First Ritual
1554 Words
The ritual room sat at the back of the clubhouse, smaller than the main hall and lit by low iron fixtures that threw long shadows. Someone had cleared the center of the floor. A shallow bowl of dark wood waited on a low table. Adrian stood beside it already. Maya waited near the wall with a med kit open on a chair. Ethan and Blake were present as witnesses. Noah stayed by the door.
I stopped just inside the threshold. The mark on my neck still stung under the fresh gauze.
Adrian looked at me. “Come to the center.”
I stayed where I was. “You said the first ritual was mostly words.”
“It is. Shared blood. Old phrases. Nothing more unless the bond answers.”
Maya spoke without looking up from the kit. “If it answers hard, I am here. That is the only reason I agreed to this tonight.”
I walked forward on the crutches. My ankle throbbed. The cut on my side pulled. Adrian waited until I stopped across from him.
Ethan cleared his throat. “For the record, this is the first formal step under the rewritten claim. Witnesses present. No one leaves until it is finished or the President calls it.”
Blake leaned against the wall. “Let’s get it done before the border reports another probe.”
Adrian picked up a thin blade, different from the one used for the mark. He drew it across his own palm first. Blood welled dark and steady. He held the blade out to me, handle first.
“Your turn.”
I stared at the blade. “If I say the power might not stay quiet?”
“Then we deal with it. The ritual still happens.”
I took the blade. My hand was not steady. I cut the center of my palm the way he had. The sting was sharp and clean. Blood rose fast.
Adrian held his bleeding hand over the bowl. I did the same. Our blood mixed in the wood. The air in the room changed temperature by a degree. I felt it on the back of my neck.
He began the words. Low. Steady. Old enough that the syllables felt wrong in a modern mouth. I was supposed to repeat the answering lines. My voice came out thinner than I wanted.
Halfway through the second exchange the floor seemed to tilt. Heat flooded up my arm from the cut. Not fever heat. Something older. It pushed against the inside of my ribs like it wanted out.
I sucked in a breath. “Adrian.”
He did not stop the words. His eyes stayed on mine. “Keep going.”
“It is not staying down.”
“I know. Finish the lines.”
The heat climbed higher. My vision narrowed at the edges. The mark on my neck burned like a fresh brand. I heard Maya move, chair legs scraping.
“Adrian, her eyes,” Maya said. “That is not normal shift glow.”
He still did not break the ritual cadence. “Almost there.”
I forced the next line out. The power answered harder. It rolled through my chest and down my spine in a single violent wave. The bowl rattled on the table. One of the iron fixtures flickered. Blake swore under his breath.
“Stop,” I got out. “You have to stop it.”
Adrian’s free hand closed around my wrist above the cut, holding the connection. “The only way through is forward. You know that.”
“I am not asking. I am telling you it is too much.”
“And I am telling you if we break it now the backlash hits harder. Finish it.”
My knees wanted to buckle. The crutches clattered when I lost my grip on one. Maya was already moving toward us.
“Adrian, her pulse is through the roof. I need to check her.”
“After the last line.”
I dragged the final words out. The moment they left my mouth the power surged again, stronger, no longer interested in staying inside my skin. It pushed outward in a sharp pulse that made every person in the room take a step back. The lights died for two full seconds. When they came back Maya was at my side, hands already on my neck and wrist.
“Sit her down. Now.”
Adrian guided me to the floor without letting go of my wrist. The shared blood between our palms had already started to dry and pull. The connection still hummed under my skin like a live wire.
Maya shone a small light in my eyes. “Pupils are blown. Heart rate is ugly. Whatever that was, it was not deer-shifter.”
I tried to pull my hand free. Adrian’s grip stayed firm.
“Let go,” I said.
“Not yet. The bond is still settling.”
“You are enjoying this.” The words came out raw. “The imbalance. Me on the floor. You deciding when it ends.”
His jaw flexed. “I am keeping you from tearing yourself apart. That is not the same thing.”
Maya snapped at both of us. “Argue later. Aria, look at me. Can you feel the edges of it? Is it still climbing or leveling?”
“Leveling. Barely.”
Blake spoke from the wall. “The whole damn hallway felt that. People are going to have questions.”
Ethan rubbed a hand over his face. “I will handle the hallway. Noah, stay on the door.”
Noah nodded but his eyes stayed on me longer than the others. Something like recognition sat in them.
Maya pressed a cold pack to the back of my neck. “The mark is inflamed. Whatever woke up does not like being bound.”
Adrian finally released my wrist. The absence of contact felt worse than the grip had. I flexed my fingers and watched fresh blood well from the cut.
“You should have stopped,” I said.
“And then what? Let the power rip through unfinished and take half the clubhouse with it?”
“You do not know that would have happened.”
“I know unfinished bonds turn ugly. I have seen it.”
Maya taped gauze over my palm with quick efficiency. “Both of you need to shut up for thirty seconds so I can make sure she is not about to seize.”
Silence settled, heavy and uncomfortable. I sat on the floor with my back against the low table. Adrian stayed crouched in front of me, close enough that I could see the pulse in his throat. The air between us felt charged, like the moment after lightning before the thunder arrives.
Maya checked my pupils again. “Better. Still too fast, but better. You are not shifting. Whatever that was stayed internal.”
I let my head rest against the table edge. “It has stayed buried for years. One set of old words and shared blood and it decides to climb out.”
Adrian’s voice dropped. “We will figure out what it is.”
“You mean you will decide what to do with it.”
He did not answer right away. When he did, the words were quieter. “I mean we will figure it out. Together. Whether you believe that yet or not.”
Maya packed the light and the cold pack. “She needs rest and fluids. No more rituals tonight. I do not care what the timeline says.”
Ethan stepped back into the room. “Hallway is handled. For now. People felt it. They want answers.”
“They get the same answer I give everyone,” Adrian said. “The claim is progressing. That is all they need.”
Blake pushed off the wall. “I will take first watch on the medical bay door. If anything else spikes, I want to be close enough to hear it.”
They started filing out. Maya helped me stand and get the crutches under me again. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else.
Adrian stayed until the others had gone. Only Noah remained by the door, waiting.
I met Adrian’s eyes. “Next time you tell me the only way through is forward, I want a better reason than your certainty.”
“Next time I will try to have one.”
Maya guided me toward the hall. “Come on. Cot. Now. Before you fall over and I have to explain a concussion on top of everything else.”
I let her lead me out. Behind us I heard Noah’s low voice stop Adrian before he could follow.
“President. A word. Private.”
I glanced back. Noah’s expression was unreadable, but his posture had gone rigid.
Adrian closed the ritual room door most of the way. Their voices carried just enough.
Noah said, “I already knew what she was. I have been tracking the rival interest in her bloodline for months. Before she ever reached our gate.”
The door shut fully. The last thing I heard was the silence that followed Noah’s words, heavy enough to feel through the wood.
- Writer
