But they wouldn’t. They couldn’t do that just for me.
I still had my sword and thrust it at my captor’s gut. He moved just out of reach and kicked it out of my hand. It whirled to the ground, getting lost in the shin-high grass.
“Tie her up. Put her in the cart bound for the Black Castle.” With a quick shove, I fell back into waiting, clutching hands. I bucked and kicked, fighting with everything to break free. I couldn’t let them take me to the Black Castle. They’d torture me,they’d use me for my blood and drain me until I was an empty shell. I’d rather die now than go there.
More strong hands gripped my arms and legs. Leather straps circled my wrists. A furious fire burned through my veins. “Get off me!”
“Dravyn,” someone said to the black-haired vampire. My breathing intensified. Iknewit was him. “We need to move. They’re going to concentrate their archery on us any moment.”
The three men holding me started to drag me off. On the road ahead there were three wagons full of captives. Hands were wrapped around the bars of the windows. Wails and cries came from inside. I couldn’t see faces well but there must be twenty people in each.
I jerked and writhed to break away but the three of them held me with an iron-clad grip. Panic rose, clawing and fighting its way to the surface. I couldn’t get in the cart. No no no no. I screamed until my throat burned.
Dravyn pulled Viper’s dagger from his arm without a flinch and inspected the blade. A moment later, he lifted his black eyes to mine and a cruel smile curved. “Wait.” The men holding me stopped. I stilled. “Put her on askirinnext to mine. Make sure she’s tied on securely.” He picked up my sword from the thick grass and walked over to me. “I’ve seen this sword before. You know who it belonged to?”
I turned my face away and clenched my teeth.
“Certainly you do.” He curled his lip and ran his tongue over his teeth. “Darius said Viper had a new apprentice. This must be her. She has his dagger and Oriana’s sword. Belladonna will be pleased.” He nodded. “Let’s move.”
I struggled again until one of them struck me on the head and I blacked out.
I started coming to as belts tightened around my waist and wrists. Something cold and hard jabbed into my throat. I slowlylifted my chin and blinked, clearing away the blurry vision. My head throbbed, making it difficult to think, but I was sitting on horseback, strapped to a saddle. The horse next to me shrieked and tossed its head, then nipped at my leg.
Dravyn jerked back on the reins. “Enough, Miski. She is not for you.”
My head finally stopped spinning enough to take in the beast and I jolted. It wasn’t a horse, it was a monster. The elongated canines pushed outside its lips from both top and bottom. The protruding teeth were at least three inches long. Its red eyes reflected in the moonlight and made my skin crawl. The shiny black coat and mane were deceptively beautiful.
The warriors’ talk in the bar was true after all, but these horses had more than just wings... He called it askirin.
“Miski craves your flesh, girl,” Dravyn said, as his mount danced impatiently. “Behave or I’ll let her have it.”
A vampire-horse? Oh, no. No.
Huge black feathered wings spread from the creature. I tugged at the bonds on my wrists, trying to work my right hand free. I had to get off this thing. I glanced back at the wall. Warriors and assassins ran along the top of it, signaling archers to turn their fire from inside to outside. I desperately searched for Vander. They couldn’t open the door, but he could climb the wall quickly.
Then I saw him at the top. I’d recognize his form even from a mile away. I’d memorized every bit of him. “Vander!”
TheskirinI sat on pawed at the ground and let out a shrill noise. I wrenched against the straps and glanced down to my feet in stirrups to see black wings opened up. Dravyn grabbed myskirin’s reins and nudged his. I bounced in the saddle as we moved into a trot, then a gallop, and I held in a scream as we lifted off the ground. Several others rose into the air around us.
Vander was on the ground, sprinting after us, but as we flew up past the treetops I lost sight of him. My heart slowly sank.
I didn’t thinkabout being hundreds of feet in the air on the back of an animal that wanted to eat me, or that I was on my way to be tortured by vampires. I kept my mind on working to free my hands. Whoever had tied me to the saddle did a thorough job of it. There was even a cold metal collar around my neck that chained me to it. If I freed my hands, I wouldn’t be able to get it off, but I’d at least be able to unhook the collar from the saddle and fight back once we landed.
My sword and dagger were strapped to Dravyn’s saddle. I wouldn’t have time to get to them, but I had a knife in my boot. I’d have only moments to act and flee.
My stomach dipped as the creature I rode began its descent. It whinnied as it sensed home and the wings beat faster. Nocturnus glittered in the moonlight. The Black Castle bricks were covered in a glossy sheen that made it glimmer like water. We passed over the Devouring Swamp. The smell was like rotting corpses. I didn’t want to imagine running through it to escape.
The wind whipped my hair around wildly as we picked up speed. I squeezed my thighs tighter to the beast as we dipped lower again. It looked like I and a group of twelve others were going for the castle with one prison cart full of slaves, while the others went in a different direction.
The carts, pulled through the air by two winged creatures, seemed to defy nature. I wondered if magic was used to steady them. Did they have a mage on their side now? The thought sickened me.
Vander had warned me what it would take to get through Nocturnus’s natural terrain—the rocky cliffs, the swamp—and with vampires chasing me the challenge of getting out would truly test my training.
The skin was raw on my wrists, but I finally pulled one hand free. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I quickly worked the knot around my other wrist and gripped the saddle horn as the beast touched down onto inky black cobblestones. The hooves clopped loudly as I jolted up and down in the saddle. I glanced at the massive castle looming above me so high I craned my neck to see the top of it. It was twice the size of Drakthar and every bit as menacing. The peaks reminded me of stalagmites. With dread, I realized we were several hundred feet above the city of Nocturnus and searched for a way down. A road back in the direction we had come led through thick, towering woods covered with gray fog.
I tried remembering the map I’d studied a couple months back. The details were fuzzy, but I knew there was also a backway off the mountain, somewhere on the east side but with several cliffs and steep inclines I wouldn’t be able to climb down fast enough.
My mount slowed. I unlatched the chain and the belts around my waist. Nothing held me anymore.
