Chapter 19, Hope Shoemaker:
“You’re certain they all need to be awake for the ceremony?” Hope looked over the three nude people who adorned her workshop. The two virgins, trussed up by their ankles, had been drugged by Tanner before they even made it into her lair. He helped her strip the two scullery wenches and hang them from their ankle tendons like pigs waiting to be bled for the slaughter. It would be their blood that filled the basin for the ritual and provided the power needed.
Tanner outdid himself. Yesterday they tested the shallow wading pool with water to make sure none of the gore from the victims would spread over her floor. Everything needed to be perfect for this to work. She knew her time grew short. The talk around the citadel concerning her strange proclivities grew int
