So much about the night before was fuzzy. I’d been staggering down a side street to find Alexios when a dozen of the king’s guards had surrounded me. I’d managed to stay on my feet, but then one of them had hit my head from behind, and the world went dark.
What a cockup.If I’d just gone with my valet to the temple like he’d asked, I wouldn’t be getting well-toasted from the feet up. Temples were sacred spaces, belonging only to the Goddess of all, Her priests and priestesses, and petitioners. No one could be arrested inside one, not even a tax evader. But I’d been afraid of catching Her attention after so long.
The jolt of agony that jarred me as the fire rose high enough to char my toenails made it clear I needed to make a choice.
Hells.If I called out, She might answer. The Goddess had used me as Her avatar dozens of times when I was younger. I hadn’t minded it that much. But once I showed signs of becoming an Omega and Alphas began sniffing around, I’d realized She wanted me for more than my skills with poisons and knives. I’d cut a bargain to get Her to leave me alone. So far, She’d honored our deal for nine and half years not to poke Her celestial nose into my shit.
For all I knew, She might not even hear me now if I called. What if I’d completely pissed Her off?
Abandoned, a small voice whined in my mind.Abandoned by my mother, and my Mother.
Only one way to find out if it was right. If I didn’t get some help somewhere, this crowd was going to find out how roasted Omega smelled.
Goddess?I called out in my thoughts.Ah, I could use a little help here.
There was no answer, except that the flames licked even higher on my ankle, charring the skin there. Fuck, that hurt worse than being stabbed.
“Goddess?” I called out loud. “I’m in trouble. Help?”
Still no answer, other than a stiff gust of cool wind that blew the encroaching flames back for a moment.
A rotten tomato hit my cheek and slid to my feet, landing on one of the burning sticks beside my left foot. Suddenly, the pyresmelled a bit like tomato soup. I kept scanning the crowd, noting that a lot of the people were eating turkey legs and drinking small cups of mead, like they were at a festival.
I half-hoped the smell of cooking meat that wafted past my nostrils was the turkey and not me, but the pain that seared my nerves below my knees was making it hard to pretend.
Then a child yelled, “Yum! Smell her, Mama!”
“Smell that!” a man yelled. A fight broke out at the base of the platform as a group of men tried to climb into it. Even a few of the guards had turned toward me, their eyes lit with flames of something I’d seen plenty of times.
Lust.
Fucking hells.Was my cooking flesh turning them on? The answer came as the guards began to move burning logs away from the edges of the pyre with their swords, their mouths open as they caught the scent.
Where in the world was my Beta? I pursed my lips and gave a series of whistles, hoping he was close enough to hear, and praying the whole time.
The judge rolled the scroll up, tucked it under his red-robed arm, and raised his voice. “May the Goddess judge her for her crimes in the life beyond this, as she has been judged and found guilty in this one.” His rheumy eyes met mine, the red sparks in them making my blood run cold, even as I burned. “Ratter of Rimholt, I commit your soul to the flames.” He smiled, the eerie flicker in his pupils turning to flames that glowed over his wrinkled cheeks. His voice dropped an octave as he went on. “Rada. My lost bride.”
Oh, hells no.I’d only ever been one man’s bride, and he hadn’t spoken with a malevolent, deep voice that made me want to cry and throw up at the same time. That voice and those eyes didn’t belong to the judge. I had a bad feeling I knew whose they might be, though.
I cursed in every language I knew and when I ran out of words, I started praying at the top of my lungs. “I take it back, Goddess! I’ll let you in, just get me out of this—ahh!” I felt my calves blistering, my toes curling in the flames.
But for the first time in my life, She didn’t answer.
Someone else did, though. A voice slithered out of the fire itself, whispering my name. It was eerie, but familiar. “Rada. Rada. Rada, it’s me.”
As the flames slipped higher, though I knew it was a mistake, I answered. “Serak?”
He gave a low, crackling laugh. “No, my bride. Not Serak.”
SERAK
Serak?
The soft cry woke me. I’d been dreaming of her, as I often did in the maw. Dreaming of the only woman I’d ever wanted. The last one I’d kissed over ten years before, back when I was a brash young man.
I hadn’t seen her since, but I remembered everything about her. I dreamed of her constantly, and clung to the dreams when I woke. In this one, I’d murmured her name into her cool, dark hair as she held me in slender arms frosted with ice. She’d pressed healing into the burns that covered my skin, and pleasure into the few spaces that remained unmarked by fire. Somehow, she had carried me to the north, far from the Alldyns Vug, the caldera of the volcano that towered over the main island of Pict, where I had been brought up and lived most of my thirty years.
In my dream, I’d heard her crying out for help, and I’d replied. “Rada. Rada. Rada, it’s me.”
