an excavation here,” she said. “But it would have been done so long ago that the land had time to recover.”
“I can’t imagine they were particularly careful with their efforts.”
“No, most antiquarians weren’t known for their scientific methods. Not in the early days, at least.” She pulled her bag from the ether and began rooting around.
“What are you looking for?” I didn’t stop taking photos as I asked, making sure that each one was clear enough to study later.
“Something that will show me if there’s anything still beneath the surface.”
“What can it detect?”
“Anything of value, though that’s subjective. In this case. I’m just trying to find anything manmade. Maybe the original excavation missed something.”
Clever.
She pulled a vial from her bag and decanted it into a spray bottle like she’d used back in The Bonnie Thistle to find the entrance to the Clerkenwell tunnels. Seeing me eying the bottle, she said, “It’s similar to that potion, yes. A slight modification of my own design. Packed it just for this purpose.”
She truly was extraordinary. She had a gift for potions, no doubt, but she hadn’t been born into that form of magic or trained from an early age. She’d picked it up all on her own out of necessity.
I often felt guilty that she’d felt the need to run from our pack, but she’d had no trouble handling herself in the outside world, that was for damned sure.
She sprayed every inch of grass with the sparkling silver potion as I finished taking photos. When she completed her task, she stood back and surveyed the ground.
The air buzzed with power, and I looked at her. “Is that your spell?”
She frowned. “Shouldn’t be.”
I turned to the door and looked out onto the rolling hills that fell toward the sea, searching for an external threat. Every inch of my skin prickled with wariness.
Something was happening here. I’d been feeling it ever since we arrived, but this was more than just a vague discomfort.
This was a distinct threat.
“The sun is going to set soon,” she said. “The Finman did warn us.”
I nodded. “Be quick, then. How long for your potion to work?”
“Almost there, I think.”
I stood guard at the door, watching the horizon for anyone who might approach. The threat might not be from the living, however. There could be any manner of spells on this island that could create trouble for us.
With every moment that passed, the threat seemed to grow stronger. It vibrated against my skin like the sting of bees.
“They took everything,” Eve said.
I turned back to look at the ground. It glowed with a faint light from her potion, and I could somehow see through the dirt. There were places where the earth seemed disturbed, but there was nothing beneath the soil that had been manmade. The bastards had cleaned the place out.
A moment later, she gasped.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The moon has risen.”
“You feel it?”
She nodded.
It wasn’t fully dark yet, but at certain times of the month, the moon could rise early.
“Let’s go. We have everything we can get from here.”
She nodded and hurried toward me. We left the castle without a backward glance, heading for the shore.
“I can feel them now,” she said. “Someone is coming.”
The sky was darkening, the sun having finally set. I scanned the horizon and spotted figures rising up over the hill. They were pale-faced, nearly dead-looking, with dark green weeds for hair and ragged clothes.
“Twenty pounds those are the Finfolk in their not-so-pleased form,” she said.
“Aye. I think you’re right.” There were a dozen of them, possibly more, and they stood between us and the beach where Colm had dropped us off. I turned to head to the other shore. “Colm will have to pick us up from over here.”
She nodded and followed me. We ran, sprinting across the hills. I looked back over my shoulder and spotted the Finfolk running after us. We might be able to fight them—there wasn’t much that I couldn’t take on in my wolf form—but Eve probably wasn’t at full strength, and we had no idea what the Finfolk were capable of.
As we neared the sea, I drew the flare gun from my pocket.
“It’s going to take him too long to get here,” Eve said.
She was right. “We need to find another way off this island. We just have to get far enough away that the transport charm isn’t blocked.”
“Can we swim?”
I looked back at the Finfolk. “Probably not smart, given that they’re creatures of the sea.”
“Shit, good point.”
I