The Sacrifice

Set in the same world as The Ritual and The Sinner, this dark romance can be read as a standalone. It follows Tyson Crawford and Laikyn Minson, told in dual first-person perspectives, as their lives collide within a brutal secret society called the Lords.

The Lords are a powerful secret society whose male members inherit their positions by blood. To earn full membership, initiates must complete three years of brutal trials at Barrington University, an elite institution for the wealthy. These trials test their loyalty, devotion, and commitment, escalating in severity each year from a freshman year fight-to-the-death to targeted murder and political blackmail. During one such trial, Tyson defies orders to save the chosen of Saint, one of the formidable Spade brothers—renegade Lords who run a brutal territory called Carnage—forging a crucial debt-based alliance. Those who survive are branded with a hot iron during a ceremony at the Cathedral, the Lords' sacred meeting place. During their senior year, each Lord is "gifted" a chosen, a daughter of a Lord whom he must claim in a public vow ceremony.

Three years after being framed for the murder of his chosen, Whitney Minson, Tyson runs a nightclub called Blackout, a deal that grants him autonomy from the Lords' direct control. Seeking revenge on the Minson family for the setup, he hijacks the wedding of Whitney's younger sister, Laikyn, to another powerful Lord, Luke Cabot. The marriage was arranged by Laikyn's father, Frank, and her brother, Miller, who are also high-ranking Lords. Believing Tyson killed her sister, Laikyn despises him, but is forced into the marriage when Tyson threatens her brother's life at knifepoint. Tyson subjects her to a relentless campaign of humiliation and control. On their wedding night, he takes her virginity and forces her to get a long-term birth control shot. He then forces her to wear a shock collar he can activate remotely, work as a cocktail waitress at his club to shame her family, and submit to his depraved sexual demands, which include bondage, public degradation, and pain play. His control is tested by the reappearance of Laikyn's ex-boyfriend, Collin, now a police officer investigating the disappearance of a young woman last seen at Blackout. The investigation stirs Tyson's jealousy and forces him to confront a series of similar kidnappings that connect back to a past crime from his own initiation. Despite her hatred, a complex and volatile relationship develops. Laikyn finds herself physically drawn to Tyson's dominance, while Tyson becomes fiercely possessive and protective, blurring the lines of his revenge plot. Meanwhile, Laikyn is manipulated by her father, Frank, who gives her a secret phone and forces her to undertake dangerous "initiations" for the Lords, which are actually a ploy to undermine Tyson. This web of deceit culminates in Laikyn being stabbed during a brawl at Blackout, an event orchestrated by her family. Shortly after, a fire destroys the club, and in the chaos, Laikyn is kidnapped. The world is led to believe she died in the blaze.

Tyson launches a brutal, bloody search for Laikyn. He discovers her kidnapper is Luke, her original fiancé, who had been missing since the wedding. He also learns the shocking truth: Whitney is not dead but has been working with Luke, her brother Miller, and their father, Frank, all along. Whitney's "death" three years prior was a scheme to frame Tyson and remove him as a threat. The Minsons' true plan was never for Laikyn to marry Luke, but to sell her into sexual slavery to a rival organization; her virginity was a key selling point, and they even schemed to get her pregnant to increase her value. Tyson's forced marriage inadvertently saved her from this fate. With the help of his allies, including the formidable Spade brothers—powerful figures who run Carnage, a brutal prison-like territory—Tyson rescues Laikyn from a psychiatric facility where she was being held, sedated, and tortured; her jaw had been wired shut to stop her from biting her captors. In a final confrontation at the Cathedral, Tyson exposes the Minsons' treachery and exacts his bloody revenge, killing Frank, Luke, and Miller. Whitney, whose jealousy of Laikyn fueled her betrayal, is handed over to the Spade brothers to face her own punishment, as she holds the key to the whereabouts of Saint's long-lost chosen. In the end, Tyson and Laikyn, now pregnant with twins, build a life together, truly in love and free from the Minsons' control. An epilogue set eighteen years later shows them happily married with two teenage children, Halston and Hartlyn, who are preparing to attend Barrington University themselves.