Her face was barely human. Her skin had shrunk so tightly around her skull that I could see the bones pressing through. Her eyes were black, gaping holes. The rotting teeth in her mouth were needle sharp, her lips were cracked and dry, and so were her hands – the skin peeling red and raw from all that washing.

“That isn’t yours!” she hissed at me.

Her grip on my wrist was surprisingly strong, and I cringed at her touch. Her skin was wet and wrinkled – she felt like a thing that had been in the 271water too long.

“It’s not yours either!” I snapped.

She grabbed the jacket and pulled. I tightened my hold, and the material ripped, one small piece of fabric from the shoulder still clutched in my hand. I lunged for the rest of the jacket, but the bean nighe shoved it beneath her ragged shawl, out of reach. Seeing that I still held a piece of the jacket, the old woman leaped on me with a furious cry. Her body looked small and frail yet was surprisingly heavy as she crouched on my chest, squeezing all the air from my lungs. Her wiry hair fell across my face and I scrabbled backwards over the ground, my spare hand searching for a rock to hit her with. But then the bean nighe gave a sudden hiss of anger and I realized she was looking towards the lightening sky rather than at me.

“Useless girl!” she spat, shoving me away and gathering up the remaining clothes. “That scrap won’t change anything. I’ll wash somewhere else.”

With that, she half crawled, half dragged herself towards the bloody puddle. To my astonishment, she threw herself into this as if it was a lake, and the puddle closed over her head and swallowed 272her up. When I ran over, I saw that she’d vanished completely, and the water was clear and shallow once again, only a few centimetres deep.

The bean nighe had gone but in my hand I still gripped a scrap of Will’s jacket. I stared down at it for a moment before shoving it into my coat pocket and zipping it up. I was about to turn away when her bony, wrinkled hand shot right out of the puddle, grabbed my ankle and, with one sharp yank, dragged me beneath the surface, the bloody water closing over my head.

273

Chapter Twenty-one