Della grabbed at Lucas’s coat and hauled him back from the edge with all her might. Years of archaeological excavations had made her strong, but Lucas weighed more than she did, and he was holding on to Sebastian. She planted her legs in a wide fencer’s stance, hoping the unseen attacker she had managed to shove away wouldn’t renew its attack.
She managed to pull Lucas back a few inches. Something pushed her at the small of her back, but her stance kept her from falling over.
She did have to stop pulling for a second. The two men were still helplessly stuck far too close to the edge. Della felt something grasp the front of her coat and looked with startled amazement as her coat pulled forward in two spots. She could even see the imprint of fingers.
Cassandra’s and Richard’s voices shouted out something in unison. Della caught a fragment of Medieval Latin, something about opening the path. She was a little too preoccupied at the moment to decipher dead languages.
The invisible fingers on her raincoat let go, the material falling back against her chest. Della grabbed Lucas by the belt with one hand and the collar with the other and gave another long pull.
Half lifting him, she dragged him back several feet, the two men still gripping each other’s wrists, Sebastian helping by scrabbling with his feet until they were safely away from the slope.
The two men let go of each other and scrambled farther away from the rock bridge. Della followed, only to be stopped short by an invisible blow to her gut.
She doubled over, coughing and clutching her middle.
A strong hand gripped her wrist and spun her around to face the natural bridge. She saw a flicker of shadows in front of her, one of which was connected to her wrist. Della planted her feet and willed the shadows away.
No use. Her arm got wrenched so hard it felt like it might come out of its socket, and she stumbled forward.
Straight for the edge.
“No!” she shouted.
The beings flickered into view. Della screamed.
They were the same squat figures in rough homespun and red caps that she had seen in her dream and in her vision in the car coming from the airport.
Trolls.
But these were no longer dreams, no longer visions. Grinning with glee, they danced and capered as the one that had her by the wrist hauled her with unnatural strength toward her death.
Della leaned backward, playing tug of war with her own arm. The thing holding her gave her a hateful glare and pulled harder. Her boots skidded on the wet ground as, inch by inch, it pulled her to the edge.
She was not going to win this fight. Time for a change of tactics.
Summoning her will, she swung her free arm at the troll, fist clenched.
The thing winked out of view, as did all the others.
And Della realized she had fallen for a trick.
Because the motion of punching combined with suddenly being let go made her stumble forward, her body tipping, her feet slipping, and she knew she was going to go over.
Until she got pulled back at the last instant.
Sebastian.
Before he could lead her more than two steps to safety, the trolls reappeared in a ring all around them. Lucas was on the ground struggling with several more of them. Cassandra and Richard stood nearby chanting in Latin but could hardly be seen. It was as if a curtain of gauze had been lowered between them. Their images were hard to discern, their voices all but muted. Della sensed that whatever spell they were trying to cast, it would not work—or at least not work in time.
They were alone.
The trolls moved in.
“Go away!” Sebastian screamed, lashing out against the nearest one.
Della did not expect what happened next.
Sebastian hit the thing square on the jaw. There was a loud crack, and blood spouted from its mouth as it spun and fell.
Her ex turned and struck another one in the face, sending it toppling backward. He swung at a third one, but only met air.
They had all vanished. The dark gauze had lifted.
That was the only incentive they needed to run full speed away from the natural bridge.
The others joined them without a word, and they hurried down the slope to where the path ran between two broad fields. No cliffs, no slope leading to oblivion. Safety.
Sebastian collapsed, falling into a seated position facing back the way they had come, eyes searching for invisible attackers. Della and the others stopped. Her lungs burned, and her stomach and wrist were still sore from where the trolls had attacked her.
Sebastian sat panting on the ground, his face shining with damp. Della figured that it was more sweat than rain.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded.
“Proof that all this is real,” she said.
Sebastian swore, wiped his brow, and looked at the ground. A moment later, he looked around at each of them, perhaps hoping someone would contradict her.
“To be more precise,” Cassandra said, “those were guardian spirits set up to bar our way.”
“Spirits?” Sebastian almost shrieked.
“Like the ones you fought in my apartment,” Della said. “And you fought them again here.”
Her ex shook his head. “I… don’t know how I did that.”
Richard crouched next to him. “I’m not sure either. It appears you have a considerable affinity for magic, but it only comes out when you are in mortal danger.”
He helped Sebastian up.
“Well don’t put me in any more mortal danger!”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” Richard said, patting him on the shoulder. “We have to forge ahead. It was your idea to come here in the first place.”
“No, it wasn’t. It was… I mean, yes.”
