Wolf of the West by Burke Belinda

Author:Burke, Belinda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
Published: 2015-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Connor’s steps slowed as he continued down the road, weighted by some terrible premonition. He tried to stay focused and alert, but it was hard with nothing to focus on. Marcas paced beside him, steady comfort, and Connor let one hand rest on the broad, furred back.

No one else appeared as he made his way closer to the turn off that would lead to the village and his father’s ráth, and when he came to it, there was still silence. No one was in the fields and every house he rode past appeared to be empty—no voices, no faces appearing at the doors to see who was riding past.

The quiet was more eerie than any other thing in his experience. Already, his heart weighed heavy in him. Something terrible has happened here. He knew it must be true, even though there was no sign of it. No blood, no bodies, nothing out of place.

Slow and slower he went, up through the empty and silent village, along a road he had traveled many times. It curved back and forth across the front of the hill, and at the top he saw finally the reason for the silence.

Fire had visited his home.

Everything was burned—every building, every part of the ráth but the walls. It had been days ago, or longer. Only ashes were left and even they grew less and less by the moment, carried away by the wind. He slipped from the back of the horse and down to his knees, staring forward at the ruin of everything that had made up his life.

Time passed. He sat and stared until ash blew into his eyes and set them burning. Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet and made his way from one pile of ashes to another, only then discovering the worst of it.

Bones, but not—only the shape of them. Whatever had burned here was something that had burned hot enough to leave only ash in the shape of bones behind. The charred shapes were everywhere, unavoidable once he had noticed them, strewn through the ashes and left to lie without ceremony or burial.

Some of the bone-shapes were ringed in gold, and he didn’t understand how this could be so. A fire hot enough to melt the flesh away and turn bone to dust would melt the gold, too.

“No normal fire did this…”

The worst of it was what Connor came to last. His eyes tracked from one detail to another—there, just there, was the wrecked charcoal shell that had been the hall of his forefathers. And there, his bedchamber had been there, and his mother’s, his sisters’—

There were the shapes of bones in those ashes too.

No.

He tried to say it, a reflex that went unfulfilled in the dryness of his mouth. Against his will, Connor’s gaze was drawn to things that spoke of an undeniable truth. His mother’s favorite armband, settled now into the ash, against the shape of a slender bone that wore the bright gold with no flesh to support it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.