SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1)

by Allie Doherty

  “Theo!” It’s hard to hear Knox’s voice above the movement of the water. “Theo, stop!”

  Why?

  The water splashes around me as my body floats and suddenly, I’m pulled towards a thick boulder. Only, it’s not a boulder. My side hits against him as I’m lifted up in his arms.

  “What’re you doing?” He demands, dragging my body to the edge and pulling me out. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

  No. Yes. I don’t know…

  “…Well don’t I deserve it?”

  He drops me onto the dirt and takes a seat beside me.

  I take a deep breath, and my lip quivers. “I’m finally feeling remorse for what I did! My stomach is finally twisting and I’m finally feeling guilty. Finally, I feel like a human being.”

  “And what’s so great about being human?” He asks.

  I side eye him and scoff. “It beats being a cold hearted bitch.”

  “Theo… Being a leader –”

  “No!” I jump to my feet. “Don’t you dare tell me a crock of shit about how being a leader means being emotionless. Tavis is strong, but he doesn’t act like a robot. He would have rather died than taken the coven into that mess of hunters. I got six people killed, Knox. Six! One of them was barely an adolescent, and none of them deserved to die for a goddamn treasure chest... No wonder Tavis hates me so much! I deserve his hate! And you want to know the sick thing about it? I knew that people would die the second I decided to plan the mission, and I did it anyway…”

  I don’t wait for him to respond before I turn on my heel and take off in a sprint. Knox calls my name, but my legs don’t stop until I’m clear of the cabin and far enough to know that he didn’t follow me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I sit on the side of the road for an hour with my thumb out before I put my head in my hands and sigh. There are a lot of creeps in the world… but not enough of them are on the highways of Colorado.

  “Come on!” I whine. “Just pull over!”

  A red Toyota slows down and gets my hopes up before speeding off.

  “Tease!” I holler after it.

  “There you are!” I jump at the voice. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  I don’t say anything as Knox plants himself down beside me.

  “What’s the plan, Theo?” He asks. “Get in a car with some weirdo and get dropped off in the nearest ditch?”

  “I can take care of myself,” I bite.

  “Sure… against a mundane, you’re untouchable. But what happens if the car that pulls over just so happens to be one of those pesky little hunters with a talisman? Or worse, a demon...” He makes a good point. “Then you’re on a farewell tour of the Colorado back roads, being tortured until you’re killed and your body is found weeks later by some cop.”

  “Wow, that’s… vivid.”

  “I watch a lot of movies...”

  I stare off into the distance. “I just… I don’t know how I’m going to make it right. I can’t bring Mateo back.”

  “Maybe you could…”

  My head whips towards him. “Are you insane? Even if I knew where to find his body – which is probably burned to a crisp by now – you know that we don’t mess with life and death like that, Knox. We don’t play God. It’s the first rule of witchcraft.”

  “It’s a suck-rule.” He sighs. “Come on, Theo… if we can bring witches back, then we can win.”

  “That’s not our job,” I snap. “Amalie was touch-and-go and if we had to, we would have pulled our magic together for Katia to heal her because she was still alive, but those who are dead must stay dead. Trust me, Knox, if I could, I’d bring him back in a heartbeat along with the other five people who died, and my sister… but those magic’s are way above my pay grade and bad things happen to witches who meddle with forces beyond their understanding.”

  “According to history books… But those are written by a bunch of stuck-up, high-ranking priests and priestesses. What do they know?” He scoffs. “You could pull it off, Theo! Hell, if I had power, I would bring them back, myself.”

  “You do have power,” I say.

  “Not as much as you, or Tavis or even Amalie… I’m pretty low down on the coven’s highest ranking witches, gorgeous. I screwed around in school and never really honed my craft, and add to that the fact that my parents weren’t that powerful.” His voice sounds bitter and sad. “Let’s just say, I’m not a natural born witch, and if anyone should be doing daily practices, it’s me… But you – “

  “Yeah, my power is the stuff that dreams are made off, right? I’m so freaking strong and invulnerable that I can be whatever kind of witch I want. I have enough power to raise the dead if I wanted, I have the power to make things fly and burn and burst and break, I have the power to do anything… and yet all I’ve done is manage to survive long enough to get people killed.”

