Page 138 of Moonlit Nights & Northern Lights
I followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything obvious among the ash and blackened stones. “Where?”
“There—” He pointed to a spot where the wind had carved a shallow depression in the debris.
I knelt beside him, brushing away layers of ash with careful movements. My fingers found something hard beneath the surface—smooth, curved. As more ash fell away, the shape became unmistakable.
A large wolf’s canine lay in my palm, discoloured to a sickly grey-brown, its surface cracked and brittle from intense heat. But still unmistakably sharp, unmistakably what it was.
Rory stumbled backwards, putting his head between his knees.
“God, I hate them so much, but this is still… It’s still my family doing this shit.” His words came out in a rush. “Like, how fucked up is that? I can’t escape them, can I? Now I have to live knowing the Thornes are literal mass murderers and I’m one of them and… I just wanted to get away from all their shit, you know?”
Looking down at the dark water below, the pieces clicked into place with sickening clarity. “This would be a great place to burn bodies. Then throw the ash into thelake.”
Rory made a horrible noise, and I squeezed his hand, offering what comfort I could. No words seemed adequate for this.
My gaze drifted across the lake toward the far shore, where the skeletal remains of an ancient castle perched on a rocky outcrop. Most of the structure had long since crumbled, leaving only jagged stone teeth against the grey sky. But there—atop what looked like the remnants of a tower—something caught the light.
“Can I have the binoculars?”
I handed them over, watching him focus on the ruins.
“There’s something there,” he breathed. “On top of the castle ruins.”
Taking the binoculars back, I studied the crumbling stones. “A tiny solar panel? Could be something? But we really need to go see those buildings.”
We set back off immediately. Half an hour later, we spotted wire fencing through the trees, choked with ivy and brambles. The rusted wire had corroded completely in several places, creating gaps large enough to slip through.
“If they’re really running a high-tech underground operation here, you’d think they’d invest in better fencing,” Rory mused.
“This is very much off the usual hiking routes, but they’ll still get people passing through. Like us.”
We scanned for cameras—tree trunks, fence posts, even the canopy above. Nothing visible, but that didn’t mean we were in the clear.
Once through the gap, we crouched behind a cluster of gorse bushes and surveyed the complex ahead.
Four buildings sat in a semicircle around a central courtyard. Three were modest concrete blocks with flat roofs. The largest dominated the site—red-brick façade with tall windows, clearly some sort of educational facility originally. One smaller building had partially collapsed, twisted metal beams jutting skyward like broken ribs.
“Whole place looks abandoned,” Rory whispered, already shifting forward with that familiar restless energy.
“We can’t go any closer,” I said.
Yet I watched him creep closer to the buildings, tiny step by tiny step, until he was dangerously exposed.
Enough.I moved swiftly, catching his arm and hauling him back against my chest.
“Don’t make me handcuff you again,” I growled into his ear.
“You gave your handcuffs to Isla!”
“I always bring spares.”
He twisted to face me, eyes sparkling with delight. “Promises, promises.”
Christ. Even in the middle of a surveillance operation, he could make my blood run hot.
I pulled out my binoculars and focused on the largest building. An old security camera hung at an awkward angle near the main entrance, no red recording light visible. Beyond the complex, I could trace the ghost of an old track—a subtle depression in the landscape.
We found a single tyre track pressed into soft earth nearby.
