CHAPTER 9
I’d never heard of Coill Darragh. According to Kessian, it was a little island village, best known for the wild magic of its forest and its powerful wards, which prevented any outsiders from visiting without permission from the alderman.
An invasion of witches plundered the forest for its magic nearly twenty years ago, causing it to drain the townsfolk and lay curses on people.
That event made the locals wary of strangers.
Coill Darragh had only risen to prominence when a couple discovered a curse cure made from a flower that grew exclusively in those woods.
“You’ve been on the road a while, so I thought, maybe this is a place you could stay. If the wards can keep anything out, they can keep the wraith out, too,” Kessian said. “Or maybe the curse cure would get rid of the wraith altogether.”
It should have made me hopeful, but if cynicism was a muscle, mine had been exercised well.
I had Lunaris warded against the wraith, but it always managed to break through. I only continued the practice because it afforded me time. My wards couldn’t measure up in strength to those cast in wild magic by a forest to protect an entire town, but I still had more questions than I had hope.
“If they’re wary of outsiders, why would they accept me?”
“They give tourists temporary passes, and it’s a very artsy village. Lots of local artisans. You make pottery. I’m sure they need … pots.”
“I mostly make tea sets.”
“Even better! I never went anywhere without being offered a cuppa. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“You know the whole town, do you?”
“Well, no. I don’t get around that much. But I do know the alderman and his husband. I can introduce you. If you tell them about your wraith troubles, I’m sure they’ll let you in, at least temporarily. Maybe extend your stay if you behave yourself.”
If the place was so reclusive, it struck me as strange that Kessian knew anyone there, let alone the alderman. “How did you meet?”
“I visited a few years back. I must have made a good impression because they gave me this.”
He pulled a bracelet from his pocket and set it down on the table between us. A stone carved with a rune was twined between the leather cords.
“Only the alderman can make these. It conveys protection from the wards to one person.”
“Then it won’t work for me.”
“No, but they trust me, right? I can talk to them on your behalf.”
I considered it. My plan otherwise had been to roam until the day I died, so I didn’t have much to lose by investigating another option. “All right,” I said. “I’ll give it a go.”
Kessian beamed. “I’ll write to them right away.”
“Or you could come with?”
“Not that I don’t love the sound of a road trip, but I unfortunately must labor and pay taxes.”
My imagination ran away with the image of us driving along country roads singing old pop songs, and I’d reach across to put my hand on his thigh, and he’d smile over at me looking more beautiful than any dream destination we could conjure.
I needed a reality check, but reality had checked out a long time ago.
“Lunaris is magic. We don’t have to drive,” I said.
She blasted a romantic ballad from the driver’s cabin while I got up from the table.
“Lunaris manages to have a lot of personality for a person without a face,” Kessian said.
She slammed a cupboard at him.
“No offense meant!”
She slammed the cupboard again. Then once more.
Then all of them banged open and shut, rattling the crockery inside.
Her lights flickered, then turned red. At the same time, I heard the patter of rain against the window.
Only one window, and the sky had been blue when we came inside.
I turned, tracking the source of the sound.
Something shuffled outside, and a shadow passed by the curtained window, toward the front door. The handle began to turn.
I didn’t need to see it to confirm it. I knew from the frigid susurration of water, the murmur of a river we should have been too far from to hear. The wraith had found me.
The door’s deadbolt slammed shut, Lunaris locking the wraith out and us in. I dumped our cups in the sink, heading for the driver’s cabin.
Kessian, pale-faced, said, “Tal, what is that?”
I followed his gaze to the door. Black ichor trickled in through the lock.
My hand shot to my earring, touching the coin Uncle Marlowe had given me. I could banish the wraith here and now, but the amulet only had a singular charge. If I could get us to safety by other means, I shouldn’t waste it.
I took Kessian’s hand and tugged him toward the cabin. “Come on. Quick.”
We squeezed through and into the seats. Lunaris turned the key in the ignition for me as I buckled up.
Seen through my wing mirror, the wraith pressed against the caravan door, its arm shoved through the lock, trying to pour itself inside.
My wards bought us time, but they wouldn’t hold. They never had before.
I reversed with more momentum than I’d normally employ, hoping to dislodge the wraith. It clung on, a hissing screech like a scavenger bird trailing from the distended shadows of its jaw. I peeled away from the spa, putting as much weight on the gas as I could.
Beside me, Kessian had gone silent, clutching the handle above the window. I didn’t have time to scold myself for inviting him inside when I should have just left. I had to focus on the road.
Shearwater was a country town, and I took those narrow roads at a hazardous clip, driving close to the stone walls in hopes of crushing the wraith in between, but it clambered like a spider onto the roof. The sound of its footsteps overhead made my blood pound in my ears.
“There’s a bag of bone powder in the glove compartment. Can you get it?”
Kessian broke from his paralysis, lunging forward to retrieve the silk pouch.
I said, “Pour a good amount of that into the cigarette lighter.”
“The what?”
Lunaris had chosen a very vintage model caravan for herself. I hadn’t known what a cigarette lighter was, either. “This thing,” I said, pulling out the metal cylinder.
He followed my instructions. They were unfortunately complicated. A black claw scraped the windscreen. The wraith slid down onto the bonnet, its gaze intent upon me, blocking my view of the road.
I slammed the brakes. The wraith slid, claws raking metal, and the recoil of our truncated momentum sent it sprawling into the road, where it broke apart like a cracked egg, only to re-form.
I reached across Kessian to take a piece of paper from the glove box, muttering, “Sorry, sorry,” under my breath as I nearly elbowed him.
“You’re always welcome to invade my personal space, but especially now,” Kessian squeaked, eyes trained on the creature rising up from the road.
I hurriedly folded the paper into a plane.
“It’s coming back,” Kessian warned me. “What else do you need to do? Tell me what to do!”
Lunaris rocked as the wraith climbed back onto the bonnet.
“I have to write the name of our destination and some runes on this, slide it into the heating vent, and Lunaris will get us out of here.”
I jumped as the wraith’s claw slammed against the glass. I’d warded Lunaris, but the wraith treated my wards like guidelines rather than rules. The shimmer of their magic cast reflections across the paper plane as the wraith tested them.
I drew as quickly as I dared. I couldn’t risk messing up. One irregular line, an illegible smudge, could render the spell useless.
“How is Coill Darragh spelled?” I asked.
The wraith’s claw penetrated the glass, webbed cracks fracturing through the wards.
“I’m dyslexic!” Kessian said. “C-O-I-L— Shit, one L or two? I have to look it up.”
Spelling it wrong would ruin the spell. It wouldn’t work. Five claws like sickles jutted through the glass of Lunaris’s windscreen, incorporeal enough to penetrate without shattering it. They’d feel plenty corporeal cutting our throats.
Kessian tapped rapidly on his phone. The service out here would be terrible; it always was in rural places. I put a hand to my ear. If I had to use the amulet …
The blank voids of the wraith’s eyes rolled toward Kessian.
“C-O-I-L-L—” Kessian read.
I hurriedly wrote down what he said.
“D-A-R-R-A-G-H.”
I finished writing, flattened the plane, and shoved it through Lunaris’s heating vent.
At the same time, the wraith lunged, and before the teleportation spell ferried us to safety, inky black claws shattered the wards and sank into Kessian’s chest.