Chapter 42 #2
Oh, God. I understand now.
“Legends of Sacrifice,” I mutter.
“What?” Guy asks.
I look up at him. “The name of the game is Legends of Sacrifice. The offering we’re supposed to make is ourselves. We are the legends that must be sacrificed.”
Guy’s eyes widen in terror.
“No, no,” Cait says, shaking her head furiously. “That can’t be right! They said they would give us what we truly desire if we give them the right offering. They can’t do that if we’re dead!”
Guy’s shocked expression shifts to grief-ridden resignation. “But they only ever wanted to give us something that would keep us in the game,” he says. “Because they know we won’t make it to the real world alive.”
“No hero has offered themselves as a sacrifice before?” I ask.
Khione nods. “The first hero to sacrifice themself will be the last,” she says. “That hero’s god will become the one to rule over all the rest.”
“Aphrodite told me I was closer than any player so far to getting an offering to their deity,” I say. “That’s because I had Alexander—I mean, Eumolpus—with me. She knew he would bring me here, get me close to Khione, and lead me to this room. She knew I would give her that crown.”
I hate how sad this makes me. I should feel angry or terrified. Instead, it feels like my heart is going to shatter. Aphrodite promised me she wouldn’t let me die, when all along that was exactly what I had to do. But I still get to make a wish, and she will have to honor it.
As much as the concept terrifies me, Aphrodite will give me anything I wish for. I know exactly what I want, too. This is my only way to save my mother and keep my friends safe from Zeus. I have to do this.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll do it.”
Cait turns my head to face her. “Lauren, don’t do this. It’s not worth it. Obviously, this is why Zeus wanted you dead. If you refuse to sacrifice yourself—”
“He’ll keep coming after me,” I say. “Just in case I change my mind.”
“What if I do it instead?” Guy offers.
“No! You’re the only one who can save Zeus’s followers.” I turn to Cait. “And before you say it, Aphrodite would never forgive me if I let one of Ares’s chosen do this.”
Guy sits beside me on the sacrificial altar. “We can hide. It won’t be that hard.”
“I have a god-killing gun,” Alexander—Eumolpus—says, holding up his Benelli.
I give Alexander an exhausted chuckle. “Not sure that’s going to work on someone as powerful as Zeus.”
“You can’t do this,” Cait whispers. Tears spill like diamonds from her green eyes.
Guy squeezes my hand. His brows tent together in what looks like grief. “I don’t remember you, but I was hoping to get to know you again.”
I stroke his cheek. “That would have been lovely,” I say. Then I turn and cup Cait’s cheek with my other hand. “It would have been perfect.”
“Then stay with us,” Cait says. Her voice hitches with a sob so uncharacteristic of my fierce barbarian.
I shake my head. “You don’t understand. I want what Aphrodite can give me, even more than I want to live.” I drop my hands to my waist and turn to Khione. “How do we do this?”
Khione approaches me, her every step somber. She motions for Guy and Cait to leave my side. Cait crosses her arms, and Guy inches even closer to me.
“Go,” I tell them. “This is what I need to do, what I want to do.”
Part of me wants them to fight me on this, but I know I’m dooming them if I don’t make this sacrifice.
They love each other. Sure, Cait isn’t sexually attracted to Guy, but she’s loved him romantically for months.
Maybe they’ll even find a third person, someone a lot like me.
If I truly love them as much as I say I do, then I have to do this.
I’m sacrificing myself for them and Mom, not for Aphrodite.
Finally, Cait and Guy back away, and Khione rests me along the altar. I’m a short woman, and this was built for even an orc to fit on. So, there’s plenty of room for Khione to lay the sacrificial cup and dagger beside me. She gets a piece of parchment and a quill pen out.
“First, slice down your arm with the dagger over the cup,” she says. “Don’t cut too deep. This can’t be what kills you. Just make sure all the blood collects in the cup.” I do so and then she dips the quill into the blood and hands it to me. “Sign this.”
Words appear on the parchment, stating that I am willingly making this sacrifice.
Sign it in my own blood? How trite.
I sign it.
Khione takes away the parchment, pen, and dagger. Then she pours a sparkling, golden liquid into the cup and mixes it with my blood.
“Just drink from this,” she says. “Your death will be soft and easy. You’ll feel no pain, only peace.”
As I lift the cup to my lips, Cait shouts, “Wait!”
I lower it and sigh. “Cait, I made my decision.”
“Can I at least know what your kiss was like?” she asks.
“Yes, can we have that?” Guy asks. “Before you leave us for good.”
Their faces mirror each other with pleading eyes, tented brows, and lips that perhaps remember what their minds cannot.
I nod. “Can you hold this for just a moment?” I ask Khione.
Khione takes the cup, and I sit up so that there’s room on either end of the altar next to me.
Cait sits on my left and Guy on my right.
Cait’s the first one who lowers her lips to mine.
The song that lifts from us surprises her, and she gasps against me.
Our music is bittersweet, a goodbye melody.
Guy brushes his lips with mine, and his notes intertwine with ours, making the song even more beautiful and even more poignant.
Guy opens my mouth to deepen the kiss, while Cait kisses my jaw and then Guy’s cheek. Then Guy lets her claim my mouth again so that he can kiss my ear, while weaving his hand into my hair.
Our song swells, the plaintive notes of a lone violin climbing above it all. I’m so glad that the last thing I’ll experience in my life is this beautiful moment.
Cait pulls away, her face even wetter than it had been before. She swallows and whispers, “I remember now.”
“You do?” I ask, hoping it’s true, willing myself to believe it even if it’s not.
“The kiss…” Guy says. “Our kiss, our song. The two of us and the three of us. We shared that before. We…”
Guy wipes away the tears now trailing down his cheeks. “I love you, Lauren.”
Cait nods and echoes him. “I love you, Lauren.”
I reach up and cup each of their cheeks. “I love you, too. And I’m so glad you’ll have each other to love as well.”
“Are you ready?” Khione asks.
Swallowing back a sob, I look at her. “Yes.”
Cait and Guy resist again at first, but eventually they give me room to drink the poison from the cup. Once I’ve emptied it, they help me lay down and hold my hands as I enter a state of bliss. Then I drift away but not into the dark this time. No, it’s somewhere else entirely.