Silent Echoes by Aimee Laine

Author:Aimee Laine [Laine, Aimee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, mythology, Zeus, game, construction
ISBN: 9781937744229
Amazon: B00BLMXY7W
Barnesnoble: B00BLMXY7W
Goodreads: 17556549
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
Published: 2013-02-25T06:00:00+00:00

20

Her body lays across a pyre but not in effigy. A single flame flies toward the mound, thrown by his own hand. As the fire grows upon the rise, he stands at its edge—a perimeter made for a single witness.

Orange bleeds into blue. Blue to red. The colors sear the wood, smoldering and igniting under her unmoving form. Each lick of flame emboldens him.

Searing heat licks her toes and dances its way toward her ankles, thighs and arms. Her body jolts, though she does not attempt escape—the centerpiece to her own life’s finale.

His lips curve upward.

A scream fills the air, sending birds to the sky—the flapping of wings barely audible over the building inferno’s roar.

He bristles—a momentary worry she may rise from death’s clutches.

The blaze accepts her body as its fuel. Kindling snaps. Sparks fly upward, adding to the smoke-fogged air.

He twirls a single red rose between his fingertips, thorns digging into his pads. His gaze remains fixed on the fire, and the woman who can no longer be defined.

Deer run from one side of the clearing to the other, away from the unceasing heat. Not even nature wishes to be beholden to the man, yet it cannot separate itself from his deed.

A bellow sounds from the center of the pile as it collapses upon itself. Cascading rivers of liquid flow along the sides.

The fire sings, whistling a deep tune and claiming, for itself, everything within its reach.

He remains in place, a grin reaching across his face, growing with each crackle.

Each pop.

“In death, we have parted.” The rose twists between his fingers until flakes and dust settle in the center of the destruction, a wide circle where once her body laid as if at rest.

A dying spark sustains itself as if holding out hope for more fuel. He crushes it underfoot, stomping out the final vestiges of life on the scorched patch of earth. “No man, save me, shall ever have your love.”

A flicker of blue catches his eye. On bent knee, he runs a fingertip over a soft, velvet square. That it survived the fury surprises him, yet he does not react, for he has already accomplished his mission.

He holds out the rose, its bloom full and bright. It hovers above the center of ash. “Never again will you betray me.” Decisive contempt fuels his voice.

He opens his hand.

The flower drops to the ground, sending puffs of white ash into the air.

“The betrayer reaps her own sorrows.”

Her demise is his success.

• • •

Taylor could no longer differentiate between realities. Words held no meaning. Time meant nothing. Fire consumed her. For all she knew, her body laid across a pile of wood. She tried to move, yelled and screamed at herself to fight, to rise, to depart.

None of it worked.

Tanner’s face etched itself in her mind’s eye. That followed with Ian’s. Round and round they went, mixing and merging within her dream state.

Flames.

Bath.

Falling house.

Fire.

Water.

Earth.

The hotter the air flamed around her, the more she cried out. Whether sound escaped, she didn’t know.

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