Page 227 of The Seven Rings
“Excuse me,” Cleo put in. “Sonya and I both made her bleed.”
“So just think of what four of us, together, could do. And where she feels strongest and safest. We’ll prove her wrong.”
“We need Astrid’s portrait. I swear, I know we need that first.”
Trey brushed a finger over Sonya’s bruised cheek, and found his level had settled at about a simmering three. “If we do, and I trust your instincts there, then we’ll have it.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
In spite of, or maybe because of, all that happened, Sonya insisted on decorating for Halloween.
They bought pumpkins and gourds, and hauled out Collin’s collection.
In that collection, she found a long string of lanterns that spelled outSPOOK CENTRAL.
“How perfect is this!”
Because he remembered it from his childhood, Trey felt a quick pang. “Where the hell are you going to put it?”
“It should hang under the half turret. Just the right length.”
“That’s where Collin always put it.”
“Is it? See, perfect.”
“It did look pretty cool.” And Owen finished with a mutter: “I’ll get the ladder.”
“Not yet! We have to see what else. Look, here’s a trio of broomstick-riding witches.”
“Some consider that insulting.”
Sonya barely glanced at Cleo. “But we won’t. And there’s this vampire on a stake. Oh, oh, look at this skeleton guy with the tattered cloak. You put him in the yard, right, so he’s clawing out of his grave. And these ghost things light up! We can hang them on the tree.”
She stopped herself.
“I’ve just become my mother. And I don’t care. This is so much fun! When we’re done, I’m going to send her a video. She’ll love it.”
It took most of a weekend, but Trey considered it worth it. Not only did Sonya simply sparkle throughout, but it did bring back memories of his childhood.
“We’d always come here.” Trey stood with the others in the brisk October wind, watching ghostly wind spinners whirl and goblin lights glow in the magic of dusk. “We’d do trick-or-treat in the village, that was a must, then come up here. Anna and me, Owen and Hugh, plenty of other kids.”
“He’d always have this going on. He had that fog machine for a while, Trey, remember? And creepy music blaring. He’d mix it up, too. One year, a severed head on a platter, or that time he had a coffin out here. Must’ve had a remote because the lid would creak open and the bwah-ha-ha and a skeleton hand came out of it.”
Picturing it, Owen hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “He’d always answer the door in costume.”
“And had a ton of serious candy,” Trey added.
“Damn right. No stingy little bags of candy corn or bite-sized bullshit. Full-size Snickers, Milky Ways, Hershey bars.”
“We could do that. We could do all that. Not this year, I get that, but next year? We could do all that.”
Catching Sonya’s enthusiasm, Cleo chimed in. “We could make up some flyers.Would you dare a Halloween visit to Lost Bride Manor?”
“Your trick is our treat.” Sonya pushed at her blowing hair. “Next year. But this year? It looks great. I’m going up to send the video to my mother. Then how about a Sunday night movie?”
“Not a spooky one.”
“Man, Lafayette, it’s October. There’s horror movie marathons for a reason. And that doesn’t count Collin’s collection, which is righteous.”
