Page 118 of Daughter of the Serpent

She pushed her way through the compact assembly, ripping and pulling people aside as she rushed through.

“You should rejoice and be grateful! She is the gods chosen. You will see her again in the great halls of Hallva!” Rederck proclaimed “Her death will bring great honor, as will she assure the safe passage and lives of the fellow delegates.”

Her mother thrashed against the men again, until finally they pulled her away, her face wet with her blood and tears.

Sylvie fought the crowd, tearing through them as time and spaceseemed to cease to exist at all. She looked around her, searching the many gathered faces.

Would no one help? Could no one see?

“Help her!” Sylvie screamed, her voice barely audible over the cheers of the crowd, despite calling out at the top of her lungs. “Don’t let them do this!”

She searched for pity, empathy - anything other than the complete approval and anticipation that seemed to entrance the crowd. Yet, each face reflected only excitement and delight, cheers chanting from eager lips.

Mave’s little cry pierced the air, and her little sister flashed through her mind.

Her baby blue eyes, just like her mother’s.

The knife met Rederick’s hand.

Her two tiny hands that had pulled on her hair.

She was laid across the sacrificial altar.

Her innocent little smile that folded those rosy cheeks.

“Hallva!” Rederick began, “We thank you for our candidate’s safe passage! Keep them safe, keep them well. We honor you, please accept this sacrifice of the most pure of blood!”

“NO!” Sylvie screamed, but the crowd swarmed her, blocking her path. She fought them, pushing her way through, yet it was useless. A hand snaked around her waist pulling her back.

“Sylvie!” Axe’s voice sounded in her ear.

She struggled against him, tears blurring her eyes, falling in relentless rivets down her cheeks. Yet it was useless, he was a wall of stone against her.

“They will kill you.”

The blade met skin, and her little sister’s final cry carried on the wind, just like her soul.

Chapter Nineteen

She would burn them - burn them all.

She could feel the power rising, rippling through her in an impenetrable force. Flames encircled her fingers, and she welcomed it. She embraced the fire, she embraced the thunderous chaos. Slowly the words fell one by one, a curse for their destruction.

Revenge would be hers.

Blood would be hers.

Violence would be her name, written in her very soul as a witness.

She would destroy them all - every last one of them.

Her chest began to glow, filling more and more with wondrous light, until it burst out of her in one powerful explosion of motion and sound.

The temple itself was consumed in fire.

Retched screams bellowed from within.

Flames reached higher and higher - the smoke rising in tendrils into the sky.