Page 45 of This Blood That Breaks Us (This Blood That Binds Us, #3)

Thirty-Seven

Luke

My hair and my face were freshly shaven. I straightened my blazer in the mirror and snagged a piece of lavender from the vase on our table to breathe in its scent and steady myself. This is right. We’re safe here.

We’d been hiding in our room all day knowing that they’d fetch us when it was time. Hiding in our room wasn’t an unusual thing for us in childhood, so it came naturally there too. We talked about nothing important with the dread of the day closing in on us from every angle. I hadn’t seen or heard from Will and Thane, and I assumed they would be allowed nowhere near Ascension.

“Ready?” Zach was at the door but stopped to pick up a letter that had been slid under.

“It says. Atrium. Five o’ clock. Looks like we’re right on time.”

“Fate,” I said under my breath.

As we made our way into the hall, the air was still and stale. No sounds echoed. The usual voices and movement were absent.

My brother and I kept quiet as we moved toward the atrium. I placed my hand on my chest to feel the uneven, hammering rhythm. I told myself it would be fine and this was what I’d been waiting for my entire life, but a sickness churned in my stomach as we neared the door. The sun and the moon carved into the wood stared back at me,

“Are you good?” Zach was biting his cheek, which meant he was as nervous as me.

I nodded, with my only assurance being that we would do it together. I couldn’t do it alone. I’d probably run. But with my brother there, I could do anything.

“I’m ready.”

With my hand placed firmly over the sun on the door, I pushed.

Everyone was in there with their knees on the ground and their heads pressed on the floor while the sun shone overhead, bathing the atrium in eerie beams of light. The queen was in the middle of the room, sitting on Her knees with a thick black covering over Her. Everyone surrounded Her, and their nearly silent prayers filled my ears.

Her eyes snapped up to me, and She beckoned us forward, and we sat in front of Her on two flat pillows. Ezra and Sirius were on either side of Her.

“What are we doing?” I asked Ezra next to me.

“We’re waiting on the dark sun. Should be coming any minute. Close your eyes and await The Divine’s message.”

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on something other than my heart racing in my ears. My hands tingled, and I tried to get it to stop by opening and closing them.

I tuned into the whispering around me.

“Please bless us.”

“You’re worthy of praise.”

“Show us the way.”

Everything felt too real. Too permanent. Zach grabbed my hand and squeezed. It anchored me to the ground, and I focused on the feeling of his hand. When I peeked up at the skylight, the room was growing dim. The sun disappeared, and the darkness took hold.

She rocked back and forth, holding onto Ezra and Sirius for support. Something was about to happen.

My brother and I held onto each other. The room grew darker and darker, and the light of the candles littering the floor cast everyone in a warm glow.

She gasped. Her eyes opened to a pure white. Her breaths were labored, and She spoke quickly in a language I didn’t understand. Latin. Sirius was scribbling it all down in a notebook. His hands moved in a vivid blur as the words poured from Her lips. What was The Divine’s message? Would they tell us?

Her cries of anguish snapped my attention to Her. Black blood leaked from Her nose, then Her eyes too. She blinked, and the streams of black fell like tar on Her porcelain skin. Her gravity was waning in and out, and it made me feel sick. Like I was strapped to an amusement park ride rocking me back and forth without mercy.

I squeezed Zach’s hand harder. The dark sun was above us. Her body shook, and She repeated the same sounds over and over again until She fell into me. I wiped the tears staining Her face. Her eyes were green, and She was warm. Cecily was there somewhere. I didn’t know how much of her, but I felt it in her rapid heartbeat.

It was dark, but every passing minute, it got lighter and lighter.

Ezra moved to stop me, but Sirius said, “No, let him.”

I used the sleeve of my jacket to wipe Her face. She wasn’t looking at me, and after every blink, the color left Her eyes. Every second, I was being sucked in. Like the queen was hooking Her very being into my skin. I wanted to kiss Her.

“Shall we move the ceremony to the cathedral?”

“Yes,” She finally said. Her voice brimmed with strength, and Her eyes were back to a murky grayish white. “They’re ready.”