Della looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing. I’m all shook up. Ignore me. In fact, leave me alone and let me go back to Oxford.” He turned toward the path to town.
“Sorry, we need you,” Richard said. He hooked an arm through his. “Come on.”
“We’re not going back there!”
“The spirits are gone,” Cassandra said. “You banished them. The path is safe now.”
“You must be joking,” Sebastian said.
“I felt them move back to their plane of existence,” Richard said.
Della wasn’t convinced either. “Are you sure?”
Richard put a hand on his shoulder. “Look, Sebastian. You need to gain confidence in your power. Now that you’ve seen the reality in which you live, the real reality, you need to understand it. There’s nothing more dangerous to be than someone attuned to the hidden world who doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’ve seen a lot of people go mad or get killed doing that. It even happens to experienced occultists who get in over their heads.”
Della remembered Cassandra’s warning on the ferry and trembled.
“I don’t want this,” Sebastian said, trying to pull away.
“I know you don’t. But it’s real, and it’s part of your life now. We don’t have time to explain everything to you, just that we need to get to that house and discover what’s going on or everyone, and I do mean everyone, might die. And no amount of willful ignorance will save you.”
Sebastian looked at Della, perhaps hoping that she, who had always been so practical and rooted in the regular world, would contradict Richard. Instead, she only nodded grimly.
“Look,” Richard said. “You stand back, and I’ll walk across the rock bridge first. That way you’ll see it’s safe.”
Sebastian did not look convinced. He did, however, allow himself to be led back up the slope to within view of the spot where they had been attacked.
Letting go of Sebastian, Richard began to step forward. Della joined him.
“Nice of you to volunteer,” Richard said with a smile.
“Nobody else did,” Della said in a low voice.
“Lucas can’t sense the spirits are gone, and Cassandra is holding back, hoping to be the reassuring woman who will finally get Sebastian interested.”
“You haven’t told her about his orientation.”
“Where’s the fun in that? Neither have you, I see.”
Della chuckled. Her friend had a knack for making tough situations feel easier.
But a bit of banter couldn’t keep her heart from pounding as they approached the rock bridge. Her eyes darted in every direction, as if she could see the unseen things that might still lurk there.
“Did you see them?” she asked.
“Vaguely. The important thing is I don’t sense them now.”
Neither did Della, although she still didn’t trust her instincts when it came to this stuff. It was like being asked to race in the Indy 500 right after getting her learner’s permit.
“They looked like trolls from some folklore book.”
“Genius loci, taking on the appearance that your mind has projected onto them. It’s the reason people in the Middle Ages saw angels and nowadays we see aliens.”
“I’d take an alien over one of those things.”
“Careful. They might probe you.”
“Shut up.”
Richard’s banter got them all the way to the natural bridge, at which point Della slowed, her guts growing cold. She pulled back her sleeve and saw her wrist was beginning to bruise.
“Steady,” Richard said.
They stepped out on the bridge. In any other situation, it would be beautiful—a stony arch over a deep gorge with foaming waves, seagulls cawing overhead, the sea stretching out to one side with a flash of sunlight breaking through distant clouds. To Della, it only looked like a trap.
They stepped onto it. Della’s senses were as sharp as a razor’s edge. The muted colors of the rainy landscape looked clear and bright. The surf and birdcalls sounded overly loud. Even the smell of the sea was strong in her nostrils.
And yet she felt nothing beyond the ordinary.
They walked in silence. The rock bridge was only twenty meters or so long, and before they knew it, they were across.
Richard sighed. “I need a drink.” He turned and motioned the others over. Lucas came next. Cassandra put a hand on Sebastian’s arm, but he shrugged her off, motioned for her to wait, and walked over alone.
“Good boy,” Richard said under his breath.
Cassandra came last, looking not entirely reassured that the others had made it over safely.
Once they were all gathered at a safe distance from the bridge, they took a breather. The rain continued unabated, but foul weather was the last thing on their minds.
“So why did those things attack us?” Sebastian asked.
“Perhaps they were guarding the natural bridge,” Lucas said.
Sebastian shook his head. “The bridge was on the tourist website. It’s one of this island’s few attractions. Those things can’t have been chucking every country walker into the sea.”
“No, only those with magical ability approaching the mage’s house with ill intent,” Cassandra said.
Sebastian cocked his head. “Ill intent?”
“We do intend to break in, don’t we?” Cassandra asked.
“Yes, I suppose that’s on the agenda,” Sebastian said with a sigh. “But it’s not as if some spirit could detect that.”
Della had to smile. Her poor ex had no idea what he had gotten into.
They carried on. The house stood over the next rise.
