Page 27 of Sacrifice

Papa’s footsteps kept coming, but now they were accompanied by a strange dragging sound. I frowned, wondering what on earth was making such a noise, but I couldn’t figure it out.

The dragging sound soon became more distinct—a rhythmic scrape against the gravel, interspersed with the occasional muffled thud. My heart raced as I realized it couldn’t possibly be my father making such a noise. He didn’t have anything on him when he followed me out of the house, and if he’d already made his way up to this path, then there was simply no way he would’ve had time to go back and get something. That meant the person heading up this path, dragging something behind or alongside them, was someone else entirely.

But who? And why? It was after three o’clock in the morning. No one in the village was ever awake at this hour.

I slowly raised my head above the shrub, straining to make out the person on the path through the dim moonlight filtering through the leaves. My heart began to race as I realized it was Jean-Pierre. The dragging sound came from the shoes of a limp person he was holding under one beefy arm.

For a second, I stupidly thought he was helping a drunk man home from the festivities. But then I remembered he was headingawayfrom the village, along with the fact that most of the villagers had gone home hours ago. Also, he wasn’t even at the fertility ritual tonight, or the ensuing celebrations. I’d noticed his absence whenever I looked toward the elders, who always clustered together at such events.

I held my breath, my heart pounding painfully hard in my chest as Jean-Pierre came into clearer view. His face was set in grim determination, and his eyes were locked forward, unawareof my presence in the shadows. The person he was dragging alongside him was—

My eyes widened, and I clamped a hand over my mouth to muffle the scream that immediately threatened to burst out.

It was Sebastian. He was unconscious, and Jean-Pierre was dragging him along with slow, strained steps, leaving a trail on the path from the blood that dripped off his forehead.

What on earth was happening?

A cold sweat broke out across my skin as I watched in stunned silence. Each scrape and thud on the path made my stomach lurch, and my heart pounded, torn between fear and the urgent need to act.

Sebastian’s earlier words floated into my mind.

Of course I came, baby girl. I’ll always come for you. You don’t need to be scared anymore.

He was always there for me. Always willing to help me. Always ready to rescue me.

I sucked in a deep breath and rose from the bushes, fueled by a mixture of adrenaline and love. I had to seize the opportunity to help Sebastian. After all, he’d come here to save me from my fate at the Red Rocks, even though that action risked his own life, and he’d done it happily because he loved and cared for me so much.

Now, it was my turn to show him I felt the same.

It was my turn to save him.

10

Sebastian

I awoke to a throbbing headache,the pain in the side of my skull sharp and unrelenting. As I blinked the haze from my eyes, I saw that I was lying on the cold ground of a moonlit clearing.

The familiar surroundings sent a jolt of recognition through me—I was in the Covenant’s hunting grounds, littered with traps. If I rolled over the wrong way, I could find myself falling right into another fucking spike pit.

Shit.

How the hell did I get all the way out here? Was it just a dream? It certainly seemed like it, given the way my head was spinning, making me feel like I was on a theme park ride. The cold dirt and dewy grass below me felt all-too real, though. So did the pain in my head.

I winced as another agonizing jolt went through my skull, followed by a sudden rush of memories. “Oh, fuck,” I muttered to myself through gritted teeth.

Jean-Pierre had caught onto my scheme and taken me by surprise in a lightning-fast attack. After he knocked me out, he must have brought me out to the hunting grounds to kill me.

I struggled to sit up, expecting to see him skulking around the area. To my surprise, I saw both him and Rose standing by a large tree, their heated argument cutting through the silence of the night.

“Rosamund, I told you to leave it alone!” Jean-Pierre was saying, raising one arm to pin her against the trunk. “Stop fighting me and return to your home! Now!”

“No! I won’t let you hurt him!” Rose said, shoving at his chest. He didn’t budge, so she slapped him in the face with a loud crack that echoed throughout the clearing.

I watched groggily, still half-wondering if this was all a dream. Rose wasn’t supposed to be here. She was meant to be safe at home with her father. This couldn’t possibly be happening.

As Jean-Pierre instinctively raised one hand to rub his smarting cheek, Rose ducked under his arm and started running toward me.

“Stop!” Jean-Pierre whirled around and grabbed her again. “You cannot defend this man. He took you, Rosamund! He was going to kill you!”

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