  “Enough, already!” He barks at me. “All you’ve done since Mateo died is get down on yourself and your leadership skills! Have you even looked in the chest? Because I have! It’s filled with old, mystical, powerful things and that knife… I guarantee that it’s going to come in handy! So you need to stop with the pity party, already!”

  “But Tav—”

  “Screw Tavis! He’ll deal and move on. We’re headed for war, Theo. Matt won’t be the last person to die by the end of this. I’m sure of it! He was told to stay on the bus! He and Amalie decided to be heroes. As harsh as it sounds, Amalie got herself stabbed and Mateo got himself killed.”

  “He should never have been there!”

  “Which was another bad decision, made by Mateo. He was a kid who wanted to play adult, and it got him dead. If anything, Tavis should have stepped in and outright forbidden him to go. He listened to Tavis, and he would have sulked for a few days and gotten over it, but no, the big boss man was too preoccupied being pissed at you that he let his authority slip. You want to know who’s at fault for Mateo? All of us are! We all let the kid go on the mission, and yes, it’s sad and we’ll miss him forever… but war has causalities, Theo.”

  He takes a breath before continuing. “What about the other five members of the coven? What about Jake, Josh, Christa, Luke, and Morris? Nobody is crying or feeling guilty over those guys, because they knew what they were getting into when they arrived. They were seventeen, eighteen and Luke had just turned nineteen. Their deaths are just as sad as Mateo’s, but they put their hands up and volunteered to go into the lion’s den with us. It was their choice.”

  His words make sense, but they do nothing to assuage my guilt.

  “Tavis is never going to speak to me again…”

  “And I said screw him,” he says.

  I gnaw on my lip and nod my head, wiping the stray tears falling down my face.

  “Is it too late to salvage the date?” I ask with a sniffle.

  He laughs and laces his fingers with mine. “I think I can come up with something…”

  Knox pulls me from the ground, and we start walking.

  The train ride back isn’t nearly long enough for my liking. My head lies on his chest and he snuggles me into him as we share a headphone each and listen to some slow music as my arm wraps around his waist. It’s raining outside of the window and we’re the only two people in our cart. If I wanted to, I could lift my head and kiss him… and boy, do I want to!

  I almost have a couple of times, but every time, my nerves have stopped me. Most girls have had their first kiss by seventeen… but I’m not most girls. My life has been an endless parade of power, death, sadness and anger.

  I’m not even sure how to kiss… I get the general idea in theory, but in practice? I could be terrible!

  The train rolls to a stop and we head back toward the underground, but outside of the bank, I refuse to go in – not ready to let the date go, just yet.

  “Food?” He asks, lacing our fingers and I nod.

  We go to the hotel restaurant again, but this time, we sit on the same side o
f the table. It’s dark out and the restaurant is dimly lit. Candles decorate the tables, creating a romantic atmosphere that makes my head spin and my heart pound.

  Knox orders an array of food for us, and I watch him with a smile. He thanks the waitress and leans over to kiss my skin, one centimetre from my lips.

  “So,” he starts with a grin. “What is your favorite colour?”

  And it goes like that for the rest of the night. We stay away from the hard-hitting subjects that cause us pain and go over our likes and dislikes.

  So far, I’ve learned that Knox’s favorite colour is indigo green, the same as his eyes, and he doesn’t like art.

  “I don’t get the point in it. I mean, I guess I see the point of being an artist and appreciating art, but those people who go to three galleries a week and stand with a glass of wine talking about how ‘expressive’ everything is… It’s like they’re doing it just to look like a pretentious douche! Oh, and another dislike of mine… People who make other people feel bad for not knowing something.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, with a wide smile. I could listen to him talk all night.

