AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I fill one of the empty containers with my own blood and watch through the windshield as Feddei chants and completes the circle of black salt around Nathan, who is currently lying facedown in the mud.
He deserves this, I remind myself.This has to be done.
But a stupid, small, traitorous part of me sees him lying so vulnerable on the ground, discarded like he isn’t even a person…
A second pair of headlights cuts through the darkness, and the other truck pulls in behind us, its wheels kicking up mud. I turn as Kirby, Monroe, Avery, and Daniel climb out, their clothes drenched from the rain.
“You have everything?” Avery asks as she hunches next to me in the truck door.
I nod as she takes in the ingredients, pausing on the remaining empty vial.
“You need his blood?” she asks.
I nod, and she has the container in hand and is stomping toward Nathan in the next second.
I can’t help but flip back to the other spells—the ones my mother wanted me to use. They’re far simpler than the one we’ll be attempting tonight.
“Valerie!” calls Daniel. “He’s waking up.”
Leif, Saint, and Jones are standing around the circle with their arms crossed as if ready to tackle Nathan to the ground if the spell doesn’t work and he’s able to get out.
Avery steps out of the circle with the vial full of Nathan’s blood. He mutters inaudibly as he rolls onto his back and spits the mud out of his mouth. Rain hammers down on him, washing the rest of the muck from his face and plastering his suit to his body, the same one he’d been wearing at Reid’s coronation. I don’t know why the detail surprises me—of course they hadn’t offered him a change of clothes for his execution.
“I want to see him burn as much as anyone,” Monroe murmurs beside me, and I startle. I hadn’t heard her approach over the rain. Her fingers brush the back of my arm. “But no one would blame you if you wanted out.”
As she says it, the light from my phone screen fills the truck as Cam’s name appears.
Made it a few miles outside of the compound. We’ll wait here until you give us the go-ahead.
If I back out now, I just sent Cam to his death, or close to it. As long as he has that deal—mydeal—if Westcott gets ahold of him, he’ll never let him go.
If it weren’t for him, I’d still be at that camp. I’d still be under Westcott’s thumb. Hell, I might not even be alive.
I owe him this.
“Help me carry these over there” is all I say as I pile the ingredients into my arms.
Nathan has managed to sit up by the time I reach the edge of the circle, and he’s hunched over his knees as he retches into the mud.
Kirby shrugs, not looking the least bit apologetic. “Pretty sure it wasn’t me. He just drank the blood too fast.”
Daniel snorts on her other side at the wordspretty sure.
“I need these boiling,” I say, handing the two vials of blood to Kirby.
“I’m guessing these go in the circle?” says Monroe, indicating the larger ingredient sacks.
I nod, and she and Avery get to it.
First with the rotting vegetables, which makes him retch harder, his arms covering his head as they pour them directly over him.
I ignore the twinge in my chest. I don’t feel sympathy for him. Iwon’t.
They throw the wood chips in next, then handfuls of dirt and the shards of glass.
By the time they’re finished, Nathan’s conscious enough to understand what’s happening. He lurches back, hitting the invisible barrier of the circle, and he rebounds, landing on his hands and knees in the pile of ingredients. The scent of his blood fills the air as the glass cuts through his skin.
When he lifts his head, his eyes find Monroe first, and he has the audacity to look hopeful, like she might help him. Kirby grabs Monroe’s wrist and pulls her behind her like she can shield her from Nathan despite being half Monroe’s size.
