Page 156 of Her Blood Revenge

They fit together perfectly, creating an arch the size of none I could have ever imagined. It’s built at the edge of the cliff. Skulls are wedged between femurs, and finger bones lock with spines.

Below, I hear screams. Looking down, I watch humans being dragged towards the bone arch.

They sob and plead as they’re dragged by the dark monsters. Many of the unseelie scuttle up the frame with their prisoners tossed over their shoulders, or they drag them up by their ankles.

Then…

They take one of the many spikes they have in a quiver tossed over their shoulder and spear them to the structure.

Dozens upon dozens. They all scream in pain, looking at the enormous spikes impaling them to the bones.

Their blood seeps into the arch, pulled from their bodies by the thirsty bones. The cracks fill red, and the humans grow pale with every passing second.

They pull up more. Men. Women.

Children.

‘STOP!’ I scream, pulling against my ropes. All I do is anger my broken body, and I cry out in both pain and despair, watching this nightmare unfold before me.

Soon, the bones are barely visible for the bodies and their blood.

Below me, facing the structure, Neve stands in a great black dress. Her hair flows down her back, and her crown of bones rests atop her head.

‘I will not resurrect them!’ I call down. ‘I will not!’

She doesn’t pay attention but raises her hand to the structure and begins to read. Her blood grimoire rests in her other hand, and as she reads, I feel the darkness of the magic.

Over a hundred humans writhe and wail, looking at their deathly wounds as they plead for mercy.

I cry, watching so many suffer.

Children. There are children!

‘I will not resurrect them,’ I whisper, telling myself. Promising myself. ‘I will not resurrect the blood coven.’

A snowflake drifts down and lands on the tip of my nose. I watch it settle, unmelting even as it meets my flesh.

The snow finally falls. The first sign of winter. Our last.

My last.

When this day came, I was supposed to be sent to marry Shaw. It was a day I once feared but then came to want. Now… this.

I’m here alone. Surrounded by the enemy. Strung up by my sadistic ex and my evil mother.

Why are they not here? When will they come?

They will come, I tell myself. They always have. Even when I ran. Even when I shunned them. When I told them that I hated them. They still came for me.

The smell of all that blood makes me hungry. And I hate that it does. I loathe the darkness that stirs inside of me.

The blood that weaves between the bones begins to spill into the centre of the structure. Impossible. It should drip downwards to the floor. Not spread outwards.

Soon, the empty space is covered in rippling red.

Neve’s chanting gets louder. The bodies of the sacrifices disintegrate and turn to ash, falling like the snow and landing on the ground.

The blood melds together.

---