THE SACRIFICE
CHAPTER 1
VICTORIA
The square burned with torches, the air heavy with smoke and chanting.
“Tonight,” the High Priest boomed, his voice echoing over the restless crowd, “we offer what is most precious to appease the God of the Deep Caverns. So that he may not bring ruin upon our homes, our fields, our children.”
The villagers bowed their heads. Women wept. Men pressed fists to their chests. Children clung to skirts, wide-eyed.
And me—Victoria—bound in white cloth, rope at my wrists.
I lowered my head, feigning sorrow, though my lips twitched with the urge to smile. They thought me a lamb dragged unwilling to slaughter. But I had stepped forward when the priest asked for a name. I volunteered.
Let them carve my name in memory as a heroine. They would never know the trut
