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listening to his banter as he went on. “The rayen,” she said softly, laying her head down on the stone under her.
    “Yes, the rayen,” he said rather irritated.
    “Lyndon left a trail of it for me to find, did he not? In order to lead me to you, was it?”
    “Yes, indeed he did. He sensed you and Jayden as you crossed over to France.”
    “He meant for me to find you, and now what? You intend to poison more waters with my blood?”
    “You think yourself that important, do you? No, Lyndon and I wanted you and that ogre companion of yours gone from this earth. I imagine Lyndon has done away with Jayden by now. The mere intention was to separate the two of you. Lyndon seemed to think it best that he and I were the only ones. I thought for a while that he may have felt guilt for the two of us causing this plague. It started with only trying to change a few, I assure you. But the illness spread so rapidly through the waters. We could not stop it.”
    “Could you not remember how quickly it made our people sick? Were you that dense?” she said.
    He looked away from her, shaking his head. “I only sought to be rid of you both, but Lyndon saw some better purpose in it. He assumed that you and Jayden had spread the illness in the north, but I knew better. He thought he was helping by killing you and Jayden.”
    “Then why turn more?”
    “Why not?” He looked at her as if it were so evident.
    “You truly have no other reasons than you did it because you could,” she said. She refused to believe that anyone could be that psychotic.
    “Well, I think that you can agree that they make excellent guards, do they not?”
    “Now that I do believe,” she said.
    “They were able to catch you quick enough.” He placed his hand behind her head and stroked her hair. Madison welcomed the gesture. She wanted to know his true emotions. She doubted that he realized this made it easier for her to do so. But then again, Lyndon had grown to know things about their change that she hadn’t.
    “Why did you change your name,” she asked. In truth, she couldn’t care less. But it might occupy his mind long enough for her to search for his true intentions.
    He shrugged and caressed the back of her head. She knew that it was a gesture of defeat all over again. He was letting her know that she was in his hands for him to do as he pleased.
    “Some pitiful man named Ascot in the north has been capturing Jews and burning them for having brought the plague about. I assumed his name and did the same, as I’m sure you can hear above us. The people here are frightened of the illness coming to them, which it certainly will. They needed a savior of sorts to find the guilty who caused the illness,” he said sarcastically.
    “The irony, ” she said dryly. Madison’s face contorted in such a way that almost made Caspar smile. Her disgust radiated from her body.
    “All those people upstairs, then?” she said. “I could hear them from the streets.”
    “Oh, don’t be that way. Someone had to take the blame. Don’t you know that someone must always be at fault?”
    Madison shook his hand away from her head, causing the spikes around her wrists to tighten. She let out a small cry unable to stop it from leaving her mouth.
    “It’s actually perfect that you arrived early this morning. You can be placed with the others. You will not have long to wait.”
    Madison looked up at him, still grunting from the pain now coursing through her arms.
    “It might be best in fact if you are to go first,” he said before standing up to leave. “It seems only right that we started this entire mess. One of our kind should be sacrificed. These people deserve to see one of our own burned for their pain.”
    “I will be sure that they are granted that satisfaction before you get the chance,” said Madison, her voice full of anger. She knew that Caspar could feel her rage radiating from her emotions. He merely laughed as the chained door was pulled and he