The goddess stood above me, frozen in place, her face stained red with blood. This was it – the last moment I’d have before she sunk her teeth into me and drained me. I hoped the process was quick. There was no sense in prolonging it.
I watched panic flicker
across Margaret Thatcher’s sunken face and quickly realized something was wrong. The demon screeched and tore at her own face, spraying me with droplets of black blood. I shielded my eyes with a bloody hand as she began to shrivel up.
First her hands and arms, then her chest collapsed. Like a deflating mattress, the skin of Margaret Thatcher fell to the ground beside me in a puff of black smoke that fought against the force pulling it down into nothingness. It wrapped around my ankle and tightened like a vice before being whisked away and sucked into the ground.
I didn’t have time to comprehend what had just happened. The gaping wound in my stomach was still there, making me double over with pain. I felt Gabe run to my side and pick me up. He was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him over the buzzing in my ears. A cold sensation had begun to settle on my limbs and in my chest. It washed away the pain and made my body limp.
Closing my eyes, I said a short prayer of thanks. Dying was so much better than being locked away forever by the demon. Whatever force had intervened on my behalf, I was forever grateful. I could leave this Earth happy to have escaped that fate.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I woke up in a stark white room that instantly reminded me of a hospital. White bed sheets covered my legs, the smell of antiseptic tickled my nose, and a roll of bandages lay on the table next to my bed. For a paralyzing moment, I couldn’t remember why I was there, what had happened, or even my own name. But the scene with the goddess in the forest came rushing back to me, along with my memories of the last several weeks.
Pulling up the thin blue hospital gown, I stared at my stomach. The fragile skin across my belly had been stitched back together over the two-inch gap. It was hard to believe that this little wound almost claimed my life. And yet, here I was, still alive.
“If you’d been human, that wound would’ve killed you.” Luke stood peering in the doorway on the right. I’d never seen him look so ungroomed. A thick layer of scruff lined his chin and jaws. His hair lay flat on one side and stuck up on the other. Even his eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn’t slept in days. “But I’m glad to see you’re finally awake.”
“How long was I out?”
He entered the room and ran a hand over his scruffy beard. “Four days. Our healers had to pull out all their tricks to save you. One of the medicines they used put you in a deep sleep to help the healing process.”
I looked back down at the tiny black stitches. All that fuss for that tiny scar. They may be four days I’ll never get back, but I didn’t mind. Somehow, I’d survived.
“What happened out there? The goddess… she drank my blood and then she just…”
I couldn’t even describe it. All I could think of was the Wicked Witch of the West and the way she’d melted in The Wizard of Oz. But this wasn’t fiction, this was real life. How did she die?
Luke sat in the antique wooden chair next to my bed and rubbed his eyes.
“Gabe told me you sacrificed yourself to the goddess to save him. Is that right?”
I nodded sheepishly. Stabbing myself hadn’t exactly been the most brilliant idea, but it was the best I could come up with at the moment. And it had worked. Gabe was still alive.
“As you know, I’ve been researching the lore surrounding the demon sacrifice and what it meant for you.” Luke pulled a book the size of his palm out of his pocket and opened it, thumbing through the pages. “This book is one of the oldest in my collection. It’s the journal of an elder by the name of Arsaces from 300 BC. In it, he briefly mentions a demon sacrifice that went wrong, much like your own. A small village was decimated by the vengeful demon for losing its prize.”
Just like what happened to Hanna. The goddess would’ve killed everyone to get to me. The idea of using me to keep her body replenished was too overpowering.
“Arsaces talks about how the human sacrifice wanted to save his children from the demon’s wrath,” Luke continued. “So, he gave himself up to the demon, and in that moment, the power of the sacrifice turned. Instead of being restorative to the demon, it became toxic. His personal sacrifice saved his life and that of his children.”
I sat straight up and winced at the pain in my gut. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“Because it seemed like nothing more than a myth.” He slammed the book shut and glared at me. “And because I already knew you had your mother’s stubborn streak and you’d see it through, even if it meant your death.”
A guilty smile spread across my face. “I guess that’s another reason you wouldn’t let me attend the board meetings?”
“Yes.” He glowered at the book in his hands. “And because there are some board members who were only too willing to take a chance with your life. I wouldn’t hear of it.”
I had a feeling I knew which board member that was. “Let me guess… Ariana?”
He didn’t say anything, but the spark of anger in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“It all worked out, though.” Reaching for his hand, I laid mine over his. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
It wasn’t fair of me to put him through a pain like that again. I may have saved the rest of the citizens of Hanna, but I’d hurt Luke to accomplish it. My goal for the next few months would be to make it up to him in every way possible.
“I’m just glad you’re alright.” He patted my hand and tucked the book back in his pocket. “And I will be back to visit later because…” I began to object but he held up a finger, “there’s someone else who wants to see you. He’s been worried sick about you since he carried you to the healers himself.”