CHAPTER 12
So it had come to this. Death by fire. Callie caught hold of Stephen’s hand, clinging fast for comfort as they were dragged out from the castle keep and taken towards the open fields. She looked about her, noting a crowd of onlookers in the distance. As they drew closer, she saw that the spectators were assembled around three stakes, which stood like tall black crosses against the bright sky. A heaped pile of kindling nestled at the base of each stake, ready to fuel the flames.
Callie’s blood, her bones, her very being, dissolved in fear as she imagined her body slowly burning, melting into the flames: first her feet and then her legs, and up and up. The pain would be excruciating; she knew she would howl with it until she finally lost consciousness and died.
She straightened
