The Color of Fear (20 page)

“Only the bite of a Blood-Eyed ghoul will turn a human or a royal into a Blood-Eyed—which is how we lost so many of our brave. All the knights. Princes. Kings. Most were bitten during that first battle of the Zombie Wars.”

Caitlin’s hands went clammy.

“However, even you royals will not survive another wave of the scepter. The queen has that planned for tonight. Should it happen, we’ll lose our remaining power to resist the Red Spectrum.”

Cindy flexed her fingers, then cracked her knuckles. “We’ll snatch the scepter from her.”

Amethyst shook his head dejectedly. “You’ll never get near it—not even within a few meters.”

“Why not?” Rapunzel asked.

“Crows. They can smell the scent of courage and royal blood from vast distances.”

“Who cares,” Cinderella replied. “We’ll storm that wicked wench and overpower her. I’ll wrestle the scepter from her myself.”

Rapunzel nodded in agreement as she rolled up her sleeves. “Yeah. Six of us, one of her. I’ll take those odds.”

Caitlin bit a nail.

Amethyst waved a dismissive finger.

Natalie was looking for something else to munch.

“You’re forgetting about the wolves,” Amethyst said. “They guard her and protect the scepter. As do all the other Blood-Eyed. To get to the queen, you need to be able to get past a kingdom of ghouls without getting bitten.”

Rapunzel slumped down on a boulder. “Which is impossible.”

Natalie found a carrot and took a nibble. “Now tell us the bad news.”

“If that scepter is raised at midnight,” Amethyst replied, “Our eyes will turn as red as the blood we’ll crave.”

Natalie tossed the carrot aside. “And we’ll all be living the zombie life.”

The chilling caws of a close murder of crows reverberated into the cavern.

Caitlin shoved her hands in her pockets to warm them. She heard another grim wail. Or she thought she did. It sounded like the baying of wolves—faint howls that seemed to ring right through the rock of the cavern.

What had the smart caterpillar said before? Where there were crows, the demonic howls of the wolves followed.

Her eyes darted around the cave. Had the others heard it too? Or was she imagining it?

She felt like she was sitting on a butcher block.

Like a fresh piece of meat about to be eaten.

There seemed to be
no feasible way to get close to the queen so they could snatch the scepter.

Resolve glinted in Rapunzel’s eyes. “I don’t care about wolves and crows—or my own life. I’m going after the scepter.”

“Me too!” Cindy cried out.

Amethyst wagged a finger. “Your self-sacrifice, noble as it may be, won’t work. No hand born of our world can remove the scepter from the queen’s grasp. Only the human hand has the power to take hold of it.”

A pregnant pause quieted the cave. All eyes fell on Caitlin Rose Fletcher as Caitlin Rose Fletcher almost fell over on the dirt floor.

That’s why I’m here?

“But you just said the crows guard the queen,” Caitlin responded in a nervous tone. “Even from humans!”

Amethyst cracked a discerning smile, his eyes betraying his crafty intelligence.

He crawled on his many legs over to the large chest of drawers. He opened the bottom drawer, reached inside, and took out an object. A translucent pyramid about the size of a walnut was fixed between two of his fingers. “
This
prism,” Amethyst said, holding it up for all to see, “is made of fused quartz.”

Cindy eyed it hungrily. “What’s so special about fused quartz? Is it edible?”

Amethyst tilted it to and fro. “A quartz prism disperses invisible wavelengths of light.”

He snapped the quartz prism into a clamp located at the top of a tall, thin candelabrum beside his mushroom. He turned his attention to Caitlin.

“Come, child.”

Her eyes sprung open. She swung her head to look behind her, hoping he was talking to another child—perhaps Natalie? She turned back and met his gaze.

Uh-oh
.

Caitlin tried to speak, but no words came forth. She mouthed soundlessly: “
Who, me?
”

Amethyst nodded. It figured. Caitlin’s walk was hesitant as she moved in the direction of the caterpillar She stopped short of the candelabrum. She felt that was close enough.

“Closer, child.”

Caitlin glanced back at Natalie. Her sister nudged her chin up, encouraging her onward.

Caitlin crept a little closer.

“A bit more,” Amethyst instructed.

When Caitlin was close enough for his liking, he raised his hand. “Stop there, child.”

Rapunzel nodded as a canny smile broke at the corners of her mouth. She said to the girls, “This must be why he sent us to find Caitlin.”

Amethyst adjusted the angle of the quartz prism, slanting it toward Caitlin’s forehead.

“I shall refract your aura.”

My aura?

With one of his many hands, he turned a knob. Blackout blinds obediently rolled down to cover the skylight. “Works better in the dark.” He turned to Rapunzel. “Please blow out the candles.” She blew out the flames flickering in the sconces on the cavern walls.

The cave went dark.

Except for a single phosphorescent maroon glow.

Natalie’s mouth fell open. She stared bug-eyed at Caitlin.

“Natalie, what is it?”

Her response remained her open mouth.

