A Trial by Blood (The Thornheart Trials, #3), page 6
“Lift your arms,” Ronan said.
My face grew hotter still as I did as he asked. He lifted the nightgown over my head, and I did my best to cover myself as he pulled a thermal over my head and helped me put my arms through the sleeves like a toddler. I hated this so damned much I wanted to scream.
The timing of this, of her calling to me. Could that really be a coincidence? She was everywhere, saw everything. The mother had engineered this, she had to have, and I hated her for it. Ronan put a shirt on me next, then a sweater.
“Jacket? Hat?” he asked.
“Downstairs.”
Ronan scooped me into his strong arms and carried me downstairs. Sitting me in the armchair by the door, he propped me against the back, then found a woolen hat and pulled it down low before searching through the jackets hanging by the door. He grabbed Mom’s long quilted one and helped me into it, pulled on his own, then I was back in his arms, and he was carrying me outside into the snowy night.
Despite all my layers, the cold bit into me instantly. Ronan strode quickly to his car and carefully sat me in the passenger seat, buckling me in, then around to the driver’s side, got in, and started the engine.
The snow grew heavier as we drove, but it didn’t take long for us to reach Oldwood. The forest was just beyond the city itself, at the southernmost end of the larger Roxburgh State Forest.
He lifted me out and strode toward a gap in the trees.
“What about the demons?”
“They won’t know we’re here.”
“What? H-how?”
“They won’t see us,” he said.
Then I felt it, his power, the buzz of it surrounding us. “What kind of…power do you have?”
“It’s similar to my sister’s,” he said. “But also different.”
Luna could block herself and others. She was incredibly strong. “What can you do, Ronan?”
“I have concealed houses, entire streets and the beings on it. Concealing us both is no effort on my part.” Then he strode into the wood and headed toward the clearing where the mother would be waiting for me.
The cold had settled deep in my bones despite the layers of clothing Ronan had put on me, and it was only going to get worse. The sounds of wind whistled through the trees, while the strange calls and roars of demons and other creatures exploded into the night every now and then. Ronan didn’t pause or flinch, he strode quickly toward our destination.
All too soon, we reached the clearing, and Ronan strode right out to the middle. “What should I do now?” he asked.
There was a circle of rocks near us. “I need to light a fire there.” I pointed to the rocks. “And I need to…undress.”
His brows snapped down. “You can’t. It’s freezing out here.”
“It’s part of the ritual, and I’ll need something sharp. Do you have a knife?” We’d been in such a rush, and it’d been so long since I’d been strong enough to practice magic, I hadn’t even thought to bring my own.
“This doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
I touched his arm. “It’s how it has to be.”
Ronan held me against him with one strong arm and slipped his jacket off, then tossed it on the snowy ground before he carefully sat me down. “I have nothing to start a fire.”
I wasn’t sure I could do it. “It’s okay. Can you help me undress?”
His jaw worked before he kneeled down beside me and helped me remove my clothes. Once my sweater, shirt, and thermal were off, he dropped the coat over me, then slid off my pants, socks, and underwear. He placed a small pocketknife in my hand. Humiliated, I couldn’t meet his eyes.
All that was left was starting the fire. I stared into the circle and drew on the tiny embers of magic I still felt inside me. They were faint, barely there, but it stirred as I called on it, as I willed the fire to ignite.
A spark flashed in the center, then small flames licked up, racing around the edge. I collapsed back, the effort of performing such a simple spell too much for me. I looked up at Ronan. “You need to go. As soon as I say the words, she’ll come to me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here beside you. She won’t see me.”
The look on his face brooked no argument. I felt his power leave me, and as soon as it did, Ronan was no longer there, though I knew he was, just blocked from my sight.
Gripping the knife in a shaky hand, I pressed it to my arm and sliced, unable to hold in my hiss of pain. “Guide me…old ones. I am your s-servant, the Keeper’s sister chosen to…f-fulfill the rite of Coven Thornheart.” The wind immediately picked up speed, frigid air flying around me so fast it hurt. “I’m here to accept…m-my task. Whatever you ask, I…I will undertake.” The coat was ripped from me, and shards of fine ice and snowflakes battered my naked, emaciated body. The icy wind stole my breath, and I hugged myself, my hair plastered to my face, my teeth clenched against the agonizing cold.
Then it came, the rattle both Willow and Iris had talked about. The mother was coming.
I searched the shadows, then slammed my eyes closed, remembering that I wasn’t to look at her until I was told I could, but I felt her presence. It was heavy, suffocating, dark and light, violent and joyous all at once. I’d never experienced anything like it in my life.
There was a hiss and a tickle against my arm. The serpent tasting my blood, making sure I was the witch she’d summoned.
Open your eyes, witch.
I did as she asked and gasped at the awesome sight of her. Nothing my sisters had told me could have ever prepared me for this. Her shiny, obsidian eyes were on me, moving over my nakedness.
You didn’t come alone. Her voice was hard, full of fury.
She knew Ronan was there. “I’m sorry, Mother. But I am unwell. I couldn’t journey here on my own.”
