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Cassie felt a soft cry catch in her throat. Under the pale moonlight, he looked so…sad. An emotion arose in her so suddenly she was taking a step forward before she had time to think on it. Luckily, her brain interceded, and she heard herself say, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
It was a valid question. How was she to know he wasn’t lying? The fate of his people seemed to rest in the hands of herself and her sister, and he could very well be telling her what she wanted to hear in order to see if she would work in his favor.
Alexander approached her, his hands reaching out to grip her shoulders gently. As he did so, his eyes began to glow. The pale green seemed ever paler, but infused with white light, so much brighter.
“Alexander?” she began, only to find that the beach and Alexander had slipped away.
She was now staring down at dozens of dead bodies lying on grass that had once been green but was now stained red. The stench of blood hit her, pungent and rank, almost pushing her to her knees. Eyes widening in horror, she clasped her hands over her mouth and nose, and assessed the horrifying scene. Women, children—oh dear God, were those…? Her eyes zoomed in on the corpse of a baby, and her eyes teared. Where was she? What was this?
She didn’t have to wonder long, however, for she soon heard an angry bellow of rage from behind her, and turned. Immediately, she saw the stones. Large boulders that seemed to create a circle around other large boulders. Even in the dark, she recognized those stones. She’d been here once, on a trip with a few of her college friends. Stonehenge.
Cassie didn’t know she’d moved until she was standing behind one such stone, peering into a circle of men who were enclosing something. They were chanting, their voices rising in harmony as another voice, in its anger, seemed determined to drown them out. Suddenly the chanting stopped, and Cassie witnessed another man in the middle of the circle. Confused, she stepped around the boulder, forgetting that without the protection of the rock, she was free to be seen by all. They didn’t seem to notice her so her stride became bolder.
The man in the middle was saying something, something in Latin about a sacrifice, and the gods, before he reached down and yanked something up. Cassie’s eyes widened as dirtied blond hair immediately came into view. His hair obscured his face, but Cassie had a bad feeling in her gut, the feeling she usually got when she was telling herself something couldn’t be, and it turned out to be just that.
She moved directly next to one of the group encircling the two men. It was then she recognized a few things. Surrounding the two men, and deeply carved into the ground, was a pentagram. In college, she’d had a Wiccan roommate who’d introduced her to her culture. The pentagram surprised her, but the captured man shocked her. It was Alexander. She knew it. She couldn’t see his face because long, golden-colored hair covered it, but she knew that build, knew his height. Even chained, shackled by two gold bands at his wrists and two at the ankles, and bloodied, he looked regal.
Silence had descended upon the gathering, and Cassie felt foreboding settle over her. The silence was broken by her involuntary scream when the man holding Alexander suddenly lifted a blade in his right hand and tugged on Alexander’s hair with his left. His head went back and his hair moved, giving her a glimpse of the face underneath.
She expected fear. No one could blame a chained man for showing fear in the face of such adversity. There was none. He was enraged. His lips were drawn tightly, his pale eyes hard and angry. Alexander didn’t look like a man who’d accepted he would die. He looked like a man ready to kill.
The blade arced out and across, and Cassie was held still by some unnatural force as a red line appeared at Alexander’s neck, moments before the blood began to flow. The man, whom she’d surmised by now was one of the grand wizards who’d banished him, stepped out, away, and rejoined the circle.
Cassie couldn’t pull her eyes from the bleeding man. She was screaming inside, but nothing came out. Alexander’s gaze shifted around the circle, locking on each grand wizard as the light in his eyes slowly died, before landing on her. She briefly wondered if he could see her. That thought propelled her forward, but she bumped up against an invisible barrier. His gaze never left hers as he fell to his knees, his face becoming a pasty white as red soaked through the already dirtied white of his tunic, and absorbed into the material of his pants. His eyes flickered, once, twice, and then he exhaled and collapsed onto the ground.
Gasping in horror, Cassie fought against the unseen barrier to get to him. He was dying, if not already dead! She had to—what? What could she do?
