Page 142 of Savage Blood
The chains strappingmy arms and legs to the table dug into my limbs until pain throbbed across my whole body. Sweat slid down my throat, and more ran down my temples, wetting my hair. Figures dressed in those ominous black cloaks and white masks chanted and twirled around the room.
Fane glowered against a far wall, purple magical bands binding him to a chair while a Malbraxis manacle on each wrist kept him from shifting. Clearly, one wasn’t enough. Barric knew he was too much of a threat. If he got free, he’d wreck the entire ritual room, Hawk’s life be damned.
I choked back my unease and hoped Fane wouldn’t endanger my best friend to save me, especially now that he knew Ruin and Roxie were really on our side. Even though I revealed the high demon’s plan to Fane through our mental link, fury still crashed within him for being left out of the loop.
“Ruin didn’t have all the information yet,”I’d said.“He didn’t have the ring, and he wasn’t sure this would work.”
“How does he know it’ll work now?”Fane’s menacing growl rumbled through my mind as his rage heightened.“And did you miss the part where you have to go through most of theAdmordumNexia Covenant to merge with the Infernal Sol? You don’t know what that even entails!”
I winced at his booming voice and the bevy of emotions rippling through the bond. Beneath the flood of anger, fear vibrated and surged through him. If I could reach out and touch him, I’d take his emotional pain away.
Unfortunately, I was chained to a fucking table across the room.
“Out of all of us, Ruin knows the most about the amulet,”I reassured him. “He researched and studied it for decades.”
If anyone knew how to manipulate the ancient amulet, it was Ruin.
Hawk stood a few feet from Fane’s chair, chains dangling from his arms and legs while Roxie, her face unreadable, guarded him. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure she was on our side. Her bond with Ruin was the only reason she was doing this, the only reason she didn’t escape before shit hit the fan.
Sharp pangs whipped through my heart as memories of us at Corvin Manor flooded my mind. Had Roxie only pretended to be my friend just to get to Hawk? Did no part of her enjoy spending time with me?
As if she felt my stare, her angelic blue gaze swiveled in my direction, and something unusual flashed through it.
It wasn’t pity, exactly. Sympathy, maybe.
Could Roxie feel sympathy?
But her harsh expression returned, washing away any softer emotions that might have been there.
Another burst of power permeated the air, puckering my clammy flesh and stealing my attention from Roxie. My back arched away from the table as the sinister energy spiraled around me, under me, inside me, and fucking everywhere.
Barric appeared near my head, that white mask peeking out from the shadows of his hood.
“Hoc vase eldsneyta sáttmálann.”
He lifted the mask with a scarred hand, raised a copper bowl to his mouth, and took a sip before passing it to the person on his right, Amelia. Her cruel stare pierced me like daggers as she lifted the mask to drink whatever foul, bloody concoction swam in that bowl.
A malicious smile chased her lips, reveling in the idea that my death was near.
“Stela industria skildi eftir.”
As the bowl passed around The Collective Nosterium—the remaining Collective guests still milling about the grand room—the massive onyx doors opened, and two members dragged in another bound and barely conscious shifter.
Sickness roiled in my stomach as they dropped Marcel onto the black tiles.
“They need a bitten shifter to make sure the ritual works,”Fane said, his muscles popping as he strained against Roman’s Vulcrum cords.
The witch leaned on a wall near the door, his jaw clenched and eyes hard as the ritual unfolded. He wanted no part of this anymore, but he couldn’t lift a finger to stop it.
I gritted my teeth against the fury pummeling my insides.“It won’t work. I’ll make sure?—”
Dizziness washed over me, and the room blurred into a twisting mess of red, black, and fire. Hunger swept through my bloodstream, and my mouth watered.
Was I drooling?
Hunger.
So hungry—for souls.
