The smell of death was sharper. We were getting close.
Up ahead, light began to glimmer. It wasn’t starlight or even the pulse of wild magic. It was, I suspected, a will-o’-the-wisp—or ghost candles, as they were more commonly known around these parts. Wisps weren’t actually ghosts, despite their nickname; they were spirits, and very fragile by nature. Wind could tear them away, rain could wash them out, and they couldn’t stand the touch of sunshine. Sometimes they were helpful, and other times they weren’t. The myths of them leading travelers astray were very much based on truth. I’d encountered them a couple of times over the last few months, and each time they’d chosen to help me. I very much suspected the one up ahead might be doing just that—that it was standing guard over whatever it was Katie had led us here to find.
“Is that a wisp up ahead?” Monty asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.
“Yes.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “You’ve never seen one?”
“I’ve lived in Canberra all my life,” he said, expression amused. “Opportunities have been few and far between.”
“You’d better get used to seeing all manner of weird, wonderful, and often very deadly things in this place,” Belle commented. “In fact, you may find yourself longing to be back at the capital.”
“No matter how bad it gets here, Canberra will never be a better option.”
“At least we agree on that,” I muttered.
I flicked off the phone’s flashlight app and, after a moment, Belle and Monty did the same. The wisp’s light immediately grew brighter, its blue-white light washing through the small clearing and highlighting the figure it hovered above.
That figure wasn’t moving.
It also wasn’t clothed.
And, like Mrs. Dale, it had very obviously been skinned.
“Oh fuck,” Monty said softly. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah, it is.” I paused on the outskirts of the clearing, my stomach churning as I scanned the area. The wisp’s light was bright enough to view the immediate area; there were no clothes or personal items to be seen. Once again, it appeared as if this woman had been killed elsewhere and simply dumped here.
My gaze returned to the body and, after a slight hesitation, I forced my feet on. The wisp pulsed in response but it didn’t flee. Part of me wondered if it was the same wisp that had helped me previously—it was certainly the same size—and whether Katie’s presence within the wild magic was enabling her to influence or at least call on those beings who existed alongside it. Either way, the wisp’s presence needed formal acknowledgment.
“I appreciate you staying to highlighting the area for us,” I said, as I stopped short of the body.
One thing was very obvious—this death wasn’t new. The remains had the look of meat left too long out in the sun, and smelled like it too. I pinched my nostrils together with a hand and started breathing through my mouth, but it didn’t seem to help any. The smell clawed at the back of my throat and had my stomach churning even faster.
The wisp spun lightly, as if in acknowledgment, and then moved back several feet as Monty stopped beside me. It was uncertain about his presence, but not enough to flee.
“It’s a female,” Monty said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Married, too.”
My gaze leapt to her left hand. A silver wedding ring gleamed brightly on the raw remnants of her finger.
“Why would anyone bother skinning a body and then go to the trouble of putting a ring back on?” Belle asked. “That makes no sense at all.”
“I guess until we understand who or what we’re dealing with, making no sense will continue to be a problem,” Monty said.
Katie’s energy stirred around me again, lightly tugging at my fingers. “There’s something else here—something else we need to find.”
“What?” Monty said.
“That I don’t know.” I glanced at Belle. “Could you ring the rangers while I go find whatever else there is?”
She nodded, and as she made the call, Monty and I followed Katie’s lead. We took a wide detour around the body and walked across to the clearing’s other edge. The wisp followed us into the trees, highlighting the faint trail.
Twenty feet in, we discovered another death.
But it wasn’t a body. Or, at least, it wasn’t a full body.
It was instead the skin of one.
Four