THE DUKE'S VIRGIN SACRIFICE

Elisa“ Elisa”“Mama”I looked into the mirror my mother held up before me and stared at my braids.They looked beautiful and shiny. She'd taken her time to braid them gently and softly as she always did, humming a lullaby to me as I prepared to sleep.As her only child, Mom and I were closely knitted and just content with the little we had. I didn't want anything else.“ Mama, I've heard that lullaby before. What is it about?”Mama paused, and our eyes met in the mirror I held before me. There was something in her eyes, something sad.“ Where did you hear it?”“The other girls sing it whenever we go out to dance. When I asked, they said it was about a curse - the royal curse”.“The curse of the Blackthorn Manor…yes, you know the myth, right?”.I nodded; every blood moon, a virgin was sacrificed to keep the monster and the curse contained.For generations, this cycle continued, and no one in town could stop it. Even the intelligent Fabian couldn't find a way to curb it.“ Elisa”, Mama

LucienI stared at the young woman who stood before me with a dumbstruck expression on her face.I remembered her; she was the girl I had snatched up from the soldiers that night and had brought her to the Manor.I couldn't explain why I did that, and Yennefer had assured me that I'd only made it easier for Lord Edric.But Yennefer had said the girl was gone, she'd been sent away.Normally, I didn't see the girls who were brought in to help dampen the curse. They were sent away before I even got to know they'd been here.Then why is she still here?I looked down at her feet and frowned. She was standing on a garden bed, one that was too familiar.My mother's.Rage simmered in my chest, and I looked up at her again.“What do you think you're doing?”“ What does it look like I am doing?” She asked, a frown gracing her beautiful face.I raised a brow, quite taken aback. In my entire existence, no one had stood up to me so defiantly, not even Yennefer - well, not like I have met a lot of

ELISA…Strange voices that were definitely not from this world or even from my room curled into my dream.‘She is the one, I was right about her,’ a female voice whispered in a thick accent, to a man in the dark.‘Hmmm, when shall we begin?’ another chill voice responded in an almost feminine tone. ‘I am growing weak by the day’‘No, my love, be strong. We still have to wait until the red moon’ the woman said in a voice laced with fear and worry. ‘She is still a child’‘Who cares if she is still a damn baby suckling her mother’s breast, her blood is all we need.’ The man’s voice grew impatient and angry, and I could only see the woman flinch back as he spat curses.‘You don’t understand Lixir. Her blood will be rejected and will only cause havoc if we try anything now, we have to wait’ she pleaded, and I heard the man sigh in a resigned tone, moving forward into the light, where the woman stood by the fireplace.‘I want nothing but to be with you, and free us both from our chains. ’ he

ELISA…Where is Mother when I need her?She would have had the best herbs and tonic for whatever pain and madness were consuming me.The screaming had stopped, but the echoes of the voices still rattled inside my skull.I hugged myself as I lay shivering on the cold floor, unsure if the chill came from the stone beneath me… or from something freezing me from the inside. The darkness in the room suddenly felt alive - whispering and breathing with me.Then I heard it.Footsteps.As heavy as a thousand soldiers running off to battle, and as slow as a tactical predator.It grew closer with each stride.I tried to pull myself from the floor and move backwards towards the wall, my palms biting with the cold as they touched the cold stone floor, but every movement sent agony spiking through my limbs.Yennefer’s voice clung to my mind like rot.Be careful with him.He is a beast.He might rip you apart next time.And the pain in my shoulder and back reminded me of an attack I didn’t even reme

IN LORD EDRIC’S COURT…By dawn, word of the beast’s escape had already spread beyond the manor walls, crawling into the ears of men who feared him more than they feared God.An impromptu meeting that woke Lord Edric from his beauty sleep was called without his knowledge.The lamps hung at almost every corner of the room, shining so bright that not even a shadow could hide in the room.Six men sat around the huge oak table in the centre of the room with maps and boat pointers placed on rivers and borders on the map, with Lord Edric sitting at the head of the table in a high seat that seemed to swallow up even his round frame.But they were not there to read maps or prepare for wars.The war they faced was much worse.A war that threatened to destroy the bridge of trust between Lord Edric and the council, the villagers, and the king himself.A bridge built on lies and deceit.And he will rather be found dangling from a rope like his cousin - the late duke - than let these people find out