Page 160 of Their Blood Rite

‘N-no…’ I manage, attempting to wriggle free of Archie’s arms. A useless effort. I’m far too weak.

Releasing her is releasing death. Freeing war. Returning evil. They would do that all so they can have their magic back? So they won’t need to rely on me?

‘I will break your curse,’ Neve smiles, that wicked grin growing. ‘If you free us and give me the little blood witch.’

Shaw looks back at me over his shoulder, contemplating the offer.

‘Those are my terms, Ronan,’ Neve declares. ‘And to make it a sweeter deal, I will vow that my sisters and I will never cross your paths again. After we part ways this night, we will not come after you or seek revenge for killing us.’

Sinthia goes on to argue. Neve raises her hand, silencing her.

‘Your freedom. Completely. In exchange for ours. And for the little witch your mutt has in his arms, of course. I will want her back.’

‘Why do you want her?’ Shaw asks, turning away from me.

‘A powerful little thing like that?’ she chuckles, eyeing me hungrily. ‘So new and already able to perform a spell of resurrection from my Grimoire. Oh. I must have her.’

‘You can’t have her,’ Dorian replies with the slightest shrug of his shoulders. ‘Your bargain with us assured it.’

Bargain? What bargain?

Neve’s smile falters as she looks at me again.

‘That’s impossible.’

‘Nope,’ Shaw sighs smugly. ‘Not impossible. Careless of you and highly fortunate for us. But clearly not impossible.’

All the sisters turn their cold stares at me, and I shrink further into Archie. He welcomes my need for comfort by holding me tighter still. The witches look at me like I’m their new enemy. Like I’m next to die at their hands.

‘Impossible,’ Dhalia whispers.

‘She can’t be,’ Sinthia breathes, shuffling closer to Neve. ‘Can she be?’

‘Trust me, blood bitch,’ Dorian grunts. ‘She is. And she’s ours. Just as you promised us.’ He leans over and reveals one of the bite marks on my neck. The one he placed on me. His mark, making me his.

Sinthia looks to Dhalia, her fingers to her lips in shock.

‘You claimed her?’ Dhalia growls.

‘We all did,’ Shaw adds, revelling in the pain and anger this is clearly causing. ‘She’s ours now. So free us, and we shall free you.’

‘How did she survive?’ Neve sneers at me as if I’m disgusting. ‘I slit her throat and buried her deep.’

‘Seems that at the same time, a young earth witch buried her recently dead daughter. Only to be given another child in return.’ Shaw nods to me. ‘Your daughter. Bleeding and close to death, healed by earth magic and given to a loving earth witch to raise. Seems the earth wished her to live.’

I force myself to look at Shaw, who reveals a truth I had no idea existed.

‘An earth witch raised a blood witch?’ Neve looks at my hand as it hangs limp. ‘She has a Kindred mark. The coven should have slaughtered her.’

‘It was kept hidden with a glamour.’

‘You’ve had her this whole time? As we festered in the pits of Hell, you had my child for yourselves?’ Her fists clench, and that dark magic swirls wildly around her. ‘You killed me and kept my daughter, Ronan?’

The whimper that escapes me is of utter despair. I think they hear my heart break in that single gasp because they all turn to look at me, the same worrying frown on their faces.

‘S-she’s my mother?’ I look at them all for an explanation. They shift, uneasy at the revelation but also preoccupied with the lethal witches held fast in the blood circle.

‘You ensnared my child and hold her hostage?’ Neve yells. ‘You refuse to return her to her mother? Her mother whom you murdered?’ She slams her foot into the ground. It splinters in all directions, stopping at the blood circle and spreading no further. The confinement holds. ‘Three hundred cuts. You tied me up and dragged your dagger over my flesh three hundred times for the crimes of being what I am, and yet you keep my child? Hold her like she’s a prized possession? She is mine, and you will return her, Ronan.’

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