Page 206 of Children of Blood and Bone

Veins bulge from Father’s neck as he charges forward, no hesitation as he angles for a killing blow.

He does not cringe at the thought of slaughtering his own daughter, his own flesh and blood. He’s made his decision.

Now it’s time for mine.

I whip out of harm’s way as his sword strikes the pillar, chipping into the stone. Before he can rally, I plunge my sword forward without hesitation.

Father’s eyes bulge.

Hot blood leaks from his heart onto my hands. He wheezes, crimson spurting from his lips as the rest spills across the stone.

Though my hand shakes, I plunge the blade in deeper. Tears blur my vision.

“Do not worry,” I whisper as he takes his last breath. “I will make a far better queen.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

ZÉLIE

“COME ON.”I channel all my energy into the dust of the destroyed parchment. This can’t be happening. Not when we’re this close.

Baba’s energy surges into my arms, bursting through my fingertips as twisting shadows. But no parchment rises from the ashes. It’s over.…

We lost.

The horror hits so hard I can hardly breathe.

The one thing we need, destroyed by my hand.

“No, no, no, no!” I close my eyes and try to remember the incantation. I read that scroll dozens of times. How did that damn ritual start?

Ìyaa??n0run,àwa?m?képè3l3nì—No.I shake my head, combing through fragments of remembered words. It wasàwa?m3òreképè0l?ni.And then…

Oh gods.

What came next?

A sharp clap rings through the dome, rumbling like thunder. As it pounds, the entire temple shakes. Everyone freezes as stone and dust rain from the ceiling.

Yem?ja’s statue begins to glow, blinding in its shine. The light starts at her bare feet, travels up the curves and folds of her carved robes. Whenit reaches her eyes, her golden sockets glow bright blue, bathing the dome in its soft color.

Ògún’s statue shimmers to life next, eyes glowing in dark greens; Sàngó’s comes in fiery reds; Ochumare’s in bright yellows.

“A chain…,” I breathe, following the path to Sky Mother. “Oh my gods…”

The solstice.

It’s happening now!

I paw at the ashes, looking for anything. Everything. The ancient ritual was painted on this scroll. Shouldn’t the spirits of the sêntaros who painted it be here as well?

But as I wait for the chill of the dead to overcome me, I realize the number of corpses there are strung across the dome. I didn’t feel their deaths pass through me, I didn’t feel anything at all.

All I felt was Baba.

The magic in my blood.

“A connection…” The realization hits me like ice. A connection I share with him because of blood. The scroll’s incantation was supposed to tether us to Sky Mother through magic, but what if there was another way to reach her instead?

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