El and Ash crept to the left, along the side of the house, pausing to peer cautiously around the corner.
“I can’t see them,” Ash confessed, pulling his t-shirt off as he spoke.
For a moment, El couldn’t work out what he was doing, and quite frankly was trying not to be distracted by his muscled chest. She kept her eyes fixed firmly on his face, reflecting that actually Reuben’s physique was more than a match, which made her feel a little smug.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Flying, of course.”
In a flash, enormous wings erupted from his shoulders, and El blinked with shock. While she knew the Nephilim had wings, and had seen them from a distance, she had never been so close before.
“Holy crap. They’re impressive.” Ash’s wings were a beautiful golden brown, or at least they appeared to be in the moonlight.
“Thanks,” he said, with a knowing smile. “I’m sure I’ll spot them from up there. I’ll keep an eye on you, too.”
“You won’t need to,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “But thanks, and good luck.”
She watched Ash soar upwards, and then kept heading left towards the far corner of the house. Greenlane Manor has been added to over the years, so that although the main building was medieval, there were other, more modern additions, and by that she meant Elizabethan and Victorian, giving the building odd angles and a quirky layout.
For a few minutes, she couldn’t see a single ghost, not even in the distance, and was beginning to think they were either at the nursery, or that the sword wasn’t working. And then up ahead, in a small courtyard edged with service rooms, she spied a couple of ghosts looking as real as she did. Well, sort of. They were blinking in and out like a weak signal, and El realised they were trying to pass through the walls of the house, but were being blocked by the protection spell. The section of wall shimmered with each attempted breach, and she grinned. Their spells had worked.
Without hesitating, she ran, sword raised. Before they were aware of her presence, she attacked from behind, slashing across the back of one, and then as he turned, fury etched onto his ravaged face, she slashed across his belly too, before plunging the blade in. With an unearthly shriek, the spirit completely vanished. But before she could attack the second, it charged her, tackling her to the ground and raising its knife. El punched out with a ball of fire and air, knocking it backwards, and then while it was spread-eagled against the wall behind, plunged the sword into his stomach.
A whirl of activity in her peripheral vision caught her attention, and she spun around in time to see another spirit run at her from the old stables. He was short but stocky, with a full, dirty beard and ragged clothing. He hurled a knife at her and she swatted it away with magic, and then he pulled a nasty-looking sword from its scabbard. With a leering grin he rasped at her, his strong, Cornish accent and old dialect making him almost impossible to understand.
“So, young maid, ye seek to fight old Tom Trenary? I’ll give ye a fight ye won’t forget.” He swished the blade in front of him, daring her.
For a moment, El was tempted to blast him away with magic like she had the other two.
But this could be fun.
She returned his grin and raised her sword. “All right, old man. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Alex gazed at the hoard of gold, coins, and jewellery in the chests they had broken apart, and couldn’t stop his mouth from falling open. He couldn’t believe that after all their speculation they had actually found treasure.
“By the Gods! This is worth a small fortune!”
Avery dipped her hands into one of them, like a cup, and lifted out a pile of golden guineas, her eyes wide with excitement. “Wow. Actual pirate treasure!”
They had thrown several witch-lights up, and the gold and jewels glittered in their light.
“We have to declare this.”
“Not yet, we don’t. Not until we’ve solved this.” She dropped the coins back in the chest. “This is what Miles was searching for.”
“And was killed for—by the spriggans guarding it.”
“So, why is this still here?”
“Miles was looking on his own,” Alex said. “That’s the only reasonable explanation.”
Avery shook her head, looking perplexed. “Maybe whoever is involved is planning to come back for it. After all, they took the treasure from Looe, despite the fact that there’s a spriggan there.”
“Maybe. I still think we’re missing something.” Alex walked over to the casks, pulled a bung out and sniffed, before recoiling. “Christ. That smells rancid. I presume it was brandy.”
“And these,” Avery said, crouching by the rotten bundles of cloth, “would have been silks and fine linens.” She lifted a few pieces, but they disintegrated quickly. She stood, wiping her hands on her jeans. “What a waste.”
