Page 66 of Sacrifice

Augustus was gone. The Covenant elders were gone. Soon, the village of Alderwood would be gone too. We were sitting in the wreckage of its final moments.

The foundation the Covenant members had all built their lives upon—the rituals, the sacrifices, the unwavering devotion—had just crumbled before their eyes. Without their leaders, there would be no one to guide them, and without the business arrangement with my family, there would be no money either. At least not enough to sustain so many people. The village would be unable to function, and the people would have to find somewhere else to go. Some other way to live.

Rose’s sobs cut through the air as she clung to Augustus, refusing to let go. I looked out at the clearing—at the torches lying abandoned in the dirt, at the elders' lifeless bodies near thebonfire, at the crying villagers who hadn’t already scattered back to their houses in search of comfort.

It was over.

Really, truly over.

But Rose and me? That would never be over. No matter what we’d faced, or what we’d come to face in the future, we were a part of each other now. We were bound by a lot more than the chaos of this night. More than the dark secrets of our murky past. We were bound by love. Endless, undying, and forged in the fires of everything we’d gone through together.

It wasn’t just the shared pain and trauma that connected us. It was the way we kept finding each other, even in our very darkest moments. The way her presence steadied me. The way neither of us could ever walk away, no matter how broken things became. She was my anchor, and I was hers. Together, we could face anything. Survive anything.

The darkness couldn’t touch us.

Not ever again.

20

Rose

One yearlater

I sat stifflyon the edge of the white couch, staring out at the water as the film crew finished setting up. The sun was glinting off the waves, casting shimmering light through the windows of the house Sebastian and I now called home.

It was usually very peaceful here, away from the city and the chaos of the past year. But right now, peace felt quite far away. Today, I was going to dig up the darkest chapter of my life, and the whole world was eventually going to see it on the streaming documentary ‘Murder in the High Peaks: The Miranda Thorne Story’.

Well, perhaps not thewholeworld, but still millions of people. I was being paid very well for doing the streaming special, though, as one of the so-called leading figures in the true crime story that had captivated the nation over the last year. Sebastian had been offered a spot in the documentary too, but he’d declined it.

I’d actually declined the first offer as well, due to my desire for privacy, but then the studio came back and offered me even more money, and I decided I couldn’t say no to such an enormous sum. One of the very first things I’d learned about the outside world was just how important money was for survival, and the second thing I’d learned was the importance of being able to support myself. Sebastian always helped, and he always told me he’d be there for me, but after everything I’d gone through, I’d learned to prepare for the worst anyway. Just in case.

I also wanted the means to contribute to our life. I hadn’t yet obtained a proper job, as my Alderwood teaching qualifications had no validity out here in the ‘real’ world. On top of that, my name was still on everyone’s lips due to the media furor over the Alderwood/Thorne case, and most places weren’t interested in hiring a media spectacle.

I was slowly getting there, though. Over the last six months, I’d been working part-time on an official teaching qualification via an online college that Sebastian had found for me. It was all very overwhelming, learning how to use computers, internet services, and other forms of technology while studying for my degree at the same time, but I had no choice. I was out here in the world now, and I had to learn how to exist in it. It wasn’t all bad, either. There were many wonderful new things for me to learn and try.

I shifted on the couch, and my fingers pinched at my arm, a nervous habit I’d never been able to shake.

“You okay, baby?” Sebastian asked, his voice soft but steady. He stood by the corner of the room, arms crossed and eyes fixed on me with quiet concern. There was a protectiveness in his stance, like he was ready to step in and force the crew to leave if things got too intense for me.

I nodded, even though my stomach was twisted in knots. “I’m fine.”

Sebastian gave me a small smile, pride and worry mingling in his expression. “You’re really brave for doing this,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”

The director gave a nod to the camera crew, signaling they were almost ready to begin. The lights above me flickered to life, casting everything in an artificial glow. I took a deep breath, steadying myself as the sound technician clipped a small microphone to my shirt. In just a few moments, the cameras would roll.

“Rosamund… oh wait, sorry. You prefer Rose, don’t you?” the director said, glancing at her notes.

I smiled and nodded. “Yes, but either is fine, really.”

“I just wanted to reiterate before we begin: this isn’t going to be like the regular interviews you might’ve seen on TV before,” she said. “The interviewer will still be here asking questions or prompting you to talk about certain things, but you’ll be looking at the camera right next to me when you speak, and you’ll address that. Not her. That way, it’ll look as if you’re speaking directly to the audience when they watch the special.”

I nodded. “Got it.”

“The footage will be spliced and edited by our team later to fit into certain parts of the documentary, so if it seems like we’re bringing up certain issues or question prompts in a strange order, that’s why. Also, don’t worry about giving ‘perfect’ answers. Even if you make a mistake and need to reword something, or you get nervous and say ‘um’ a hundred times, it really doesn’t matter. It can all be fixed or polished in editing.”

“Understood.”

“If anything feels too intense, let us know, and we can pause,” the director added. “Trust me, we all understand how strange and difficult this must be for you—to go from a world with noTV to beingonTV in such a short period of time. It’s a lot of pressure.”

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