Page 35 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Agata

“It’s Morana .”

Agata rushed back into the cottage she shared with Sabira, slamming the door behind her and kicking the heavy iron bolt shut, locking it tight.

Sabira leaned back as an empty cup of tea was shoved under her nose.

“The goddess’s face,”Agata clarified, urging her sister to look. “She is angry with us, so she sent her emissary. The woman isn’t here to ask for help. She is here to collect a sacrifice.”

The redhead offered her a tense smile, picking up the cup with two fingers and peering inside.

“I believe you, sister,”she assured, but her tone was a little too high to be entirely truthful.

“I saw a God too, but it wasn’t Morana in the young man’s cup.

Let’s just take a breath—a deep one. Your scrying eye is sharp, but your mind is too excited to interpret things clearly.

”She put down the cup and slid it away.

“Do not try that on me, sister. I know what I saw.”Agatha sunk into the seat next to the woman, fingers twisting the hems of her sleeves.

“What sacrifice could she want from us? Why would the goddess send them now? Have we not honored the winter? Have we not honored our dead?”

“Maybe the leaves were wrong?”

Agata glared at her sister. She didn’t need to voice the ‘how dare you?’out loud.

“Lucy is not of this realm. You and I both felt her magic; it’sunnatural.

I can command all living things, yet I could not compel her to answer my questions.

We must send her back to her own realm soon before she can choose her offering.

It’s as good a week to do this as any; we will sacrifice her to the rusalki .

They will carry her back to the underworld for us. ”

“You are suggesting murdering a guest we’ve broken bread with. If anything is going to anger the spirits, it is absolutely that.”

“Then Leshi can take them, for all I care! Let the forest deal with the outsiders while we keep our hands clean. Right now, we must keep Freya safe.”Agata begged her sister to see reason, though Sabira had successfully caused her to doubt her course of action.

“I pray the gods forgive us,”the younger woman sighed.

“I fear it’s the gods who have turned against us. Find Freya and bring her to our room. I’ll sleep better knowing she is with us.”