Page 63 of Sacrifice

There was a collective intake of breath from the crowd, followed by shocked murmurs and whispers.

“Twenty years ago, we allowed an outsider to join us in Alderwood for a period. I’m sure many of you recall this,” Augustus went on. “Those who are too young to recall it at least know of the havoc that this outsider’s presence wrought upon our community. It was not her fault. It was mine. I should nothave let her in. But I did, and much to the chagrin of myself and the other elders, she ventured into the forbidden cave.”

He paused again to let his words sink in. The people in the crowd looked terrified now, eyes wide under the flickering firelight.

“We chose to hide this incident from the community, because we didn’t want to cause a mass panic, and we were sure we could contain the Darkness in the cave despite the outsider’s intrusion,” Augustus said. “This is where we have failed. We have spent the last twenty years praying, abiding by the doctrines, and making every necessary sacrifice… and it has not worked. The Darkness has slowly seeped out and infiltrated our lives over all these years, and our existence on this land has been threatened to the point where it must finally come to an end. I apologize for being so blunt about this, but it is the hard truth. We have failed you. Completely and utterly. Every single eclipse sacrifice that we made was in vain, because the Darkness has come for us despite it all. The pain and anguish that this brings me… it really cannot be put into words.”

As Augustus went on with his morbid speech, I resumed my work with the stone, gritting my teeth as I sawed at the rope.

“After tonight’s sacrificial ritual, things are going to be very different for the people of Alderwood,” he said. “I do not know where this new path will take you; only that I cannot lead you any longer. Nor can the other elders. We must acknowledge that it is over for us due to our monumental failure. But wherever you end up, we hope you find peace and happiness, and we want you to know that it has been our greatest honor to serve you over the last few decades.”

The air filled with more murmurs from the crowd, the sound a mix of confusion and fear. My father also looked confused, his eyes narrowing and his head tilting slightly to one side.

Augustus cleared his throat and continued. “You all came here tonight expecting to see the final Tetrad sacrifice,” he said. “And youwillhave a final sacrifice. However, due to the aforementioned troubles that the elders and I have been unable to lead us all through, we have determined that this sacrifice must be far greater than we initially planned. Only then will you—our beloved people—have a chance of emerging from the Darkness unscathed.”

“That’s a lot of words just to say that he’s going to kill two people instead of one,” I muttered to Rose.

“Please tell me the rope is almost broken,” she whispered back to me. “It sounds like he’s getting closer to coming over here and going through with the sacrifices.”

As if her words were a charm, the rope finally began to give. Another few strokes and it snapped and loosened. I stifled a sigh of relief as our hands finally broke free.

“Don’t move,” I said, voice barely above a murmur. “We don’t want them to know we’re free just yet.”

“What are we going to do?” Rose asked, her voice equally hushed.

“When your father approaches the altar with that knife, I’m going to catch him by surprise and tackle him. As soon as I do that, you need to run. Run for your life.”

“But… no! Sebastian, it’s too dangerous!”

“Baby, you know every single corner of these woods. You can find somewhere to—”

She cut me off. “I meant it’s too dangerous foryou,” she said, voice thick with emotion. “The ceremonial dagger is so big. He… he could…”

She didn’t need to finish her sentence for me to know what she was getting at. Tackling a guy with a huge knife was never a good idea. Especially when the knife was sharp enough to slice through a throat like it was merely warm butter.

“I’ll be okay,” I said in the most reassuring tone I could muster up.

Truthfully, I had no idea if I would survive this. Even if I successfully tackled Augustus and dislodged the dagger from his grip, there were over a thousand other people here, each of them desperate to prove their loyalty to him along with their god. The chances of me being able to fight my way through such an enormous crowd were near zero.

On top of that, Rose had also informed me that my father had a gun. He’d told Augustus he didn’t want to do the ‘dirty work’ of killing me, but if it became a necessity, I had no doubt that he’d pull that trigger.

I didn’t share any of those concerns with Rose, though. I knew she’d never agree to run and hide if she knew I was probably going to die, and I needed her to do it. I needed her to survive, even if it meant sacrificing myself in the process.

“How could you possibly be okay?” Rose asked. Her voice was cracking again. “There’s so many of them.”

I affected a calm, almost-nonchalant tone. “I’ve got a plan, but it’s too long and complicated to say it all out loud right now,” I said. “All you need to know is this: run when I tell you. Got it?”

I heard her swallow thickly. “Got it.”

“Good girl.”

Augustus cleared his throat and lifted the ceremonial dagger high in the air. “It is time,” he announced. “Our first sacrifice awaits.”

He slowly turned to face the altar, bright blue eyes fixed on me. I glared at him as he approached, jaw tight and heart racing. When he was finally within spitting distance, I readied myself to move, every muscle tightly wound and ready to spring.

Just as I was about to lunge, he spoke to me in a hushed tone. “I trust you found the stone I left for you,” he said. “Your hands must be free by now.”

I stared up at him, my stomach roiling with confusion. “Youleft it?”

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