by TJ Green
Alex’s anger was building. “I knew we should have banished her! I’m going to do it—tonight!”
“No!” Avery turned to him, alarmed, her hand restraining his arm. “I think she was in trouble!”
“She attacked you!” Alex had always been frustrated by Avery’s inexplicable loyalty to Helena. He understood family ties, but she had tried to kill Avery. “We can’t trust her!”
Her mouth was set in a stubborn line. “But she’s helped us, too—you know that! And besides, she wasn’t attacking me.”
“How could you possibly tell that in a split-second?”
Briar had joined them, and she shot Alex a warning look before speaking in her gentle, reasonable tone. “Why do you say that, Avery? I think we’re all a bit confused right now.”
Avery took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “I think there was something else there with her. Did you hear the shout?”
Alex met Briar’s worried gaze and glanced at the others, who all shook their head. “No, we didn’t,” he said. “What did it say?”
“Nothing! It was just a scream, or a cry,” Avery said crossly, “and I’m pretty sure it was female. What if she’s in trouble?”
At that moment, Dylan came running, the EMF meter in one hand and his camera in the other. He thrust the meter at Ben. “Quick, we might get residual readings!” He took in their tense faces. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing but confusion,” Alex said, resigned. “Whatever you can get will be great.” He turned to Avery, knowing she was annoyed with him. “Come on, let’s sit and talk while these guys do their thing.”
“Yeah!” Shadow said. She and Cassie were now striding around the seating area, collecting coins. “Let’s talk about these, too!”
Newton rubbed his face with his hands, his mood clearly growing grim. “Not me, I’m afraid. I have to go. There’s been a death in Fowey—a suspiciously paranormal one, obviously.”
Not something else, Alex thought as he asked, “How weird this time?”
“A body was found on the beach just beside the town, close to the mouth of the estuary.” Newton’s mouth was set in a thin line. “Every bone in his body was broken. Every one! That’s not normal!”
Briar frowned. “But the cliffs are high there. He could have fallen. Surely that would explain it?”
“Maybe, but I have a feeling there’s more to it.” Newton looked at everyone’s tense faces. “I hate to leave after this, but I can’t wait. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me about this. Is there a witch based there?”
Alex shook his head. “No, but Oswald and Mariah are close. I suggest dealing with Oswald, if you need to. He’s a good man.”
“But we’re happy to help,” El said quickly. “Fowey is really not that far.”
Newton nodded. “Thanks, but perhaps you’ve already got your hands full.” He met Alex’s eyes, a knowing look in them. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Alex watched him go, a sinking feeling already settling into the pit of his stomach, and then encouraged Avery into a chair, the others sitting next to them, while Ben and Dylan started their investigation.
“All right,” Alex said, forcing himself to be patient. “What did you think you saw?”
“I didn’t see anything—I felt something. Something malevolent.”
“A demon?” El asked.
“No, I don’t think so. Although, it was sort of portal-like.”
“A spirit, then,” Reuben said, catching Alex’s eye.
“Maybe.” Avery looked frustrated. “I couldn’t tell. It was just the feeling of something—and Helena’s face. But she didn’t look evil, or mean. If anything, she was appealing to me.”
“But you only saw her for a moment!” Alex reminded her.
“That was enough!” Avery told him. “And we haven’t seen her for weeks! Not since before Beltane. I’ve actually been worried about her. Where has she gone?”
Sally shook her head as she clutched her wine like her life depended on it. “Do you need to worry about Helena? She’s a spirit.”
“Yes!” Avery said forcefully. “She’s my relative, and she could still be influenced by other spirits!”
“Okay!” Sally held her hand up, palm outwards. “Just a question!”
Alex looked at Avery, surprised. Something had touched a nerve with her tonight. She wasn’t normally this tetchy. “Maybe I should try and summon her, see what I can find. Not tonight, obviously, but tomorrow? If you think she’s in trouble, then I’m willing to help her. I guess I could consider entering the spirit realm, if I can’t summon her.”
