Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
SELENE
Rain pattered against the kitchen windows while Nora helped me dry the last of the dishes she’d washed.
The warm scent of rosemary bread still lingered in the air from dinner, mixing with coffee and rain.
Maeve leaned against the counter with one socked foot crossed over the other, stealing blackberries from the bowl Nora had set out.
“You know,” Maeve said, popping one into her mouth, “if I lived here permanently, I’d become intolerably comfortable.”
Nora smiled without looking up from the plate she was drying. “You already seem fairly comfortable.”
She lifted another berry, holding it up as if to prove her point. “Oh, I am, and you’re mostly to thank for that.”
The keeper huffed softly in approval. “The pleasure’s all mine, hun. It took me a while to find the right job for me, but this is the one.”
I set a dried plate on top of the others. “How did you and Cillian meet?”
Nora lifted her gaze toward the ceiling as she thought, before turning back to Maeve and me. “He called me. Said he’d heard from a friend of a friend that I was looking for a better job, that he’d heard I had excellent qualifications.”
She drew her brows together. “I always thought Mary was the friend, but I don’t recall ever getting around to asking. The pay he offered was too good to turn down, and I’m so grateful I took the chance. He’s a wonderful person to work for. Don’t you think?”
Maeve spoke around another berry. “I agree. You should have seen him in action today at the castle. A nosy woman from the restoration council was poking around and being rude. He had perfect timing as usual and took care of things so we could get back to work.”
I chuckled, recalling Margaret’s face when he walked in. “I certainly can’t complain. He’s given me the opportunity of a lifetime.”
My thoughts changed direction as an odd thought surfaced. “I’m surprised he wasn’t here for dinner. Before he left, he said he’d talk to us later.”
Though he’d told Bren and not us.
Maeve inhaled as though she was prepared to add to the conversation, but she never spoke. I turned to her and found her gazing between Nora and me, looking out the window above the sink. I shifted my focus, staring out over the lawns toward the dark line of trees between the estate and the lake.
Maybe it was the way she’d stopped talking or the look on her face, but her demeanor sent a chill through me. “What is it, Maeve?”
“There,” she said quietly. “To the far left of the trees.”
My first thought was another wraith had appeared, but what I spotted was something pale, not black. Human-shaped but more misty than solid. The rain made it difficult to be certain. “It looks like a woman, doesn’t it?”
Then it was gone. “Or maybe just my imagination.”
Maeve quickly shook her head. “I saw it too. I did.”
Nora didn’t seem surprised as she stared out the window with assessing eyes. “You likely spotted the ghostly woman who appears when storms gather. I expect the strength of the rain will increase soon.”
Maeve’s eyes brightened with interest. “A ghost? Here?” She gasped with delight. “Why have you not told me of her?”
The keeper chuckled as she dried her hands on a towel. “You’ve only been here a few days, hun. It hadn’t occurred to me until now.”
I finished the last of my table wine and nudged Nora aside to wash the glass. “You mentioned her once to me. She walks along the lake, right?”
Nora slid down her sleeves and glanced between us with a twinkle in her wise eyes. “That’s the story. Some say she’s there to protect the land, while others claim she walks the shore mourning someone who sailed away and never returned.”
I recalled my original thoughts, how there was no way we could see someone who walked the shores from Cillian’s house. “Maybe she does both?”
The keeper studied the distance as she answered. “Anything is possible.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Maeve said.
I wrapped my glass in the soft cotton towel. “The ground between here and the lake is a bog at the estate’s edge. We’d sink to our ankles before we reached the tree line.”
Maeve’s eyes glittered with mischief. “It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve slogged my way through a bog.”
I snorted at her bravery. “Is there anything that slows you down?”
She shrugged. “Ah sure, there is. But not that.”
Nora smiled. “You’re a cheeky one, so you are.” She sighed. “I know the way through, but you’ll need wellies.”
Maeve dropped her shoulders in defeat. “I knew I should have brought them.”
I opened my hands. “I left mine in Dublin.”
Nora pursed her lips, trying and failing to hold back a smile. “We have some in the closet. They might fit you.”
The grin on my fiery friend’s face was contagious. “I’ll make them fit even if they don’t.”
I nodded in agreement. “If you’re both going, I am too.”
Maeve linked her arm through mine as we followed the keeper to the hall. “Of course, you are. We’ll need you to warn us of wraiths.”
