Two boys shoved the woman, causing her to stagger against Dianna’s mare. They continued pushing and shoving through the crowd in front of the markers until they’d gotten clear and were running down the shining road.

A moment later, a male voice shouted hoarsely, “Go back! Go back! Mother’s mercy, you can’t go down there!”

The pain in that voice silenced the Fae crowded in front of the markers. And in that silence, Dianna thought she heard faint screams.

A few moments later, a man lurched into sight, sweating and struggling to get up the last few steps of the shining road. He had an arrow in one shoulder, another arrow in his thigh. Two men near the front of the crowd dropped their bundles and rushed to help their wounded Clansman.

Dianna’s heart pounded as the wounded Clansman was helped past the markers.

“Stand back now!” an older female voice ordered. “Stand back.”

There were mutters and low curses as people trod on the toes of those behind them in an effort to obey.

Seeing the woman who stepped into the cleared space around the wounded man, Dianna muttered a curse of her own. She’d forgotten this was Sorcha’s Clan. The woman had always disapproved of the way the Fae interacted with the human world and never hesitated to say so. And Dianna had the feeling Sorcha hadn’t really approved of her and Lucian becoming the leaders of the Fae, which is why she’d never felt comfortable around the old woman. But when Sorcha demanded obedience, she was obeyed, and that strength of will would help all of them now.

“What’s happening down there?” Sorcha demanded.

“They’re killing us,” the wounded man gasped. “They’re killing us. The Black Coats are down there with an army of men.”

Gasps and murmurs ran through the crowd.

“What about the huntsmen who were down there keeping watch on the Old Place?” Sorcha asked.

One tear spilled down the man’s cheek before he closed his eyes. “Dead. Slaughtered. And the witches…I saw what the Black Coats did to the witches. I saw.”

A man’s voice rose from the crowd. “The Black Coats couldn’t have killed all the Fae. My sister went down the shining road with her children.”

“Mine too!” another man’s voice said. “I sent her down as soon as we saw the warning signs that the road was going to close. She must have gotten away.”

The wounded man shook his head. “Dead. All dead. Women, children, babes, old men. The Black Coats didn’t care. They were waiting at the end of the shining road. Just waiting for us with swords and bows. They killed all of them.”

A woman cried out, “The shining road is fading!” Another cried, “The mist!”