105

He shoved me into the circle with a dark chuckle.

I fell down hard, not prepared for the attack. If Alek could see me right now, he’d be so fucking disappointed. I pushed myself up, but Chad was right there, picking up my wrist with one hand and grasping the sacrificial dagger in the other. He cut a burning path through the fleshy part of my palm, spilling blood everywhere.

“Hmm, not enough,” he muttered before wrenching my arm out to the side and sinking the blade into the tender skin of my bicep, tearing through muscle and destroying the inked runes marking me as Alek’s.

Then he flung my hand down as I cried out in pain, tipped the dagger so it pointed down as a stream of ruby drops splashed onto the outer rim of his circle. The walls went up instantly. I could see them, just a thin faint sheen of red preventing me from leaving.

“What are you doing?” I screamed.