Laec gave me worked. I was able to see Evie’s residual, and that’s when I saw the shadow-man.”

  I described for him in detail everything that happened after I’d left Evelyn’s house up until we all met at the hospital. He listened in horrified silence, gripping my hand. When I finished, we sat there ruminating for a while before he spoke.

  “You’ve only ever seen the eldritch thing in a residual,” Jasher said, getting up and walking to the door and back again. “But you saw it lure Evie from her house, that means that thing is here, now, in Blackmouth somewhere. And if you can see it in a residual, that suggests that it should be visible to the naked eye in real-time. We have to find it, make it fix whatever it did to Evie.”

  “We don’t even know what the bloody thing is.” I got to my feet, my arms hugging my waist. I felt cold at the thought of confronting the weird dancing shadow. “We don’t know how to call it, how to fight it. It has magic.”

  “You have magic, too.”

  “Yeah, but it’s like a spirit, not fully there. It doesn’t look like it has a solid body. What can I do against a wraith…” But my words trailed off. I had destroyed a wraith once before.

  As though he could read my mind, Jasher said, “Actually, you’ve proven quite handy when going up against a spirit before.”

  “But I’d wanted to destroy it. In this case, we need to know what it did to Evelyn, see if she can be awakened.”

  Jasher and I stared at one another and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was.

  “Laec.”

  Jasher nodded. “Do you think you could find him again?”

  “I don’t know.” But my mind was racing. “We could go back to the woods? Maybe if we go to the same place as before?”

  Jasher nodded. “Can you hear the drums now?”

  I paused, listening, then shook my head. “Nope.” But I knew where he was going. “I’ll tell you the minute I do.”

  Jasher nodded, his expression hopeful. “I’ll drop whatever I’m doing and we’ll head into the woods. Odds are good that if you hear the drums, he’s close.”

  I nodded and tried to ignore the doubt roiling in my gut. There was one big flaw with this plan. It meant we had to wait until I heard the drums before we could act. I didn’t want to wait, and what if I never heard the drums again?

  Chapter 15

  Staggering in the rear door of Blackmouth Castle, Jasher and I collapsed on the floor and the bench against the wall respectively. After I’d heard the drums again, Jasher begged off work early and we’d spent the late afternoon and evening searching fruitlessly for Laec in the wilderness.

  “My feet are wet and numb,” I groaned, reaching down to untie the soggy laces of my hiking boots.

  Jasher lay on his back on the carpet runner, rainhat drooping over one eye, arms and legs splayed out. “If your feet are numb, how can you tell they’re wet?”

  I turned my hiking shoe upside down over his face and a few droplets of mud and pine needles landed on his cheek. “Wise ass.”

  He rolled his head to the side but otherwise moved nothing else. “Thank you for that.”

  “You’re welcome.” I began to untie my other shoe.

  “I’d wipe away the mud you so kindly deposited on my face, only I’m too tired to lift my arms.”

  Toeing off my other hiking shoe, I slumped against the wall and let my head tilt back against the wall. An itch brought my fingers to the back of my neck where I found a little nest of bumps. “I have midge bites in places midges are unwelcome.”

  Jasher rolled his head to look up at me with the one eye not hidden by his hat. “Is there a place midges are welcome to bite?”

  “How are they even alive at this time of the year? It’s freezing out there. I won’t be warm again until I have a hot bath.”

  Jasher let out a long sigh. “Me too. I can’t believe we spent the entire afternoon and evening out there and have nothing to show for it except blisters and bug bites. Are you sure you heard the drums?”

  “I heard them.” Pulling my rain hat off, I tugged at my hair elastic. It snapped against my thumb. “Ow.” My damp hair poofed out in a wavy mess. I frowned and ran my fingers against my scalp. “I was so sure he’d appear.”

  “Maybe he’s shy of men.” Jasher gave a yawn that nearly split his face in two. Laboriously, he pulled himself up to sitting to take off his shoes.

  I chewed my cheek and wondered if Jasher had a point. Maybe it had been a mistake to let him come with me.

  Putting his wet boots on the drying rack, Jasher tugged at his zipper and wormed his way out of his wet coat, still sitting on the carpet runner. “I’m shattered. We didn’t conquer those woods, they conquered us.”

  I grunted and began to strip off my own wet outerwear. My body itched in multiple places now. I was about to issue more complaints when Jasher said something that chased all thoughts of bug bites from my mind.

  “Do you think that the little tiny fairies can grow into really big ones?”