Avery smiled at him, and he felt his heart catch. “Would you? That would be great!”
“Whoa!” Reuben said, alarmed. “If there’s something malevolent, you need to be careful, mate! You shouldn’t walk in there alone. I could help.”
Alex shook his head. “No, it’s easier on my own, and I’m pretty good at this. No offence to you, but you’re not as comfortable with the spirit realm as me.”
“I could be your anchor, here.”
Alex had often used the other witches for their power, and to ground himself while he communicated with spirits. “Okay, let me think it through and I’ll let you know.”
“And now,” Shadow said, a clutch of coins in her hand. “What about these?”
El reached over and took one from her. “Gold coins! Wow. These look old. Are they English?”
Shadow shrugged. “They’re not fey!”
“Unfortunately,” Cassie said, holding one up to the firelight, “I know nothing about coins, but these must be valuable.”
She started passing them around until they all had one.
“How many have you found?” Dan asked, squinting at his coin.
Cassie and Shadow did a quick count, and Cassie said, “We’re pretty much all holding one—about a dozen. Not many.”
“We should take these to an expert,” Dan suggested. “Get them valued, and maybe find out some history on them.”
Shadow shook her head. “Oh, no. You’d have to declare them and everything! How are you going to explain that they came from some weird, ghostly portal?”
Dan’s face fell. “Good point. Is there someone we can trust?”
El grinned. “Dante! He might know. And if he doesn’t, we’ll rethink.”
“He owns a forge! That doesn’t make him a coin expert,” Reuben pointed out.
“But he studied art history, and worked in a museum, a million years ago,” El said. “It’s worth asking him.”
Briar had fallen silent as she examined her coin, but she finally spoke. “I think the most important question is, why are they here? Are they a warning to us? A clue to finding Helena? Or something else entirely?” She looked at them all one by one, as the whine of the EMF meter finally fell silent. “What has the power to carry a physical object in the spirit realm and then eject it? Whatever these mean, it isn’t good.”
Ben and Dylan joined them, Ben looking grim. “I agree with you, Briar. I may only be picking up residual energy patterns, but they’re strong. I’ll analyse them properly tomorrow, though.”
“What about you?” Alex asked Dylan. “Anything in thermal imaging?”
“Nothing,” he said, looking disappointed. “But again, I’ll look properly tomorrow. Maybe we should take a coin—run that through some tests, too.”
“Great idea,” Alex said, passing him his. “And now I think I need a beer. I’m hoping that’s the end of our excitement for the night!”
Reuben laughed. “Yeah. This time last year we were battling demons. I really hope we’re not in for a repeat of that.”
“True.” Avery looked as if she was starting to relax, and she leaned back in her chair and sipped her wine. “We were still hunting for our grimoires then.”
“And Newton hated us!” Reuben reminded her.
“And we,” Dan said, gesturing to include Sally, “had no idea how powerful your magic was. This year has been quite t
he ride! And tonight, Avery,” he said looking at her pointedly, “was quite the demonstration!”
“Sorry.” She looked chastened. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It was instinctive.”
He smiled. “That’s okay. I’d rather you did that than get injured. What we all need after a nasty shock is sugar. Didn’t you say you’d made some cake, Sally?”
Sally groaned. “Some things do not change. Yes, I did. It’s on the table.”
“Allow me,” he said, leaping to his feet as he headed to get everyone a slice, and Alex was suddenly very grateful for Dan’s affability.
Alex took a deep breath, relieved that some normality seemed to be descending on their evening again. But nevertheless, he couldn’t really relax now, and neither could anyone else. An air of watchfulness had settled on them all, and expectation. And what about Newton’s dead body? Alex feared that whatever had happened tonight was just the beginning.
Chapter 3
Newton looked at the body at his feet and inwardly groaned. Christ. The man was smashed to a pulp. It didn’t look as if there was a single bone in his body that wasn’t broken.
