And they intended to burn three people alive...two of us, at least, very much completely not being okay with that fact.
I looked over at the female seer once more.
She seemed like she might be my only ally in this coven of freaks. I couldn't help but wonder how she felt about what humanity had done with her people's religion over the last half-century. It was harder to see her now, because of the smoke and how low I'd fallen on the log, but I made out her face across the fire around the stone basin. She'd fallen more, too, so must have been struggling like I was. The fire was closer to her than me, so her spoke on the crazy wheel must be burning faster.
She was staring at the flames, her violet-colored eyes wide with terror. They'd gagged her, too, and she wore a collar around her neck, different from the one I'd seen on her that morning. It was a lot heavier for one thing, and made of a darker, more vibrant green.
So whatever else she might be able to do, she probably wouldn't be able to help me in terms of her seer super-powers.
As if feeling my eyes, she looked up at me, too.
I saw a kind of pleading in her gaze, as if she believed her only shred of help lay in me, rather than the reverse, as I'd been kind of hoping.
The fire had nearly reached the crates piled under her log.
Another wave of panic hit me as I stared at the climbing flames.
Heat flushed my skin, almost painfully now, and I saw the terror in the seer's eyes who was tied down across from me. A rush of feeling, images, even understandings hit me that clicked my brain into razor-sharp focus. No one was coming. No one would help us. No one had heard me shouting. That female seer couldn't help me. The other guy they were sacrificing was as crazy as the rest of them. I was going to die.
My brother would be devastated. My mother would probably drink herself to death.
Jaden would only remember me kissing that cop. He'd probably end up dating that skank, who'd be thrilled to have a reason to comfort him once I was gone.
More than that, I'd be dead. Really, really dead.
I wasn't ready to be dead.
Pain slid through me, different than physical pain, but almost more intense. Whatever it was, whatever caused it...it woke me up.
As the pain ebbed, a part of me seemed to reach out on its own. It wasn't like a cry for help that time...more like an exhale of breath, or an expulsion of effort that was more relief than exertion. I couldn't explain it, and didn't even try to understand what I was doing. I didn't want to think about how pointless it was, or how helpless I felt, tied to that log and waiting for death.