One moment Ronan was hidden behind his block, and the next, he stood there. His face was blank, but his fingers were curled into fists at his sides.
Begone. The mother hissed in my mind.
Ronan was thrown from the clearing. I watched as he jumped to his feet and tried to charge back in, to get to me, but he slammed up against an invisible barrier. The mother had locked him out.
The serpent’s massive head swung back to me. Explain yourself, witch.
I hugged myself tighter. I was going to be hypothermic soon. At least I would get my wish. I would die tonight, not the way I’d wanted, but there was no way I would live through this. First, though, I had to try to make the mother understand. “Mother, I have been s-sick…my whole life. An unexplainable illness…that my family has tirelessly tried to find a cure for. There isn’t one. I’m going to die. There is no stopping it… I am too w-weak to pass your task or fight in a magical battle. I have come here tonight to beg your mercy. To ask you not to punish my coven for something that is out of their control.”
Is your heart still beating, witch?
“Yes.” Though I didn’t think she expected an answer.
“Then save your excuses. I expected more from the sister of Willow and Iris Thornheart. I see before me a coward, ready to give up when there is much to fight for. Not all tasks require the witch to have physical strength, but all require mental strength, stubbornness, and an iron will. Your sisters did not pass their tasks alone.” Her head swiveled to Ronan standing at the edge of the clearing, his eyes locked on me. And neither will you.
Oh god, she won’t listen. She doesn’t understand. “Mother, please. Look at me, at my body. I’m close to death.”
Are you willing to use the time left to fight for your family? Your coven? Her steely gaze locked on mine. There is only one answer I will accept, witch.
I did want to fight for my family. That’s why I needed to die. If I tried to do this, I would fail. I would fail without a doubt, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I gave her the truth, what was in my heart, even though it was impossible. Because I would do anything for my family, even try to live for a little while longer. “Y-yes,” I choked out.
Then you must complete the task I give you by the time the vines meet. If you fail, you will be unworthy of trial, and gifts past will be returned to the mother. If you complete your task yet fail to win your trial, again, your coven’s gifts will be returned to the mother.
She spoke the words into my mind, referring to herself in the third person as she hissed and slithered closer. I knew what was coming, and I wasn’t prepared for it.
She struck fast. Her long, razor-sharp fangs sank into my left shoulder. The pain was excruciating. Then she opened her mouth, released me, spun, and slithered off.
I lay there gasping for breath as wave after wave of pain radiated through me. Demons. I could hear them in the distance. Calling to each other, coming closer. Suddenly, the cold wasn’t so bad anymore, and I closed my eyes as darkness crawled closer. I thought about Ronan, about our kiss. The darkness crowded in, closer still.
I was going to die.
This was it.
CHAPTER 7
Rose
* * *
I blinked. Then blinked again.
I was still in the field. Snow drifted all around me. No, not snow. Something gray. Ash. There was a growl and a hiss, then a thud. I turned my head.
Ronan.
He stood only a few feet from me. His shirt was gone, and he was covered in blood, and piles of ash and mutilated demons, unable to move but still alive, surrounded me. Ronan turned, scanning the clearing. His fangs were extended, and his eyes were wild, feral. Not cold, not emotionless.
I’d never seen him like that in my life.
“Ronan?” I choked.
His gaze slid to me, and he strode forward. Then, without a word, he covered me with the coat and scooped me up. “We need to get out of this clearing. My powers won’t work here anymore,” he said. Tucking me close, he ran for the edge of the clearing.
“What h-happened?”
He didn’t stop, he kept running. Fast. So fast, the forest was a blur around us. When he looked down at me, the rage I’d seen on his face was gone. The flat coldness was back in his eyes. “The demons got a head start. The block around the clearing didn’t drop until the mother was long gone. They almost reached you before I could.”
“So you…k-killed them all.”
“Yes.”
He held me tight. My hand rested on his chest, and it was slick with demon blood. God, how many had he fought on his own? He could have been killed.
We reached the car in record time, and he had me buckled up in seconds. He jumped in behind the wheel and sped for home.
No one was there when we got to the house. I’d never been more thankful. They wouldn’t take this news well. I wasn’t sure how I’d tell them. Ronan rushed me inside and headed straight for the bathroom. He turned on the shower.
“What are you doing?”
“We need to warm you. Your skin is ice cold.” He tested the water, pulled away the coat covering my nakedness, then stepped in, still in his clothes.
I tried to cover myself as we stood there, humiliation burning my cheeks. His stare sliced to my shoulder. “She bit you. I tried to get to you, but I couldn’t. I thought she was killing you.”
His voice was different, deeper, rougher, but I couldn’t see any trace of emotion on his face.
“It’s part of the r-ritual,” I said.
“These markings are part of it as well?” He brushed his thumb over my arm, then high on my shoulder.
I looked down. The tattoo-like markings the mother had given me were already showing, snaking across my skin. The intricate vine pattern covered my upper arm, and judging by the slight tingle along my shoulder and the side of my throat, they were there as well.
I knew without looking, there’d be a section of unmarred skin between the places Ronan had touched. “W-when the vines on my arm grow and touch the ones on my shoulder…the time I have to p-pass my task is up, and I fail.” My family would see it as soon as they got home.
