Page 128 of Their Blood Rite

I don’t care it’s thick with dust. I don’t care it stinks of mould.

My hands cover my ears, and my eyes scrunch closed before I hum.

Hands grab at my ankles, and I’m yanked from underneath. Before I can scream, hands cover my mouth, and I’m pinned to the floor, kicking and unable to breathe. They have my mouth and nose smothered.

Dorian straddles me as Shaw and Archie restrain and silence me.

Behind them, the dead man reaches out for me, and I know that if he touches me, I’ll feel it all. I’ll feel his emotions when he died. I’ll feel the pain of what killed him. I’ll relive it over and over, trapped in a loop of death and dying in agony.

These spirits that linger died in horror. They met their end with such violence and suffering they’re forever stuck here, looping their end over and over like a stain that will never be washed clean.

They don’t know who they are or that they’re dead. I’m not even convinced they’re the souls of anything that lived. Just ascar of how they died. Those final moments are imprinted in the world.

Dorian snatches my left hand.

‘Her charms are gone,’ he realises. ‘The talismans I made her… they’re gone!’

‘Did she drop them?’ Archie asks. ‘Should I go down and try to find them?’

‘There’s no time. Her screams will draw too much attention.’ Dorian bites my palm and does the same to his before pressing some of the beaded charm bracelets he usually wears on his wrist between us. He mutters some words under his breath before hastily putting them on my wrist and wrapping them in a very particular way between my fingers.

He then leans down, his nose against mine and pulls Ronan’s hand away. I gasp in a breath just as he softly blows between my lips.

I take it in, this endless breath he gives, and it fills my lungs to their fullness. My back arches as my body keeps trying to pull in his air. He resumes speaking, his deep and dark voice like a soothing balm against that agonising noise in my ears. It replaces it. His words now occupy my head. His words are inside me.

The spirit vanishes. That painful ringing in my head stops.

Everything is calm.

‘Good girl,’ Dorian says, nodding slowly as I look up at him, still unable to breathe. ‘That’s it. You’ve got it. Breathe. Is the spirit gone?’ he asks breathlessly.

I nod, seeing no one but the four of us in the room.

‘W-what did you do?’

‘I gave you the protection of my talismans. They’ll shield you,’ Dorian says, panting as he sweeps my hair from my tear-streaked face. ‘Don’t take them off. Whatever you do.’ His thumbs wipe clear another tear as it falls.

‘That breath…’ I’m just… I’m lost for words. ‘It felt so personal. So intimate.’

‘Yeah. That breath, Dorian,’ Shaw says darkly, glaring at him angrily. ‘What the fuck?!’

‘It’s what she needed.’

Shaw drags him across the room. I’m up to try and help in a second, but Archie holds me back.

‘You made a fucking link?’ Shaw spits. ‘What the hell are you thinking?’

‘She needed help.’

‘She would have worked through it.’

‘Or she would have been touched by the spirit, and she would be writhing in agony as she suffered its death. Good luck explaining that to the king when he discovers she’s a necromancer who has been possessed by a spirit.’

‘You had no right to make a link without my permission.’

‘She’s getting too strong, Shaw. Too powerful too quickly. Seeing spirits makes her vulnerable to possession, and you know that. This way, I can help her control it. Help take away her pain and fear.’

Shaw throws a punch, catching Dorian’s face. Dorian grabs Shaw’s throat, and his eyes darken. Black webs spread across the whites of his eyes, and the room dims. Great shadows spread across the wall. Shadows from nothing I can see but big, monstrous shapes that make the air cold. It’s so cold, I see my breath.

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