Page 59 of Their Blood Rite

Iknow I’m in a bed. The mattress is soft, and the sheet over my body is smooth. I hate the space I feel. All the space around me. The chill of the open air.

Not safe… not safe…

Without opening my eyes, I slide off and feel the safety of the floor. The solidness of the ground.

But arms meet me before I can get underneath the bed.

‘You’re not going back under the bed. We’re going to talk about this, Pixie,’ Shaw says as he returns me to the edge of the bed. I sit there. My eyes closed to avoid the agony the light offers. My body is so spent he has to hold me upright. ‘I know you’re in pain, but we must discuss this.’

‘W-will your blood help me?’ I ask, lowering my head and wishing that the red-hot agony inside would end. ‘It really hurts.’

‘No. It won’t help. Not with this. All witches go through this when they connect to their Kindred. Only time and practice will help you with the pain.’

I slump and find myself meeting his chest. I have no energy to pull away. He lets me fall into him.

‘Tell us when you connected to your other Kindred,’ he says, his tone low and soft. ‘The dark mirror. Tell us.’

‘I didn’t,’ I reply. ‘I hadn’t.’

‘Please,’ he sighs, his hand resting on my back. ‘Don’t lie to me. I don’t want to force you to answer.’

‘I swear it, Shaw.’ My voice breaks as it all sinks in. It really hits me, and the weight of everything becomes too much to bear. ‘I thought I was an Earth Witch. I was going to marry Cole. I didn’t have a Kindred. I’ve never connected to anything. I shouldn’t be here. None of this should be happening.’

My tears soak into his shirt, and when I start to openly sob, his entire frame goes utterly rigid around me.

‘It’s okay, Pixie,’ Archie soothes. ‘You didn’t want to marry an entitled little shit like Cole anyways.’

‘Oh,’ I sniff. ‘I wasn’t going to. Not since I caught him fucking my best friend in the arse the day before the rite.’

‘He did what now?’ he asks, his voice slightly higher.

‘I told him to keep his shit-covered dick away from me, and I punched him in the face. Worst birthday of my life.’

‘Bet he took that well.’ Shaw lifts my chin. ‘Is that why you were running away from him?’

‘Running?’

‘I saw you hit the barrier surrounding your village,’ he tells me. ‘You fell as you struck it.’

‘The man under the hood,’ I realise. ‘You were standing beyond the barrier. You tried to get me to stop from hitting it. Why?’

‘I knew it would have you on your pretty little backside,’ he teases. But his eyes narrow, and his ease fades. ‘You ran, Pixie. That’s punishable by death. To attempt to pass through the barrier without your leader’s consent is-’

‘Sometimes, death is preferable,’ I cut in. ‘Sometimes, death is worth risking… for freedom.’

‘Are you not free back home, Pixie?’ Archie asks.

‘Please,’ Dorian scoffs before I can answer. ‘She’s lived a life of privilege. If all she had to do was marry a prick like Cole as punishment, then she had it good.’

I laugh. My head feels like it’s cracking when I do, but the idea of me living a privileged life demands laughter.

‘Tell us then,’ Dorian jeers, his arms folding across his chest. ‘Tell us why you tried to run. Tell us of yourwoefullife.’

‘None of your business.’

‘She’s a liar, Shaw,’ Dorian insists. ‘She is not just a blood witch. You know what those Kindreds mean. You know what that makes her.’

‘What does it make me?’ I look between them.

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