Moore’s deep voice rumbled next to him. “A few kids spotted it while they gathered firewood.” He gestured to where the remnants of a fire smouldered a short distance away among the rocks at the back of the beach.
“Bloody hell. How old?”
“Mid-teens. At least they weren’t younger.”
“Could the fall have done this?” he asked, studying the cliff top above them.
“I doubt it…not unless he bounced off every single rock on the way down.”
Newton grimaced as he crouched to examine the dead body. The man’s limbs were splayed awkwardly, and his head was an odd shape, partially crushed on one side. Newton had a hard stomach, but he could feel his recently eaten food rising and he quickly stood and took some deep breaths. “Who was first on scene?”
“PC Marshall.” He gestured to the officer on the edge of the beach a few minutes’ walk away, where the path led from the car park. “The kids were good. They called it in and said they hadn’t touched the body.”
“Are they the ones I saw on the car park?” Newton had parked and headed to the crime scene quickly, nodding to Inez who was talking to three boys.
“Yeah. Coroner and SOCO will be here soon.”
“I thought they’d have been here before me.”
Moore ran his hand through his red hair. “Saturday night. There was a stabbing in Helston.”
Newton nodded, distracted. “Any ID?”
“I waited for you.”
Moore had recently been promoted to sergeant and seemed wary of overstepping his bounds, which was unusual. Most newly promoted officers couldn’t wait to flex their new powers. Newton pulled his gloves from his pocket and, crouching again, felt in the man’s pockets, finally pulling a wallet free. He quickly found the driver’s license.
“Miles Anderson, twenty-eight years old, with what looks like a Carlyon Bay address.”
Moore frowned. “Not far from home, then.”
Carlyon Bay was about 15 minutes from Fowey. He could have been there visiting friends, or a girlfriend. “We need to search along the cliff top,” Newton said, quickly assessing their options. “Let’s see if there’s any sign of a struggle.” Newton squinted up again, but it was too dark to see anything. “The light will be poor. Is the coastal path close?”
“I think it’s set further back from the cliff top at this point,” Moore speculated, “but I’m not sure. It could be hazardous now. St Catherine’s Castle is on that point, too.”
Newton nodded, remembering the ruined castle on the headland. “We shouldn’t wait. We’ll seal off the path and get lights up there so we can start looking straight away.” Every minute lost meant evidence could be lost too.
Moore folded his arms, his face grim. “So, if it’s not an accident, what kind of supernatural creature could do this?”
“It might not be one,” Newton said cautiously.
“Oh, come on, Guv. Have you seen the look on his face? I know he’s badly damaged, but he looks terrified!”
Newton followed the line of Moore’s torch and realised he was right. He hadn’t taken much notice of the man’s expression until now, but his face, what was left of it, was frozen in horror.
“Fair point,” Newton said, nodding. “I have no idea, but I’ll probably consult with our friends on this.”
Moore knew exactly who Newton meant. “Good. They’re useful. Does Inez know much about them?”
“Not yet. Although, I’m sure she suspects,” Newton said. “I suppose I should share their unique abilities with her. She has been on the team a couple of months now.”
Moore laughed. “She suspects, all right. She’s on the team for a reason, Guv.”
“True.” Newton still felt he needed to protect the witches, wanting to keep their abilities known only to a few, but Moore was right. Inez was on the team now, and wasn’t going anywhere. Part of his reticence was to protect himself, too. “I’ll inform her tomorrow.” More torches flashed at the end of the beach, and Newton sighed with relief. “SOCO is here. With a bit of luck, we might get some sleep tonight.”
Alex rolled over in bed the next morning, and grinned. Avery was half-hidden under the duvet, her red hair sprawled across the pillow, snoring softly. He leaned forward and kissed her outstretched arm, and her eyes fluttered before she settled into sleep again.
