Progress was slow as they picked their way through the patchwork quilt of fields and hedgerows. More than once, Cat wondered if they were lost, but Shane assured her the farmland couldn’t go on forever and sooner or later they would intersect with the road again.

They paused on a rise and shared the bottle of cola Cat had thought to bring along. It was a little flat from being shaken around, but it was cold and refreshing so neither of them complained. They passed the bottle back and forth without a word, but it wasn’t the awkward silence of earlier. It was comfortable somehow, almost friendly.

Almost like it was before, Cat thought.

She was about to say something when a flash of movement caught her eye. A pair of birds swooped down from the clouds and settled on top of a nearby stone wall where they appeared to watch her and Shane. Cat almost ignored them, but the moonlight glinting off their feathers revealed them to be magpies. It must be the same pair from earlier, the ones who had given away their hiding place to the Dullahan, she was sure of it. Cat remembered something else – there had been a magpie blocking her path yesterday too. It could be a coincidence, but she doubted it. These birds were up to something, and she was going to find out what it was.

She shoved the bottle back into her bag and marched over to the birds.

‘Cat?’ said Shane, looking at her as though she had lost the plot. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Proving something,’ she said.

When she was a few metres away, she crossed her arms and glared at the magpies who hadn’t so much as ruffled a feather since landing.

‘You two. Why are you following me?’

The smaller of the two birds ignored her and began to preen itself, but the other one continued to stare at Cat with uncanny red eyes. Did magpies always have red eyes?

‘Well?’ she asked, growing impatient.

‘Um, they’re birds, Cat,’ said Shane, ‘I don’t know what you expect them to–’

Suddenly, the red-eyed magpie opened its beak and began to caw.

‘Cat, Cat, Cat,’ it screeched.

‘See!’ Cat said triumphantly. ‘They’re not just birds, they’ve been sent here to spy on us.’

‘I think you’re imagining things,’ said Shane.

‘Oh yeah? We’ll see about that.’

She lunged for the magpies who immediately took off with a loud screech, wheeling through the air and across the fields. Without pausing to consider what she was doing, Cat began to follow them.

‘We don’t have time for this!’ said Shane, but Cat didn’t listen. Those two birds had something to do with all of this and she was going to find out what it was.

She followed the magpies for some time as they looped around and around, forever flying just out of her grasp. Then, with a final caw of delight, they soared high in the air until they were far out of sight. Cat let out of huff of annoyance.