Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“It’s truly a shame your mother loathes me so,” he mused. “She and I make cute kids.”
My thoughts spun into a frenzy. “Do something,” I cried. “Please, do something! You promised you would—”
“Ah-uh,” he tutted, wagging a finger at me. “I promised you nothing. Weren’t you listening? You and I never had a contract, darling. It was all a ruse.” Lucifer tossed me a jaunty wink. “They don’t call me the father of lies for nothing.”
“Then, let’s make a contract now! I’ll give you my soul now! Just save Dora. Get her out of here! That woman is crazy!”
“Hmm. Well, to be fair to her, one is allowed to go a little crazy when their own mother tells her she’s going to hunt her down, kill the man she loves, and rip her baby from her arms.” He shook his head like he actually disapproved of my grandmother’s actions. “Renee Hunter’s been on a slow descent into hatred and madness since the day she got that phone call.”
I sobbed. Loud, heart-wrenching cries that reached sleeping ears, deaf ears, and uncaring ones. “Please,” I begged. “Please, what is she going to do? Tell me she’s not going to hurt Dora.”
He pulled a face. “Wish I could tell you that, darling, but the spell your mother is about to perform requires some very specific ingredients. She’s opening a window three hundred years into the past, and using dark magic to do it—the price for that was always going to be greater than anyone wants to pay.
“First, massive amounts of concentrated hatred for power. Second, the sacrifice of four different and distinct species. Third, an Avos witch capable of casting the time bridge spell, and last, the blood and soul of a living Avos witch who will act as said bridge to her ancestors.
“Normally, you’d be all we needed in the blood and soul department, but your mother loves you. She refuses to kill you. So you”—he bopped me on the nose—“will be providing the blood, and Adora, who she hates, will be providing the soul.”
My jaw dropped. “You can’t let that happen! You’re Dora’s f-father, for heaven’s sake! Help her! Save her!”
He hummed. “Well, if you insist, I’ll try.” Lucifer cupped his hand around his mouth. “Renee, stop, no, let her go,” he mumbled. “Whoops. Seems she can’t hear me.”
“You bastard!”
Lucifer laughed himself sick. Seriously, tears leaked from his rotten, red eyes.
Picking up a large, ceremonial dagger, my mother moved out from behind the table.
“Okay, no, no, no,” I cried, desperation bleeding through my pores. “Tell her to take me. I’ll do it. I’ll give my blood and soul—willingly. Just make her leave Dora alone!”
Lucifer made no move as Mom closed the distance to Dora. “You and I both know she’ll never agree to that, even if you begged her on your knees,” he said. “You are everything to her. Adora is nothing to her. She will not choose her over you.”
I cried—slumping in the restraints like a puppet whose last string was cut. “Please,” I begged, sobbing my eyes dry. “Please, save my sister, please— Ahh!”
I was blubbering so hard, I didn’t see Mom step over Dora and cross to me.
She sliced my wrist, covering the blade in blood, then advanced on Dora.
“Wait, no! Don’t—!”
She didn’t pause. She didn’t consider. She didn’t spare a word or lingering glance for her youngest child. Kneeling beside Dora, she placed the blade to her chest, and plunged it in.
“Noooooooo—!”
Lucifer waved a hand, silencing the rest of my wailing sob. That was all the care he had for the tears shed for his daughter.
I lost my mind. Wordlessly screaming my grief, all I could do was cry as Mother stepped out of the pentagram, and Dora’s blood filled it.
Rushing to the table, Mother picked up a small crystal orb and chanted over it—slowly moving it up and down as she circled the pentagram. “Pontem ad praeterita aperi. Pontem ad praeterita aperi. Pontem ad praeterita aperi.”
On and on again she chanted as I screamed that I’d never forgive her. That she’d done the opposite of saving our family and bringing us together. She’d broken it forever.
But I couldn’t speak and she couldn’t hear, so the divide between us grew wider than the last four years life and death kept us apart.
Within the pentagram, Dora’s blood moved strangely. Rather than pooling, it spread out along the lines of the pentagram—greedily racing for the sacrifices. As soon as her blood touched them—
“Ah!” White, blinding light rushed into my raw, leaking eyes. It shocked me so much, it took me a second to realize I could speak again.
“I’ll let you keep your voice if I can get a bit of hush out of you.” The red-eyed fucker bopped me on the nose again. “’Cause this is the part where it gets really good.”