Page 80 of The Heart of the Dragon

I nodded, agreeing with Rose. And if Kitra was leaving out pertinent details on this then I could pretty much guarantee there were more things she'd "left out."

"There's no sugarcoating any of this. It's going to be one big-ass bitter pill. But why not take it in chunks as it comes so you don't choke on it."

I shook my head, not enjoying Kitra's weird analogies at all. I didn't like riddles, puzzles or any of that kind of thing. I much preferred to deal in absolutes.

Rose leaned over the edge again, and I had to fight the instinct to grab her and pull her to safety. She was fine.

"So are you implying that we're going to jump and magic is going to whisk us into a portal instead of us plunging to our gruesome deaths on those jagged and lethal rocks down there?"

"Sort of." Kitra stepped up to Rose's side. "Youaregoing to jump, but please don't, until I get the portal open. Which is the complicated part."

I already didn't like the sound of that. "How complicated?"

She exchanged glances with Isaac, them both wearing a grimace on their face.

"This is where I entered the fae realm." Isaac didn't look happy to say that, and I understood why. "But to get it open required a sacrifice."

"What?" Both Rose and I said at the same time, although hers was more of a shriek and mine a rumbled bellow.

"So what are we going to do now? How do we get around the whole sacrifice thing?"

Kitra pressed her lips together for a moment before she spoke. "We don't. I've tried everything. My magic alone won't do it. We must have a sacrifice."

Rose backed away. "Is this some sort of trick? Was that what I was brought here for? So you all could sacrifice me and send him back to where he belongs?"

I started to protest, but the look on Isaac's face told me she might not be off the mark.

"What the fuck?" I roared, my skin quickly turning to scales.

"Slow your roll," Kitra yelled. "Let us explain before you go full force dragon and end up hurting someone."

I did my best to push the dragon down, but he refused to be leashed. He would not sit idly by if there was even a whiff of danger in Rose's direction.

"Then you'd better explain quick because he's about to snap," I seethed through gritted teeth.

"Then just hold on and hear me out because we did consider using her as our sacrifice when we first showed up at her cottage. Until we figured out she was a dark fae omega and far more valuable unharmed."

"If you think any of what you just said was going to make me feel any better, then you are sadly mistaken. And more than that, just plain crazy. What. The. Fuck. Kitra!?"

"I know. It was a dumb idea and barely more than a thought. I may wield dark magic but that doesn't mean I have any interest in fae or human sacrifices."

"Then what are we doing here if we need a sacrifice?" Rose had taken a few more steps away from Kitra and I couldn't blame her. If I were her, I would have run screaming from us a long time ago. Any normal human would have labeled us insane and called the police.

"Well, I've spent a lot of time on this and tested lots of theories."

"Like what?"

"I considered an animal sacrifice."

That struck me almost as hard as the idea of sacrificing a human. "Not acceptable," I growled.

"Agreed. So I started thinking outside the box about what could be considered a sacrifice that didn't require us doing something stupid like taking a life." She side-eyed Isaac on that one.

"And?" I had that instinctual feeling that no matter what she was about to come up with was going to hurt. Whatever fucked up magic held this portal together wasn't going to be an easy thing to appease. Magic lived and breathed like the rest of us, and it hated being abused more than anything else.

"She already made it."

"Excuse me?" Rose questioned.

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