[Sacrifice Me 08.0] Season Two: Part 2

by Sarra Cannon

  Someone grabbed my shoulder, and I released my connection to the Mother Crow.

  Silas pulled me into his arms, and I trembled against him as the pain slowly dissipated.

  “What happened?” he asked softly. “Are you alright?”

  I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. “I was experimenting with my connection to the Mother Crow,” I said. “I can feel her, even from here. If I have any thoughts of hurting her or using my power against her, the stone burns me. It’s like some kind of punishment, I guess.”

  “And you were doing that willingly?” he asked. “Are you insane?”

  I nodded and laughed. I guess it did seem pretty crazy.

  “I’m trying to build up my tolerance to the pain,” I said. “I keep thinking that maybe it will help me in the final moments. The more I learn to manipulate or control the connection, the more I’ll figure out about how it works, maybe.”

  “Control the connection?” he asked. “You mentioned that earlier. How long have you been working on this?”

  He’d settled himself beside me at the edge of the cliff, and we both dangled our feet over the side. I’d finally caught my breath and was starting to think more clearly again.

  “Ever since it happened,” I said. “Or shortly after in the village. She came into my room to talk to me, and I got so angry, I tried to cast a spell against her, but the moment the thought came into my mind, the stone burned me. It’s like lava flowing through my body, Silas. It’s awful.”

  “But what good does putting yourself through that over and over do now?” he asked. “Even if you could cast your magic against her, you’d be hurting yourself, too.”

  I swallowed and thought about my experiments. I hadn’t said much about it earlier, because I’d been hoping someone could come up with a better plan. And because I realized my own limitations when it came to all of this.

  But Silas was so smart. Maybe he could help.

  “When I saw that memory of our father and the Mother Crow,” I started. “There was something that happened right before she stole his power and tried to take it for herself. He focused on his love for us. I could see it flashing in her mind, as if he was communicating those feelings to her. He thought of you, Silas. And my mother. He thought of his unborn child. And when he poured that love into the Mother Crow, it accelerated her decay. For a minute, it seemed like…”

  My voice trailed off. It was hard to find the words to express it, exactly.

  “What?” he asked.

  “It seemed almost like he was able to control the Mother Crow in that moment,” I said. “So, I took a lesson from that and started trying to do it myself.”

  “And it worked.”

  I nodded. “Yes, it worked. I made her drop a glass, I think. And when I went into her room to steal her journal, she had it clutched in her hand,” I said. “I made her loosen her grip on it, so I could take it from her.”

  “But you said it accelerated the transfer?” he asked, turning toward me.

  “I felt her spirit flowing into me faster. I’m afraid that if I hold onto it any longer than a second or two, I’ll go too far. Force the transfer to completion before I can get her to release me.”

  He looked away, grasping the stone in his hand. Thinking.

  Silas was always thinking.

  After a long silence, he lifted the silver chain from his neck and handed me Solomon’s stone.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I want you to take this,” he said, placing the stone and chain in my hand and curling my fingers around it. “If Solomon was able to hurt her before, maybe he can help you in some way. Maybe if the two of you work together, you can find enough power and strength to end this, Franki.”

  I held the stone tightly in my hand and closed my eyes.

  It was such a strange thing to hold your own father’s spirit in your hands. The moment I touched it, I could feel him there.

  And his energy was not at all what I’d expected.

  I’d been so afraid of his darkness. Of his evil.

  But there was nothing in his energy now but love and regret for how things had turned out. Regret that he hadn’t been able to change the Brotherhood of Darkness and atone for his centuries of sin. Regret that he hadn’t been able to defeat the Mother Crow years ago.

  Regret that he’d never known me or been able to watch me grow up.

  But most of all, there was love.

  A tear slid down my cheek.

  “Thank you for this,” I said to my brother as I slid the chain around my own neck.

  The stone hung low on my body, and the moment I put it on, I felt the connection to the Mother Crow weaken even more, as if his power was helping to block her from me.

  “I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” he said. “I feel responsible for this. If I hadn’t made killing the Mother Crow a condition of Rend and Dagon’s competition for the throne, she might not have made her move to capture you.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “What does she have to do with the Brotherhood?”

  He sighed. “I forgot that you weren’t here earlier when we discovered the truth about the Council,” he said. “They were behind all of it, Franki. Not just getting my father encased in that stone, which you’ve already seen for yourself, but they were also responsible for what’s happened to you. Or at least that’s what Rend and I think happened. They knew that my father was speaking to me through that stone. They knew that if it came down to it, I would want to have the Mother Crow killed so that Solomon would be free of it. Once free, he could testify against the Council and sentence them all to death. They couldn’t allow that to happen, so they made a deal with the Mother Crow. Something that would keep her alive, keep Solomon in that stone, and insure that Rend and Dagon went to the dungeons.”

  “It feels like we’re so far behind the game, we’re not even really playing it,” I said. “Like they already know every move we’re going to make before the first piece has been played.”

