Larkin moved to the doors and threw them open to the wide terrace beyond. Moira notched an arrow as she moved to the threshold. “The oak, I think.”
Cian moved to her side as the others crowded in. “Not much of a distance.”
“She wouldn’t be meaning the near one,” Larkin said and gestured. “But that one there, just to the right of the stables.”
“Lowest branch.”
“I can barely see it,” Glenna commented.
“Can you?” Moira demanded of Cian.
“Perfectly.”
She lifted the bow, steadied, sighted. And let the arrow fly.
Glenna heard the whiz, then a faint thunk as the arrow hit home. “Wow. Got ourselves a Robin Hood.”
“Nicely shot,” Cian said in mild tones, then turned to walk away. He sensed the movement even before he heard his brother’s sharp command.
When he turned, Moira had another arrow ready, and aimed at him.
He sensed King prepare to rush forward, and held up a hand to stop him. “Be sure to hit the heart,” he advised Moira. “Otherwise you’ll just annoy me. Let it be,” he snapped to Hoyt. “It’s her choice.”
The bow trembled a moment, then Moira lowered it. Lowered her eyes as well. “I need sleep. I’m sorry, I need sleep.”
“Of course you do.” Glenna took the bow from her, set it aside. “I’ll take you down, get you settled.” Glenna aimed a look at Cian every bit as sharp as the arrow as she led Moira from the room.
“I’m sorry,” Moira said again. “I’m ashamed.”
“Don’t be. You’re overtired, overworked. Over everything. We all are. And it’s barely begun. A few hours’ sleep is what we all need.”
“Do they? Do they sleep?”
Glenna understood what she meant. The vampires. Cian. “Yes, it seems they do.”
“I wish it was morning so I could see the sun. They crawl back into their holes with the sun. I’m too tired to think.”
“Then don’t. Here, let’s get you undressed.”
“I lost my pack in the woods, I think. I don’t have a nightdress.”
“We’ll figure that out tomorrow. You can sleep naked. Do you want me to sit with you awhile?”
“No. Thank you, no.” Tears welled up and were willed back. “I’m being a child.”
“No. Just an exhausted woman. You’ll be better in the morning. Good night.”
Glenna debated going back up, then simply turned toward her own room. She didn’t give a damn if the men thought she was copping out, she wanted sleep.
The dreams chased her, through the tunnels of the vampire’s cave where the screams of the tortured were like slashing knives in her mind, into her heart. Everywhere she turned in the labyrinth, each time she raced into the dark opening, like a mouth waiting to devour her, the screams followed.
And worse than the screams, even worse, was the laughter.
The dreams hunted her along the rocky shore of a boiling sea where red lightning hacked black sky, black sea. There the wind tore at her, there the rocks pierced up out of the ground to stab at her hands, her feet until both were bloody.
Into the dense woods that smelled of blood and death, where the shadows were so thick she could feel them brushing over her skin like cold fingers.
She could hear what craved her coming with the papery snap of wings, the slithery slide of snakes, the sly scrape of claw on earth.