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Since Maddox wasn’t here, Ness would be our nose—just like the day she and I had gone looking for Alvin’s victims. Only, this time I had a handle on my abilities. I wasn’t going to panic and make another mistake.
At least, that’s what I hoped.
Vi was our lookout. I highly doubted that we were supposed to be here. This was a crime scene, after all. If they caught us traipsing around here, we would get in serious trouble—even if my name was on this investigation.
Once more, I pushed out with my arcana. The woods were a null zone. I could feel nothing, and it irked me all over again. It was like stepping into complete silence. It pressed against my skin with an unsettling pressure.
Ness dove into the ditch and immediately started sniffing. She sneezed several times, shaking her head.
“Cops really do have a…unique stench. Don’t they?” Vi laughed before taking an obnoxious drag from her empty cup.
I gave her a sidelong look.
“Ah, oops. I forgot about your cop. He smells…okay?” She gave me a lopsided smile and a thumbs up.
I gaped at her. “Why didn’t that sound reassuring at all?”
Our teasing was cut off when Ness let out a bark. I slid down the side of the ditch and threw myself headlong into the woods. Once Ness knew we were behind her, she took off. I tossed out my arcana and let it hover around me. That oppressive silence still smothered me.
There were no threads here, I realized. This whole area had been severed. If I could connect the threads again, then maybe my arcana would work again. I didn’t understand how Ness could remain in her shifted form if that was the case.
I was half-tempted to ask her to shift back to see if she could do it here.
All three of us had ties to fate. Ness held judgement in the palms of her hands. Vi had rewritten fate. My control over death took ahold of fate and wove it into a different pattern. There had to be a way for us to fix whatever was going on.
Ness stopped at the edge of a clearing. I rocked back. It wasn’t a clearing. This was a ridge that led down into a small quarry. It seemed as though it was defunct. There were no trucks moving in or out. Everything was silent.
My skin crawled. I wanted to ask Ness what she’d found, but she couldn’t reply in that form. Some scent had led us here. Was it blood? Was it something else?
I was looking for hints in the empty quarry when I saw an image flickering at the base of the cliff. It was the silhouette of a person. They scrabbled at the cliff wall while looking back with panic. Expecting to see something chasing them, I glanced behind the figure. There was nothing there, though.
It was a ghost.
Finally. A ghost!
But the way the person stuttered like a bad VHS tape, I doubted I would be able to talk to them. Without threads of fate here to dictate what would happen next, the ghost was little more than a memory of what’d happened.
“I need to get closer,” I said.
Ness moved to follow me, but I held a hand out to stop her. I had the better footing here. Even if she was in her hound form, I had more experience traversing terrain like this. I’d made sure to wear my hiking gear today just for this.
The descent was precarious. I slipped and caught myself more than a few times. If I got hurt here, whoever owned this quarry would find a way to sue me for trespassing if only to avoid an injury lawsuit. Thankfully, I didn’t tumble head over heels down into the valley.
“Hey!” I shouted to the ghost. “I can see you! I can help you!”
The ghost paused. She turned back, her feminine features apparent now. Strands of hair fell from the bun atop her head. As I watched, her hand flickered out of existence. When it returned, I noticed the ring on her finger. This had to be the owner of the severed hand.
I knew we had at least two victims, but I didn’t like seeing the truth right in front of me.
The ghost stood and faced me. She stared me down while staying inhumanly still. The center of her chest had that same dark void that the other woman’s specter had. I cursed under my breath and thought to run back up the hill.
Maddox wasn’t here, though. Maybe as long as he wasn’t in sight, I might be able to reason with her.
“You don’t have to be afraid anymore,” I said as I approached.
Her head twitched in a blur. I rocked back on my heels. Ghosts weren’t usually like this. Sure, I saw it in movies a lot, but that wasn’t how the real world worked.
At least, not usually.
