Sacrifice for the Gods: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Ruling the Gods Book 1) Read online

  Sacrifice for the Gods

  A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance

  Ruling the Gods 1

  Mae Doyle

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  This is a work of art/fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, or places is purely coincidental. Any persons appearing on the cover image for this book are models and do not have any connection to the contents of this story.

  All characters depicted in this work are unrelated consenting adults. This author assumes no responsibility for the use/misuse of this material.

  © 2020 Mae Doyle

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  Chapter 1

  I could hear my mother screaming at me from the bottom of the stairs that I needed to get my ass in gear and get down there, but instead, I pulled the covers over my head and rolled back over.

  It was my sister’s big day, not mine. Who cared if I made it down to eat pancakes with everyone else in the family? Not me. All I cared about was getting a little more rest after staying up all night reading in my room when I was supposed to be asleep.

  My mom stopped yelling. For most people, that would be a really good sign, but I just groaned as the covers ripped off of my body and flung themselves to the floor. My overhead light clicked on with a spark and I heard the electricity humming through the wires all around the room.

  More electricity than needed to turn on my light.

  Great.

  She was pissed about something.

  “I’m up!” I have to shout as loud as I can so that she’ll hear me in the kitchen, but as soon as I do, the angry humming of electricity drops to a low buzz. Sighing, I force myself out of bed, throw my covers back on it, and turn off the light before heading down the stairs.

  Six am is a godawful hour, especially on a Saturday. I’m fine with getting up this early during the week to go to school, but weekends are sacred, or they’re supposed to be. Right then, nothing was sacred in our house, but that wasn’t my fault.

  It was my sister’s, but I was pretty sure that she’d give it all up in a second if she could. When I passed by the bathroom that she and I share, I glanced in it. Empty. She must already be playing the role of the good daughter downstairs having something to eat.

  Or playing with her new magic powers, more likely. I scoff to myself, turning the corner in the hall to the staircase. Our parents’ room is right ahead of me, but that’s not somewhere that either of us are welcome, so I ignore the door and start down the stairs.

  Our house isn’t any bigger on the outside than the other ranch-style houses in the neighborhood, but my parents haven’t ever learned how to keep things small. I grin to myself as I slide my hand along the worn wooden bannister and walk down the stairs. Friends from school would probably shit themselves if they ever made it a foot inside our house.

  Single story homes aren’t supposed to have a giant curved staircase, a huge wine cellar, and an attic that was large enough to hold massive parties. There were a lot of things that single story homes weren’t supposed to have, and I was pretty sure that my parents had packed them all into our house just because they could.

  The staircase curved around, allowing me a great view of the rest of the house before I got down there. While my mom normally keeps things clean and neat, she had been a little preoccupied. I was supposed to be picking up the slack, and I cringed when I saw the stacks of books I left on the floor by the bed and how my sister threw a pile of clothing in the corner chair.

  Yeah, I was going to be picking all of that up later if I didn’t figure out a way to get out of it.

  Our cat, Milo, was curled up on top of the clothes, probably covering them with his dirty fur, and I waved my hand at him as I walked by.

  “Shoo, Milo. You know that you’re going to get in trouble if you get black fur on her stuff,” I told him, but he just rolled his yellow eyes at me and curled back up on my sister’s favorite sweater. For a moment I hesitated, debating whether or not I should pull it out from under him, but a loud slam from the kitchen drew my attention and I hurried off.

  My mom leaned against the stove, her hair pulled into a perfect braid down her back. Even though she didn’t wear makeup, she obviously didn’t need it. She had dewy skin and bright eyes, which I was supposed to apparently inherit when I was old enough.

  Just then, my dark brown hair and eyes didn’t really attract much attention, but she always told me that it was for the best. The last thing that I want to do is attract attention from guys, at least not until my sister had her big day.

  Thank gods, today was her big day.

  My eyes darted over to where she was perched in a chair by the counter. Her long brown hair was now reddish-blonde and full of curls. It bounced when she moved and she looked over her shoulder at me, tossing it with her free hand and giving me a sassy grin.

  “What do you think, Emily? You like my new hair?” Sara’s voice was higher than it was before, but there was a heaviness to it. Sure, she got to enjoy her new hair, but not for long.

  “It looks great,” I told her, sliding into place next to her. My mom flicked her wrist and the plate of pancakes slid over to me. After spearing a few and putting them on my plate, I turned back to Sara. “You scared?”

  She scoffed, but under the bright pink spots on her cheeks, I could see that she’d gone a little pale. Of course she’s scared, I chided myself. But before I can say anything to try to make it better, my mom interrupted.

