Page 256 of The Defiant Curse

When she couldn’t, she passed it to Gabby.

“Can you read it?”

As she tried, Graham was looking over her shoulder to see if he could.

All the while, Michael stood guard with a shovel.

Not that it would help.

“I can’t,” she admitted. “It’s too faint. It’s like time tried to erase that part of the mystery.”

Well, shit.

They couldn’t let that happen. Her coming there had stirred it up, and now, she had to fix this.

She had to make it right.

It had to be done before she could go home after Halloween.

Lordy, but she didn’t want to see this place haunted during Halloween. That would be a freaking nightmare for her. With the veil between worlds the thinnest, or so her mother-in-law said, this place would be a ghost-a-palooza.

And no one needed that.

“Maybe we can get it back to the castle, clean it up, and go from there,” Ethan offered. “It’s not that bright in the trees.”

Michael pointed.

“What do we do with that?” he asked, meaning the pile of bones on the ground that were smoldering in the burning pine needles.

What else could they do?

“Bury him,” Elizabeth said. “No box. Let’s just shovel him into the hole. He’s not a good ghostie. Daphne does NOT like the vibe on him, and after nearly being dragged away, my give-a-damn is beyond broken when it comes to wayward bones showing up.”

Yeah, no one argued there.

As the women stayed side-by-side, the men took care of business. They scooped up the man’s bones, and the ash around it so the fire didn’t spread.

Then, they shoved all the dirt back on top of him.

The fire was out.

And so was the ghost.

Hopefully.

When they finished, it was time to get out of there. While the air had cleared, thanks to Duncan and Ciarán for showing up to protect them, they needed to get as far from this part of the estate as possible.

“May I suggest we take Ceit’s heart and hightail it the hell out of here?” Ethan asked, as he was white knuckling Elizabeth’s hand in his.

Just.

In.

Case.

Well, about that.

Graham had bad news.