Page 28 of Crown of Tides and Fury

Wickham took a deep breath. “We stay together. We move fast. Stragglers only. Remember, Orion can move throughPlace, which means he can take one of ye with him, torture ye, find out everythin’. So we avoid him at all costs. When I say it’s finished, we go. No arguin’, Lennon. Do ye hear?”

“I hear.”

“And if we must leave someone to the dogs in order to save anyone in this party, we leave them to the dogs.”

I started to think a trip to Muirsglen wasn’t such a good idea after all, but it was too late. We were circled, we were reaching…

We were already there.

11

The Child Catcher

Iwished we’d gone back for the damned truck…

I came from a car-centric society. Public transit was sparse at best in Wyoming and Idaho, and nearly all of it in the larger cities. Unless you lived five minutes from work, or school, or the grocery store, a set of wheels was as essential as a roof over your head. And sometimes, it was theonlyroof you had over your head.

A car was a refuge. You lock the doors and you’re safe. Need to have a good cry after getting reamed by an unreasonable boss? Sit in the car, let it out, and let the world fall away.

Standing in the street in Muirsglen, or anywhere else for that matter, left me feeling vulnerable—mortal, killable. But that late afternoon, our lack of vehicle also made us slow. What we really needed were three black Suburbans with bulletproof glass.

Dark ribbons of smoke rushed heavenward from hundreds of fires and collected in the sky. The smell of it hung so thick in the air I could feel it falling like invisible rain on my head, on my cheeks. I hoped the storm in the distance would come quickly and wash it all away.

To the right, the glass door of a store was missing its lower half. Wickham signaled for us to stay where we were, moved cautiously to the opening, and ducked inside. A short minute later, he came out again, both hands filled with bandanas, which he passed around.

“Coughin’ will give us away,” he said quietly. “These will help a bit.”

I tied a white one around my neck and pulled it up over my nose while I watched the sky. Griffon wouldn’t be flying around in this. I needed to keep my attention on the ground.

Wickham motioned for us to circle again, then spoke low. “The housing here lies in two sections. North of main and southeast. We collected Davey and the others to the north. We’ll try southeast.” He popped out, then in again. “Schoolyard. It’s clear.”

A heartbeat later, we stood in the middle of a stretch of asphalt. Yellow lines made patterns for games I didn’t know. The windows of the school were dark and intact. Classes were out for the summer. Rain and mud lay undisturbed on the pavement. In what was possibly a Scottish alternative to a lawnmower--a portable pen sat in the center of the grassy soccer field with a pair of sheep huddled in one corner. Still alive, but quiet.

We moved toward the street. Persi walked to my left. I veered closer and whispered, “I still can’t believe they’re out in the daytime.”

“Just like the wedding. They don’t intend to leave witnesses.”

Wickham signaled for Persi, Everly, the Irishmen, and me to continue down the street while he, Kitch, and Urban started checking houses. Obviously, they were trying to spare us the worst of it, and I wasn’t about to complain. I focused all my attention on the sidelines, watching for movement and refusing to imagine what had gone on behind those charming facades with their colorful flower beds beneath their windows.

I also watched the men’s faces when they came out of those houses. Their relief was clear when they’d found nothing. Careful control meant we didn’t want to know. Judging by that alone, it appeared most of the citizens had gotten out of town in time.

At the end of the block, we paused to look back. On a street with roughly twenty houses, four hadn’t been spared. I was surprised to see smoke now billowing from their windows.

“Only burial we can manage,” Wickham said. “Cannae just leave them, can we? And Orion willnae notice a few more fires amongst so many.”

Kitch waved us on.

The next street wasn’t so nice and tidy. Attacks hadn’t happened behind closed doors. In one yard, there were so many bodies, they must have rallied together to take a stand. I kept my eyes off the ground and listened for signs of life. There were none.

The house was large, Victorian. Lots of windows, stories. Probably lots of places where someone could hide their children before facing the monsters…

I headed for the front porch. Wickham made a noise but didn’t stop me. Kitch followed about ten paces behind, but I didn’t expect to find the enemy inside. They’d done their damage and moved on. If what Kitch said was true, they would have taken any witches with them.

All these bodies belonged to the Uncast, like me.

I wasn’t stupid. I did a quick walkthrough of the ground floor, to make sure the beasts were gone before I called out. And when I did, I called quietly.

“Hello? Can you say hello back?” I repeated it in each room but heard nothing. A few giant, bloody footprints, but no little bodies. Maybe those people scattered on the front lawn had gotten the children out of town after Wickham’s first warning.

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