Avery was not an early riser, especially after a late night, so rather than make her grumpy, he rolled out of bed, pulled his shorts and a t-shirt on, padded across the bedroom, and headed down to the kitchen to make coffee.
Circe and Medea, their two cats, circled his ankles, threatening to trip him up on the stairs, and he hissed at them. “Bloody hell, kitties, if you kill me, you starve!”
As usual they took no notice of him at all, and he fed them first before making his drink. He headed to the balcony, throwing open the French doors to a pale blue cloudless sky, and sat at the small table to enjoy the early sunshine. It was going to be another warm day; there was hardly any wind, and the sea was calm and flat for miles. It was probably already busy on the seafront, despite the early hour. Some of the boats would leave early to take visitors on day trips, depending on the tide. He sighed, wishing he could take the day off, but he had to head to his pub for the afternoon shift, and he had a feeling it would be busy.
Alex put his feet up on the chair opposite him and wondered if they’d hear from Newton today. If the death reported last night was suspicious, what type of creature could break every bone in someone’s body? It was more likely that Briar was right about the fall, but maybe Newton knew something else he hadn’t told them yet. He grabbed his phone and pulled up the local news, seeing that the death had already been reported on, but the coverage was light on details, not surprisingly. The only thing it said was that the victim was a young man.
They had speculated on it the night before after Newton had left, but without any details to go on it had been fruitless. Fortunately, the mysterious swirl of energy that had manifested hadn’t returned, either. They ended up suggesting ridiculous names for the three parapsychologists’ business, before they’d finally all headed home in the early hours of the morning.
His phone rang, jolting him out of his reverie, and he answered it quickly. “Hey, Newton. I guess this is bad news.”
“You could say that. They weren’t joking about this poor guy’s state. He was pulp.” Newton sounded cranky.
Alex groaned as a horrible image entered his mind. “Shit. Not a fall, then?”
“He’d had have to have fallen from a plane to be so injured.”
“Shit,” he repeated, wondering what might follow, because he doubted this would be an isolated incident. “Have you been up all night?”
“No, fortunately, but I’ve been at the station since six this morning.”
“We were talking about it last night,” Alex said as h
e made himself more comfortable, “but have no suggestions as to what could do this, I’m afraid.”
“That’s okay.” Newton sounded distracted and his voice muffled for a moment as he turned away. “Sorry about that. We did find something odd, though. The victim had an old gold coin in his mouth.”
“What? Placed there?”
“I reckon…like a warning.”
Suddenly, Alex wasn’t seeing the view anymore. He was picturing the gold coins that had spread across the gravel in the garden the previous night. “I hate to say this, but two appearances of gold coins in one night is not a coincidence! What kind of coin?”
“A very old one. A doubloon.”
Alex nearly spat his coffee out. “Isn’t that Spanish?”
“Yep. Maybe it’s pirate gold. Don’t ask how it came to be there, because I don’t know! What were yours?”
“Honestly not sure, but English, we think.”
“Mmm,” Newton mumbled. “It would be good to know. I wonder if they’re related?”
“Herne’s balls,” Alex said, using Shadow’s favourite curse, which seemed to have caught on. “Is this to do with smuggling?”
Newton sighed. “Maybe. Look, I don’t need you to do anything right now. I just wanted you to know.”
“What about the victim?”
“His name is Miles Anderson, he’s twenty-eight, and he lived in Carlyon Bay. But we haven’t announced that yet, so keep it quiet.”
“Of course.”
“Anything else happened with you after I left?”
“Nothing, fortunately.”
“Well, that’s some good news,” Newton said, obviously relieved. “I have to go, but I’ll call you later if I find anything else. Let’s hope this isn’t the start of some summer madness.”
He rang off abruptly, and Alex finished his now cold drink. A doubloon? This was going to require more coffee.
By the time Avery woke up, the scents of bacon and coffee were drifting through the house. She stretched, easing the kinks from her neck, and wished she’d had a better night’s sleep.