Sacrifices Read Online Free PDF

waved her hands, as if to underscore her exasperation with the ridiculousness of it.
    The most unbelievable part of everything going on at Oakhurst wasn’t even Merlin or Mordred. It was all of them—or some of them, at least. Just before the Shadow Knights arrived, Oakhurst had gotten a new student. For some reason, Elizabeth Walker had come to Spirit to tell her a story Spirit had found nearly-impossible to believe.
    *   *   *
    “ It is all part of the curse that fell upon Britain when Mordred betrayed Arthur and sold himself to the Dark,” Elizabeth said earnestly. “Everyone involved in any way with Arthur’s kingdom is doomed to be reborn over and over until either the Shadow or the Grail triumphs. One must destroy the other.”
    “So why doesn’t anyone remember all this?” Spirit wanted to know.
    “The Shadow Knights do, but only if they turn to the Dark. Their master, Mordred, wakes their memories. I do not know about the Grail Knights. Possibly Merlin wakes theirs as well. But when they are reborn, they have no memories of their past lives.”
    “But—I don’t get it. If they’re reborn over and over and fight the war over and over, why hasn’t anyone noticed until now?”
    “Because until the spirit in the Tree was freed, they had no leader and no direction,” Elizabeth said simply.
    *   *   *
    Elizabeth had called them “Reincarnates.” Elizabeth/Yseult’s Gift had been precognition—she’d called it “prophecy”—and it had awakened early, causing her to dream her true life until she was forced to believe in it. She’d said there was no “Elizabeth Walker,” only Yseult of Cornwall, wife of Mark, lover of Tristan. Sorceress, healer. A figure out of Arthurian Legend.
    Only the legend was real.…
    And if I’d believed her, instead of thinking she was crazy, maybe she’d be here now, Spirit thought miserably. Elizabeth had been terrified by what she knew, and the next morning she was gone, just the way so many Oakhurst students had vanished since.
    “Elizabeth said Madison Lane-Rider and Muirin were sisters—or Reincarnate sisters, anyway,” Spirit said. “And that Mark Rider was another one—Reincarnate, not sister. And probably Teddy, too.”
    “Huh,” Loch said, frowning. “Didn’t Muirin say the only reason Ovcharenko was interested in her was because she was Madison’s sister?”
    “Well don’t remind her,” Addie said. “I don’t think she’s put it all together. If she decides she’s a Reincarnate, she’ll probably decide that Guinevere isn’t exciting enough and want to be Cleopatra.”
    “She’s got the makeup thing down already,” Loch said with a smile.
    “Too bad you don’t get to choose,” Spirit said. I’d choose to be in some other story. “But Elizabeth said something else. She said none of the Reincarnates knows who they are until someone awakens their memories.”
    “So Ovcharenko makes five Reincarnates we know of,” Burke said. “He wouldn’t know about the others any other way. And that means Mordred has to be the one ‘awakening’ them.”
    “But if Mordred’s doing that for the Shadow Knights … Where’s the wizard to wake up the Grail Knights?” Spirit asked.
    “I still want to know what Mordred—and everybody else who’s trying to turn us into playing pieces—wants. Because England is that way,” Loch said, pointing. “And nobody ever mentioned Mordred wanting McBride County, Montana. But he’s here— if he’s here—so what does he want now?”
    “I’d settle for knowing who the Knights of the Round Table are supposed to be,” Spirit said. “Not everybody with magic is a Reincarnate. But some of them are.” Not me. Some of you, she thought, looking at her friends. Some of the people who actually have magic. “If the Shadow Knights are the bad guys, that makes the Grail Knights the good guys. So where are they?”
    And if Mordred is somewhere around here “awakening” Shadow Knight Reincarnates,