Page 162 of Their Blood Rite

They face the beast.

‘Get the little witch,’ Neve commands. ‘And make our pets heel.’

The creature releases a roar as one after the other, more and more creatures emerge.

‘Do we run?’ Archie asks.

‘Run!’ Shaw agrees.

We turn and come face to face with another monster, the same as the winged beast. With a swipe of its great arm, we’re all sent flying. Archie tries to keep a hold of me, but I slip from his grip and slam into the ground hard, rolling several meters before stopping. My already battered and exhausted body screams in agony. The dirt seeps into my mouth, and my blood drips from a cut on my forehead. A pair of feet stand close. I look up and see my mother standing over me. Her sisters – my aunts – peer down at me. Sinthia’s beaming ear to ear. Dhalia glares with hatred.

‘Hello, daughter,' Neve says, inspecting me from head to toe with a disappointed expression.

I’m inside the circle. Sealed in with the blood queen.

My mother…

She reaches out her hand. Her dark magic emanates from her fingertips, reaching out to me in dark tendrils that smother my chest, hauling me upright. I hover there before all three, limp and strangled, as her twisted magic wraps around me.

‘Hmmm. A powerful little thing, aren’t you?’

Her hand balls into a fist. Inside, I crunch. I feel my ribs break and my lungs collapse. My mouth opens in a hollow‘o’,and a stream of blood spews out, flowing like a river towards the blood queen. It covers her hand, soaking it, and the cracks surrounding her spread, destroying the blood circle surrounding them.

Sinthia giggles with glee and skips beyond the boundary. Dhalia follows.

My mother walks closer, looking up at me.

‘There can only be one blood queen. And those men belong to us. Consider yourself lucky. Your death will be quick. They will not be so lucky.’

With a roll of her eyes, she tosses me away, sending me soaring through the air and deep into the trees, where I hit a trunk and fall to the ground.

I watch her follow her sisters to where the Unseelie fight the others.

Chapter 27

Amongst the yelling and fighting, I hear Sinthia laughing like a lunatic and the raging roars of the guys. I see them all fighting through the trees, and it’s quickly becoming clear that the three blood witches are too strong. They get their power from blood. They slaughter their unseelie, and soon, blood has soaked the ground, providing them with all they need.

Everything becomes a blur. The fighting gets drowned out by the ringing in my ears and the sound of my slowing heart.

Death is imminent. It’s late, in fact.

Shaw skids to a stop in front of me.

‘Ashe…’ he whispers, his eyes wide as he looks at me, so broken and close to death. He bites into his wrist, tearing a huge chunk of flesh away. ‘I’ve got you.’

He goes to thrust his wrist into my mouth, but before he can, he’s tossed away from me.

‘You dare to blood share with another? WITHMYCHILD?’ Neve screams.

‘Please!’ Shaw says, his hand reaching out as he slowly returns to his feet. ‘Neve. She’s your daughter.’ His eyes flick between usas he stands. ‘Your flesh. Your blood. And a powerful witch. She can’t die.’

‘She’s a blood witch. Did you not make it your life’s mission to destroy us all? You seduced me, Ronan. Drugged me so I couldn’t fight back as you tied me up. Then killed me with three hundred cuts. Why save her when you murdered me?’

Each blink gets heavier. No air. Just blood. Mine, spilling and pooling inside me. Drowning me. My body lies broken. I can’t move, and if he doesn’t feed me soon, the next blink may be my last.

‘She can return the rest of your coven!’ he insists. ‘She returned you and your sisters. She can return more.’

‘You wish to save her life for nothing more than what lies between her legs. You fuck the mother, then you fuck the daughter. Is this some new game of yours? Will you betray her too? Drug her and make her scream as you cut her over and over? Step aside. Allow me to save you the trouble.’

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