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Back Rituals Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CAPRICIOUS
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. IN THE CARDS
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. LOVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. PHONE ISSUES
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY
  40. BONDING
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  49. SACRILEGE
  50. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  57. DEATH BY HELL-BIRD
  58. THE DARKNESS
  59. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  60. FINALLY
  61. THE PACT
  62. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  63. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  64. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  65. About the Author

“Is that a threat? Excellent. You do know how this works. Let me be generous, then. It doesn’t help our cause to overplay our hand too soon. You don’t need to choose. Not yet. In fact, we’ll set them all free for you, Olivia. We’ll even escort them out the door. But you…” Her voice circled me. “You stay. You find your own way out. And if they come back for you, they’ll die.”

Her voice turned to smoke, the black enveloping me even as I heard Ricky shout “No!” and lunge. His fingers brushed my arm, and then…

Darkness.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I woke facedown on a cold floor, my head throbbing. I rose to all fours and gagged as my stomach lurched. I felt like I’d swallowed that smoke, the most foul imaginable, like something from a crematorium. My stomach lurched again at the thought.

Less thinking. More doing.

I turned on my switchblade’s penlight and looked around. Not surprisingly, I seemed to be in the same place Gabriel and Patrick had been—a basement room with a jagged hole in the ceiling. Also not surprisingly, I was alone.

The third “Nope, still no surprises” moment came when I tried the exit door, and it wouldn’t budge. I figured if Gabriel couldn’t open it, neither could I, but still I tried, again in case the sluagh decided to play pranks with my presumptions.

So the question became “How to escape?” I wasn’t particularly concerned that I couldn’t. I wouldn’t be much use to the sluagh dead. Unless…

I thought of the melltithiwyd, and shuddered. I can’t imagine Mallt-y-Nos would be very useful as a mindless hell-bird.

Gabriel and Patrick were able to climb out of this room, presumably by Gabriel standing on the pile of debris. Which is great, if you’re six foot four. The obvious answer, then? Build a bigger pile.

That wasn’t as simple as it sounded, given that I had to construct a pile stable enough to support me. I managed it. Then I heaved and hefted and hauled myself up through that hole…and in came the melltithiwyd, a swooping swarm of avian piranha. I instinctively let go and fell back into the damned basement.

Attempt number two. I did the exact same thing. And, shockingly, got the same result. When the melltithiwyd attacked, I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth and endured the pecks and the bites and the beating wings as I kept heaving myself up. Finally, I got out and rolled away from the hole. Then I crouched there, my head down, as the melltithiwyd battered me, and I lashed out as hard as I could.