Free Wild Hunt by Bilinda Sheehan Page B

almost impossible, and every time the tech crew I was following faded out of sight, I felt my stomach clench in panic. Getting lost out here really didn’t seem like a good idea, especially with a crazy Fae and the Wild Hunt on the loose.
    Grabbing a tree branch, I tried to use it to leverage my body up over a particularly steep incline complete with fallen tree. The branch was wet and sticky with tree sap beneath my grip.
    A face, its eyes dark, vacant holes, popped into view and I sucked in a deep breath, my body preparing to scream as the ghost from the cemetery placed her hands on my face. Panic washed over me, my mind suddenly convinced that the branch was soaked in sticky crimson blood.
    Releasing my grip, I teetered on the edge of the fallen tree, my arms wind-milling as the ghost watched me. Images of bodies ripped apart flooded my head. Pitching backwards, I hit the ground with enough force to drive the air from my lungs, my legs rolling up over my head as I started a rapid descent back down the hill I’d been climbing.
    My training kicked in and I grabbed the first sapling that whizzed past my face, wrapping my arms around it as my body jerked to a sudden halt. The force practically wrenched my arms from their sockets.
    Winded, I lay on the forest floor and stared up at the canopy overhead, the dense foliage blocking the sky from my view. The ghost appeared once more, her expression one of desperate pleading as she stared down at me. She reached out toward me, and the urge to take her hand in mine nearly overwhelmed me.
    “Amber!” Graham’s shout was enough to startle the woman standing over me and she faded as one bright shaft of sunlight broke through the trees overhead.
    Tilting my head back, I searched for her, but she was well and truly gone. I hadn’t imagined her; she’d definitely been here, and the hairs standing on my airs was testament to that. But how she’d gotten here…. Ghosts didn’t travel, at least not on their own. They needed an anchor of some sort; the place where they’d died was usually a good place, the trauma holding them there until something happened to break the cycle, allowing them to finally move on.
    But this woman … she was familiar, and yet I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about her that had me thinking I somehow knew her. Seeing her in the cemetery and now here, it couldn’t be a coincidence—there was more to it than that but I was blowed if I knew what in Hell it was.
    And, well, I wasn’t going to figure it out lying on my back in the middle of the woods.

Chapter 13
    P ushing up onto my feet , every inch of my body ached as though I’d been run over by a ten-ton truck. Perhaps falling down the side of a hill through dense forestry was the same thing?
    “I heard your scream—and what are you doing down there?” Graham said, standing on the opposite side of the fallen tree I’d taken my swan dive from.
    “Don’t ask,” I said, dusting myself down and beginning to trudge up to where he stood.
    Without saying a word, Graham held his hand out toward me but I could see the faint smile hovering on his lips. Clearly, I had half the forest stuck in my hair. I could already feel some of the twigs I’d gathered on my way down scratching at my scalp.
    Ignoring his grip and the grin that widened on his face, I placed my hands on the tree and climbed over it with ease, warily glancing around at my surroundings. The last thing I needed was for the ghost to pop out at me again, but I had a feeling she’d spent all the energy she had filling my head with images that could only be described as killing fields.
    “How many this time?” I asked, falling into step next to Graham as he moved up the hill.
    “Just the one, but it’s just as messy as the others…” he said.
    “One—isn’t that kind of a big drop? Killers usually escalate, don’t they? Or are we thinking this is an old site?”
    Graham shook his head and indicated for me to move ahead of him as