Kill The Luna

57

The two muscular guards hauled my limp body across the freezing concrete floor of the dark basement. They looked around anxiously, realizing there were absolutely no stone tables or altars set up in this hidden room. Seeing nothing else available, they aggressively dumped me onto a lone wooden chair sitting in the center of the space. My muscles were completely useless, and I immediately began to slink sideways, my head dropping as I was about to fall straight off the seat onto the hard floor.

Elda noticed my swaying body and snapped her fingers sharply at the twelve women dressed in white robes. "Take her out of that chair right now and lay her perfectly flat on the floor," she commanded, her voice echoing with an icy impatience.

The robed women rushed forward in a flurry of white fabric, grabbing my weak arms and legs. They laid me straight down on my back against the freezing concrete, my eyes staring blankly at the dark ceiling. Instantly, the women began pulling thick, dark candles from their deep pockets. They surrounded my helpless body, lighting them one by one with small wooden matches. They placed many candles around my head, many candles along my sides, and many candles around my feet until a heavy, flickering glow illuminated the entire underground room.

After they had finished lighting every single one of them, there were about twenty candles burning fiercely around my body, casting long, dancing shadows on the concrete walls. The priestesses immediately fell to their knees, closing their eyes as they began chanting their strange, guttural words all over again, their voices rising into a rapid, rhythmic hum.

As I just lay there in the center of the glowing circle, a cold, suffocating weight settled deep inside my chest. I was completely sure this time that there was absolutely no coming back from this nightmare. We were trapped deep beneath the earth, hidden under layers of sand and stone; there was no way that Michael would ever be able to find out where they had taken me in time. My eyelids grew heavier with each passing second, and I accepted the bitter truth in my heart—it was already finished for me.

Elda glided over to my side, kneeling down beside my upper body. She grabbed my trembling wrists and roughly unwrapped the stained white cloths from my hands, exposing the deep knife wounds. She held my mangled palms directly over a fresh ceramic bowl, waiting to catch the dark fluid, but my skin remained pale and dry. Not a single drop of fresh blood was coming out of the cuts anymore because my body was shutting down.

A look of intense frustration flashed across Elda’s sharp features. She turned her head toward the oldest priestess in the circle, her eyebrows knitting together in a tense, angry frown. "How much more of her blood do I absolutely have to drink to seal the bond?" she demanded, her voice cracking with anxiety as the distant thud of another explosion vibrated through the floorboards above. "We don't have much time left, you know! Can't we find a clever way around this rule to make the process go faster?"

The head priestess slowly opened her dark eyes, her expression remaining completely calm and unbothered by Elda's panic as she adjusted her white robe. "Her supernatural powers reside entirely within her blood, Elda," she explained in a low, solemn whisper that cut through the chanting. "To fully take them into your own soul and have complete control over everything she possesses, you must drink everything. The transfer will not be complete until there is no more blood left inside her veins."

Elda’s jaw tightened into a hard, desperate line at the response. She reached over and grabbed a large, empty silver bowl, dragging it aggressively across the floor until she kept it resting directly under my bare legs.

"You heard what she just said, girl," Elda muttered, glaring down at my face with a mixture of dark greed and fake pity. "I truly wish it didn't have to happen this way, but it is absolutely necessary for what needs to be done."

Without a single second of hesitation, she whipped out a small, sharp dagger and sliced a deep, fresh wound directly into the flesh under my calf. My body gave a weak, painful flinch as a hot wave of blood started rushing out of the new cut, spilling rapidly into the silver bowl below. Elda hovered over my legs like a starving animal, watching the rising liquid with wide, hungry eyes. The very moment a handful of thick red blood had dropped into the dish, she couldn't wait any longer.

She snatched the bowl up with both hands, drinking the warm contents in massive, messy gulps until the container was completely empty. She let out a heavy, satisfied breath, wiping her red-stained lips with her sleeve as she turned her head back toward the head priestess. "I am perfectly okay now," she stated proudly, a triumphant smirk returning to her face. "You can officially start with the main ritual process."

The priestess in white looked down at the empty silver dish, her face instantly turning into a deep, disapproving frown. She shook her head back and forth, her voice remaining firm and unyielding. "The small amount of blood you have drank is simply not enough to trigger the transformation, Elda. If we start now, the magic will fail completely."

Hearing the rejection, Elda completely lost her temper. A terrifying, wild rage exploded in her eyes. She rushed the older woman with lightning speed, grabbing the front of her white dress with both hands and violently lifting her up off her knees. Elda glared the woman dead serious in the eye, her face just inches from the priestess's nose as she growled through her bared teeth. "There is absolutely no time left for that! Just shut up and start the ritual right now!"