  “Well, take the art thing for example… some people who are art aficionados look down on people who aren’t as lesser than they are.” He scoffs. “I don’t like that.”

  “I agree… You know what I don’t like?”

  “What?”

  “Ice cream…” I bite my lip, ready for the tirade of judgement, and it comes thick and fast.

  “How can you not like ice cream? It’s the world’s favorite dessert! You know what I think? You just haven’t had –”

  “The right flavor for me?” I roll my eyes and scoff. “You’re not the first person to say that and be wrong…” I laugh. “Trust me, I’ve had plenty of flavors. Ice-cream is just too icy!”

  He laughs. “I really want to judge you right now, but I can’t… I don’t like chocolate.”

  My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “How? You are missing out! Chocolate is my favorite thing in the world!”

  “Ice cream is mine!” He shakes his head. “I guess this relationship is doomed, huh?”

  If there’s something past ‘skipping a beat’ my heart just did it. “Relationship?”

  His eyes squeeze shut and a berry blush covers his cheeks. “Oh, I just made this super awkward super fast, didn’t I?”

  I giggle and shake my head. “You didn’t. I liked it…”

  My hand finds his and again laces our fingers together. His eyes meet mine and there’s a pause where all we do is look at each other before the conversation picks up again.

  We move through favorite movies.

  His: The Godfather. Mine: The Breakfast club.

  To favorite bands: His answer is so complicated that I can barely keep up. He has a favorite band and/or artist from each genre of music dating back to the eighties and every half-decade since. I listen to him talk for nearly twenty-five minutes about all of these different bands; which songs are his favorites, which guitar riffs… even which member! It’s endearing how passionate he is about it all, but when he asks me mine, I feel embarrassed to admit that mine changes month-to-month.

  “But at the moment, its Angels and Airwaves...”

  “An alt-rock girl… I dig it. They’re a good band, too.” He grins and chuckles under his breath. I scoff and punch him gently in the arm.

  “What happened to hating people who looked down on other people?”

  “I’m not! I swear… it’s just… I’m glad you said that because, honestly, I did not know how I was going to react if you had said ‘The Jonas Brothers’ or something…”

  “I love the Jonas Brothers!”

  He snorts. “Yes you do, and you should be proud of that, gorgeous…”

  “Jerk!” I punch him again and he laughs, kissing my cheek for a second time.

  Knox smiles, digging some bills out of his pocket.

  “You’re paying?”

  “Of course… It’s our first date.”

  “Well, here,” I say, digging into my own pockets. “Let me get my half…”

  He stops my hand where it is and smiles. “You get the next one…”

  ***

  The main room is clear when we get back. It’s way past the standard curfew, but Tavis isn’t there to scold us as he usually would. It’s like an extra punch to the gut that he doesn’t care enough to be angry with us.

  We reach the veer off between the boys and the girl’s dorms. Knox stops and leans in to kiss my forehead.

  “Goodnight, gorgeous,” he says, pushing the stray curl behind my ear.

  My breath hitches in my throat. We both stay there for a moment, and before I have a chance to think about it, I stand on my tippy-toes and press my lips softly to his.

  It’s slow and timid and the perfect first kiss. We pull away, but he’s not done yet. He lays three lingering kisses at the side of my mouth and one last kiss on my lips. Our teeth knock together awkwardly when my mouth pulls up into a smile, but its ok, because he takes it as a trial run and tries again…

  “Goodnight,” I say, my cheeks warm and my lips tingling.

  I walk backwards, catching a final glimpse of him before retreating to the girls’ dorm. Sorting through my clothes until I find my oversized sleeping shirt, I pull it over my head and crawl into bed. I pull the blanket over my head, bury my face in my pillow, and squeal with excitement.

  My first kiss… was with Knox.