  Why hadn’t I put the two together before? Laec had pointed ears and too-large eyes, just like the little fairies did. There was one big difference though. “Laec didn’t have wings,” I said.

  “Maybe he just didn’t let you see them. You said he looks the same, only bigger.” Jasher shrugged. “It’s a logical conclusion.”

  I chewed my lip thoughtfully. “If they do, then that means he wasn’t carried in a womb and born, but hatched.”

  Jasher’s nose wrinkled up. “If that’s the case, then I wouldn’t want to be whatever he is.”

  “Why not?”

  Jasher eyed me. “No sex.” Faery cocoons were created when dappled sunlight penetrated fresh rainwater as it dripped from leaves and branches, the small twinkling creatures had no copulation that we were aware of. Of course, who knew what happened in the secretive fae world.

  “Well, they might be able to,” I ventured. “For pleasure rather than procreation.”

  Jasher grunted and rubbed his face vigorously. “I’d explore this theory further but right now I have the IQ of a carpet tack. I need to go to bed.”

  I got to my feet feeling weary in every little bone of my body. “Thanks for searching with me, Jasher. I’m going to fall asleep in the bathtub.”

  “Don’t drown.” Jasher’s voice followed me as I wandered slowly up the curved staircase leading to our rooms. “And don’t forget to look for deer ticks.”

  I froze. “What?” I poked my head back into the hall.

  Jasher was still sitting on the floor. He tilted his head back and gave me a sweet smile. “There are ticks in Scotland, especially in wooded areas. Do a thorough search before you go to bed.”

  “Eurgh.” I let out a disgusted sigh. “I’m covered in midge bites, my toes and fingers feel like ice, and every shred of clothing on me is wet and stuck to my skin. Why not add a few ticks to the party?”

  “And mud. You’ve got it all up the back of your legs,” Jasher replied.

  I let out another groan and ambled my way up the stairs.

  Thankful that my room had a tub, even if it was pretty small, I started the hot water and added a generous dollop of both the complimentary bubble bath and the bath oils. The small bathroom soon filled with steam and the scent of eucalyptus. Stripping off my wet clothing and tying my hair up on top of my head, I let out a long moan of pleasure as I sank into the tub. Letting my eyes drift shut, I ruminated over the afternoon.

  It had begun so well. Breaks in the clouds allowed filtered sunlight to breach the canopy with soft fingers. The ground was moist and tacky, but not muddy or slippery. It was perfect for combing the woods, until later in the afternoon when it began to rain gently. Although it misted prettily for a bit, we continued through it undeterred. But what began as a light drizzle thickened into a steady downpour. The ground turned greasy, and soon we were spending more time trying not to get stuck in the bogs than we were listening for drums and clues to the presence of a particular fae male. We’d gone far by the time
we’d decided to give up and come home, and the wet forest did its best to keep us trapped, like someone didn’t want us to leave. It took us twice as long to get back.

  The search had been a failure. I was disappointed, but I could accept it now that I was up to my chin in fragrant bubbles.

  When my fingers turned pruny, I let the water drain from the tub and turned the shower on to rinse the suds and wash my hair. I took extra care to inspect my scalp for telltale tiny lumps. When I was satisfied that no ticks had made their home in my skin anywhere, I got out and toweled off. Turbaning my hair and worming into my bathrobe, I tied the belt tightly and opened the bathroom door to dry my hair before doing a faceplant into bed.

  “Hello.” Laec sat cross-legged on my bed, hair sticking up wildly in all directions, and eyes twinkling.

  My heart bounced around my chest like a squash ball and I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep a scream in. Staggering backward, I hit the door to the bathroom.

  “So easily frightened,” Laec observed conversationally, his bright eyes roaming my be-robed form from my bare feet to the towel piled on top of my head. The muscles in his chest flexed and relaxed.

  “What are you doing here?” I wheezed, my hand over my heart. It was still galloping around like a hare. “We spent hours looking for you!”

  “We.” He made a tsking sound and faked a pout. “That was your mistake.”

  My heart began to slide down my throat and settle into its normal place, slowly. I pinched my bathrobe shut with one shaky hand.

  “Speaking of mistakes.” My eyes narrowed. “Don’t you know it’s rude to come in without knocking?”

  “Yes.” He grinned wickedly then crossed his arms. “But it’s you who sought me out. I felt like it would have been ruder not to appear when you’d spent so many miserable hours searching for me.”

  “You were watching?” I wanted to grab him by his throat and shake him.