  “Franki, they were also the ones who sent that invitation to you,” he said. “The one that brought you to Venom in the first place. They knew Rend would protect you if he saw you were in danger, so they sent vampires to attack you. They set it all up from the beginning to try to make sure the Devil couldn’t sacrifice you and release Solomon’s spirit.”

  “They’re using me for their own purposes,” I said. “One second they want to keep me safe, and the next they offer me up as another sacrifice. Whatever serves them best.”

  “Whatever keeps the truth from coming out,” he said. “If the Brotherhood knew that they’d been responsible for Solomon’s disappearance from this world, there would be chaos. Mutiny, at best. They would never be allowed to continue to serve if the extent of their betrayal was known.”

  “That’s why you wanted the Mother Crow dead,” I said.

  “Yes. And that’s why they came up with this plan,” he said. “They knew Rend would never be able to follow through with his task if your life was on the line.”

  “But I’m going to die, anyway,” I shouted. I was so frustrated and fed up with this.

  I just wanted to live my own life, not be a pawn in some ancient game between vampires and crows. This was my life they were toying with, and they didn’t even give a shit. I was just another witch to them. A resource to be used however they wanted.

  Well, I wanted to fight back.

  But how?

  What power did I have over them all?

  “What are we going to do?” I asked, leaning against my brother’s shoulder.

  No answer came as we sat there, only darkness as the sun slipped behind the mountains and another day was lost.

  The Enemy

  Rend

  The plan forming in my mind was strong, but it depended on a few things coming together in just the right way.

  It also depended on Franki not finding out what I intended to do.

  Hell, it wasn't like I wanted to off
er myself up as the next sacrifice, but what choice did we have?

  Right now, all that mattered to me was protecting the people I loved. And I would do whatever it took to keep them all safe.

  Sometimes, that meant taking a chance on the enemy and praying you could trust them to do the right thing. Or at least to want to save themselves more than they wanted to end you.

  I knocked on the door of an apartment in London and prayed I would find the owner home. If not, I’d have to go looking for him, and I really couldn’t afford to waste the time.

  But Dagon was home tonight.

  As soon as he answered the door, he tried to slam it in my face.

  I threw my hand out, stopping it from closing at the last second.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said. “It’s important.”

  “When the enemy comes knocking, you don’t answer the door,” he said. “Go away.”

  He tried to close it again, but I pushed my way inside.

  “This won’t take long.” I made my way through the small entryway and headed to the living room.

  I’d been here once before under slightly more pleasant circumstances, but not by much. Dagon and I were not friends, and the tension between us had only grown after I’d given up drinking blood.

  I just hoped he would hear me out. I needed him on my side if this was going to work.

  “Speak quickly and get the hell out of my home,” he said. “I have work to do. And so do you. We only have a few more days to find this crow, and from what I’ve seen, you’re no closer to discovering her location than I am.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” I said. “I know exactly where she is.”

  He stepped back, pure shock written on his face.

  “What? How?” he asked. Then, he smirked and narrowed his gaze. “You’re lying. If you’d found her, you would have killed her already, and I don’t see a number carved on your arm. Unless you tried and just weren’t strong enough to do it.”

  “I know exactly where she is, Dagon, but I can’t kill her,” I said. “And it’s not because I’m too weak. It’s because she cast a spell on my girlfriend that bound their souls. If the Mother Crow dies, Franki dies, too. I’m sure you can see what kind of situation that puts me in right now.”

  His dark eyes flashed in surprise.

  “Then why come here?” he asked. “You’re not going to convince me to just give up and live the rest of my life in those dungeons, waiting to die. Unlike you, I don’t give a shit about your girlfriend. She’s a witch, right?”

  “She’s half-witch, yes, but she’s also Solomon’s daughter,” I said. “And I know you won’t understand it, but I love her more than I love myself. I would die a thousand times to protect her, if I could.”

  He shook his head. “You’re right. I could never understand that.”

  “I don’t need you to,” I said. “But I do need your help.”

  “Rend, I’ve never hated you, but I don’t like what you’ve become, and I’m not going to stand down just to protect you and some witch,” he said.

  “I’m not asking you to. Now, if you’ll shut your mouth and listen to me for a minute, I’ll explain everything,” I said.

  He adjusted his weight and stared at me, as if trying to figure out what trick I was playing on him.

  “This isn’t a trick, Dagon. Will you at least hear me out?”

  He sat down in a grey recliner and put his feet on a dusty coffee table. “You’re here aren’t you?” he asked. “Might as well talk, then.”

  I sat down across from him on a tattered old couch that smelled of mothballs and whiskey. Not exactly a pleasant combination, but I hadn’t come here hoping for pleasant.

  “The Council of the Brotherhood wants us both to lose this task,” I said.

  “Bullshit,” he said. “They nominated me because they know I can beat you.”

  “No, they nominated you because you’re popular but expendable,” I said. “They were hoping you’d beat me in an outright vote, because a lot of the vampires in the Brotherhood like and respect you. But trust me when I say they are betting against you now.”