Nora halted as she reached the hall cupboard and whirled around. “Wraiths? Is that what you said?”
The low, ominous timbre of her voice stilled Maeve and left me with a shiver. My friend glanced at me with a guilty look full of worry. I reassured her with a shake of my head. “It’s okay. Nora knows what I am.”
I slid my gaze to the keeper, carefully watching her eyes. “Though maybe she doesn’t know everything I can do.”
The older woman’s brows shot higher up her forehead, and I continued. “From the look on your face, I assume you know the creature I’m talking about.”
She nodded slowly. “I’ve never spotted one. I don’t have the eyes for it, though there have been times my gut told me I was in the presence of something unworldly and dark. Of course, I left immediately.”
I held her gaze. “That’s very similar to what I feel too.”
The keeper narrowed her eyes. “But you’ve seen them? That’s something most don’t. Only guardians and a few others.”
The urge to run crept through me, but I could no longer hide from what I was. “I guess I’m one of those few.”
She lifted her chin. “I suppose you are, hun.” Seconds ticked past, and her expression lightened as she studied me. “I’m glad to say we’re friends and not enemies then.”
Maeve laughed, dispelling the rest of my angst. “Let’s grab our stuff and go before the ghostie decides to leave.”
The entire time I was stuffing my feet into wellies and my arms through my coat sleeves, I wondered if we’d lost our minds, chasing after a ghost in the pouring rain while a wraith could breach the Veil at any time.
If I was still the person I’d been in Washington, I would have stayed home. But this new version of me held a curiosity that seemed to have no end.
I wasn’t a helpless woman with no way to defend myself. I could detect breaches and sense things that came through. Plus, out of everything I’d encountered so far, a ghost was the least of my worries.
The keeper was dressed for the weather and waiting at the kitchen door when we returned out of breath from excitement and hurrying. My pulse thrummed with unexpected anticipation. “This will be an adventure.”
Maeve nodded happily. “Grand craic for sure.”
The fierce wind and rain hit us the moment we stepped outside.
It felt like pinpricks, steady and cold against my cheeks, sharp with the smell of saturated ground.
We crossed the grass behind the house in a row of three.
Once we reached the base of the garden wall, Nora took the lead, keeping to a narrow strip of firmer ground, one only she could see.
Maeve turned on her phone’s flashlight, which illuminated little because of the rain. But at least I could see my feet.
The route wound deeper into the thick trees, and I was surprised when we reached a path of flat stones, worn smooth by years of use. I’d expected to encounter boggy land the entire way. “You didn’t mention an actual path. How long has it been here?”
“As long as I have,” Nora said. “Beyond that, I cannot say.”
Maeve glanced at me and shrugged.
The trees closed overhead, and the rain softened to a muffled drip through the canopy. The oaks blocked much of the wind, too, but still brought the scent of moss and wet bark and the cold mineral scent of the lake somewhere beyond the trees.
The path narrowed, and Maeve moved close behind me, her breaths reaching out to me. Now and then, the wind whistled through the trees, leaving me with an eerie chill.
I wasn’t afraid of typical predators. There weren’t mountain lions or bears in Ireland. But it was the unseen things that kept me on guard.
After perhaps ten minutes of tromping through the damp forest, the path curved and then opened. Maeve patted my shoulder. “This isn’t far from the abbey.”
I was supposed to be the one who was good with spaces, not my sweet friend. I frowned and glanced over my shoulder. “How can you tell?”
“I sense it. Can’t you?”
I couldn’t. But before I could respond, Nora chimed in. “Maeve is correct. It’s a few paces to the left of us.”
I glanced in the direction I thought it should be, but I could see little in the dark. As much as I hated to admit it, my inability to sense the abbey bothered me, made me question my ward witch power. Perhaps the rain hindered me.
The lake became visible, its surface broken by rain into rings that expanded, overlapped, and disappeared. The reeds at the water’s edge bent toward the wind.
We stopped when we reached the shoreline, our breaths slowing as we searched for the ghostly apparition. The space between the trees on both sides was empty. There was nothing pale between them. No shape, no stillness, no light that didn’t belong.
Maeve exhaled her disappointment. “Either we were seeing things, or she’s gone.”
“She never stays long, hun,” Nora said. “I’ve tried many times to get closer and failed. Perhaps one day.”