SEDUCING THE FLAME: Excerpt
PROLOGUE
The flame flickered, its writhing shadow cast upon a woman gasping for air. She was the hope of the empire. The flame was the symbol of its strength. Both were starving.
She sat in a glistening cave, a clammy entrapment where moisture clung to everything including the oil lamp perched up and to her left. The silence was oppressive. Amelia had remained strong through her trial. She had even remained silent during her punishment.
She believed in a different ending.
Slithering off the side of her rock, the sash of Amelia’s gown wound itself between her bruised legs to reveal scratches of violent transport. Above her, the lamp fought the dark, and she struggled to find the point from where she had been dropped into this tomb. It was the point where he would come. She was sure of it. As sure as she was that he was running out of time.
Her hand snaked out and touched the only other object that had been placed here with her; a loaf of bread. The crust had been permeated by the damp but the inside was still dry. Amelia weakly tore away a morsel and brought it hesitantly to her mouth.
The ceiling groaned.
The bread was forgotten as Amelia clambered to her feet, staring frantically beyond the glow of the lamp. But she had risen too fast and thus she fell, losing her balance in a wave of vertigo that claimed her poise. She contorted, like a cat stretching with a broken back, and strained to see beyond the light that hissed in anger, desperately sucking energy from the remains of fragrant oil. Amelia’s energy was spent as well. But her mouth parted, cracked and dry with crumbs. She needed to speak. She needed to finally utter what she had wanted to say for over a week. But now, when she did, the sound of her words only went as far as the edge of her lips. The weight of her doom had crushed the strength of her faith, and as this young symbol of hope succumbed to the darkness, the flame up above sputtered one final gasp and surrendered as well.