Sacrifice in Blood

Chapter 55: House Arrest

My eyes snapped open and I gasped, like I had been underwater and only now coming up for breath.

Everything was blurry for a moment, the room spun around me. After a couple breaths, the spinning eased. I felt disconnected from my magic to which I assigned St John's Wort to be the cause.

I was in a dark room once more. But this time I was lying down. I tried to sit up only to realise I was restrained to a hard bed. My wrists and ankles were bound by rope and tied to each corner of the bed.

I pulled against the restraints, my heart racing. This sent another wave of dizziness over me and I stilled, closing my eyes and willing the spinning to stop.

When I opened them again, I could make out candles flickering all around me. And faces.

The witches of the High Council surrounded me, their faces shadowed and half obscured.

It was terrifying, like a horror movie. Except I was in the horror movie. And this was real. A cold fear ran down my spine.

They began to chant and I could feel the energy in the room begin to rise. Before I could call out and ask what was happening, demand they stop or beg them to let me go, a burst of power shocked through me, like it was electrocuting me.

I cried out in pain as I felt my whole body go rigid, frozen by the magic of whatever spell they were casting.

I inhaled sharply as a scarlet red rope made of pure energy manifested above my chest. I knew where the ethereal link led: Talon.

This was our blood-binding made manifest.

I was transfixed. It was beautiful, like it had been woven from elegant thread that was made of pure magic. It shone bright and pulsated in a rhythm that matched my heart beat. It was part of me.

Their chanting became faster and louder.

Then a horrible pain ripped through my chest where the link and I became one. It felt like an invisible force had grabbed hold of the ethereal rope and squeezed. I gasped for air like my windpipe had closed over.

I clawed at the mattress and kicked, trying to find air.

Finally, the pressure around the binding eased and I could bring air into my lungs once more. But with hardly any time to recover, a new force was re-established. This time it felt like two impossibly strong hands grasped the rope and began to pull in opposite directions.

A tearing pain ran through me as the invisible hands continued to try to break the ethereal binding.

No! I knew what they were trying to do.

I screamed in pain and thrashed against the restraints, begging them to stop.

The efforts were redoubled, the hands trying to sever the scarlet rope with brute force. It held fast. I felt the pressure increase and constrict my air once more.

Stop! Please Stop! Don't do this! I screamed internally as tears ran down my face.

The witches around me did not relent.

The spell pulled the ethereal chain and my chest rose with it, like someone was yanking the cord higher which was attached directly to my heart.

My body contorted as it was pulled along with the scarlet binding. I gasped for air desperately as the pain in my chest increased.

It felt like they were going to literally rip my heart out.

I felt my feet and arms leave the mattress. I was suspended in mid air, held by the force that savagely gripped the ethereal chain. The world was spinning, the lights of the candles swirling and becoming one.