Twisted Circles (Secret Society 2)

They picked her up and laid her on it, but didn’t tie her. They leaned down and spoke in her ear and even though I couldn’t make out a word, it seemed to calm her down. She stopped shaking and moving and fighting. Soon, more monks stepped forward. The Chancellor stepped forward. The monks began chanting something.

“Is that Latin?” Will whispered.

“Yes,” Wolf responded.

“Are they going to sacrifice a human being?” Mae asked behind me. “Like kill her? Because you know if they kill someone in front of us and we do nothing we’re all complicit.”

“And it’s fucking murder, Mae.” That was Nora. “It’s no wonder Nolan can’t get Scarlet to join The Eight. These are the things marring our reputations.”

“That’s not why she won’t join and you know it,” Nolan said, transfixed on the scene across from them. “Dude, should we do something now? If they kill her . . . ”

“They’re saying something about virtue and a trinity,” Will said.

“You understand them?” Marcus whispered.

“A little. I studied Latin. Don’t ask.” Will frowned. “Now they’re praying. I’ve never heard this prayer before though.”

“What trinity? Like the holy trinity?” Mae whispered. “I don’t understand.”

I understood though. They were planning to sacrifice one of the three sisters. Maybe all three. I looked all around me. I was surrounded by people who would support whatever move I decided to make, at least that was what I hoped as I stepped toward the fire.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Eva

Dr. Thompson and Debbie should have been here with the police by now. Wendy had given them little information to go on, but it was enough for them to run to the police while Wendy, Stella, and I ran to The Manor. Dr. Thompson wasn’t in agreement with our being here, but after we explained that our birth mother was also here and that we’d have back up from The Swords, he really couldn’t stop us from coming.

Stella, Wendy, and I were standing together a few feet from the fire. We didn’t know which one of us they’d pull in first, but I hadn’t expected it to be Wendy. She turned to look at us, squeezing Stella’s hand first and then placing both hands in mine. Even as the monk who was standing just steps away called her name again, she didn’t budge. Her brown eyes looking into mine as if she was trying to convey something, but what? All of the things we had to say couldn’t be said in the measly twenty-four hours we’d had together. The only thing I knew for sure was that Wendy didn’t deserve this. None of us did, but unlike Stella and I, Wendy was pure.

“I don’t want you to go,” I whispered. “Let me take your place.”

“This isn’t your choice to make.” She squeezed my hand again.

“I know what happens next, Wendy.” I shook my head. “I don’t want you to go.”

“The chosen ones survive.”

“What?”

“The chosen ones survive. Remember that.” She smiled sadly. “It was the honor of my life to meet you and to call you my sister.”

The monk closed the distance between us before I could ask her what she was talking about. She went willingly. I covered my mouth to keep from screaming as I watched her walk up to the bench and lay on it. The monks surrounded her quickly and chanted as they walked in a circle as if they were summoning God, or the devil himself to join us. My hands shook at either possibility. I’d spent so much of my life kneeling in a church pew, that you’d think I’d be excited, but all I felt was fear. I slipped a hand into the pocket of my robe and closed it over the covering of the small blade Wendy had provided.

She had tonight’s ceremony down to a science. She’d never been to one like this, but she said she knew how it would go. She wasn’t sure which one of us would be sacrificed, or how, whether we’d all be used for sex or actually murdered. The fact that we were talking about murder at all was enough to keep my knees shaking. That was what the knife was for though. Wendy told us that if the police still hadn’t intervened by the time we were called, we should use the knives. I’d never used a knife before, not for anything outside of the dinner table, but if necessary, I’d definitely make use of this one. I felt jittery as I looked around, my adrenaline spiking with each word the monks spoke, each movement they made.

I watched as the priest stepped forward, as he lifted himself onto the bench in the middle of the monks. I shut my eyes momentarily. I couldn’t stand by and just watch. Wendy’s plea rang in my head once more. As if sensing my discomfort, Stella reached over and grabbed my hand.