demon slayer 05.5 - the tenth dark lord a leaping Read Online Free Page A

hundred years. We are guardians of the Sacred Trust. Together, we find strength and fortitude. Alone, we are wiped from the face of the Earth.”
    He reached down to his belt and untied a leather bag. He pulled open the drawstring and sifted his hand through the contents inside. “To our deaths, to our return to the dirt.” He drew out a handful of blackened earth and scattered it over the cauldron and into the fire. The flames hissed and turned a sickly yellow. He bent to reach inside a bag, and I saw he had the skull symbol for death tattooed on the back of his head. Nice guy.
    “Is that their leader?” I asked Grandma. “The one you used to date?”
    Grandma shook her head. “No. Skull was his lieutenant.”
    He raised up a bottle of rum and uncapped it to dead silence. The men systematically clapped their hands into a hard lock, facing the fire. “To the outlaw in us all,” he hollered. He raised the bottle and poured it into the cauldron.
    Lovely. Death and villainy.
    I drew back, focusing on the entire scene rather than the man at the center. It was as if a shadow hung over the gathering. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.
    Something was very, very wrong—aside from the fact these men were ritually preparing to murder one of their friends. There was an evil behind this, lurking. Waiting.
    The hardened leader grimaced, showing off crooked teeth, as he drew a long knife out of the sheath at his belt. “To our blood. Our bond of brotherhood,” he called.
    He sliced his palm, and I drew back, running up against Grandma, as he held his hand over the cauldron. Blood poured down over his fingers and into the pot. The gang raised their joined hands with a uniform grunt as he held up his bloody palm.
    What in Hades was driving these guys to murder one of their friends?
    “I’m going in,” Frieda said under her breath. She drew a spell jar and started moving.
    I blocked her like a defensive tackle. “Look,” I hissed into her ear, “you can’t just go in there and put them all on time-out.” I swallowed hard, wishing I could put it into words. “Something bigger is at work here, and it’s nasty. We can’t do anything until it reveals itself.”
    And it would. I had a feeling whatever these guys were doing was designed to open up a can of evil.
    Tears rolled freely over the blond witch’s cheeks. “Shit.” She glared daggers at the scene below. “Dark magic or not, I won’t let them kill my son.”
    Grandma didn’t budge. “This isn’t some Pollyanna, plastic Hollywood drama. Good intentions don’t give you the license to be stupid.”
    Frieda swallowed and shook with the effort to remain calm. “You don’t know how hard this is,” she said like a warning.
    “You’re right,” I told her. “We don’t.” I didn’t have a child. And I was willing to bet Grandma had never been in this situation. “But we are here for you, and we’re going to do everything we can for you and Bruce. Right?”
    She nodded and looked to the sky.
    The circle inside the rocks had gone quiet. Cripes. We’d been too loud. I braced myself, trying to calm down, breathe steady as I peered through the rocks. Baldie stood at the front, with the crowd’s attention focused on him. Thank God. Grandma scooted down a rock and found another gap.
    He raised his leather-clad arms. “One will be selected to die.”
    “It’s going to be Bruce!” Frieda hissed. She rushed over to my rock. “He’s always had the gift of sight. My baby knew. He knew!”
    “Don’t worry,” I said, taking her arm for comfort and to keep her from bolting out there. “We’ll stop this.” I hoped.
    The leader turned and threw a powder into the potion over the fire. A mustard-colored flame burst from it. The stench of it—pure sulfur—made my throat sting and my eyes water. The blaze died down and we watched in horror as a sickly yellow flame danced by itself over the cauldron. It took flight, like a possessed ember.
    It was