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“Then I found her, dangling in the town square. Dead. At first, I didn’t believe it. Not my McKenna. I kept tellin’ myself, that poor soul looks like my sweet, smart girl. But like I told ya, a mother knows. My very soul knew it was her as I walked down the street. My McKenna.”
“Our poor daughter, dangling like some sort of meat meant for the butcher. I dunno how we’re supposed to go on. Don’t know how we are supposed to even breathe right.”
Cyrus and Evelyn remained silent, too nervous to interrupt the grief. They locked eyes for a brief moment before Evelyn flicked her attention to Daniel and back. Cyrus followed her gaze, assessing in silence. After a moment, he turned back to Evelyn and nodded in agreement. It was slight, barely a twitch, but Evelyn felt him agree with her.
“Daniel, what about you?” Her question shattered the silence in the gloomy cottage.
His eyes grew wide, and then he found the floor suddenly interesting.
Evelyn looked to Cyrus for help, not wanting to push the grieving family. The brother knew something, Evelyn sensed it, and they needed clues in order to find the vampyr.
Cyrus cleared his throat. “Were you and your sister close, Daniel?”
Sadness entered Daniel’s eyes. “Yes.”
“Is there anything you may have noticed? Anything out of the ordinary?”
Daniel pursed his lips, hesitant yet again.
Jack turned to his son, noticing his silence as well. “Daniel, what is it?”
McKenna’s brother sighed. “For about two weeks, McKenna’d been slipping out in the middle of the night. Some nights she’d come back after only a few hours, and other nights she’d be gone until right before the sun came up.”
Both parents whirled to face their son.
“You never thought to tell us?” his father demanded.
“I didn’t . . . I didn’t think anything of it. And I’m not sure if either of ya cared to notice, but McKenna was happy. Smiling more than she already did. She’s a grown woman, and I didn’t think it was my business to rat on her.”
Jack’s cheeks grew so ruddy he looked like he might burst with anger, but Brenna laid a hand over her husband’s. “I suppose he’s right. McKenna was a grown woman. She could do whatever she liked.”
“But she was my little girl,” Jack said, rising from his seat and leaving. Daniel followed him, unable to meet his mother’s gaze.
Evelyn’s heart twinged. She’d seen the look of loss before, trudged through its sticky ambiance. Had met with families of vampyr victims. Had consoled those who grieved.
And yet, this was different.
Back in Sorin, vampyrs attacked and killed like a horde of demons, ravaging a village or town with only the thought of blood to fuel them. The death and loss were the same, but witches had each other to lean on. McKenna’s death was more intimate, more direct, and shrouded in mystery.
They needed answers. Clues. Anything.
“We—” Evelyn started.
“Commissioner Doyle told us you both believe it to be a vampyr that killed McKenna. Is that true?” Brenna asked.
“Yes,” Cyrus said. “Which is why we need to learn more about where she’s been. Who she’s been with.”
Brenna shrugged. “I don’t know. McKenna used to tell me everything. I didn’t know she was seeing anyone.”
Evelyn’s brows furrowed. Had McKenna been seeing the vampyr? It made sense for the secrecy, at least, but Evelyn couldn’t understand why she’d willingly meet with a vampyr.
Cyrus continued. “Is there a place that McKenna thought was special or maybe somewhere she would’ve gone?”
Brenna scoffed, placing a hand over her chest. “We used to call McKenna our sweet little faerie as she ran through our fields as a child. Even when she was older, well, she practiced the old ways, ones she learned from her grandmother, my Ma.” She paused, looking out the window and squinting as if she was searching for something. But her little girl wasn’t out there running in the fields and never would be again. “There’s a castle, a ruin from the ancient faerie reign. She used to visit and leave trinkets. Told me she felt the ghosts and respected the dead.”
“Do others visit the castle?” Cyrus asked.
“Nay, wouldn’t pass the crumbled wall, let alone go into the actual castle. There’s rumors demons roam there. But the otherworldly didn’t bother McKenna.”
