They’re going to kill Donovan. Oh God, it’s happening happening happening?—
He turns his head to look at me, and in his eyes, those beautiful reflections of the ley lines, I see such sorrow. I see the life we could have had together. I see his helplessness and his rage. “Let him go,” I plead, even though I know it’s a useless effort. “You don’t have to do this. There has to be another way.”
“There is no other way,” Ethan says, his tone almost pitying.
And then the blade comes down.
Chapter
Fifty-Six
“No!”I scream, pulling desperately on the ropes that bind me. “Please, please, please don’t. I’ll do anything. Please?—”
Ethan ignores me. All I can do is hold Donovan’s gaze as the blade descends, giving him what small comfort I can. Dreading the moment when Ethan stabs him.
But instead of plunging the blade into Donovan’s throat, Ethan draws the tip of it across his arm, the same way he did to me. A thin line of blood wells up, but it’s nothing like the vicious assault I expected. I draw a sharp, relieved breath, and Ethan chuckles.
“You should see your face, Rune! I’m not doing Frost in quite yet. We need your combined blood first to cast a circle. Something to keep us safe when the ritual kicks in. I anticipate it’ll be quite…dramatic.”
Ellen kneels beside Donovan, catching the droplets of blood in her bowl. As it mingles with mine, the earth beneath us shudders, the way it did before the ley lines burst to the surface. My chair threatens to tip, and Rosa grabs the back of it, holding me upright.
Ethan licks his lips again. “Our day has finally come.Non sine sanguine gloria,yes?My friends, it has begun.”
I watch, horrified, as Rosa steps away, joining the other Blood Witches who have lined up to dip their fingers in our shared blood. One by one, they take their place in a circle around me and Donovan—all except for Cooper, who still stands by Donovan’s side, and Ethan, who’s walking the perimeter of the circle, bowl in hand, sprinkling our blood on the ground as he goes.
Faster than I imagined she could move, Mina charges toward him. But the other Blood Witches close ranks, forming a solid wall she can’t penetrate. She scrabbles at their backs, howling, but they won’t let her through.
“Centrum caeli,” Ethan chants above the melee. “Centrum terrae.”
Circle of heaven,Mrs. Grant supplies, inside my head.Circle of earth. He’s calling on the elements to protect him. To form an impenetrable barrier.
“Stop!” Mina shrieks. “Donovan’s innocent. You can’t do this!”
But Ethan’s words have invoked an invisible shield. Through the slivers of space between the Blood Witches, I see Mina hit it and fly backward. She falls into the grass, sobbing.
Please,I beg Mrs. Grant, watching Ethan walk the circle.Tell me how to stop him.
The sun will set soon.As it sinks beneath the horizon, the power to summon the ley lines will be at its strongest. Whoever holds the lines’ gifts in their hands will…will…
Static rises, obscuring her voice like a radio station whose signal is fading. She’s still talking, but it’s impossible to make out the words.
Will what? Mrs. Grant, I can’t hear you. What happens when the sun sets?
Too late…Her voice trails off, taking the static with it. I’m alone in my own head again as Ethan closes the circle and comes to stand by Cooper’s side. “Brother against brother,” he says, holding out the knife. “Blood against blood. The sacrifice is yours to make.”
The light of the sinking sun glints off the blade, nearly blinding me. “Don’t take it,” I plead. “You still have a choice.”
Cooper looks down at Donovan, and for an instant I think I see indecision on his face. But then he shakes his head. “No,” he says, taking the knife. “I don’t. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry, all right.” Bile floods my mouth as I watch Donovan pull uselessly against his restraints. “If you do this, I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life paying for it.”
“You said that before,” Ethan muses. “And yet again, I must tell you how wrong you are. It’s pathetic, really, how you’ve fallen for this magicless null. Unworthy of your blood. Ah well, at least he’ll cease to be an issue soon. Cooper, if you would?”
The Blood Witches raise their hands to the fiery sky, chanting an invocation. The sun sinks lower, the outline of the scroll-and-dagger brand visible against it. And Cooper turns, his fingers white-knuckled on the knife, and buries it deep in Ethan’s throat.
Holy freaking shit.
I blink, hardly able to believe it. Thinking that maybe I wanted this to happen so badly, I’m imagining it—that Donovan is the one who’s choking on the blood that pours from his slit throat. But no. He’s still bound to his chair, alive and whole. His eyes widen as Cooper yanks the blade free, and from behind the gag, he lets out what sounds like a stream of expletives.