He nodded but didn’t say anything. We stood there in silence for several more minutes.
“Are you warm?” he finally asked.
“Yes.”
He turned off the water and stepped out, grabbing a towel and wrapping me in it. There was nothing I could do but allow him to dry and dress me. Ronan had seen every bit of my hideous body and now was running the towel over the revolting hump on my back, his hands over my thin hair as he dried it.
I’d be even more humiliated if I wasn’t so exhausted. I didn’t know how I’d stayed awake as long as I had. Adrenaline most likely. But every bit of energy drained from me now. I couldn’t think or move, I could barely draw breath.
The darkness crawled back, surrounding me, taking me under.
Ronan
She was still breathing, but judging by how shallow each inhale was, I wasn’t sure for how much longer.
I looked down at my hands; a vision of those demons, so many of them running for Rose, filled my head. I couldn’t get to her. If I hadn’t been as fast as I was, I wouldn’t have made it to her in time, they would have torn her to shreds.
What happened afterward was a blur. I killed and killed until there were no demons left. Until there was no more danger to Rose. I tried to recall the finer details, but my vision had turned red. And when I’d finally returned to myself, Rose had been awake and as close to death as I’d seen her.
I looked at her again. So pale, her skin was almost the same color as her white-blond hair.
A door banged downstairs. The sound of voices, of shoes on the hardwood floor, then taking the stairs.
I stood when Daisy filled the doorway, Magnolia and Bram behind her. Daisy looked at me, her gaze dropping to my bare chest, to the scratches and bite marks marring my skin, then shot back up.
“Ronan?” She looked at her daughter and a cry escaped before she ran to her. “Rose? Sweetheart? Please, wake up, baby.” She looked up at me. “What the hell happened?”
Magnolia rushed in. “Oh god, her neck.”
Daisy’s hand flew to her mouth. “Tell me that isn’t what I think it is. Tell me you didn’t take her to Oldwood Forest,” she cried.
I frowned, confused. “I did as Rose asked. She wanted to speak with the mother, to explain her situation.”
Magnolia screamed in rage and ran at me, punching me in the chest. Bram rushed forward, hauling her off her feet and into his arms.
“I don’t understand?” I rubbed at my temples. Pain, again unmuted, exploded behind my eyes this time. “I thought—”
“She could’ve been killed. What the hell were you thinking!” Magnolia cried, swiping a tear from her cheek.
I shook my head. “I was there. I protected her from the demons. I did what she asked. Her request made sense. It was logical. She’s dying. She wanted to help. She didn’t want the mother to punish your coven. It was the right thing to do. She—”
“Logic?” Magnolia spat.
Daisy wasn’t looking at me. She was weeping, clinging to Rose. “She’s so cold,” she whispered.
“You don’t get it, Ronan, and you never will because you’re made of fucking stone. Rose means more to us than magic, than power. I don’t care about any of it. I’d give it all up to prevent her from feeling one more moment of pain. And you…you took her out into the freezing night. You let her lay there naked, afraid, alone. You let the mother bite her when there’s barely anything of her, and now she’ll blame herself even more when the mother takes our gifts away from us.”
I looked down at Rose. I had done that, hadn’t I? All the things that Magnolia said. I rubbed my temples again, the pain behind my eyes worsening. I’d hurt her. I’d hurt Rose. “I never meant to cause her pain.”
“She won’t survive this,” Daisy said, tears streaming down her face. “I thought I had a little more time. A few more days, at least.” She sobbed.
“Just…leave, Ronan,” Magnolia said, and turned her back on me, climbing up onto the bed beside her sister.
Bram moved in. I inclined my head before he reached for me and strode out, down the stairs, and out into the snow. Bram shut the door behind me.
I should do as they asked. I should leave, stay away. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know how to describe it. It was as if she were the sun and I was a planet, ever moving around her, trying to get closer but not knowing how. Even when I was right beside her, it never felt close enough. I wasn’t sure why, only that I felt a pull toward her. I lifted my block and walked back in, following Bram up the stairs and into Rose’s room.
Then I stood across from her bed, because I couldn’t leave her.
Every instinct told me this was where I needed to be.
The rest of the family arrived within the hour. Iris and her mate, Draven. Willow and Warrick, Ren, her familiar, with them. Arthur, Daisy’s familiar and boyfriend, was there comforting her. Magnolia and Bram hadn’t left the room once. And Else was limping in and out of the room with all manner of lotions and potions, trying to feed Rose elixirs and covering her in foul smelling poultices.
Several hours had passed and Rose still hadn’t woken up. I was tuned into Rose in a way I never had been before. When I walked into a room, I could hear every breath and every heartbeat of the people around me, but it was different with Rose. My heart no longer beat, it had stopped a long time ago, but I felt Rose’s heart inside me, as if it were part of me, and it had been growing weaker by the hour.
She was dying.
This wasn’t what Rose wanted, how she wanted it to happen.
Taking her out in the cold, what the mother had done to her, it was going to kill her.
