Page 30 of Their Blood Rite

But the words are a garbled mess, and even if I were loud enough to be heard by anyone but myself, he’s already gone by the time they’ve left my mouth.

I dig my fingertips in the dirt, desperate to stop them pulling me. My fingernails tear from my body, and the rocks scratch and rip my skin.

I’m hauled up. I can’t hold my weight and sway in the many arms that hold me. My front is slumped against Cole’s father’s chest as my eyes roll into the back of my head. It’s a few minutes until I figure out I’ve been bound to the trunk of a tree with my hands tied behind me by an unforgiving rope that cuts into my wrists, quickly turning my hands numb.

‘How dare you trick him like this,’ Cole’s father grinds out. ‘You dare make us look like fools?’ He slaps me hard. I’d be back in the dirt if I weren't tied up.

‘I’m not a blood witch!’ I scream in angry desperation, pathetically pulling at my bindings. ‘I’m not! Let me go!’

He punches me in my stomach and steps away, shaking his head, his lip curled and nose scrunched.

Everyone looks on. The females have their hands held as if in prayer. The males look like rabid dogs, desperate to tear me to pieces.

‘The fire is wrong,’ I gasp. ‘It declared me Earth!’

‘Then Blood. The Flames never lie,’ Cole’s father retorts. ‘You thought you could trick the fire? That you could worm your way into my son’s good graces and stand at his side as his wife? As a leader of our coven?’

‘I AM NOT A BLOOD WITCH!’ I scream once more.

I look directly at Cole. He may be a fucking dick head, but he’s the only hope I have.

‘We’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember. You know I’m not evil. You love me!’

‘Who sent you?’ Cole’s father begins to look around wildly. ‘Her father! Where is her father? Find him!’

Several others run into the woods.

Then he looks to the sky.

‘The Blood Moon. We are running out of time.’ He gestures to the drummers. ‘Begin!’ he demands. As he turns to the rest of the coven, the air fills with rhythmic drumming. ‘Begin!’he commands again, watching as everyone hesitates. They’re too busy staring at me. He turns to Cole and offers him the moon blade. ‘Blood magic is forbidden, Son. The treaty with the humans demands her life. The eternal power of the earth of which we serve shall have her.’ He guides the blade towards me. 'You must go first.’

‘First?’ Cole repeats, looking at the blade still soaked in my blood from where it sliced my hand.

‘Death by three hundred cuts,’ his father says. ‘We need to prove to them all we have no sympathy for her, or we shall end up with The General and his men here. Andweshall be the ones torn apart.’ He bellows to the others. ‘I SAID BEGIN!’

Behind him, the males begin descending on the females. Cole continues staring at the dagger.

‘I can’t kill her,’ he says weakly, looking his father in the eye. ‘I love her.’ He tries to return the dagger.

Cole gets a harsh backhand.

‘She either says the vow and joins the Coven, destroying the already fragile treaty we have with the humans, or we offer her up, blood, flesh and bone, to the fire.’

Cole’s teeth are clenched, and I watch with such hope that he’ll refuse and help me. That he’ll use that blade to cut me free.

They continue staring intently at each other. He grips his son’s shoulder, glancing at the others anxiously, knowing that the next choices he makes could very well end his son’s life.

‘Die with her, or shun her and take your place with me as a leader of this coven.’

‘Father… I love her-’

‘There are other females. There will always be other females.’ When Cole tries to look at me, his father grabs his chin, refusing to let him. ‘There is no way she didn’t know what she was.’

‘I don’t… She didn’t… Maybe she’s different. She’s kind. She’s generous.’ Cole finally looks at me. ‘She’s Ashe. I’ve known her since I was a boy. I have loved her every day since then.’

‘Blood witches are evil by nature. They get power from taking the life force of other living things. Doing that changes you. For fucks sake, Cole. The uprising nearly ended all our lives. You have seen the bones marking the human villages.’ He snatches his face again. ‘Blood witches killed your mother, Cole.’

Those words have Cole frozen, and the blood drains from his face.

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