#altarexcerpts

[lettersandinkstains]

Last Line Tag

Tagged by @andiwriteunderthemoon​ ! Tagging  - @livvywrites​ - @klywrites​ - @milkyway-writes​ - @planets-and-prose​ - @mariahwritesstuff​ - @sweetdollywrites​ - @sweetcatmintea​ - @shadescrawls​ - @tragedyshow​ - anyone who wants to do this!

Just as he stands in front of her — and despite how she shakes, she pulls the trigger and the shot rings through the air, loudly but she does not flinch. His body slumps. He’s not so big now.

[lettersandinkstains]

Blood Upon the Altar Snippet

warnings - horror, death mention. characters - aleks, aston

spoiler alert

(....)

Aston says something, his voice echoing off the walls but she ignores him as she takes strides towards the circle and picks up the skull. She turns to face him, holding it out towards him and he avoids looking at it.

“Is this how we all end up?” Despite how hard she tries not to let it, her voice cracks.

Aston stiffens.

“Dead?”

“This is how we’ll all end up if we don’t figure out —” He’s unable to complete his sentence as Aleks continues to walk away. She doesn’t want to listen to him, she doesn’t want to hear the quiver in his voice and see how on edge he is. If she does, she will start to feel afraid herself — and she doesn’t want to. The entire mission will come to a standstill if she does, and finishing this mission is utterly important to her, regardless of what they might see and find. She is empty and nothing more than a monster, after all. A monster, a demon — a weapon. Aston is slowly trailing after her.

Last night, she had figured something out — the missing puzzle piece to it all. Yes, it is Iara he’s trying to bring back, but she’s not Luna. Luna — or Sariel, really — was the monster in her nightmares, angry at the fate she had chosen for herself. Angry at the world and she thrashes at Aleks’ rib cage and screams within her subconscious, scratching at the walls late at night as she froths at the mouth for the perfect revenge. She can’t believe it took her so goddamn long to figure out, and there was another thing to that dawned on her.

Aston and Sparrow. The way they whispered to each other, the way he carries himself — hunched and guilty — and she knows that she will die tonight. It’s something she has prepared herself for the last few hours. And quite honestly? She’s ready to die now.

She stops and studies the walls nearest to her — and another door that leads further into the torture chamber. There are deep, bloody claw marks — acts of desperation to escape whatever happens to them in this room. And a presence lingers, and it is heavy.

And it is angry.

[lettersandinkstains]

NaNo Excerpt

for NaNo, i’m working on both completing and editing early chapters of Altar -- here’s an excerpt from todays edit!

"Hey, welcome back! Got our keys, we're on the third floor." Aston waves the golden cards in front of her face -- the hotel's name is written in silver decorative font on the side. "Also got a message from the big guy to not get too comfortable." Of course. She definitely will not.

"Won't be hard for me, so I assume it's for you."

Aston gives her a little shrug and goes ahead of her as she trails slowly behind. How can he be so comfortable with their situation? Part of her does find it unfair, he’s so casual with everyone while she just wants to go back to Headquarters and curl up in her room small room, and pretend that Felonde — Aeonia in general — isn’t as lovely as she thought it was. She doesn’t know why her hopes coming true was more scary than them being dashed.

Most of all, she hates Aston for being so carefree, she hates how free she feels within the confines of this beautiful hotel — and how people can go about themselves without any extra concerns or worries. Women are dressed lavishly, men speak so freely and they’re all so happy. She feels under dressed, unprepared, and definitely like she doesn’t belong in her drab uniform of navy blue. Aleksandra unconsciously tugs at her top, the cotton suddenly feels rough, even with her blouse.

“Yo, Aleks, hurry it up!” Aston’s voice is loud and almost echoes through the hall.

[lettersandinkstains]

Last Line Tag

tagged by @livvywrites and @klywrites ! tagging - tagging @klywrites and @livvywrites back, @bookenders, @raevenlywrites, @milkyway-writes, @dove-actually​, @all-my-novels​, @authoressasusual​, @popovs​, @namme-e​, @madsaialik​, @nectargrapes​, @tragedyshow​, @quilloftheclouds​, and anyone who wants to do this!

“In these trying times, you can’t trust anyone,” Matija says, hardly glancing at them. “The Church has…done some gruesome things that Evras tried to disappear from the human eye, and tried to keep people from emigrating out and coming in. They were trying to keep us safe.” He hesitates. “Though I wonder if — if we can come in as refugees. No doubt news about what the Church has done already reached leaderships ears.”

“And where are you from?” Sparrow asks.

“Eh? Uh, Fahyrst, which is just north of here. Could be a days walk, at least.”

“Then we head there,” Sparrow says. “There’s bound to be someone who will recognize you and allow us in.”

“Fahyrst is a fairly large city now,” Matija says as he licks his lips and wraps his arms around himself. Sparrow watches him closely, brows knit together. “There’s no way we would have let the Church taper out our numbers. And there’s no way there will be people around who will recognize me.”

last line tag? more like, lemme just share the last few paragraphs written lmao

[lettersandinkstains]

Aleks' morning is going GREAT.

[lettersandinkstains]

spoiler!

“(...) and maybe that’s the perk of being a disgraced god -- they don’t have to pretend to be better than a human. They can just be, and he finds himself envious of such a cursed existence. 

(send me a “spoiler!” and i’ll give you a vague spoiler)

[lettersandinkstains]

Spoiler! 😁

even as her heart pounds in her chest, her face flushed, and she feels the threat of tears in her eyes, she remains where she stands. and as weak as she feels, she will not waver. not again. and by the gods, if she is going to die today, she will take him down with her -- come hell and high water, she promises herself that nobody will ever suffer again.

[send me a “spoiler” and i’ll give you a vague spoiler!]

[lettersandinkstains]

A scene.