Alex started pacing. “Originally, these must have been hidden with the plan to come back to claim them later, and something stopped them. Either they were caught, or killed.”
“Maybe they were caught by Reuben and Caspian’s ancestors’ spell.”
Alex nodded, his thoughts racing with scenarios. “We’re getting closer to working this out, I’m sure, but I don’t think we should leave these here.”
“Agreed.” Avery looked thoughtfully around the space. “Why did Miles get attacked? The fact that he was killed by the spriggans suggests that he must have been either in here or close by. But the entrance above was sealed. He could not have got in here that way. The stone is far too heavy for him to have shifted alone, and it looked undisturbed.”
Alex nodded. “He could have come in through the pool below, but he wasn’t wet, either.”
In their excitement at seeing the chests and casks, they hadn’t explored the rest of the place, and now Alex’s gaze swept around the room. It was definitely manmade, constructed from huge stone blocks, with a low, beamed ceiling, and the floor was beaten earth. It definitely felt like a cellar. The far side of the place was still in shadows, and sending a witch-light ahead of him, Alex walked over, flashing his torch across the walls, and finding a narrow doorway.
He called over his shoulder, “Avery, there’s another room.”
Alex proceeded cautiously. Beyond was a series of small, connected rooms, mostly empty except for some disintegrating wood. They were swathed in cobwebs, and as he walked, dust kicked up around them. When he finally reached the end, he found a narrow stone staircase leading to a hatch in the ceiling.
He turned to Avery, who had followed him. “There’s the way out.” He ascended the stairs and pushed the hatch upwards, but it didn’t budge. “It’s sealed.”
“We could try to move it with magic,” she suggested. “But, if it’s covered with earth or rock, or even another building—”
Alex sighed. “We’d be crushed. Damn it.” He studied it for a few more moments before heading to Avery’s side. “I guess we’ll just have to accept that it’s sealed. It’s certainly been undisturbed for years. The dust hasn’t moved, and the cobwebs are thick. There’s no way Miles came in this way.”
“Come on.” Avery grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the main room. “I’ll use witch-flight to get these chests to my van, and then we’ll seal the entrance again.”
“And then I suppose we should release the spriggans,” Alex said. “Let’s hope they don’t decide to follow us outside, or that will be a whole other level of crap to deal with.”
El was working up a sweat. Tom Trenary may be old, and a ghost, but he was reasonably adept with the sword. Fortunately, El had youth on her side. Tom, however, was mean. And their fight was drawing attention.
While they circled, parried, and attacked, the clash of their swords drew two more ghosts, and El had the feeling they were waiting to swoop in if Tom lost, ready to end her. She was surprised they hadn’t already. As if he’d read her mind, Tom leered at her and gave an almost imperceptible nod to their observers. He unleashed a furious attack designed to absorb all her attention, and the other two swept in on either side.
If Tom was willing to play dirty, so was she. Still fighting, El released a wave of power and it pulsed out around her, sweeping back all three ghosts and sending them crashing against the surrounding walls. Then more ghosts arrived, fire and malevolence burning deep within their empty eye sockets, and she realised she was hemmed in.
Fortunately, within seconds Ash landed next to her, and without hesitating they tackled them all in a messy, brutal fight. Ash used his wings to sweep the spirits either out of the way or to herd them into tight spots, and then finished them off with the sword, while El used magic to compliment her blade. The spirits, however, flashed in and out, disappearing and reappearing seconds later in concerted attacks. For a few minutes it felt as if they might be overwhelmed, but the combination of wings, magic, and the swords gave them the upper hand. Eventually it was over, and the ghosts were despatched by the Empusa’s swords to whatever grim fate befell them.
Ash turned to her, breathless. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interfere, but it looked too much fun not to.”
She laughed. “Apology accepted. I’m just glad I managed to wipe the smile off Tom Trenary’s face. And besides, taking on so many all on my own was probably a bit much.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, taking her in from head to toe. “You seemed to be doing just fine.”
