Page 58 of Blood Sacrifice

I vomited into the undergrowth until there was nothing left in my stomach, the realisation that we had never escaped him leaving a gaping hole in my soul. All these years, and we had remained nothing more than dogs for him to command.

“Salvator.”

I ignored the voice calling me, stuck in my own version of Purgatory, the memories from the past tormenting me.

“Salvator.”

The face of another girl swam through my mind, the memory hitting me like a physical blow. Then another until I was drowning in memories that my mind had suppressed, my shortcomings lain bare before me.

My fingers dug into the ground, my body heaving as I struggled against my wolf and his transformation. Rage pulsed through me in debilitating waves, as I processed what had happened in the past, and how I had been controlled.

I wanted to eradicate magic from this world, destroy everything it stood for, and prevent anyone casting a spell to control another soul ever again. Hatred burned so hot that it consumed me, eating away at my soul and leaving a numbness behind it.

Something touched my face, breaking through the pain and torment that held me captive. I blinked, trying to focus on what was happening to me since I was supposed to be here alone.

“Come back to me, Salvator. Don’t walk away from me again.”That voice reached inside me and gripped my heart. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, to save myself from drowning under all the emotions bombarding me.

My head jolted to the side, my cheek stinging. My hand still hovered in front of me, ready to strike me again. I stared at it, my brow creasing in confusion.

“Enough!”Luna almost shouted in my head.“We cannot undo the past. None of us can change what has passed, but we can move forward and seek retribution for those who cannot seek it for themselves.”

Balor didn’t know I had escaped his leash, the same with the others we had released. To free the rest of my pack, I needed to return to our main base. Dire wolves were still under the control of Balor, and I wouldn’t rest until every single one of them was freed.

I pushed myself to my feet, walking into the centre of the clearing, knowing the last person who had stood here was Balor as he murdered an innocent priestess to steal her powers.

“I give you my oath,” I said, turning to look at each symbol in turn. “I will find the man who took your lives and punish him. He will not take the lives of any more priestesses or steal the souls of anyone else.”

I used my claw to cut through my skin, my blood dripping into the ground to destroy the carefully created energetic alignment of this place. Wolves were not allowed to enter the sacred spaces the priests used. I didn’t know why, but I understood enough to know that my blood should never have found its way into this place.

“Salvator?”Luna’s voice sounded uncertain, and I felt her worry as if it was my own.

“I’m fine.”It was the greatest lie in the history of the world. We said it to make those around us worry less or mask the turmoil inside us.“I’m coming home.”

Those who sought to manipulate and control us would expect us to lash out. What none of them would expect would be for us to free all our brothers from their servitude and use an ancient brand of magic that many believed had been lost.

My grandfather had taught it to me in the woods close to our village when I was little. He took me every full moon to show me the gifts of our people. I had promised to keep his secret, and one day pass it on to my children. The dire wolves were different to other lycans, and I was about to show Balor and the traitors he had hiding among my pack why we were so deadly.

Chapter Nineteen

Luna

Salvator had been silent and withdrawn since he came home from the rainforest. There was a darkness in his aura and pain in his eyes that hadn’t been there before, a raw, aching wound in his soul that only he could heal with his own forgiveness. He had gone from fervent lover to almost stranger, not touching me, and avoiding spending time in the same room as me.

Under his pack base, there were tunnels which reached out in different directions, to allow them to enter and leave without anyone watching this place ever knowing who they were or how many dwelt here.

“As much as I love the underground theme in the daylight, I’m beginning to find these endless tunnels oppressive,” Dominic said from somewhere on my right.

“This particular tunnel I created myself,” Salvator said, his voice strained, and I swear I could hear his back molars grinding together. “It took years, and no one but me knows that it is here.”

I met Dominic’s dark gaze for a moment, because we both knew that the witch who spellbound him could have been monitoring him.

Salvator sighed, stopping to glare at us. “I am painfully aware that I failed my pack and everyone I was supposed toprotect. Innocent souls were lost when I believed I was in control.” He paused, and I witnessed the raw pain he was battling. “But what I do know is the moments when I was under their power, my memories were suppressed, almost as if it wasn’t me in my body.”

That confused me, as traditional soul-binding meant the person was influenced by the witch, but it was almost like a dream. Whoever was behind all of this was an incredibly powerful witch who was able to manipulate the soul of those, almost like a possession.

“None of this is your fault,” I said in a hushed whisper. “It is forbidden because no one should hold dominion over the soul of another.”

Salvator’s jaw muscles knotted and he glanced away.

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