Bloodwing Academy, #1
On Wings of Blood
by Briar Boleyn
Contents
Chapter 41
Overview
Reeling from the ball, Medra secretly follows a drinking Blake through hidden passages into the Sanctum of the Bloodmaiden. From a balcony, she witnesses a clandestine “Blessed Blood” rite led by a masked man and a serene, unmasked Bloodmaiden. The ritual’s sensual, cultlike devotion alarms Medra. Blake discovers and seizes her, exposing her intrusion.
Summary
After fleeing the ball, Medra battles anger and confusion over Blake’s behavior and her entanglement with Kage. Florence checks on her, mentions Naveen’s successful solo, and invites Medra back to the tower. Spotting Blake leave with a liquor bottle, Medra decides to follow him instead.
Medra shadows Blake through the academy and into the Dragon Court’s hidden stairwell, careful of his possible fury and dulled senses. She tracks him through House Orphos catacombs and deep tunnels beneath sea level, then loses his footsteps and continues alone. After a long, claustrophobic walk, she ascends to a marble landing, finds Blake’s bottle, and uses a concealed panel to enter an upper level of the Sanctum of the Bloodmaiden.
From a shadowed balcony lined with candles and flowers, Medra watches masked highbloods gather around a silver bowl as a gong sounds. A black-robed, masked man takes an empty throne. A young woman in white—unmasked, serene—steps forward as the assembly hails the start of a “union of the Blessed Blood,” vowing to worship her.
The woman climbs to the throne and straddles the masked man, turning the rite overtly sensual and unsettling. As Medra processes the cultlike devotion and its implications, a hand clamps over her mouth. Blake whispers that he has caught her, exposing her infiltration of the forbidden ceremony.
Who Appears
- MedraProtagonist; upset after the ball, follows Blake into secret tunnels, infiltrates the Sanctum, witnesses a forbidden rite, is caught.
- Blake DrakharrowArchon; drinking, descends to the Sanctum by hidden ways, attends the clandestine ritual, discovers Medra spying.
- Bloodmaiden (young woman in white)Unmasked figure revered in the rite; serenely accepts and offers an exchange in the “Blessed Blood” union.
- Masked man on the throneBlack-robed leader presiding over the ritual; receives the Bloodmaiden’s offering and conducts the ceremony.
- FlorenceFriend; checks on Medra after the ball, reports Naveen’s success, invites her back to the tower.
- Masked highbloodsAssembly in silver masks; witnesses and affirms devotion during the clandestine “Blessed Blood” ceremony.