Page 105 of Blood Sacrifice

Panic started as murmurs from those my spell infected, followed by some trying to escape from unseen terrors, while others tried to fight theirs, and finally the screams pierced the air as soldiers began to succumb to their innermost fears.

Maia pulled the stopper from a potion bottle and poured the emerald-green liquid into the ground. Vines rapidly grew from where it had soaked the earth, long spines stretching out to stab those in its path, some of them firing from the vine to embed themselves in our enemies. Their gurgled distress noises told me Maia had infused the potion with poison. Her strength had always been the potency of the potions she worked on.

I moved my way toward Balor because the only way to release the powers of the priestesses he had consumed was for me to kill him and cleanse them from his body. He had been a powerful magician who didn’t shy away from a fight, yet he stood in the middle of this skirmish with a distant look on his face.

That feeling of uneasiness settled on me again as the realisation sank in that Balor was nothing more than a puppet being manipulated by someone who hid in the shadows.

“He’s spellbound,” I called to Owen, who stared at Balor for several moments before he nodded once.

I felt the reassuring pulse of Salvator’s lifeforce. Every fibre of me wanted to free him, but I knew there was only one chance to win this fight. I had to believe that Salvator was strong enough to fight the enchantment holding him since we were mated.

“Kill them!” Aisha screamed, launching herself toward me, her nails resembling talons.

There was part of me that was feral and dangerous, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, because I had had to learn to fight hard and dirty to survive. Instead of using magic as Aisha suspected since she had surrounded herself in a protective field to reflect magic, I hit her hard and fast in the centre of the face, breaking her nose. I swooped low with my leg, toppling her over, before I kicked her in everyone’s sensitive area between the legs. Grabbing her hair, I slammed my hand to her chest, muttering a karma curse under my breath, and allowing it to exit through my fingers and into her body.

Aisha screamed, twisting away from me to struggle onto her feet, and rubbing her hands together. She flung her fingers wide to release a curse, but karma intervened, sending it straight back to her. I watched as she stumbled back a few paces, shaking her head. She tried again, and fell on her ass.

Owen and Maia continued to lash out around me, both wielding their unique gifts which pushed our enemies back and gave me time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the fingers of Salvator’s right hand twitch, and I hit Aisha with a blast of energy to keep her away from my mate.

“No one has to die here today,” I said. “Yield.”

Even though she had betrayed everything our sisterhood had stood for, and the vows we made when we stood before the great goddess in the moon temple so long ago, she was still my sister.

“Someone always has to die,” Aisha said, pushing herself to her feet. “It is the circle of life.”

“Some circles need to be broken,” I replied. “Too much magical blood has been spilled.”

An emotion I couldn’t identify flashed in her eyes, before she shook her head as if to clear it. “I stood before the dark god and made a vow. He saved my life and I became his servant, his hand of death.” Aisha straightened her back, uttering a spell to remove all taints to her energy field, flushing my curse away. “The dark god sees everything, hears everything, and knows everything. His will is mine.”

The killing curse eroded your soul every time you used it, and Aisha had already cast that spell a few weeks ago against Salvator. Her magic would never return to the ancestors since she had polluted it, and her soul was forfeit.

The words formed on her lips and her eyes hardened.

I slid the dagger I carried up the sleeve of my top into my hand. It was carved with powerful runes, and gifted to me a long time ago by a witch who sacrificed herself to save others.

The pendant at my neck grew heated against my skin, activating a protective spell around me. I rubbed the tips of my thumb and little finger on my left hand together, triggering the spell hidden there. Time slowed, and I stepped through it, the people around me almost freezing because they were moving so slowly.

“I’m sorry,” I uttered. “I’m so very sorry.”

My dagger plunged deep into Aisha before she had finished speaking her curse. Her eyes widened as time returned to normal and her legs buckled underneath her. I caught her as she fell forward, cradling her against me, remembering us playing together in childhood. The crystal Cybele had given me in Purgatory had fused with my aura when I fell from Heaven. It finally completed its task as it took the burden of the karmakilling my sister brought. My friend had seen what awaited me, and sought to keep my soul pure.

The clouds coalesced above us, as if joining me in my grief. The first drop of rain mingled with the tears that poured down my cheeks. Thunder cracked in the distance, and the ground rumbled under my feet.

In front of me, a single plume of smoke emerged from Misti.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Salvator – one hour earlier

“They have another wave of warlocks ready to attack,” Dominic said, grabbing my arm. “We don’t have enough men to fight them.”

I blinked, turning my attention to the doorway that took us further into this network. “What are you thinking?”

“Surrender some of our people, send the rest back the way they came, and have a third contingent ready to follow.” Dominic’s dark gaze pierced into me as if looking into my soul. “They want you since they were looking for an item connected to you. That means they won’t kill you.”

“I don’t surrender,” I grated out through clenched teeth.

“And you won’t be surrendering this time either. It is a strategic move to get men into their inner sanctum.” His eyebrows rose as if they were joining his argument.

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