In the center of the floor was a circle, carved into the tile, embellished with runes and sigils and creatures—a lot like what was on my back. Four shallow channels ran around the outer edge, then swerved to the center and emptied into a circular indentation. Four stakes came out of the marble at four corners of the circle.Clear chairs were set up against the far wall, away from the only door. There were no windows, only a huge piece of circular glass in the ceiling, letting the moonlight through.“Val, you have to get the hell out of here now!” I struggled against my captors.Four Goths restrained her. “Not without you.”My parents breezed in, followed by Walter.“You know, Valerie,” my father said, “Augustina has quite the mean streak. Greedy too—plotting and planning to eliminate Natalie from your lives, and attaching a price tag to all of it.”“My sister helped you with all of this?” Val said.“I couldn’t have done it without her. She helped search for the missing pages.
