Page 134 of Bloodguard

Aurora…the same name Grandmother used?

“Louder,” Soro orders, a growing sense of awe licking his words.

“Aurora, wake from sleep and accept your offering,” Vitor says.

And nothing…

“Again,” Soro insists, the sweat glossing his skin highlighting his menacing gaze.

Vitor’s voice trembles, something I’ve never heard from him before. “Aurora, great savior of Arrow, rise from sleep and take your offering!”

The ground rumbles louder than the sounds of combat from the arena above. The mound of soil behind the gate stirs, releasing streams of blinding light and tendrils of smoke and clouds of…

Oh, no. Not…

That’s not soil.

It’s ash.

chapter 48

Maeve

Brilliant, flaming plumage of red, yellow, orange, and purple rises, shaking the remains of her nest free from her peacock-like tail and body. A neck stretches and lengthens until a majestic head looms about one hundred feet above us. She spreads her sail-wide wings, stretching them and cawing in a melodious song.

Wheel-sized fathomless black eyes blink back at me behind a hawkish beak, her head tilting from side to side with interest when she sees me.

“By all the glory,” Ugeen says.

I didn’t notice him backing away. He has the option. Still bound tight, I don’t. Pua and Tut did, too, and they appear just as beholden as Ugeen.

For a moment, shock numbs my pain and all rational thought.

Soro flips the dagger over and over, repeatedly catching it by the hilt in his left hand as he closes the small space keeping us apart.

The point of his dagger nicks my chin again. I fight back the urge to cower, even as he glides the sharp tip down my throat. “Your sweet, gentle papa was too weak to do what must be done.” He stops with the point between the swells of my breasts. “But I’m not.”

In a flash, he’s behind Vitor.

His speed too fast to track.

One moment.

And then it’s over.

In horror, I watch helplessly as Soro slashes his father’s throat and shoves Vitor’s limp form toward the phoenix.

In her excitement, the phoenix explodes in light, flames sparking in all directions, burning the walls and ground and ceiling…exactly like she did three years ago.

The epiphany has just begun to bloom when a serpentine tongue shoots from Aurora’s mouth, wrapping around Vitor and pulling him into her open beak.

Except for Soro, the others race away in the direction of the maze. Soro remains still, watching the man whom he loved and simultaneously hated slide down the phoenix’s elongated throat.

“Eat, dear Aurora, eat,” he says. “You belong to me now.”

I take a shuddering breath and close my eyes, opening them again only to see Aurora regurgitate Vitor’s bones. They land in a wet lump, and a sob escapes me.

But the horror show is not over yet. Aurora stretches her neck and frantically laps what I thought was condensation falling from the large “wine”-stained stalactites. As I tilt my head up, moisture splatters my face and shoulders. I stare down at the bloodstains on my chest in horror.

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