Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
I’d never seen anything like this. It was too much. It was too real.
“Onyx, help me!” I ordered, tears streaming down my face. “He’s still breathing!”
In less than a second, the rope hanging him up snapped in half, and he fell into my arms. Before I could help him further, a chain wrapped around my ankles out of nowhere. I didn’t have time to contemplate a single thing as I was flipped upside down onto the same tree Caspian was on.
The Brotherhood hung me from my feet.
“No!” Onyx called out with everything inside him. His tone hurt my heart, my core, my soul.
His scream could be heard by our ancestors and the bodies that were buried here.
The council was still dressed in their fancy cloaks, their masks proudly displayed. Not an ounce of blood was spilled on them as a few of them held on to Onyx.
These men hid behind those masks and those cloaks, having someone else do the dirty work for them. They weren’t as powerful as they thought they were, or they wouldn’t have to hide at all.
The truth would be in plain sight.
I’d really done it now, and I wondered if my uncle was among them, watching this tragedy play out as entertainment for their demons.
“You call yourself the Blood Oath Brotherhood, right? Well,” I challenged. “If you kill me, there’ll be consequences!”
They laughed in my face as the blood rushed to my head.
“You’re just like your father,” a voice I didn’t recognize announced.
Smugly, I hollered, “Then you know I’m a fucking witch!”
“Sweetheart,” the same voice boasted, “your father already cursed this Brotherhood.”
How long can a person stay upside down without passing out? Luckily, as a kid, this was my preferred method of hanging off trees. My longest record was seven minutes.
“Yeah?” I mocked. “Why don’t you ask me about my dead-man-switch?”
“Hennessy!” Onyx demanded. “Shut the fuck up!”
They gagged him, and he desperately tried to fight them off. I’d never seen anything like it. He was literally a feral animal, but it didn’t matter. There were too many of them.
“Little girl,” one of the council members pressed their knife up to my throat. Onyx lost his shit, continuing to try to get free.
It was no use. They took a bat to his knees, making him bow at their feet. I heard something crack and whimpered in pain for him.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” the man holding the dagger to my throat remarked.
Thinking quickly, praying that Onyx could hear my thoughts like always, I told a tale, “I made sure if I disappeared, your dagger would see the light of day.”
“Onyx.” His stare flew to him. “What the fuck is she talking about? The night you deleted her photos from her phone, you confirmed the dagger was in your possession again.”
Spitting blood at his feet, he caught on, “I lied.”
Thank you, God…
It didn’t matter what you believed in. God was always on your side. You just had to not lose faith in him. It was how the devil won in the first place. You’d always be tested, tempted, scorned. The secret was not to let it wear you down. The moment weakness took over was the second you’d sell your soul for strength.
“Enough with the fucking games!” the council member roared.
Onyx deviously chuckled, singing out, “But they’re so fucking fun!”
They kicked him in the stomach, knocking him over.
“Stop it!” I pleaded. “He didn’t do anything wrong!”
“All he’s done since you arrived has been wrong! You’ve put a spell on him!”
“Then you should know not to fuck with me!” I spewed.
The back of his hand came up, and I knew what was going to happen next. I braced for it, but in the end, it didn’t matter in the least. The moment he backhanded me across the face, I saw stars regardless.
“No!” Onyx screamed with everything inside him again.
He gripped my face, yanking my head back to look at him. For a second, I thought he was trying to snap my neck. I panted through the pain, trying not to show Onyx how badly it hurt, not wanting him to take the grunt of what was happening to me.
I didn’t wait, blurting, “You hit like a bitch,” spitting blood on his beloved mask.
“You’re nothing but a traitor!” He yanked me toward him, close to his face. “Just like your father! We should’ve never agreed for you to attend here, and now you’re going to pay the price for your fucking sins!”
I resisted the urge to beg for mercy.
Fuck him.
Fuck all of them.
They wouldn’t get what they wanted.
He backhanded me again, but when he gripped my neck, choking me out, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. It was only then I was smacked in the face with some of the truth. Right then and there, a memory broke loose.