Page 4 of The Night Vision
“What?” Silas blinked back at him, growing irritated and impatient. “How do you know there are remains?”
“That’s the tricky part,” Nelson said with a soft cough. “And the part you’re going to have the toughest time getting your head around.”
Silas looked at the door and considered shoving both of them through it. He had a feeling he was about to be introduced to more strange shit that he might not want to be involved with.
“How do you know there are remains?” he repeated. He couldn’t kick them out if there was a chance that this was true and someone had been killed.
“It would be easier to just show you.” MacIlwraith approached Silas, raising his hands.
“I’ll pass,” Silas said as he leaned away but MacIlwraith laughed.
“Don’t be scared. It’s just a vision.”
“A vision?”
“Just a vision,” MacIlwraith said soothingly. “The oracle who warned us that Niall was in danger had another vision and shared it with me. I’ve revisited itmanytimes but I don’t know the place or recognize anything useful about the corpse. I’m hoping you’ll be able to make more of it than I can.”
“Are you serious?” Silas asked, receiving a nod from Nelson.
“He’s rarely serious but you can trust him.”
“Come on!” MacIlwraith whispered as he captured Silas’s face in his hands. “I’m certain Nelson and I can solve this one, eventually, but I’d get there faster with another wolf.”
“A wolf?” Silas frowned. “Wolves are cool but I—” he started but stopped when MacIlwraith shushed loudly.
“Relax and breathe with me, Shelby,” he said in a low, lulling murmur.
“Okay…” Silas did feel relaxed, oddly enough, and smiled as he pushed out a deep breath. He immediately sank into calmness and the sound of MacIlwraith’s breathing. “Whoa!” Silas gasped when an earthy breeze brushed his cheek and he felt softer ground—soil—under his feet. He opened his eyes and jumped, spinning as he took in the nighttime forest around them. “Where—?” He recalled that MacIlwraith didn’t know the location and immediately took stock of everything around him.
Moonlight filtered through a mix of Fraser firs and red spruce and Silas noted the thinness of the brush on the forest floor. It was cleared regularly but Silas couldn’t see any signs or markers on any of the trunks. He noted the height and the phase of the moon and the maturity of the foliage on the trees.
“See! That’s why I need you!” MacIlwraith whispered excitedly. “You’re already gathering evidence,” he said and Silas nodded. He reached for his back pocket and his phone so he could take notes but it wasn’t there. “Sorry. Visions and memories don’t work like that. All we have is what’s here. Youcan take all the time you need, though,” MacIlwraith said as he gestured for Silas to follow him. “Our friend is over there.”
Silas followed, paying close attention to the sponginess of the soil and looked for any mosses or mushrooms that might offer more clues to their location. He passed another Fraser and smelled mountain laurel, arousing a memory but it was faint: wet, hand-me-down Nike high tops and voices shouting Silas’s name—but it faded as MacIlwraith jogged downhill, past more Frasers to a creek.
“I think I know this place,” Silas said as he joined MacIlwraith on the bank and turned back to see if he could find the rest of that memory. Frasers with grape-scented flowers and a stream… “I swear, I’ve been here before.” He gave his head a shake, then jumped when he turned and spotted what looked like a flannel and possibly denim in the water. As he drew closer, Silas could make out the picked-over remains of a corpse. “Christ,” he said as he lowered and carefully peeled the flannel away from the skull.
“Probably not,” MacIlwraith said, taking a knee next to Silas.
He shot MacIlwraith a flat look. “Is that your professional opinion,professor?” he asked, earning a shrug.
“Please call me Nox.”
“Alright… Nox.” Silas shook his head and returned to the skull. “I’m not a coroner but if I had to guess… This is a male skull. From the size of the clothes and the state of the teeth, I’d say he’s between twenty and fifty but I can’t tell you more than that.”
“That was my conclusion as well, based on the narrower pelvis and subpubic angle,” Nox replied. “Let’s get better acquainted with him.”
“Wait!” Silas grabbed Nox’s wrist when he reached for the skull but released it when he remembered they weren’t in a realcrime scene. It was still profoundly disturbing when Nox lifted it and held it up to the moonlight.
“We have to save him, Silas. I’m certain that a warlock named Hugh Dùbhghlas is responsible for this and that something dark and twisted has happened to this man’s soul.”
The thought turned Silas’s stomach. He didn’t know who this Dùbhghlas person was or how a soul could be assaulted but it made him sick. And it made him furious as he took the skull from Nox and studied it.
He couldn’t explain it, but Silas was struck by howbeautifulthe skull was. Even without its flesh and eyes and smile, Silas was holding something that had once been magickal, sacred.
“Okay. But how can I help?”
“Merlin and I have been at a total loss and Nelson can only make out the bare facts. But I sense a hint of a fian about this man too. I feel a wolf here.”
