Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(90)

Fenella pulled in a breath. “When I say something was wrong with the brakes, I mean something weird was wrong with the brakes. The police reckoned they’d been tampered with but they could never prove anything.”

“Oh my Lord,” Abby breathed.

“Very interesting,” Cassandra muttered while sitting back.

Mrs. Truman’s gaze snapped to Cassandra. “Why? Outside of the fact that Fraser’s father was likely murdered, of course.”

Cassandra took a sip of tea and put the cup back in her saucer. “It’s interesting because, if that’s so, Cash Fraser is, rightly, Penmort’s master. And Vivianna likely knows that or senses it. Which means Vivianna’s actions last week weren’t simply meant to be a warning or simple malice. It means Abby is genuinely in the line-of-fire.”

“Listen to me people,” Abby cut in with frustration (and maybe a hint of fear). “I’m not Cash’s true love. Okay? Seriously. Not. His. True. Love. Therefore, I don’t fit the profile of the victims.”

Everyone stared at her.

Finally, Mrs. Truman spoke, “He does seem rather fond of you.”

Cassandra’s eyes locked on her. “For a bloke who doesn’t feel strongly for you, he seemed pretty outrageously pissed off on your behalf the other night.”

Fenella added on a mini-shriek, “I think it’s love. Mummy does too!”

Abby threw a hand up and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, muttering a defeated, “Bloody hell.”

Mrs. Truman made a “humph” sound before commanding, “Let’s move on. Cassandra, what have you got?”

Cassandra leaned forward and put her cup and saucer on the table, sat back and stated, “Not much that’s good.”

“Explain,” Mrs. Truman demanded.

Cassandra drew in a breath and looked at Abby. “As a mortal, you can’t fight a ghost. They’ve got paranormal powers, you don’t. Most ghosts just hang out and haunt. Some ghosts, the not-so-good variety, cause havoc. Others, like Vivianna, who was a witch and a pretty good one as far as I can tell, can be pretty powerful.”

“This is not sounding good,” Abby mumbled.

“If you want to defeat a ghost you have four options,” Cassandra continued.

“And those are?” Abby asked.

“The first, you find its mortal remains and burn them,” Cassandra replied.

“I’ve seen that on TV,” Abby told her, and she had. That show with two hot brothers, one sensitive, one wise-cracking, both running around fighting demons, burning bones and shooting spirits with shotguns loaded with salt.

That show was great!

Cassandra nodded. “It’s true.”

“Well, it’s gross to dig up a grave and burn bones but let’s do that,” Abby suggested brightly.

“Can’t,” Mrs. Truman put in.

“Why not?” Abby queried and Mrs. Truman looked at Fenella.

“I’ve done a little research over the years, seeing as I’ve lived with Vivianna for, what feels like, ever,” Fenella told them. “I found out the townspeople didn’t really like her much. They were into all that hocus pocus stuff back then and knew about the burning-the-bones-thing so, after she threw herself off the castle, they gathered together the pieces and burned her remains.”

Abby did a little shiver at the thought of gathering up Vivianna’s “pieces” then she enquired, “Then how can she still be around?”

“Either they didn’t salt it first, doesn’t work if you don’t salt it,” Cassandra explained, “or, if they did, which they likely did, because everyone knows you salt the body before burning it, then Vivianna probably knew she’d have to get around that. So, she left some earthy remains somewhere.”

“Okay then,” Abby said slowly, “we’ll find her remains and burn them.”

“In a week?” Mrs. Truman demanded then finished on a firm, “Impossible.”

Abby stared at Mrs. Truman thinking she was, unfortunately, right.

“Okay, what’s choice number two?” Abby asked on a sigh.

“Choice number two was what we were doing at your house Saturday night,” Cassandra answered. “A mortal can’t fight a ghost, but a ghost can fight a ghost. We were seeing if there were any of your relatives hanging around who could help out. Normally you can’t leave the place you haunt. And that place has to be either where you died, where you lived or somewhere you spent a lot of time. But I know a spell that can un-tether a ghost. Not for long, but for long enough for your relative either to take down Vivianna, or provide you with protection while you’re at the castle.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t work,” Abby remarked.

Cassandra shook her head. “Nope. Fortunately for them and you under normal circumstances, all your relatives have gone on to the next plane. Under these circumstances, it’s rather unfortunate.”

“What’s choice three?” Abby asked.

“Choice three is that you take a potion which would make you able to fight a ghost. It would give you keener senses so you’d see her, even if she wasn’t making herself visible. If done right, the potion would mean you could sense she was coming, giving you a warning. If done really right, the potion would allow you to combat her, physically or at least ethereally,” Cassandra explained.