At first sight, it looked unremarkable, a low stone structure with a slate roof. It did look older than most of the houses they had seen on the islands, probably an early crofter’s cottage. It had a single story and an attic under the gable roof. Perhaps a cellar, although Della certainly wasn’t going to volunteer to explore that. It was only on a second look that some unusual elements became noticeable.
Firstly, there was no road to it, only a rutted muddy track. The only visible road cut across the next valley, nearly a kilometer away. No vehicle was parked outside. The windows were boarded up. There was no garden, no ornamentation, nothing. Della got the impression of an abandoned movie set.
“MacHugh wasn’t much on home decoration,” Della said.
“He was a true recluse, from what I’ve heard,” Richard said. “I never met the man. In fact, I’ve never met anyone who met him. Montague only took his postal orders. The chap didn’t even have internet.”
“So how do we do this?” Della asked, looking around. The terrain was open grassland or farmer’s fields, utterly treeless. While there were only a few houses, and none nearby, they were completely visible to anyone who bothered to look.
Lucas was studying his map again. “According to this, the trail continues past his house on the seaward side, sticking close to the cliff.” He was interrupted by a groan from Sebastian. “We can continue to pretend we’re country walkers and go along the path. It will get us close to his house, and we can see what to do from there.”
“Country walkers out in the rain in Orkney in winter?” Cassandra asked.
Lucas shrugged. Cassandra didn’t suggest any better ideas. Della couldn’t think of any either.
As the map promised, the path kept them within a few meters of the cliff. Della watched the house as they approached. All the ground floor windows were boarded up. Only a little attic window under the gable still had its glass uncovered. The front door had a chain and padlock on it, and someone had stuck a red-and-white No Trespassing notice on it.
“So, do you think MacHugh put those trolls on the bridge?” she asked.
Immediately after the words came out of her mouth, she cringed and glanced at Sebastian. She still wasn’t used to saying seemingly ridiculous statements like that.
Sebastian, though, only trudged along, looking at the ground and lost in his thoughts.
“I don’t think so,” Richard said. “Any wards he placed would have been on the house. It would have taken quite a lot of power to put such spirits on the bridge and all other approaches. As you can see, people can come at this house from any direction. We just chose the most dangerous. No, there’s something else going on.”
“Something to do with that taint in the ley lines?”
“Perhaps, although there are none through this island. I find that curious.”
“Curious as in you can’t explain it?”
“Curious as in there are so many possible explanations, both the ones I know and the ones I don’t, that there’s no point trying to theorize at the moment.”
Della glanced at Cassandra, who gave a resigned nod. As much as Della disliked the rich girl, she did know as much about these things as Richard, and far more than anyone else in the group.
Della allowed herself an ironic smile. So the occultists were using a bit of the scientific method, waiting until they had more evidence before trying to come up with a conclusion. When she had first been introduced to this strange world, she had not expected that sort of logical thinking about illogical things.
Keeping to the path, they got as close as they could to the house. With the house now between them and much of the surrounding countryside, they felt confident moving to the near side of the house without too much chance of someone spotting them. Della kept glancing up at that little window beneath the eaves, half expecting to see an ugly face wearing a red cap leering down on them.
This side had one ground floor window, boarded up like the rest. Della wondered if this was where the last burglars had tried to get in.
Those two locals had been spotted, and now here they were, a whole group of strangers in broad daylight trying to do the same thing.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Della said.
Sebastian put a hand on her shoulder and quietly said, “You’re right. Let them go in if they want to. Stay out here with me.”
She looked around again. The rain had eased, and the clear spot out to sea had grown closer, increasing visibility. She didn’t see anyone watching them, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t.
Richard and Lucas didn’t seem worried. They moved to the boards, and Lucas pulled a claw hammer out of his pocket.
“Do you always go on trips with a hammer?” Sebastian asked.
“Not until recently.”
It only took a few seconds to pry the board off its wooden frame.
“This is illegal,” Sebastian whispered to Della.
“There are larger issues at stake.”
Lucas tried the window, found it locked, and pulled out a slim piece of metal. With it, he was able to flip the catch and open the window. He then pushed it up. Richard made a step out of his hands and helped Lucas climb through. Lucas immediately reappeared and grabbed Richard’s arm, pulling him up.
Sebastian looked appalled. “Do these two make a regular habit of this sort of thing?”
“Sadly, yes,” Richard said over his shoulder as he wormed through the window. “Lucas is quite the handyman.”
Lucas reappeared again, holding his hand out to Della. Over Sebastian’s objections, she crawled through the window.
None of them expected what they found in there.