bats.” Kyle swallowed.
“But what good would that do you?”
Rynd leaned back and laughed, a dark, sinister laugh.
“I don’t always do things for my good. Sometimes I do things just because I enjoy them.” With that, Rynd pulled back the sword, stepped forward, and brought it down in a mighty swing.
Kyle closed his eyes, feeling the air of the swing, realizing that in another split-second, he would be gone. There was nothing more he could say. This was his final moment on Earth. And to his own surprise, he was afraid.
A moment later, Kyle felt himself plunging downward, face-down, and he wondered if this was what it felt like to plunge down to hell.
But then his face hit something hard, and he realized he’d actually landed face first into the dirt.
The rest of his body followed, hitting the ground too, and as he looked up, he realized that Rynd had swung at the rope instead, cutting it. It had sent Kyle diving to the ground. Still bound, but alive.
Kyle breathed a sigh of relief.
Rynd stepped forward, his boot just missing Kyle’s face, and sliced the ropes binding Kyle’s feet.
Kyle immediately leapt up, to his feet, facing Rynd, red-faced and mad. But even from this perspective, standing, Rynd was huge, towering over him.
Rynd scowled down at Kyle.
“I missed you, Kyle,” Rynd said. “It’s been too long since I’ve encountered another creature as despicable as myself.”
And with that, Rynd suddenly strutted right past Kyle, bumping his shoulder hard, sauntering down the dirt road, between the hundreds of hanging bodies. As he disappeared into the fog, his dozens of followers fell into line, following him.
Kyle hurried to catch up.
They walked through the fog, down a dirt road, into the twilight, and eventually the fog cleared just enough for Kyle to make out a narrow drawbridge, spanning a moat. Beyond that lay a small castle, shaped in triangle, with a single parapet, its walls low and angular. Kyle remembered the place well. Caeverlock Castle. A place for true evil. The place he knew that Rynd would be.
Kyle caught up, now walking just slightly behind Rynd, as they strutted for the castle entrance.
“You’ve arrived at the perfect time,” Rynd said as they walked, not looking his way. “Tomorrow is the Samhain Festival. There will be plenty of slaughtering, and plenty of human captives to torture. Our favorite night of the year. “When it is finished, we will go and hunt your friends.” Rynd stopped at the castle entrance, and turned to him, his mouth widening into a smile that looked more like a scowl.
“In fact, I think I will quite enjoy it.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
As Caitlin walked with her bridesmaids through the moss-covered hills of Skye, the sight took her breath away. The early morning sun broke low and red on the horizon, lighting up the open expanse before them. The landscape was dotted with small lakes, and the grass they walked on was a vibrant green, greener than anything she’d ever seen. It felt to her as if they had come to the very beginning of the earth, a place so pure, it hardly seemed real.
Just as Caitlin was starting to wonder where they were all hiking, Polly read her mind:
“It’s called Faerie Glen,” Polly said, her voice filled with excitement, even more chipper than usual. Polly practically skipped as they all headed through the countryside. “It’s the only place in the world where, it is said, if you go there and make a wish, it will come true. And it’s an ancient vampire ritual for a bride to make one final wish before her wedding day.” Caitlin thought about that as she rounded yet another softly sloping hill, holding Scarlet’s hand, and took in another breathtaking vista. A place to make a final wish. But Caitlin already felt she had everything she could wish for. She had Caleb, Scarlet, Ruth, Sam, Polly, Aiden, and was surrounded by so many close friends. And now, she would be getting married. What more could she possibly want out of life?
A child. That was true. Yes, a child. With Caleb. Maybe she would wish for that.
As she walked, Caitlin felt that, finally, everything was perfect in her world. Yet, at the same time, the residue of her dream still lingered. Why did she have to have such a dream the night before such a festive day? She felt annoyed, as if Blake had somehow intruded in her dreams, had disrupted her perfect moment. She did not want to be thinking