“Heinrich!” I screamed his name, and he turned to me slowly.
He raised one hand, outstretched into the flames that coiled around him, hungry. He beckoned to me, his palm open as the fire roared higher and higher—like six pairs of golden wings.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t step toward him, the flames blocking my path. Years of nightmares surfaced—flesh peeling, guts bursting. Even at this distance the heat was immense, the hairson my neck and arms rising, confusing it for bitter cold. Every instinct urged to run, to flee before the flames found me too. I knew these would not bend to my will, the destruction in them too great.
But I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t leave him.
The cathedral ceiling groaned above us, centuries of wood and faith about to collapse. But Heinrich stood in the heart of it all, untouched, waiting. His eyes—dark and patient—held me steady.
“Come to me,” he said, though his voice shouldn’t have carried over the fury of the fire.
So many had burned in this city, screaming as they were dragged to their fate. They hadn’t had a choice as the flames ate them down to nothing.
I did.
I looked into his eyes, and there was no darkness, only light—a golden light calling me to a home I had long forgotten.
“Be not afraid.”
I stepped into the fire.
It should have been agony. It should have been my mother’s death all over again. Instead, the flames parted like the great sea, hot but not burning, and then?—
My fingers slid over his. He tugged, pulling me through the last of the flames so I landed against his chest. Arms wrapped around me, and I pressed close as his scent engulfed me. It was not smoke and ash, but something softer that dragged me back to quiet mornings studying in the rectory. Below the power it was ancient paper and leather, with just a hint of incense.
“Heinri—” But his hand cradled the back of my head so I couldn’t look up at him. The flames surged around us, and his soft voice whispered in my ear.
“Do you trust me, my Katharina?”
I always had. Even when I’d known what he was, I had never feared him, not truly. I had always known he would protect me, at all costs. I leaned into his chest, and as the cathedral splintered and fell around us, I heard the steady beating of his heart.
“I do.”
“Then remember, you must suffer to find salvation. In order to be reborn, first one must die.”
“You promised me?—”
“Yes, my dove. I promised. But once two souls have been intertwined, they can never truly be parted.”
“Do you mean Heinrich’s or mine?”
“With a love like yours, they are one and the same.”
My hands shook as I gripped him tighter. Tears leaked from my eyes, evaporating before they could fall.
The flames were closer now, no longer held back by whatever power he possessed. Sweat trickled down my spine as they licked at my feet. Then it was hot—so hot I could think of nothing else.
Smoke filled my nostrils and my skin began to bubble. My nails sank into the flesh of his back.
The pain surged, a consuming wave that swallowed me whole. I screamed against Heinrich’s chest and felt the vibration of his voice murmuring words I could not understand, a hymn in a language older than the world.
I could feel it—every layer of myself being stripped away, rendered down to fat and bone while my blood boiled.
I understood now why so many screamed. How could they not? How could anyone endure this? They couldn’t. I couldn’t.
But Heinrich held me through it, his arms never loosening even as my flesh fused to his, even as we burned together in the heart of this false temple.
Let go, something whispered.You need to fall.
