“You may not leave until the sacrifice is made.” Paige said the words without emotion, feeling suddenly numb. While she knew the culture and had an open mind about religion and spirituality, this was a nightmare. She couldn’t believe they’d stumbled into this, and she hadn’t even asked Ethan yet where he’d heard the statement.

“What about Billy?” Charlotte asked frantically, shivering where she stood with them. She was going into shock if they didn’t calm her down soon.

“I don’t know where Billy is,” Kyle told her, his anxiety escalated. But he kept his voice even as he addressed Charlotte, for which Paige was grateful. “What I do know is, I’m not going to argue with some supernatural guardians that attack us when we try to leave the temple.”

Paige inhaled sharply. She had assumed they read the message somewhere, or that one of the monks had spoken to them. She met Ethan’s eyes, and he looked almost apologetic at having brought this to her. Gathering herself, she managed, “Were you actually attacked?”

“I don’t know how to describe it,” Ethan told her, scratching the back of his neck.

Kyle scoffed. “I can! One of those things touched my face. Its fingers somehow went through my skin. I could feel it on my cheek.” He shook his head. “I was waiting to die, man.”

Paige glanced at Charlotte, shaking harder now. “Kyle, grab one of those blankets and wrap it around her, will you?” She turned back to Ethan while Kyle complied. “Were you about to leave the temple when this happened?”

He nodded. “We were a few feet from the door. And we were moving fast because we’d heard…” He halted, looked briefly at Charlotte, and continued, “We’d heard Bily again. I’m sure he was outside.”

Paige tried to reconcile the idea that Billy had made it out but these ghosts or spirits or whatever they were had refused to let Kyle and Ethan leave. The implications were terrifying. There was no way she could voice it in front of Charlotte. The girl would lose it, and they couldn’t afford for her to freak out and try to run away.

But even as she tried to figure out a way to talk to Ethan without Charlotte hearing, the other girl gasped and stared at her in horror. “They’re going to sacrifice Billy!”

Ethan tensed visibly, and he turned to Charlotte as Kyle took her by the shoulders and held her still. She fought him for a moment and then fell back against him. Ethan told her in a soothing tone, “You don’t know that, Charlotte. I think he’s trying to run, and he probably tripped and broken a bone or something.”

But she shook her head frantically. “Don’t even try to lie to me. I can put it together, you know. I’m not stupid. Billy disappeared and started screaming his ass off, and then some crazy ghosts came and told you that we can’t leave until the sacrifice is done. They’re sacrificing him, and we have to stay and listen to it until they finish. And they’re going to replace the blood in those urns with his blood.” She paled and looked like she might swoon. “They’re going to come for me, too. I’m the reason he spilled that blood. I was too rough.”

Paige didn’t know how to calm her. If what shse assumed was happening really was, then Charlotte was right. Billy was a sacrifice. And she didn’t know if, because Charlotte had been involved, she would be another target. She was relieved when Kyle stepped up to try to ease the tension, despite his own fear radiating from him.

“You have to calm down, Charlotte. We don’t know what actually happened. And for all I know, that vision of the souls or ghosts or spirits was produced by mass hysteria. They weren’t real, and Billy did exactly what Ethan said, tripped and broke his leg. And he got so panicked he tried to keep going, which is why he kept screaming.”

Paige could tell Charlotte didn’t buy it, but she didn’t try to break away from Kyle and bolt. At least, not yet. While she didn’t have a great deal of hope that either her or Kyle would be resilient enough to keep their cool all night, she was grateful they had a prior friendship. Or whatever relationship they’d had in the past.

“The point is, we don’t need to jump to conclusions,” Paige told her, mimicking the tone her mother had used on her when she’d had a nightmare. Soothing, purposeful, carefully moderated. “We need to sit down and breathe, or sleep, and wait for the monks to return. They’re retrieving their sacrifice, and if those spirits are most likely protecting the temple until they come back. That’s the sacrifice they’re referring to.” At least, Paige wanted to believe that.

It just seemed far more likely that Kali had sent his minions in to punish those who had desecrated his temple. And Paige could only hope that didn’t extend to the entire traveling party.