Chapter 272: The Blood Bond
Cillian and Gavriel’s thoughts were cut short when Aliana fired off another sharp question.
"How does this ritual work?"
For a moment, Gwen remained silent, her eyes darting nervously between the knife pressed against her throat and Aliana’s cold, unforgiving gaze, clearly weighing whether to keep resisting.
Aliana, however, had run out of patience. The urgency to save Cedric was rapidly eroding what little restraint she had left.
"Your eye it is, then," she whispered.
She raised the blade and brought the point up, ready to drive it into Gwen’s eye, when the woman finally broke.
"H-he has to marry me first... and then be s-sacrificed to our goddess." Gwen stammered while trembling uncontrollably.
A suffocating silence descended on the room.
Jade and Aliana both ground their teeth, their shared fury simmering just beneath the surface, until Cillian broke the quiet. "Well, that makes things simple, doesn’t it? All we have to do is kill this witch, and the ritual dies with her. I know you’ve got this, Aliana. Let’s go, Gavriel. We need to set the prisoners free and get Cedric."
Gavriel watched as Aliana slid the cold edge of the blade down from the woman’s eye and pressed it firmly against the pulse fluttering in her throat.
He gave a single, firm nod to Aliana when their eyes met briefly before turning back toward the exit.
But just as the two men took a step toward the door, a shrill laugh suddenly echoed through the room.
They turned to see Gwen cackling like a madwoman, even as the razor-sharp steel pressed against her neck.
"You really think..." Gwen wheezed, her chest heaving between ragged, sickening laughs, "...there is anyone left to be saved?"
Aliana pressed the blade deeper into her skin. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, Father isn’t a fool." Gwen’s grin stretched wider despite the blood trickling down her cheek. "The moment he realised someone might be coming for us, he would’ve made sure there was nothing left to rescue."
She paused, her expression twisting into a cruel smile. "Though, to be fair... most of them were already half-dead anyway."
A terrifying stillness settled over Aliana. Her eyes darkened as a chilling whisper slipped past her lips. "All the more reason for you to pay for your sins."
Without another word, Aliana drove the blade harder into Gwen’s throat. Steel bit into skin, and dark blood welled along the blade.
Terror exploded in Gwen’s chest. The unhinged arrogance evaporated in an instant, replaced by raw panic as the cold metal dug deeper into her throat. "N-No, wait! If you kill me, Cedric dies too!"
"She is lying through her teeth just to save her own skin!" Jade sneered, taking a furious step forward. "Just do it, Ali!"
"N-No!" Gwen gasped out. "Cedric is already married to me!"
The words landed like a thunderclap to them.
"Nice try," Aliana scoffed. Her gaze darted down to Gwen’s left hand, finding her ring finger completely bare.
"I’m telling the truth!" Gwen choked out. "We were married in a secret ceremony down in the temple while the power was out! Every bride and groom is forced to offer their blood to the altar! Our lives are tied together now. If my heart stops, he dies with me!"
"A blood bond," Gavriel finally broke his silence. Every eye in the room snapped to him as Cillian’s expression turned grim.
Cold dread washed over Aliana on hearing Gavriel. Glancing back slightly over her shoulder while keeping her hands locked firmly around Gwen’s throat, she demanded, "What is a blood bond?"
"It’s a forbidden oath forged through dark magic," Gavriel explained, his cold gaze shifting to Gwen. "As she said, it binds two lives together before the entity in whose presence the oath is sworn. The bond can only be fulfilled when that entity claims one life as its offering... while rewarding the other."
"You mean..." Aliana murmured, disbelief creeping into her voice. "One of them has to die... while the other is rewarded?"
"Yes," Gavriel replied.
"Why would something like this even exist?" Aliana asked, struggling to comprehend such twisted magic.
"It is a ritual practised only by those who walk the dark path," Gavriel explained. "Every dark ritual demands a sacrifice. This is no different."
"Then how do we break a bond like that?" Jade asked, her voice tight with disbelief.
"You cannot break it!" Gwen spat, her eyes gleaming with malice.
No one paid her any attention.
Gavriel continued, "It cannot be broken so easily. The one who forged the bond must willingly or forcibly offer their blood to the entity upon the altar while reciting the unbinding chant. Their blood becomes the key that unlocks the spell."
Without a word, Aliana seized Gwen’s arm and yanked her violently to her feet, keeping the blade pressed tight against her throat. "Then we are taking her downstairs. She will undo it herself."
A slow, unsettling smile crept across Gwen’s face. "You really think it’s that easy?"
Before anyone could respond, the grand doors suddenly burst open.
"Gwen, what’s taking you so-" Cora’s voice abruptly died in her throat as she froze in the doorway.
Her eyes widened in horror as they slowly swept across the room, taking in Gwen’s bruised and bloodied face, the knife pressed against her throat, the mind-controlled guests sitting unnaturally still around the table... and the five people standing freely before her.
She instinctively stumbled back a step as disbelief washed over her face. "Y-you..." she stammered. "How are you all..."
Dreadful realisation flashed across her face. "It... it didn’t work on you all..."
Just as Cora spun around to run and alert the others, Jade reacted on instinct. "Oh no, you don’t!"
Without a second thought, she slipped one of her heels off and hurled it across the room.
The shoe sailed through the air with surprising accuracy before smacking Cora squarely on the back of the head.
"Oof!" Cora pitched forward and crashed face-first onto the marble floor.
"Mom!" Gwen screamed.
In that brief moment of distraction, she wrenched herself free from Aliana’s grip and tried to run to her mother, but Gavriel was faster.
He caught up to her in a single stride and backhanded her with enough force to send her sprawling across the floor.
Without wasting a moment, he snatched several cloth napkins from the dining table and swiftly bound her hands behind her back in a tight knot before stuffing another into her mouth to silence her.
Seeing her daughter restrained, Cora ignored the pain pounding through her skull and hurriedly pushed herself upright. Her lips immediately began moving as she muttered something in an unfamiliar language.
Cillian’s eyes narrowed as he recognised the spell. Right then, he grabbed a heavy silver serving tray from a side table and launched it like a Frisbee.
The metal tray struck Cora hard across the forehead with a loud clang, knocking her out cold.
"Sorry, not today!" Cillian called out, rushing over to pin her down. He pulled off his silk tie to bind her hands as efficiently as Gavriel had.
Unfortunately... they were a second too late.