  It offers a soothing balm to the fire of despair in the pit of my stomach. I want to make things right with Tavis but I–

  Tavis.

  And just like that, my happy mood is dashed, and I turn over, willing myself into a deep sleep.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  A weight at the edge of my bed wakes me from my sleep.

  My eyes flicker open, expecting to see Maeve, but I’m shocked to find Tavis sitting there, his cheeks wet and his eyes puffy.

  “We need to talk,” he tells me.

  I cast an eye to the small window and see its dark outside.

  “What time is it?” I ask; my throat dry and my voice gruff.

  “Three-thirty…” He sniffles, wiping his hand across his face. “Come on…”

  He stands from my bed, and I watch his bare back retreat from the room before my mind tells me to follow. I throw back the comforter and slip my feet into my sneakers. It’s cold out tonight, and I can feel it on my exposed legs.

  Tavis is gone by the time I get to the veer off, but I know where to find him. I make my way past the main room, up the spiral staircase and through the brown double doors that leads me to our training area. Sure enough, I find him there.

  Moonlight pours through the window and highlights the nakedness of his bare back, and his muscles tense as he hears me enter.

  “Mateo was like my little brother,” he talks to the air, more than to me. “He was one of the first recruits we saved on a raid. That day, he watched his sister gets torn to shreds in front of him, and I physically had to drag him out because he refused to leave her. Since then, he had a vendetta and I was the only one who could keep his head on straight. If it wasn’t for me, he would have been killed months ago by his own stupidity.”

  His voice cracks and he takes a breath, turning to his side. I see him wrapping his hands in bandages, soaked in blood. He catches me staring. “I punched one of the stone walls.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Theo… It’s mine.” He sighs, looking to the ground. “I should have stopped him from going, but more than that, I should have been there. If I was there, I could have helped…. I could have saved him from –”

  “No, you couldn’t have.” I cross the room and take his face in my hands. “Look at me.”

  His eyes lift up and collide with mine. I open myself up to feel what he’s feeling, and it hits me like a wave, nearly knocking me to the ground. His grief, and pain, and anguish are so breathta
kingly raw, he’s suffocating me.

  I have to pull back from him to stop myself from being swept under. Aside from his pain, I can feel the daunting hollowness of not knowing what happened to Mateo.

  My tongue settles at the roof of my mouth and my lips pull in, as I stifle a cry. “He was told to stay on the bus. We were down five people, but we were out with the box, and hunters were after us. A fight broke out outside, and Mateo got involved. He helped beat them back, and when we were running back to the bus, a shot rang out… I thought it was aimed at me, and so I ducked, but when I looked up, I saw Mateo bleeding. I caught his body before he dropped to the ground. He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry…”

  Tavis inhaled deeply, and let it out slowly. “And the hunter who killed him?”

  “Dead,” I say. “The talismans were in the ground all around the place, we weren’t prepared and I should have known that.”

  “You should’ve… Just like I should have trusted your judgement enough to have planned an attack with you when we were prepared! Instead, I was ignorant and stubborn. I was convinced I knew better! I yelled at you, and practically forced you into leading the mission alone. If we had mounted a full-scale attack together, then maybe we could have saved everyone.”

  “We’re all at fault,” I mirror Knox’s words. “…I’m sorry about Mateo.”

  He nods. “Me too…”

  I hold out my hand in a truce and he takes it, giving it two firm shakes, and then suddenly, my arm twists and I’m slammed into the blue mat.

  “Ow,” I gasp, and then I start to laugh. Tavis is standing over me with a small smile on his face, and holding out his hand.

  I take it. He’s wobbly as he pulls me from the ground, and I decide to go limp, pulling him down with me. I push my legs into his stomach and roll him over the top.

  He lands with a thud and groans. I laugh, twisting myself around and throwing my body on his to keep him down.

  “That’s not fair,” he giggles as I dig my fingers into his ribs and tickle him. “Theo, you’re going to regret this.”