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continued with the pep rally. I watched Assan's group return carrying the buffet table.
They deposited it in front of the Tor and then knelt respectfully.
"No."
Bozcowski interrupted his speech to look at me, his scowl creasing his face like an origami
sculpture. "What did you say?"
"No," I repeated, "as in no altar, no pagan sacrifice, no me laying down for it."
"But& you agreed."
"Yes, I agreed to die tonight. But I didn't agree how." Why did I agree to anything? I am,
without a doubt, the stupidest woman on earth!
Assan and his cohorts had risen from their soggy knees to hear our conversation. Now
Assan's bottom lip jutted out and his glassy black eyes narrowed to slits. "You have to use
the altar. I brought the sacred sword and everything." As if I could've forgotten about the
weapon that had cracked against my calves all the way down the back stairs and then
nearly threw me head-first through the trap-door of the wine cellar when it had gotten
tangled up between my ankles.
"Is that the same sword you used to leave little carvings in your brother-in-law's chest?" I
asked it in a whisper. My churning gut wouldn't allow anything louder.
"Yes. But we won't need the runes for you. Just a clean, quick execution."
"Oh?" Weren't we being so polite? I could hardly stand it.
"We have no need to hold your soul in stasis because the Tor-al-Degan is already here,
prepared to eat it. At least, most of her is here. The rest will arrive soon."
"I'm confused. She looks like she's all here. You can't see through her or anything."
"Looks can be deceiving." I thought about my recent trip outside Physicality and decided
not to argue the point. But Vayl had told me to stall, so I reached over the nausea, past
the dawning migraine, and plucked out a subject they wouldn't be able to resist.
"I understand what happened to Amanda's brother. But what about the torso? It had the
same markings."
Assan pursed his lips and refused to speak. Aidyn was the one who answered me.
"After the debacle with Assan's brother-in-law, we discovered our goddess needed a
willing sacrifice. So we petitioned a member of our sect to provide it. He gladly stepped
into her jaws, but his soul did not free her. That was when we learned of the second twist,
that the sacrifice must be willing, but not a worshiper of the Tor-al-Degan."
Wow. Whoever had trapped the Tor had gone to great lengths to ensure she remained
trapped. Leave it to a bunch of vampire/terrorist punks to foul a perfectly good binding
spell.
Liliana had been quiet up to now, sizing me up like a tigress waiting in the weeds. To look
at her you'd never guess she'd taken a dive off a roof recently. Unless you made the
mistake of meeting her eyes. The memory stood there, poisonous and pissed. Suddenly
she pounced. "Where is your sverhamin now, you mortal cow?" she asked, sidling up to
me as if we were about to share a juicy secret.
Though Derek's scent made me want to curl up in a ball and pretend this was all a bad
dream, I straightened and held her off with a raised hand, as if I were a running back in a
slow motion replay. "Back off, Liliana."
She grabbed Derek's forearm and pulled him, stumbling slightly, to stand beside her. He
looked much worse than the last time I'd seen him. His jaw was slack, his eyes unfocused,
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his skin bright red with fever. He kept reaching out with his hands, making pinching
motions with his fingers like a kid at a 3-D movie.
I raised my hand higher, leaning my back against a column.
"I have found your kryptonite, haven't I Wonder Woman?" she asked, giving Derek a rag-
doll shake.
"I believe you're mixing metaphors there, Lil." I stood up, realizing if she'd found my
weakness, I'd discovered a new strength. It came from a combination of the ring on my
finger and Vayl's voice in my head, whispering words I didn't recognize. Cirilai did though,
responding with a warmth that spread up my arm and through my body, pushing Derek's
stench off to a bearable distance.
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