  “Sara’s not scared. She knows that this is her duty and honor for the family.” She gave her head a little shake, like she wasn’t entirely sure that she believed herself. “Your dad will be back in just a moment from getting the newspaper. What do you two want to drink?”

  “I got it,” I mumbled, feeling embarrassed, and I got up and went to the fridge. Before I could reach the door, though, it swung open. Whipping around, I glared at my sister, who had her hand up in the air.

  “Hey, if I can’t enjoy my powers as long as they last, then what’s the use? You’ll get to enjoy them for the rest of your life, you know.” She winked at me, but there was something bitter in her tone.

  “So will you,” I told her, and I immediately wished that I hadn’t. Her face darkened, and I swore, the temperature in the kitchen drops five degrees, even with the stove still on. Yeah, my sister would be able to use her powers for the rest of her life, but her life ended that evening, so it wasn’t like she would get to really enjoy them.

  “I’m sorry,” I told her, shooting a terrified look at my mom. Luckily, she was turned back to the stove and was pretending like the pancak
es there really needed her attention. “I’m just a little tired and scared for the day, that’s all.”

  Sara nodded, then flicked her wrist, slamming the fridge back shut. “You and me both. But I think that you know by now that I’m not going to go out without a bang, right?”

  Yeah, right. This was Sara the one of us who has been groomed for this day for her entire life. She’d always known what was going to happen. We both knew that there wasn’t anything that she could do to change the way things were going to go today.

  First, we’d all spend the morning around the house pretending like nothing strange was going to happen. Then there’d be a mad rush to get ready for the evening. My mom was probably going to fly into a cleaning frenzy at the last minute so that we wouldn’t have to come back home to a dirty house.

  And then we’d go to the ceremony.

  My mom whipped around from the stove, pointing the spatula at me. “You. Get your dad some coffee, he’s coming up the front path now.”

  It wasn’t like she could see the front path, but she didn’t need to. My mom knew everything that went on in and around the house. It was basically impossible to try to fool her, which is why I’d given up trying to sneak friends and boys into the house.

  After she had to do that memory spell on Sara’s old boyfriend, we were both given quite the talking to. It had worked for me. Hell, I’d rather spend time curled up with my books anyway. It was my sister who was the real problem.

  But if anyone else got in here and saw how much bigger our house was than it really should be, I’m sure that my mom would make good on her threat to homeschool us. After that evening, it wasn’t going to matter for sister, but I wasn’t terribly keen on spending all of my free time hanging out with my mom.

  I stole a glance at Sara while pouring my dad some coffee. She was having way too much fun with her new powers, making bacon float in front of her and trying to take a bite out of it in mid-air. When she missed and it fell to her plate, she just laughed and flicked her wrist to raise it back up in front of her.

  My dad appeared behind me and I jump with a start, spilling coffee all over my pjs.

  “Aw, crap,” I say, hopping back and plucking my shirt off of my stomach. The coffee is hot and dark and I just know that it’s going to stain my favorite shirt. It hangs down to my knees and says No books? No problem! Our creative writing class had them made last year and I somehow got stuck with the biggest one in the box.

  “Oh, sorry, Emily,” my dad said, passing his hand in front of my shirt. The coffee immediately lifted out of the fabric and I watched it float in dark orbs across the kitchen before falling into the sink with small splashes. “Shouldn’t you be getting dressed by now?”

  “Dad.” Sara interrupted from the counter. “It’s still dark out and the ceremony isn’t until later tonight. Besides, you said that you’d teach me a few tricks that I could practice before this evening. Did you forget?” She frowned at him.

  “Didn’t forget.” He took a long sip of his coffee and tossed the newspaper onto the counter. “This is a big deal, Sara, and I wouldn’t forget something like that. I just have to swing by the venue this morning and make sure that everything is a go. We need to make sure that all of the enchantments and blocks are still up and running.”

  “Yeah,” I add, “the last thing that we need to have happen is for someone to stumble onto our magic.” It’s the same thing that I heard parroted around the house for years, so saying it just felt natural, even though I didn’t have any of the magic. It wasn’t mine that people would discover. Not yet, anyway. “You want some help, Dad?”

  The thought of being here with mom and Sara while they cleaned and got ready for the night was enough to make me sick, but getting out with my dad and checking on the security of his spells? That sounded way more fun.

  He frowned. “Are you sure that you want to go, Emily? Wouldn’t you rather be here with your sister?” I knew what he was implying, but no. I just had to figure out how to tell him this without upsetting him.

  I glanced over at her. She managed to keep the bacon floating in front of her face and was taking tiny nibbles off of it. The crunching brought Milo from his napping spot on her sweater, and he meowed at the door.

  Grabbing a piece of bacon, I tossed it to him. He jumped up and caught it in his mouth like a dog before giving me a wink and running back out of the kitchen.

