“Exactly,” Marcus agreed. “And since she didn’t die here—
we know that much from her appearance—she would have to have been brought here by an object.”
Mike grabbed his phone. “Did the owner purchase any new things recently? Do we know that?”
Marcus shook his head. “We know as good as nothing.” He was still moving the broken glass pieces around, working on the puzzlepiece alone now that he had to spell out what it said. Neither Mike nor I could be of any help there.
“I think this is as good as it gets,” Marcus mumbled as we looked at the messy puzzle in front of us. “It says, Dear Kristina, may you look upon your pretty face each morning and think of me. Yours forever, Lars.”
Suddenly, it was as though all the warmth in the room disappeared and then Marcus and Mike covered their ears to a sound I couldn’t hear.
The bitch was back.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mike
Damn she could scream.
The ghost finally stopped her tantrum and stomped soundlessly over to where we stood, glaring daggers at us. “Have you not yet learned your place?!”
“Ourplace?!” Marcus spluttered. “You’re the unwanted ghost in this castle! You’ve even hurt one of the other ghosts!”
She crossed her arms and huffed, turning her head away from us like we meant nothing to her. “I did not appreciate his concern. He is not the one I wished to harm, but men always seem to believe that they know better.”
I sighed. “You’ve proven to be ill tempered and a threat to other ghosts and humans, and because of that, now we have to banish you.”I didn’t want to waste more time on her, it wasn’t as though bad people turned good by dying. A rotten soul would still be rotten without their physical bodies, and this ghost proved it.
She huffed out an incredulous laugh. “Banish me? How utterly preposterous. I fail to believe you three have the abilities to make me do anything.”
This ghost had hurt my man and was now taunting us. I was so over this case, and one quick glance towards Marcus and that one subtle nod he gave me, was all the permission I needed. We’d already agreed that I should be the one to banish her, simply because I’d yet to try it. I was also the one with the hurt anchor, so I needed this.
With my hand firmly on Dylan’s wrist, I raised my other hand, grabbing her energy, essentially locking her in place. Her eyes widened in shock—she’d truly not thought us capable of doing anything to her—and then I focused all my energy into crushing her soul, killing what was left of her. A black mist formed where she’d once stood, and then everything around me whitened. I saw glimpses of memories, but not my own, it was the ghost’s memories that flipped through my mind. I felt her emotions, saw her looking at herself in the mirror, getting ready for a date with Lars, felt her smugnessover it and her excitement. She’d bought the red dress specifically for this date, and she felt so beautiful as she continued to fix her red lipstick. Then her gaze lifted from her own face to her sister walking up behind her, holding a knife.
Holy… I was seeing Kristina’s last memories!
Her sister smirked as she held the knife to Kristina’s throat, whispering cruelly into her ear as the pain of the knife registered, “You thought you could fool me, sister? I know what you’re playing at.”
More memories flooded Kristina’s mind as she realized she would die. I felt everything. Her fear, the surety that she was going to die right there. I felt her remorse of getting caught sleeping with her sister’s husband. Then I saw Lars and her in bed together, her telling Lars she was pregnant, when it wasn't true. Kristina looked into her sister’s eyes and saw a flicker of something pass through them, but then her sister pressed the knife in further and dragged it across the skin.
“Mike!” Dylan shouted next to me and suddenly I was back in the attic, having somehow landed on the floor. “What happened?” he demanded, his eyes so wild and fearful, it broke my heart.
I’d just been through something truly traumatic and I moved to my knees and sobbed, letting out all the emotions as Dylan held me without even knowing why I was so shaken up.
“You have to call Rino,” Dylan said, but it sounded like he was ordering Marcus to do it, considering his arms were still holding me tight. It would have to hurt his stitches, but he was ignoring his own discomfort to soothe me. I’d never felt more cherished as I did in that moment.
Marcus had his phone on speaker, Rino’s voice loud and clear through my quieting sobs. “Marcus, is everything okay?”
“It, um,” Marcus began. “Well, Mike banished the ghost, but he collapsed as soon as she was gone and just stared into the air, his eyes vacant before he blinked and broke into tears. We fear something went wrong.”
Rino’s startled intake of breath was enough for me to stop my tears momentarily. I seriously feared what he was about to say. “He’ll be okay,” was all Rino said.
“That’s all you have to say?! He’s still shaking!” Dylan snapped, clearly not liking Rino’s dismissal.
“And he’ll need your support as he works through whatever it was that he just experienced,” Rino advised cryptically. “Leave the castle once he feels better and then call me tomorrow. I’ll make sure it’s all explained properly then.”
Marcus said his goodbyes but I ignored it. I felt so drained, both emotionally and physically. I just wanted to sleep cuddled up to Dylan.
“Sweetheart? You up for saying goodbye to Fritz and Hanne, or do you just want to get in the car?” Dylan’s worry was evident in his tone, and I scolded myself for being so weak. He was hurting and likely in great pain. My body was fine, what I’d just experienced wasn’t anything physical like Dylan’s. My turmoil could wait.
