Page 45 of The Taking of House Westwood

The man who’d tackled the plowboy pinned him facedown to the ground, and Sophie could see too-long fingers, complete with sharp nails, wrap around the struggling boy’s head, pulling him up in a straining arch, Escott’s eyes rolling back, showing the whites.

She cried out, covering her mouth as she saw the bright blade flash down, slashing into Escott. The boy uttered a lost, agonized groan, then lay still. His attacker leaned down close to the dead boy’s head, as if he were whispering to him.

Sophie turned back to Tani. A man in black hooded robes dashed out of the darkness toward the fleeing woman, and Sophie cried out. “Tani, hurry!”

The bound woman reached the side of the moving wagon. With Tani’s hands bound, Sophie struggled to pull her in. Finally, she got the upper half of Tani’s body up over the side, her legs dangling off the ground. The robed man reached them before Sophie could pull her all the way in, the man grabbing Tani’s kicking legs. The woman shrieked, craning her face up at Sophie. “Oh Gods, don’t let them—”

“Quiet, girl, I’m trying to help you,” the robed man said, hoisting Tani’s legs up easily and dumping her fully into the wagon.

“What —” Sophie said, then stopped, seeing him strip off the robes, revealing a uniform she’d seen before. The bright epaulets of military rank.

“Isaac? Is that you?”

He looked up at her, as the wagon pulled away. “Sophie, where is Owen? Is he in there with you?”

“He went to raise the gate. Isaac, get in!”

She watched Isaac pull his broad-blade. The weapon was the same style as the one her father had kept hung over the mantle at the farm. She felt a wave of homesickness pass through her. How she wanted to be home again. Safe.

Isaac dashed away, angling toward the base of the stone battlements.

“Isaac, what are you doing!”

He never answered, disappearing into the inky maw of the gatehouse doorway.

“Stay inside the shroud, Sophie!” Hugh called back at her. “They’ll be back!”

Sophie closed the fabric, plunging the wagon into blackness again. She could feel the trembling form of Tani huddling against her.

“Tani, what’s happening?”

Tani looked up at Sophie, the woman’s eyes two large pools of fright. “They just burst in. Out of nowhere.”

“Who did? Who are they?” Sophie placed a hand on the sweat-slicked shoulder of the bound woman.

There was another male shriek from outside, quite close, and Tani flinched. “I - I don’t know. They move very fast though. They surprised the guards. They … “

Sophie could see the tears overflowing again, and gentled her grip on Tani’s shoulder. “They what, Tani? Please.”

“Their eyes. They glow.”

Ice gripped Sophie’s spine, and her stomach sank.

Nocturne.

When they were but young girls, her father had told her and her sisters tales of the nocturne. Killers in the night, feasting on the blood of humans. Bedtime stories, fables. Now, she remembered the lost look in her father’s eyes when they had asked him about them.

“It’s okay, Tani. We’re taking you out of here, just lay still.” She felt the fear coiling around her heart, the dread threatening to suffocate her. Comforting Tani helped Sophie stay the fear that threatened to paralyze her. If it really was the nocturne out there, the downed portcullis was the very least of their problems.

She heard a grinding of metal, so loud it seemed to reverberate through her chest.

The gate.

Sophie looked out and saw the portcullis rising. It stopped halfway up, but it would be more than enough to allow the wagon through. Then she saw twin pinpoints of shimmering silver up on the battlements.

It’s true. Gods help us.

She shivered.

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