  “I don’t trust one word out of your mouth,” he said, kicking his feet off the coffee table and leaning forward. “The Council wants me on that throne more than they want you there, end of story.”

  “No, that’s not the real story at all,” I said. “The real story is that the Council will do anything in their power to keep the Mother Crow alive. Twenty-one years ago, they were the ones who betrayed Solomon and had him locked in that stone. The only way he gets out of that stone is if the Mother Crow dies, and they can’t let that happen, Dagon. If the Brotherhood finds out what they did, they’ll be thrown off the Council and condemned to death. Still think they want you to win?”

  His head fell back as his hands gripped the arms of the chair.

  “There’s no way that’s true,” he said. “Why would the Council betray their own leader?”

  “Because like me, Solomon fell in love with a witch. He wanted to change the Brotherhood forever. Put laws into place that forbid anyone to kill a witch,” I said. “The Devil knew nothing about it, because Solomon went to the other three first, hoping they would stand by his side. Instead, they captured him and hand-delivered him to the Mother Crow. Imagine what will happen to the Brotherhood of Darkness if Solomon gets out of that stone and can prove what they did. Do you think they’ll risk that?”

  “How do I know you’re even telling me the truth?” he asked. “You could be making up this whole story just to get me to back down.”

  I took the dagger from its sheath at my side.

  “The Dagger of Truth,” I said. “I can’t lie in its presence.”

  His eyes widened as he stared down at it.

  “I don’t want you to back down,” I said. “I want you to win.”

  He raised an eyebrow and turned his head to the side, eyeing me.

  “You’ve lost your damn mind,” he said. “If I win, you and all your buddies down there in the dungeon die, Rend. You’re not dumb enough to think this goes down any other way.”

  “Look, I know I took a risk in coming here, and if Franki wasn't involved in this, I would be doing everything I could to win my life back,” I said. “But I’ve run every possible scenario in my head, and this is the only one where everyone I love gets out of this alive. And I hate to say this, but it all rests on your shoulders.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “If I give you the location of the Mother Crow and you promise me that you will kill her no matter what, then you agree to take that throne and vote to save my friends,” I said.

  He scoffed and stood.

  “You have lost your mind. Do you know what Raum and the others will do to me if I vote against them?” he asked. “Besides, you said it yourself. The Mother Crow dies and so does this witch you’ve given your balls to. I don’t see how that helps you at all.”

  “Listen, if you do manage to kill the Mother Crow, that means Solomon will be released from that stone,” I said. “You’ll be on the Council if it still exists to come down to a vote, but Raum, Gideon, and Abagore will be the ones on the chopping block. You’ll be one of the last rulers of the Brotherhood. The true leader unless Solomon finds a body and decides to stick around. You’ll be able to decide what happens to the Brotherhood, Dagon. You’ll be the one everyone looks to for guidance, and you’ll be the one with all the power.”

  He stared at me for a long moment, and I knew he still didn’t believe he could trust what i was saying, despite the dagger. But at the same time, I could see his desire for power. I’d struck a nerve there.

  He didn’t want to be the lapdog of the other Council members any more than I did, but ruling the Brotherhood was a different matter entirely.

  Finally, he sat back down.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Whether or not this all works out depends on perfect timing,” I said. “I am going to offer the Mother Crow
a trade she won’t be able to refuse. When she agrees to it, she’s going to willingly release Franki from this curse and take me instead.”

  “You?” he asked. “What would she want with you?”

  “What all witches like her want with powerful demons like me,” I said.

  The truth of what I was saying finally dawned on him, and he sat up straighter.

  “Rend, you can’t do this,” he said. “It’s suicide.”

  “It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make to save the people I love,” I said. “All the Mother Crow wants in this world is a demon of her own. She was supposed to get one over a hundred years ago, but another girl was chosen by the Order of Shadows and she was banished. She’s spent most of her life trying to get that back, and I’m going to give it to her.”

  “But that’s chaos,” he said. “With that kind of power, she’ll be unstoppable.”

  “That’s why you have to kill her as soon as Franki’s free of that spell,” I said. “If you can do it before she casts my soul into her body, I’ll owe you my life. But either way, she must die, even if that means I die with her.”

  He shook his head and stood again so he could pace the floor of his small flat. He mumbled something to himself and ran a shaky hand through his hair.

  “Shit,” he said under his breath. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve never known anyone who would do this for someone else, least of all a witch.”

  I stood up. My visit here was almost over, and I needed to know if he was in or out.

  “If you win the throne, you promise that my friends will be safe,” I said. “You’ll have the authority to set them free, and I need to know I can trust you do that when the time comes.”

  “This is a lot to take in,” he said. “But from where I stand, it’s a pretty good deal. Too good to be true, I think.”

  “You’ll have all the power you ever dreamed of,” I said. “Power to appoint a new Council of your choosing. Rewrite the Enchiridion. Establish new rules for the group. Whatever you want to do. The choice is yours, Dagon. I just need to know that you’ll kill the Mother Crow when the time comes.”