Page 35 of Chillingham Castle

Haunt caught my eye. He dived to the left as I hit her from the right. La Llorona staggered as Suga shoved her hard from the front, and then she crossed the boundary. Coffee and Reaver rushed around her, putting down two lines of salt.

We still couldn’t make out her features, or tell if she was a woman or a man, but I sensed puzzlement in her. She reached out a hand, touched the barrier, and yanked back quickly as if she’d been shocked.

“I’m going to send you to rest, to be with your children. You deserve peace,” I called and began praying for her soul.

A dark laugh came from her, and La Llorona poked again.

“Foolish male. Do you think I am a stranger to pain?”

“What does that mean?” Suga demanded as Lich sat up with a groan.

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Haunt groaned as La Llorona poked a finger through the barrier. A soft gasp of discomfort escaped her, but she shoved through and cackled in amusement.

“John Sage held me prisoner. Pain became something I lived with daily. Foolish male,” she murmured. Her hand pushed through with a cry of agony.

“Lucky!” Reaver cried out.

“I’m trying,” I shouted, doubling my efforts. La Llorona seemed amused as she continued to punch through the containment circle. Her arms made it, and then a leg.

She was beating it.

Haunt gazed at her in horror. “Plan B!” he yelled at Coffee, who turned and ran for the tearoom.

Cammie came tearing out as La Llorona broke out.

“Now you’ll pay,” she promised.

She reached for me, and I stepped back, holding her terrifying gaze. She stretched out an arm, and I waited. Suga slammed into her and held up the Spirit Trap. Her hand grabbed and snapped it.

Oh shit.

She seized Suga, shook him like a rag doll, and flung him away. Then with murderous intent, she lunged for me again, and a howl erupted from behind.

Cammie appeared from nowhere and shoved the Spirit Trap under La Llorona’s foot as she came forward.

The reaction was delayed. La Llorona paused; I sensed a frown, and then a low moan escaped from her. Cammie scrambled backwards, and La Llorona tried to follow. But the trap had sprung, and she couldn’t move. She screamed and fought against it, but it started sucking her in.

“Holy shit,” Haunt exclaimed. La Llorona began fading even as she shrunk; her wails shook window glass and rattled doors, but she was truly caught. It took several long minutes as she put up a real fight, and then silence fell.

There was a soft pop, then nothing.

“That was kinda a letdown,” Suga said from where he lay.

We swapped glances and immediately started laughing. Yeah, okay, that was anticlimactic.

Haunt

The team was chuckling as we sat in the tearoom. We’d burned the Spirit Trap as Cammie had instructed, right down to ashes. La Llorona, whatever her name might have been in life, was now at peace. Hopefully, her children were waiting for her there. Several of us had bad bruising and cuts, but we were alive, and there was a serenity about Chillingham I’d not experienced before.

Sure, it still felt dark, spooky, and haunted. Visitors would get a thrill from the stories, and now there was one more. The footage of La Llorona would be locked down in our vault, and only we’d ever know what truly happened here. Another benefit was John Sage wouldn’t be as threatening. La Llorona had done a number on him. Undoubtedly, he’d haunt, but not with the terrifying oppressiveness from before.

We cleaned up the dungeon’s containment ring and the courtyard.

“Are you going to finish the rooms you didn’t get to?” Evie asked.

I checked with my team—all of them. Cammie grinned, Jack nodded, and Lucky shrugged.

“Sure, why not? The Spanish witch can’t be worse than what we just fought.”