For years now the harvest has been less than it should be. Last year the people of Oisin's village sacrificed a goat, but their god did not come. Now, in desperation, a human sacrifice has been suggested, and Oisin, recently orphaned and feeling life is not worth living, volunteers. But the god Belinos is not quite what he seems, and Oisin's sacrifice will not be what he expects, for Belinos first came out of the darkness to drink the sacrificial blood not because he was a god, but because he was a vampire. This is just the beginning of the changes to Oisin's life, as he is drawn further and further into a world of gods and magic, where the most unexpected thing is not even his own blossoming talent, but the blossoming feelings he has for Belinos. Love between mortal and immortal is not without its difficulties, though. As outright war among the gods threatens, Oisin will end up making a far greater difference in the conflict than he could ever have dreamed possible.

The Sacrifice

“I’m still sorry,” he murmured, but said nothing else.


“You seem to have acquired a new name of your own. Tell me about it?”


“I killed Caydren. I didn’t want to, but he’d gone mad. Or perhaps he was always mad and I couldn’t see it.” Oisin shook his head, feeling a deep sorrow and regret. “He changed so much, so quickly…But some of that was before he met Alitius, I think.”


“A god can warp a man’s mind, but only so far. There may have been some flaw in him even before, yes. But then, which of us is without flaws? But tell me what else happened. You are…much changed from what you were before.”


“Hah. That’s an understatement. It feels very strange.” The otherness was almost an itch at the back of his mind, an odd glow, a sense of potential, but also a difference, a feeling that somebody else was somehow in his own mind with him, that constantly niggled no matter what else he thought of.


Chapter 72