Page 78 of Ashborne Phoenix

The chants were loud down here, bouncing from the walls and cathedral-height ceiling. I trembled as memories of this place rose, over and over—the horrors I’d seen here, and in other rooms like it. The goals I knew the Circle held this night.

Grace squeezed my hand, but I couldn’t look at her and let her see the fear in my eyes.

Those who formed the Circle and raised the chants had all donned the gleaming, silky ritual robes. Their shadows were alive, shifting, as they swung arms and raised chins, brimming with power and the soaring voices of the men and women raised to call it. My head spun, trying to tear me back to the days of my childhood, the fear, the deception, the rank ambition… Every sick thing my parents or I had ever done.

I kept my face blank, but clung to Grace’s hand like a lifeline.

Love.

Love is your power in this world, Voski…

Then we reached the center of the chamber, where the symbols were drawn in bone-chalk on the floor, over the flagstones. The chanting, berobed crowd peeled back like curtains drawn from the stage.

Ahead of us, my mother reached the altar first, stepping past it, then turning around to face us from its other side, beckoning me, beaming as she opened her arms and crowed to the cathedral-height ceiling, calling me by name.

“Vane Xavier Ashford, the Heir Apparent, walks the Circle once more!”

I shot her a warning look—I wouldn’t fall for her manipulations again. But I knew I’d have very few opportunities to leave this chamber without taking a life.

Please, God, could it be hers instead of—

I looked down at the poor sacrifice they’d chosen and froze, midstep.

The woman was draped in a robe of nearly sheer red.

Grace halted next to me, looking up, but I couldn’t order my thoughts enough to reassure her.

For a split second, I thought Mother had put her Grace decoy on the stone—the woman was blond, and beautiful, and something in my heart swelled when I saw her. But then her head turned in that loose, elastic way the sacrifices had when they were drugged… and she opened her eyes.

Fire and ice rippled down my spine.

Pure rage. Pure fear.

I did recognize those blue eyes, though they were hazed by drugs, or perhaps a spell. And they were not Grace’s.

My mother had chosen the Cruors’ sacrifice for this binding ritual. They’d all expect me to gladly slaughter her to ignite the power that existed between Grace and me.

I looked at my mother, the monster. And she smiled a private smile, for me.

Because the woman draped in the robe that conjured the opposite of innocence—a scarlet woman, to entice, and spur wrath—was Cali.

No Body Wants to Die

SOUNDTRACK: I Will Make It Out (Acoustic) by The Veer Union

~ VOSKI ~

“Come, Vane. Come, Grace,” Mother breathed heavily, trembling with power. “Quickly. The power grows.”

Bitch. Wicked, evil, bloodthirsty bitch.

She saw the accusation in my eyes, and the challenge glowed in hers.

I had no time to prepare, or plan. Not a breath to brace. If I took even one wrong step, they’d have me—and Grace. I had led us here, and now I had to fix this.

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t feel.

‘Voski—’