Page 92 of Winterset

And Reed was in terrible danger.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Terror surged in her, and her first instinct was to close her mind to the vision, to pull away from it. It was what she always did. The intensity frightened her, and she would pull her mind back.

But she knew that she could not do that now. She had to see more. She had to know where Reed was and what was happening to him. It was the only way to save him.

So she remained on her knees, hanging on to the slender trunk of the tree with both hands, and forced her mind to stay on what she saw inside it, opening herself up to the horror and pain.

Reed was lying on his back on the ground, and there were trees around him. A man was kneeling over him, his back to her, a black cloak wrapped around him so that he was little more than a dark shape. He was leaning forward.

“No!” Anna cried, and staggered to her feet. She ran forward blindly, consumed by fear, and it wasn’t until she slipped in the mud and fell down that she stopped and pulled her thoughts together.

The vision was gone now, though the sick, quaking fear lingered in her body. She made herself remember it, made herself think, not of Reed and the danger that threatened him, but of the area around him. She knew that place! She was certain of it.

She closed her eyes and made herself stay still, remembering the placement of a large rock just beyond Reed’s shoulder and the spreading branches of an oak a little farther away.

Anna jumped to her feet, suddenly certain of where Reed was. It was in these very woods as they ran toward Winterset land, away from Craydon Tor. She was, she knew, not very far away from it.

She ran, dodging around trees and bushes, lifting her skirts to keep them from snagging, slipping now and then on the wet ground. The rain grew hard, drenching her, and a tree branch caught her bonnet, tearing it from her head. She paid no attention, just ran, her breath rasping in her throat, fear growing in her with every moment.

And then, at last, she saw them ahead—a man lying stretched out on the ground, a dark shape bending over him.

“No!” Anna screamed, throwing herself at the kneeling figure.

At her cry, he whipped around, rising and throwing out his arm. He caught Anna in the chest, knocking her backward onto the ground. She looked up at him and gasped, a paralyzing fear gripping her. The face of the figure looming over her was not human.

It took a moment for her to realize that the man, draped in a cloak, wore a mask similar to the ones they had found in the old Lord de Winter’s chambers. It was made of hide, white-and-gray-mixed fur, fitted to the face and ending across the cheeks and nose. The hood of the cloak was pulled forward, revealing nothing of his head but the masked face. Human eyes looked out at her from behind the holes cut into the hide, and the combination of human and animal in the face was somehow worse than either alone would have been.

“You!” he exclaimed, and glanced around wildly. “You should not be here.”

Someone she knew, she thought. Someone who knew her. She could not connect this monster in front of her with anyone familiar. She did not know what to do or say, how to stop him from killing Reed.

Slowly she rose to her feet, taking in the situation before her. There was a short club lying on the ground beside him, and there was a knife in his hand. However, the knife had no blood on it, which she hoped meant that Reed was not dead, just knocked unconscious. If she could distract the man, perhaps Reed would wake up and subdue him. Therefore, she should keep him talking and watching her, taking his attention away from Reed. It was not much of a plan, she knew, but it was the only thing she could think of at the moment.

“Leave him alone,” she ordered, trying to put as much firm authority in her voice as she could.

He shook his head. “No. No. He has to die.”

“Why?” she asked. “He’s done no harm to you.”

“He wants you!” the anonymous figure shot back. “Don’t you see? That is why he keeps hanging about. He wants to marry you. He is trying to disturb everything, and I cannot allow it!”

“I am not going to marry Reed.”

“Of course you are not. You are meant for me.”

Anna gaped. What on earth was he talking about?

“We know that, the two of us,” the bizarre figure went on. “But he is interfering.” He flung a hand toward Reed, turning to look down at his body.

Anna moved forward, afraid that he was about to harm Reed, but the man swung back around, flinging up his hand, and she halted.

“No! Come no closer.”

“All right,” Anna said pacifically. “I will stay right here.”

She thought about what the man had said. It was clear that he was insane. But there must be some way she could use his madness to her advantage.