Page 15 of Bloodmoon Ritual

Conversation drifted to the same topics as always.

What changes would Ronan make to the decades-old peace agreements with the cities?

Would he ask for more tribute? He already owned or had control over the richest, most fertile lands and streams in the PNW. The cities only had food if he allowed it, and his father had taken varying amounts of tribute. Some years the tribute had been enough to almost bankrupt the city. But so far, Ronan had not made any new demands.

But no one ever knew what the Congregants were thinking.

Craig moved to grab another glass of wine. He had obviously been drinking before I got there.

I was just taking another sip of my glass, thinking this fancy wine tasted like shit, when I heard a noise at their garden gate.

Heads started craning toward the noise.

My breath seemed to freeze in my chest, sending spikes of panic through my body.

It was Rhyder and his men, my brother pushing the heavy gate open with easy, dangerous power.

With his big body, towering over every other man there, taller, broader than every other man there, he was unmistakable.

Rhyder strode up to one of the guards with his easy, casual arrogance. The guards were only there to keep other Unsaved out. They would never dare to try to keep a Congregant out.

“I’m looking for a woman,” he said.

That voice.Low, gravelly. That thread of possessive power in it. My spine turned to liquid, my legs to jelly.

“Who are you looking for?” the guard asked, his head bowed submissively.

“My sister,” Rhyder replied. “You cannot miss her. Dark hair, blue eyes, tiny little thing.”

His eyes began to roam around, flicking past all the other guests.

How did he find me here?

“Step aside,” Rhyder warned the guests, his voice like steel, and I tried to move inconspicuously behind Craig’s aunt.

I could feel people start to look at me.

Ihad black hair and blue eyes.

Iwas small.

My brain was spinning.

Some of Rhyder’s men, the men from my old Congregation, started going through the guests, pulling people impatiently aside.

To find a tiny, dark-haired, blue-eyed woman.

What the fuck should I do?

I tried to force my breath to slow down, remain calm. Maybe I could slip off my high heels and back away, somehow escape his notice and hide somewhere until he left?

Then I saw someone point toward the greenhouse and Rhyder’s head whipped around.

His sharp eyes flicked without interest past the other guests, then zeroed in on me.

My brother immediately began to stalk toward me, tall and menacing, shoving aside unfortunate guests who happened to be in his way, his eyes never leaving mine.

I felt the shiver of fear that went through them then.

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