Page 165 of Terror Tuesday

Tears glisten in her eyes. Her lips part as she whispers, only to me. “Surrendering all my veneration to my Viscount.” As her head bows, her palms raise.

Her hands are empty…

Thereshouldbe a smooth white stone she offers to me. One I could put in the Moon Chalice in front of the pulpit to tell the robed elders that they canuseher body as they see fit. It’s supposedly for an extra blessing from the god of your house.

But it’s gone.

I knew it. My mistake was not following through on the last assignment to kill Malik. And now…the elders will make sure I pay. The other tasks? To end Xavier Cardell and me? No one has spoken a word since about the ones we burned. At least that plan worked. But we still have to serve our sentence for letting the witness go.

The head elder rings a bell and points to the slabbed altar. He pulls out a withered scroll from under his cloak. His old voice shakes as he reads it aloud.

“Valen Elliot Von Dovish. You are hereby punished for disobeying the laws set forth by this institution. Forthwith, your contrition will be through the sacrifice of your firstborn child to the way ofVengracurus. Because of your iniquities, you are stricken from the privilege of placing a seed in your appointed’s womb. Instead, the woman will become a vassal of the Seven today upon the altar and in front ofBonakanosand your peers. You shall raise our child to adhere to the rules of the Seven.”

Olivia’s face is stoic, but her breasts heave with every rapid breath beneath her scoop-necked dress. The punishment is for them to impregnate her first…and not me. While they cuck me to raise their kid.

My pulse races as two of the robed elders lift her by her elbows and escort her to the slab, the stage set up for everyone’s viewing. The blood gushes through my temples so fast, I can barely see. Vision becomes blurry with every beat of my heart.

“Bind him,” the main elder says, then rings the bell once more.

Two elders swiftly move behind me and tie my wrists behind my back with a red cord. Olivia releases a subtle whimper as they place her on the stone, but she complies. She has to. The two men at her head hold her arms down. But she doesn’t struggle.

Neither do I.

“You are made to watch, servant. Behold your vassal being filled with the gods’ favor as he thrusts them within her folds.”

The elder rings the bell, and the sixth robed man steps forward. He’s missing the special chain around his neck that the head elder wears. Black and gold beads anoint the tunics of the others.

A low, murmured chant in Latin erupts from the seventh robed figure as he kneels before a statue of the seven gods near the back of the sanctuary. The cadence is maddening. Almost like the buzzing of Malik’s toothbrush. Heat flames my cheeks as the sixth elder lifts his robe and covers Olivia’s lower half. Her dress poofs to cover the rest of her.

No, all that’s visible is her getting yanked to the end of the slab as she lets out a gasped sigh of surprise. Then, with rickety movements, the elder begins to swivel into her.

When I look down, one of the figures holding my arms grabs my chin and forces me to look straight ahead. Blinking rapidly, I watch as the scene unfolds before me.

Olivia turns her head to stare at me with a worried look on her face.

I nod and whisper, “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

With a dramatic grunt that sets my teeth on edge, the elder finishes with a final thrust. Then grumbles something low under his breath.

Finally, the buzzing sound of the chanting ends, and silence fills the air like a comforting blanket.

The elders release Olivia, and she sits up, then rushes to me as my wrists are unbound. I grab her in a warm embrace andpress a kiss on her forehead. “It’s done,” I say, glaring at the robed men surrounding us.

I’d purposefully picked the last spot of the day with the hopes they would only force her to experienceoneof the elders and not all seven. The man wearing the exquisite chains around his neck rings the bell three times, releasing us from our duties.

“The vow has been spoken.”

“Per octavum, fiat,” the members chant in reply.

I snag Olivia’s hand and rush from the chapel out the back door. We don’t even stop until we reach my car and get in.

“We fuckingdid it!” she screams, a look of pure joy on her face.

With a glance in the rearview mirror, I nod with uncertainty. “Let’s make sure we get back home first before we relax. Just in case.”

“Did it look believable?” she asks breathlessly.

I nearly growl. “So much so, I think I may have to kill my cousin.”