Read The Burning for Free Online Page B

the outside. Not promising. But there was one larger cave, discovered long ago, with many branches and side passages. Stephan would start there. He strode through the darkness, stiff with purpose. He would not think of the horrific job to come. It was the price. The price he longed to pay to expiate his crimes. Asharti was his fault, her evil laid at his door. He might have turned her toward goodness if it hadn’t been for loving Beatrix.
    Beatrix . . . for a while he thought she loved him in return. He began to see life as more than an endless series of jaded encounters with human cupidity and cruelty. He’d found that the world held possibility when he saw it through her young eyes. Then came the realization.
    CASTLE SINCAI, TRANSYLVANIAN ALPS, 1105
    In the darkness of the barn, with the breathing of the animals all around, Stephan opened his eyes as Beatrix approached. The green smell of new-cut hay mingled with the aroma of horses. And beneath that, the musky scent of their lovemaking in the stall. As he sat, the blanket fell to his waist, exposing his bare chest and shoulders. When had she left him? He must have fallen into exhausted sleep. There was a hard core of despair in his belly. Beatrix thought he did not love her because he had tried to love Asharti. Asharti hated him because she knew in his heart he loved only Beatrix. Making love to Beatrix had not erased her hurt .
    There was no happy exit from this tangled experiment he had made. Now Beatrix would leave him. Asharti, too. That did not matter. What he cared about was Beatrix. He looked at her dark, innocent eyes, now drenched in pain and decision .
    And it came to him — an epiphany that wrote the story of a bleak future in his heart with acid ink. Beatrix was bound to go. She was an innocent, who loved him when her view of the world was narrow, and he could fill all her ideas of love. But first loves didn’t last. She had outgrown him .
    Beatrix stood in the doorway, mustering her courage to tell him. She did not yet know that she was bound to stop loving him, even though he would never stop loving her. “We’re leaving, Stephan. Both of us. I just came to let you know.”
    He nodded. “I understand.” He held himself tight against the pain. There was hope for peace in her heart, if not in his. He had to try to help her to that peace. “You will come to hate me before you forgive me. At least I hope you can forgive me. But first, be sure to forgive yourself.”
    “She has nothing to forgive herself.” Asharti’s sharp voice came from behind them. Beatrix turned abruptly. Asharti was dressed for traveling .
    “You didn’t trust me to say good-bye?” Beatrix asked .
    “I didn’t trust him, sister.” She motioned to Stephan. “Let us go now.”
    “Be your own person, Beatrix,” Stephan whispered. “If you need me, I’ll come.”
    “Bea will not need you.” Asharti sneered. “I’ll teach her what she needs to know.”
    Beatrix stood, paralyzed, staring at him. Her eyes filled .
    “Come, sister,” Asharti barked. Beatrix turned. Time stopped. Stephan wanted to stop her, but what use? She didn’t love him. He had no right to ask her to love him. He was old and soiled. She was fresh, with a thousand lifetimes ahead of her to experience the love she did not share with him .
    Asharti stretched out her hand. Already her eyes were reddening. Beatrix walked to her. Asharti grasped her hand. Beatrix took a long breath. Stephan could see her call her Companion. Bile surged into his throat. He had no right to sully Beatrix with his love. She had outgrown him .
    A whirling darkness enveloped the two young women. And then they were gone .
    Stephan looked around him, not sure where he was or how he had gotten here. The town lights winked through the trees directly below him. Love was not for him. He had loved Beatrix for what? Seven hundred years? Give or take. Long after she had forgotten him. And eleven years ago he had pardoned Asharti for her