Callum’s intrigued gaze slid to her. ‘Why, yes. Ten points, Miss Palmer. There’s an Otherworld referred to in Welsh folklore as well, but which one you think souls go to depends on your supernatural religion, I suppose.’
‘Can you remember what the killer wrote in the blood?’ Callum asked Bells.
She grabbed one of the expensive monogrammed notepads fromthe bedside table and drew it for them to translate, confirming it was the same ogam message as the one from Kyan’s last kill.
‘So this killer is also trying to draw the Hunt,’ Kyan mused. ‘But why go out of their way to write this if the Hunt is drawn to dead creatures naturally?’
‘That is a good question,’ Callum mused, going to the window to think. ‘It’s unnecessary. Which makes me think the killer did this to either makecertainthe Hunt would come – since most of us can’t see it and confirm – or, to put suspicion on someone, or something,that would know ogam and blood.’
‘Like a Druid,’ Kyan mused. ‘Did you see who killed the creature?’ he asked Bells. ‘A face? Any details?’
She shook her head. ‘No. From the glimpse I got they were wearing black clothes and a mask.’
Kyan looked to Callum. ‘The Wake have all manner of tactical gear. Could be an Empyreal.’
Dylan looked between them. ‘Why the hell are masks and tactical gear needed when Empyreals are supposed to be doing the right thing and hunting dangerous creatures?’
Callum gave him a flat smile. ‘Sometimes human tech causes issues. Getting caught on camera is a very real issue for a lot of Empyreals’ hunts. Masks are often necessary to ensure that if you’re on an urban one you can hide your face from human CCTV, or people snapping countless pictures for social media so they don’t find out about our world. Most of the time we have some good Nazen tech to scramble cameras, not to mention all Empyreals’ faces are in databases to wipe or blur them, but it doesn’t always work.
‘Right now, though, I’m more interested in this Hunt.’
‘Was there anything else, love?’ their father asked Bells.
‘Well, I did see the hunter that stepped out of it.’
‘What?’ Nicole asked. ‘What did they look like?’
‘I didn’t see their face.’ Bells yawned. ‘It looked like they collected the soul for the Hunt and left.’
A prickle of protective instincts had Nicole straightening. ‘Was that everything?’
Bells nodded.
‘Then, I think it’s time to try sleeping again. Do you want me to stay?’
Her sister nodded again, and Nicole glanced up to Kyan.
He lingered. It wasn’t unfamiliar to be at this in-between stage. To be bound, but not together. To have so much to say, but too much to do. To want him, but not have the privacy or time to enjoy it. But that didn’t make her any more certain of what to say.
‘Goodnight,’ he said instead, starting to the door. ‘I’ll be down the hall.’
Nicole got up and lit a few candles as their father went to brew Bells a tea and Callum and Dylan left.
‘I don’t want to sleep yet,’ Bells said.
After quickly showering and changing into pyjamas, Nicole collected the burner phone they used to speak with Remi and the pair of them responded to her last comments, laughing and easing the darkness and tension from the room.
But as Bells drifted back off to sleep, Nicole couldn’t help but think of the Hunt coiling over cities beneath the stars. She wondered where it would go next.
And just how many deadly creatures’ souls now slumbered within it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ronan
RONAN DIDN’T USE GLOVES FOR THIS KILL.
Instead, as the man struggled against the binds strapping him to the chair, Ronan readied his supplies across their sleek kitchen counter. He couldn’t be long or his middle-of-the-night excursion from Burghley House would be suspicious. But with the Wake’s new hunt order, he couldn’t go on as powerless as he had either. Thankfully, Verin had kept tabs on unsavoury people in case he ever needed fresh blood in an emergency and had given Ronan the most local name.