She returned his scrutiny, determined not to be outdone by a Nephilim. “You, too! I guess we better make sure there are no others lurking around here.”
Ash folded his wings behind his back and led the way out of the courtyard and further around the house. “There was no activity by the nursery, and besides, simple damage seems pointless, especially when you consider that both Caspian and Reuben are rich.”
“But why the concerted attack?” El asked, confused. “Is it really just about revenge?”
“Revenge is always a powerful motive.”
A loud explosion broke the silence of the night. They both froze, looking at each other in shock, and then El ran towards the noise, and Ash flew. As El rounded the corner at the far end of the house, she saw a plume of smoke and flames.
What the hell?
The explosion had blown a huge hole in the wall, and another half a dozen ghosts were swarming inside. Ash was already swooping down, and he grabbed one, while striking down another. El charged in, killing the one at the rear, before being caught in a powerful blast of magic that came from inside the house, propelling them all backwards. At the same time, roots exploded out of the ground like writhing limbs.
El flew through the air, landing in a heap on the ground, heavily winded, and the Empusa’s sword fell from her hand. She dragged herself to her feet, panic stricken. The spirits had faded to shimmering, barely-there shapes. She lunged at the sword, getting a hand on it just as a spirit rushed at her. As soon as her hand touched the hilt she could see it clearly again, and she angled the sword upwards, impaling the ghost as it leapt. It slid down the blade, pinning her in place until it vanished with an anguished scream.
The roots snaked through the air, trying to pin the spirits in place, but it was difficult. They moved constantly, manifesting elsewhere in the blink of an eye, trying to avoid the thrashing roots that managed to spear a couple of them, shattering bones like glass. Ash and El waded among them, ducking and dodging, finally finishing them off with the swords.
When the last one vanished, Ash and El waited, swords readied, El not quite believing that it was over. She looked at the destruction all around them. The earth was a churned-up mess of roots and fallen masonry, and a ten-foot hole had been blown in the house.
Reuben.
Her heart in her mouth, El was about to run inside when he appeared in the gap, flanked by Caspian and Briar. His hands were on his hips as he surveyed the mess, and he pursed his lips at El and Ash. “That’s the last time I let you two out to safeguard the house.”
Avery and Alex sat in the Bedford van, down the street from Ethan James’s house, and Avery yawned, struggling to keep her eyes open.
“I’m knackered now.”
“Let’s just give it another half an hour,” Alex said, checking his watch. “But I doubt we’ll see much tonight.”
Avery leaned back in her seat and chewed her lip, mulling over the recent events. “Ethan must have found a map in the White Haven Museum papers. That’s the only explanation.”
“We don’t even know if it is Ethan yet.” Alex shuffled to get himself more comfortable. “Or if it is, who else is involved. Or the identity of the witch who must be helping them.”
“I’d love to know where the museum papers came from.”
“Does it matter?”
“I guess not,” she admitted with a sigh.
“They were probably donated years ago, which is why they’ve been gathering dust. But you’d think people check what they donate!”
“We get donated items, remember?” Avery said, shaking her head. “Or I buy books from house clearances. People don’t look at what’s in there. Not really. What’s puzzling me, if it is him, is why would a very respectable museum curator turn into a thief?”
“Turn to the dark side, you mean?”
She giggled. “Yes. Surely cataloguing all of that stuff and having it in your museum would be huge!”
“Selling it on the black market would be bigger.”
“Only if you have connections. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“I reckon museum curators would know all about it. Even from the position of trying to stop it. He’d know more than we think.”
The sound of a door shutting stopped their conversation, and they both froze, watching the end of the drive ahead. Avery used the binoculars, watching a slight figure wearing jeans and a hoodie emerge on to the road, the hood pulled over their head. They crossed the road, heading to a car parked on the opposite side, facing them, and Avery and Alex slid down in their seats, Avery grateful they had used their shadow spell again.
The figure looked furtively to either side. It wasn’t until they passed under a streetlight that Avery got a glimpse of their face, and she groaned as their suspicions were confirmed.
It was Mariah, the head of the Looe Coven.