Sneak Peek Chapter One Betrayed Logan tips his hand above his shoulder, as Demetri lays a dagger

on his palm. He grips the handle, never breaking our gaze, and gives a lightswing in my direction.Ill need you to lie down for me. Logans lips curve into the slightest impression of a smile. Welcome to the sacrifice, Skyla, Logan gleamsunder the newfound evil glaze that coats him from the inside. A gentle pewter blade lies in his hand and points accusingly in my direction.The sky boils with blackened clouds, a flash of lightning illuminates the circle of hooded creatures. They hover around a large granite stone thatsits pale and thirsty in a dead clearing. A dark blotch in the center of the outstretched rock testifies that it desires to quench itself with my blood.A tall man with boxy shoulders steps forward, his features are hardly discernable from the shadows endowed by his cape. Demetri. I want to seethe cowards face.I take a bold step towards him and snatch off his hood. A man with dark olive skin, hooked nose, eyes like half moons stare back at me. He gives a dazzling smile that expels a volume of light as hisblack hair glints from the barely-there moon.So nice to meet you, he growls.His eyes close part way as though he were trying to seduce me, and I reciprocate with a hard slap across his smug expression. A sharp collective gasp emits from the crowd.I make eye contact with each of the Counts gathered around the unnaturally flat stone. I want them to know I see them that Im documenting their faces, whether I recognize them or not.Demetri steps closer. Logan tries to insert himself between us, but Demetri raises a gloved hand, and Logan freezes like a well-trained dog.Are you going to kill me like you killed my father? I say it loud enough for all to hear.Im not quite sure. His dark eyes shoot over to Logan. You choose this for the blood bond?I do.I dont recognize Logans voice anymore. Everything about him is foreign to me. I cant look at him, or I might breakbreak himkill him by wayof gouging out his throat like I did Holden Kragger.Gather, Demetri instructs, the mass of humanity disperses around the stone, and Brielle lands at my side.I had a goat behind the quarry, she says to Logan as though I werent even present. She picks up my hand and flashes it over to him. Cut here,her finger draws a line up my forearm.Wrong arm, Logan says, gently lifting the other. That one belonged to Chloe.I take my hands back and shoot a look of vengeance at the two of them.I will kill both of you if you so much as touch me again, I seethe.Sorry. Brielles fingers fly to her lips as she jumps back in line next to Chloe.Logan snatches up my hand, low by his thigh, imprisoning my fingers with a tight squeeze. Forgive me, Skyla. I will never forgive you! A slow peal of thunder drums up above. A light drizzle sets in. Demetri steps before me, pulls on his hood with one swift tug. An unseasonably warm breeze picks up, ushering in a strange fog with the slightest tint of blue. It coats the inside of my mouth, my nose, thick asoil.Lie down. Demetri adjusts his long leather gloves, doesnt bother to look up when he says it.I dont move. There is no way in hell Im going to comply. Ill have to kill them all if I want to get away. And Ill have to start with Logan.Take her, he says.Pierce Kragger appears like an apparition. He picks me up so quickIm stunned by the velocity.How Logan can stand by and supervise as Pierce touches me, after everything hes done, leaves me slacked jawedaffirms the fact that he hasevil coursing through his veins.I try to fight him, but Pierce lays me flat on the stone, dead center, and hops off. My bones feel as though theyre made of leadheavy andunmovable, and for a moment I wonder if Ive been drugged. A strong wind picks up, much cooler than the tropical fog that floats in our midst.Something quivers beneath me. The stone ignites and hums like a motor. It pulls me in, suctions me to the cool granite surface like it were trying todrink me down absorb me. My arms and legs fan out as though I were about to make a snow angel. Im defenseless to its bionic pull as it contortsmy body into a prime position for this blood lust sacrifice.I feel a tug at the bottom of my clothes. Brielle adjusts my dress as though she were a bridesmaid at my wedding. Its the white dress Marshallhad me wear while he pretended to hunt me down with arrows in lieu of turning me over to the Counts. Ironic since I landed right in their hands nothanks to Loganspecial delivery from the first boy I ever truly loved. Unless, of course, this is where Marshall wanted me all along.Chloe eyes me as the circle of bodies glide forward. They walk in a tight circumference around the stone altar. She wears the protective pendantaround her neck proud as a peacockgives me the finger while fondling it in front of me. The cloaks rotate in a clockwise pattern. I

Sneak Peek try not to look atthem, but Nat garners my attention. Her tight curls peer out from her hood like rusted springs. She cuts a look of death, offers a black smile as shebrushes against Pierce ever so slightly with her fingertips. A figure stops in front of me, the rest of the Counts move around him. I dont have to look to know its Logan. I can tell by the gleam of the blade,feel the psychotic energy emanating from him that he tries to pass off as love. His arms lie folded across his chest as though he were dead in acasket, and suddenly I wish he were.Demetri extricates himself from the crowd, stands shoulder to shoulder with Logan. He raises his hands over his head and ignites a hard clap. A choir of voices breakoutdeep and resonant. I am an immortal. Flesh and bones and such as these are not tethered to my soul I glance up to see if Logan is moving his lipsto see if hes memorized this incantation.His eyes are glazed over with passion. Logans voice is prominent in the crowd as though he were leading the chant himself. He cuts a coldsteely look right through me. It nauseates me, fills me with disdain for someone I would have trusted with my soul just moments before I enteredthese woods.I give a hard callous look.I want him to know that I have seen the enemyone that I hate far more than Demetri Edinger, and his name is Logan Oliver.

Credits to: Addison Moore