Caitlin glanced upward. With her peripheral vision, she could see a faint, radiant field glimmering around her head. It was tinged in shades of red.

“Oh my God! Is that my aura?” she exclaimed. “For real?”

“It is,” Amethyst said. “As I hoped. No green. Barely any yellow. This girl is all fear. She’s awash in worry. Perfectly petrified of … well, practically everything.”

Caitlin felt like crying.

How freaking depressing!

“How wonderful!” Amethyst said hopefully.

Caitlin gasped. “I don’t understand!”

And I’m not sure I want to
…

“Your fear will cloak you in a shield of invisibility,” Amethyst said.

“Huh?!”

“The crows can only sense courage and royal blood.”

“Huh?!”

“The crows will never sense you coming. You’ll be like a ghost. You’ll be invisible. Even when you’re close enough to smell the queen’s breath.”

Caitlin snapped out of her shock. “But how about all the Blood-Eyed wolves and zombies who surround her?”

Amethyst scratched his head with one of his left hands. “Haven’t figured that one out yet.”

That comment drained the blood from Caitlin’s face.

“I cannot do this!” Caitlin whined.

Amethyst fixed his narrowed eyes on her as his manner turned gravely serious.

“Be careful of the thoughts you express. Our entire realm is one endless wave of imagination, my child. When you complain and worry, our world will bring you more to complain and worry about. When you appreciate, the world brings you more to appreciate. It’s in our own hands. It’s in
your
hands, my child.”

A hair-raising wolf howl roared into the cavern, frightening Caitlin so much she completely emptied the air out of her lungs.

The awful wolf’s call was no longer echoing from some faraway ridge outside the cave. It was coming from
inside
the tunnel!

“Oh my!” Lord Amethyst announced, hands on his cheeks. “They’ve found the entrance!”

The cavern went silent. No one moved.

Wind whistled through the tunnel.

Then a whining gust of foul air whirled into the cavern, scattering papers, stirring up dust, and rattling vines.

“Nature has not produced this wind,” Amethyst whispered. “It gestates evil and possesses depraved intelligence.”

Caitlin blew hot breath on her fingers. Then she rubbed her hands together.

The snarling of the wolf drew closer.

Amethyst massaged his chin with one hand after another. Caitlin hoped those eyebrows of his would arch in a sudden flash of inspiration, because their group needed an exit strategy, fast.

The clawing noise of paws tracking along the dirt grew louder. Closer.

Natalie was running a finger through her hair, twisting loose strands around and around and around. It was a nervous habit of Caitlin’s, but she’d never seen Natalie do it even once—before now.

Another draft of wind brought the rancid odor of wolf breath into the cavern. It smelled like one of those stinking corpse flowers mixed with blood.

Caitlin’s mouth ran dry.

No spit. Zero saliva.

The hellhound was nearly at the door.

Amethyst became still. His antennae sprung to alert. The ghoulish, guttural growl was about to enter his cavern.

Caitlin flattened both palms against her ears, hard. She couldn’t bear to hear that bone-chilling snarl again. She kept her eyes glued on the caterpillar, waiting for him to proclaim a miraculous solution.

Amethyst looked peaceful. He seemed to be accepting his fate.

What?

The grand old insect turned to his frightened guests.

“Evil has arrived.”

Caitlin disliked darkness—in
fact, she was scared stiff of it—so closing her eyes to avoid seeing what was about to come into that cave was not an option. Instead she sat down on the small boulder. She lifted her gaze, fixing it determinedly on the ceiling.

Please, please don’t let me see it!
Don’t let me see it!

As if not seeing
it
would somehow prevent
it
from seeing her.

Her nails clawed the sides of the boulder as she sat, muscles tensed. She clenched her fingers into fists till her knuckles went white. Her eyes remained locked on that single spot on the ceiling.

Cold wind drifted around her ankles and snaked up her back. The wind was vile and alive, just as Amethyst had said.

No one in that room dared to move a finger, steal a breath, or even blink an eye.

The stench of wolf breath was thick in the air.

It
was moving.

Caitlin felt the urge to look. The not knowing gnawed at her.
Not
looking would torment her. But looking, she knew, would also freak her out.

Caitlin lowered her eyes.

The wolf roamed right past her, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Its eyes glowed a deep red as it lurked about the dim cavern, fangs bared.

Its black fur was thick in some spots, but elsewhere the skin had rotted right through, exposing its innards.

A tract of rib cage.

A strip of leg bone.

A patch of newly decayed flesh.

When it prowled past the quartz prism clamped atop the candelabrum, the creature’s aura dispersed into a rainbow that quickly became no rainbow at all! It shimmered only black—all the colors were
gone
!

Caitlin’s skin crawled.

She thought she had known fear before this moment. But never before had she been able to taste it on her tongue, like now. Her other phobias paled in comparison to what she was feeling now—a cold fright biting her to the bone.

Saliva speckled with blood, possibly from a fresh kill, dripped from the wolf’s mouth as he leered at the bountiful meal before him. He seemed to relish deciding which one of them he was going to devour first.