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“Nearly done, princess.” Lilly snorted. I peeked at her and saw she was sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth. “Never had a virgin until you, ye know?”
At my wide-eyed expression, she giggled. I didn’t say a word until she finished up a few minutes later. I marvelled over my real-life tattoo. It was small and definitely nothing to boast about, but I felt like such a badass. Little ole me, Ina O’Shea, had an actual tattoo. Daddy and Finn would die if they saw me now. Lilly took my hand, spread some soothing gel on the tattooed area, then wrapped a little cling film around it.
“All done.” She sat back. “I’ll give ye a pack of cleanin’ supplies when group is over. It’s an itty-bitty tattoo, but that doesn’t matter. Ye still need to frequently clean and protect the area. Understood?”
I resisted the urge to salute her. “Understood.”
“Good.” She stood and tidied away her things. “Let’s get to the next trial.”
I jolted at her words. “But I took the pledge and got the tattoo. How can there be more trials?”
“The pledge was the first trial, the tattoo of allegiance was the second, the third and final trial requires an oath.”
I almost muttered a fecking oath.
“Okay.” I got to my feet. “I’ve gotten this far. Bring it on.”
We returned back to the hall. The cloaked members were still standing in a circle, bar one who was sitting down on a chair. When I glanced her way, her cloaked shoulders shrugged. “Arthritis,” she said. With a grin, I joined Lilly at the trial table.
“What’s next?”
Lilly handed me a document, a law-binding contract really, outlining my membership to the club. I read it very carefully, twice, and found that Dante’s words kept echoing in my mind.
Don’t sign anythin’ Lilly gives ye.
“It’s just a membership form,” Lilly said, interrupting my thoughts. “Nothin’ illegal.”
She was right. Nothing about the membership form was outlandish, but I knew there was a catch. The catch revealed itself when Lilly handed me both a sharp blade and an old-fashioned quill but no ink pot. I stared at them both before I raised my eyes.
“I said I wasn’t doin’ anythin’ illegal.”
One side of Lilly’s mouth curved in a wry grin. “The final trial is your oath, your blood oath, followed by downin’ a glass of devil’s brew to seal it.”
“The devil’s what now?”
I ignored the snort from behind me.
“Devil’s brew, it’s a concoction I mix up now and then.” She jerked her head to the glass of black-looking tar on the table. “Real good stuff.”
Alcohol. Fuck.
“I’ve never drunk alcohol before.”
Daddy’s outbursts were suddenly forefront in my mind. What if I behaved as he did? What if I became dependent on it? What if—No. I felt my spine straighten. I was nothing like him. This wasn’t a drink to function or survive. This was a drink by the fairy-sized woman who I was certain was a dictator of some small country. It was a challenge, drink it or not.
“This is a one-time thing. Ye never have to so much a sniff a pint of black stuff if ye don’t want to in the future.”
Exactly. This was my decision, and drinking would be a one-time thing. I was sure of it. Besides, the repulsive-looking substance was enough to make me never want to think about alcohol again.
“Why does it look like that?”
“Nothin’ worth drinkin’ is ever pretty, honey bun.”
I’d have to take her word on it.
“Seal the oath by givin’ us your word in blood, then drink the brew.”
“I really have to cut myself?”
“Your thumb.” Lilly nodded. “Press your bloody thumbprint on the paper and sign underneath it usin’ your blood as ink with the quill.”
If Dante was here, I knew he’d have me hauled over his shoulder right about now, sprinting me out of the building while quoting Bible verses at Lilly, but he wasn’t here. I was. And I was going to become a fucking knitter.
I cut my thumb and winced as I pressed a splotch of red blood on the bottom right of the piece of paper, then signed my name under the thumbprint in my own blood. The members began to chant, “One of us” until I was so peer pressured that I grabbed the glass of tar and downed the drink in one gulp. I wheezed as the liquid burned its way down my throat. When it reached my chest, I could have sworn I felt hair sprout.
“Our Father who art in Heaven,” I rasped. “Hallowed be thy name.”
The women burst into a fit of giggles as I felt a hand rub my back. I turned to Lilly, who was chuckling.
“Good on ye, girlie girl. Ye took that devil’s brew like the Irish woman ye are.”
Hell fucking yes I did.
I straightened. “Am I a member now?”
