“You’re not making sense, Kaylie. What’s the Reckoning?”
“When a child is brought into the fold. For Adrian. And when the Reckoning is finished, Adrian is sent to the Great Sacrifice.”
“Which is?”
“He is allowed.”
“Allowed what?”
“I cannot say. When we accept the mark we have the blood of Eden in our veins. It is sacrilege to speak of the Great Sacrifice. It is the one thing we are not allowed to know of.”
“You’re not a part of Eden anymore, Kaylie.”
The girl shuddered. “I know that. I am one of the lost, forever damned. I will never be able to stop wandering. Eden cast me out, the world cast me out, even Doug left me. I am unclean. I am doomed.”
“That’s not true. You are a victim, and you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You don’t understand.” Her voice went up an octave, tears threatening. “I will never be normal. I will never be able to have a normal life. I am cursed, and I will forever be marked as the cursed one. That’s why Doug took me away. Curtis foretold that I was the Cursed One. She saw it, knew I would be the end to Eden. There is nothing that can be done to change that. Doug set me on this path, and I must follow through.”
“What do you have to do?”
“Expose them. Betray them. Save my daughter.” Her words were spitting out, rabid and scared. Sam realized she was treading the edge; she flipped from sanity to insanity at a moment’s notice. And she fought so, so hard to keep it together.
Sam kept her voice calm and smooth. “You aren’t betraying them. You’re going to set them free.”
“Only Curtis sets them free. I am shedding light. It is forbidden. I will burn for my actions.” She was crying, and finally, finally, the gun dropped down by her side.
Sam was about to reach for it when a shadow overcame them, blocking the light of the sun, and a deep, angry male voice rang through the trees.
“Yes, you will, Kaylie. You will burn for your sins.”
Chapter
57
FLETCHER HEARD A high-pitched scream. He stopped moving, whistled low to make Jordan and Thurber stop, too. Listened for it again. Heard nothing.
Then there was a crashing sound—something was coming at them, fast and hard, through the woods. He raised his weapon, pointed it toward the noise. The ROE ran through his mind—only shoot in self-defense, only shoot in self-defense. It was damn unnerving standing there facing whatever was coming toward them. His finger slid to the trigger.
Sam burst through the woods, running hard, like something was chasing her.
He eased his finger back, realized he’d been holding his breath. He was grateful he’d been trained not to react until there was an immediate threat. “Sam, over here.”
She heard his voice, altered course, leaped over a tree trunk and ran to him. Her eyes were wide and she was out of breath, sweating in the late-afternoon miasma.
“Kaylie’s back there, with a huge man. It must be Adrian.” A dog’s bark broke through the air. Her head whipped around toward the sound. “Oh, God, that’s Thor!”
“You sure?”
Her face was white. “Yes, absolutely. He’s attacking. We have to go back there. Xander must be with him. Thor wouldn’t attack without direction.”
“Negative,” Thurber said. “We have to stay here. This is our position.”
Sam shot him a look. “You stay. I’m going back.”
She turned and began running toward the sound of Thor’s bark. Fletcher was right on her heels, and so was Jordan. It only took them a few minutes to get back to where Thor was barking.
The dog had cornered Adrian and Kaylie. Sam was right, the guy was huge. He was holding Kaylie in a firm embrace with a Glock .40 tight against her temple.
Fletcher took a shot at him, but Adrian ducked away, taking shelter behind a tree. The sudden movement got him off balance, and he tripped. Kaylie grunted in pain as they crashed to the ground together.
Fletcher started forward, but Jordan hissed at him, “Don’t shoot, damn it. The ROE says self-defense only.”
“He’s trying to kill her, or us!”
Sam saw Xander standing fifteen feet away, his back against a tree trunk, cradling an arm Sam immediately realized was broken. But he was alive and not bleeding. Sam sent thanks heavenward, then crept to his side. She managed to get there without drawing any attention to herself. “What happened?”
“Son of a bitch got me with a tree branch across the body. Snapped my arm. Then he turned and ran. Thor went after him.”
“Let me see.” She ran her fingers along his forearm, making him wince and gasp. “It’s a clean break, but both the radius and ulna are broken.”