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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I don’t know what Other-me saw in that spiral of memories, but it must have been something good.

I’d barely opened my eyes and looked around to find myself back in my dorm room. I still sat on the sofa with Tennyson at my side. He looked pale and worried, then he winced, clutching at his temples.

“She has a message for you,” he said. “What the heck was that, you crazy… expletive. You could have killed us both. Stay out of my head.”

I sighed. It had all been for nothing.

But Tennyson wasn’t finished. “I’ll do your stupid ritual, but you’re going to owe me, big time.”

I stared at him. “Really?”

He shrugged. “That’s what she says. What happened? You seemed fine, then all of a sudden, the lodestone started glowing in your pocket, and I could hear you screaming in my head.”

“It was probably her screaming,” I said.

He shook his head. “No, it was you. Do you really think I could so easily confuse you with someone else?”

I shrugged and shifted in my seat. My whole body felt seized up.

“How long was I out?” It had seemed like hours.

“Not long,” he said. “Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”

I nodded, then glanced over at him. He still had those two top buttons on his shirt undone.

“Soooooo…” I began, not sure how to continue.

“You’re referring to that kiss?” he said, looking away. “I apologize. I know it wasn’t appropriate, given the state of our relationship at the moment, but I couldn’t think of another way to tell you what I needed to say. At any rate, it wasn’t technically a kiss, as it was actually all in our minds –”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, pulling him closer.

We were interrupted about thirty seconds later by Hannah and Nikolai bursting into the room, ironically enough.

“Oi, you two! Get a room,” said Nikolai, laughing.

“This is my room,” I said.

“As happy as I am that the two of you seem to be sorting things out,” said Hannah. “Althea wants to see you. Both of you.”

“Is she okay?” Tennyson asked, jumping to his feet. “Has she had another vision?”

“No, I think it’s about the ritual,” said Hannah, but from the way she shooed us out of the room, I suspected that was just an excuse to get rid of us.

Althea was not thrilled that I’d brain-visited Other-me.

“Do you have any idea what could have gone wrong?” she asked, from behind a massive pile of books.

“Of course I do,” I said, even though I didn’t. But then, neither did Althea. Probably.

“At any rate, it worked,” said Tennyson. “She’s agreed to do the ritual.”

Althea’s head popped up from behind her book. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “She did? And you believe her?”

I shrugged. “She’s given us her verbal consent. Surely that’s enough for the ritual to work.”

“Magic isn’t a court of law,” Althea said. “She can verbally consent all you like, but if she’s not actually willing, the ritual may not go to plan.”

Well, that was something new for me to worry about. Great.

“So, we can go through with the whole thing, but it won’t take if she changes her mind midway through?”

Althea shook her head. “No, it’s more like the ritual won’t be able to commence if she isn’t willing.” She grabbed a book off the top of her pile and flipped it open. “Nikolai’s uncle’s friend mentioned something about a cedere pactum , literally giving agreement in Latin. I thought that just meant you both had to agree to do the ritual, but I came across the term in a few other books. Since we lost all of our research, I’ve been looking into other types of spells and rituals from Eastern Europe around that time, and it’s mentioned in a few of them. It’s part of the ceremony. An important part.”

The look on her face made me think it wasn’t a part I’d enjoy.

“What do we have to do?”

“You have to make a sacrifice.”

“Right,” I said. “I’ll just say it right now. I am not killing a baby goat. I won’t do it. I’m sorry, but that’s just a step too far. Same with lambs, pigs… any type of animal. Humans too. I’m not killing a baby, so don’t ask me.”

Althea stared at me as if I’d gone mad, but honestly, you mention rituals and sacrifices, what else would you think?

“You don’t need to kill anyone,” she said.

“You say that now , but give it a day or two. You’ll read through all these books and then it will be like, ‘sorry Lucy, but you see this baby piglet here’…”

“She’s had a very long day,” Tennyson said, forcing me into a seat. “Don’t make her kill a piglet.”

His hand lingered on my shoulder, and I caught it, tangling our fingers together. I smiled up at him. He’d never make me kill a piglet.

“It will be a blood sacrifice,” Althea said, noting our joined hands and ducking her head to hide her smile. “But it will be your own blood. Both of you. You need to bleed into a goblet, and your blood needs to mingle to symbolize the merging of your souls.”

“Yeah, I don’t like this,” I said. The thought of it made me queasy.

“It’s you or the baby piglet,” she said. I was fairly sure she was kidding. I wouldn’t have pushed it, though.

She talked me through the other steps, and apart from the blood thing, it all seemed fairly standard magic stuff, not too far removed from what we’d practiced in Wicca club.

“So, when can we do it?” I asked. Usually, there was some moon phase or other that we had to wait for.

“Any time,” Althea said. “Just before dawn is best, but no particular day. It’s probably better to do it at the manor, there’s more security there.”

“What are we waiting for, then?” I said, getting back to my feet. “Let’s go. We can do it in the morning.”

“You’re sure?” Tennyson asked.

“Yep,” I said. “The more I think about it, the more I’ll hate the idea of the whole thing. But it’s this or the end of the world, right? There’s no other way?”

I glanced over to Althea, just in case, but she shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “If it helps, I can talk you through what to expect after the ritual is complete.”

But I didn’t want to know. If I knew too much, I might run.

Tennyson gathered everyone up, and we flew back to the manor. I sat between Tennyson and Sam in the back of the helicopter, holding both their hands. My heart was racing. I was so terrified of what we were about to do. Even if everything went to plan, I would be changed forever. Part of me would be her.

We had a few hours before dawn, but I couldn’t sleep.

Althea and Hannah stayed up to finish prepping for the ritual. We were going to do it down in the meeting hall, as it was the biggest and most secure space. I should have helped them, but I wanted to spend the last few hours I had as myself with Tennyson.

Those few hours were bittersweet. We were together again, together in a way we never had been before. We were stronger, more honest than we’d been, but I knew that it couldn’t last.

“You don’t have to do it,” he whispered, an hour or so before dawn. “We could run away somewhere.”

But we both knew that wasn’t an option.

As we walked down to the meeting hall, I felt as little like I was going to the gallows. I forced myself not to think of it, not to try to imagine what would come after. I had to just appreciate that moment, with Tennyson there beside me.

The meeting hall was transformed. The floor was covered with different symbols and markings, none of which made much sense to me, but I trusted that Althea had triple-checked them. The room glowed with the light of a thousand candles, sending flickering shadows across the walls. In the center of the room, they’d placed a small altar. The goblet we’d be bleeding into was on the altar, as well as a doubled-sided mirror, some herbs and vials of oils, that kind of thing. My sword was laid at the base of the altar.

I’d just taken it all in when I felt Other-me enter. The air crackled between us so strongly, there were visible sparks. It felt as if I was being pushed away from her, like even the air didn’t want us to occupy the same space, so it was forcing us apart.

“We might have to make this quick,” I said, shooting Althea a worried look.

Even though Other-me had agreed to do the ritual, she was still flanked by a pair of guards, but Althea stopped them at the edge of the markings on the floor, and they headed back into the shadows.

She directed the two of us over to the altar and placed one of us on either side, with the mirror between us so we could only see our own reflections. Then she man-handled the others into place, making each of them stand on a particular symbol, then she took her own place.

She’d talked me through the steps, but she mustn’t have had much faith in my memory, because she’d left a bullet point list of what I had to do on the altar as well. That reassured me a bit, anyway.

“It is time,” Althea said, and somewhere from the shadows, a drum began to beat.