  “I think,” I started slowly, trying to pick my words. The last thing that I needed is for my parents to realize how badly I wanted out of the house today. “I think that it may be good for you to have someone around who isn’t able to see the spells and enchantments. That way, I can tell you if there are any holes.”

  I mean, I’d been around magic my whole life. I knew a good spell when I saw one, if only because I could recognize the shimmering energy coming off of them. They were pretty obvious when you knew when you were looking for, at least to me.

  Hell, I was only three when I first noticed my first spell. It wasn’t like it was hard, not when my parents were using magic to play with me in the backyard. Normal kids would be able to tell that balls shouldn’t just float through the air without being touched, but I could feel the magic. It reverberated in my bones and made it feel like they were singing.

  It made me feel special, but maybe that was because I was going to get powers one day. That evening. After my sister completed her part of the agreement.

  “What do you think?” My dad turned to my mom, who was watching pancakes fly off of the stove and land neatly on the plate. She walked away from the stove, which extinguished itself with a soft poof, and poured herself a cup of coffee before answering.

  The room felt deadly quiet while we waited on her. When I finally dared to look up at her, I saw that her eyes were swirling with mists of color. The purple and blue that I saw there told me that she’d built up plenty of energy for today.

  Yeah, I definitely didn’t want to be around when she decided that all of that energy would be best used to clean the house and get us ready for the night.

  “I think it’s fine,” she said finally, and I let out a breath that I didn’t even realize that I was holding.

  “Sounds good,” Sara said, crunching loudly on her bacon. “The last thing I want is for you to get in the way when I’m learning new spells.”

  I knew that she said that just to hurt me, but I couldn’t help but glance at her anyway. Her eyes looked a lot like mom’s. They had swirls of colors spiraling through them, but there was a huge difference.

  Mom didn’t look like she was about to cry.

  “I’ll go change,” I muttered to my dad, and then turned to walk out of the kitchen.

  Should I have stayed and hung out with her? Maybe.

  But who wanted to hang out with their sister the day she’s going to be sacrificed to the gods?

  Chapter 2

  My dad and I were both silent on the way to the venue. Amusingly enough, he’d managed to book an old church, which is something that I’d never set foot in before.

  “Are you sure that having a virgin sacrifice to the old gods in a church is…kosher?” I asked him as we left the house.

  He laughed. “Darling, there’s nothing kosher about us or what we’re doing. But it’s big, they needed the money, and the ceilings are high enough that any other creatures who show up will have plenty of breathing room.”

  Right. The creatures. I’d totally forgotten that it wouldn’t be just humans and gods there. They loved traveling with creatures that lived in their different realms. Fairies, druids, golems, gargoyles…the list went on and on, and while I could name them all, I’d never actually seen any of them in real life.

  Dad pulled out of the driveway and into the main road leading into town. I knew that I only had a few minutes to talk to him before we’d make it to the church, but suddenly my tongue felt fat and stuck to the roof of my mouth.

  Morbid curiosity and wanting to get out of the house weren’t the only reasons
that I’d wanted to come with him, but just then I was feeling a little nervous to ask him the questions I had.

  We were riding in his old truck, which was half falling apart and often in pieces on the driveway while he worked on it. It drove my mom nuts that he’d rather take the truck apart and fiddle with the pieces like a common human than just magic it back together.

  Their last fight about it had been particularly rough, with her screaming that she didn’t know why they were even making this sacrifice with Sara if he wasn’t going to enjoy it.

  The next time I’d looked out the window, the truck was put back together.

  It seemed to be running fine just then, and I wiped my hands on my jeans before leaning forward and turning the knob for the radio. The first few stations I searched for were static, but finally I found one playing oldies.

  Dad bobbed his head to the tunes as we made a left turn towards town. The houses were fewer and farther between here, with more businesses popping up between them. By the time we got downtown, I knew that we’d be surrounded by squat cement buildings that all looked the same.

  That was a mystery I was sure I’d never get the answer to – why my parents wanted to live in such a crappy little town. I figured that it was my dad’s choice, just like taking the truck apart by hand.

  The sun was beginning to come up to my right and I pointed it out. “Check it out, dad. It’s going to be a gorgeous day.”

  He nodded and the radio clicked back off. “You want to tell me why you really came today, Emily? You and I both know that if I needed someone to help me with spells and charms that I would have asked someone with powers.”

  I winced, even though I knew that he wasn’t trying to be mean to me. He was right. I was eighteen, without any powers, so not exactly the most useful person to have in a pinch.

  “I couldn’t be in the house any longer,” I admitted to my dad. He pulled smoothly into a parking lot and killed the engine.