Page 75 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
Caretaker mine."
The chanting had grown louder, and I could sense the crowd outside the door. Suddenly my skin felt too tight. Damnation! Where had Monk found that spell?
The door was kicked in and clawing hands swept me from my home. In a sea of black wool and white collars, I lost sight of Enrique. My body, weakened by their chant, was pinched, yanked, and torn until I was brought to a stake near the church. Once they bound me to it, Monk arrived.
The man of little stature approached with a great book engulfed in his arms. I recognized the tome right away, the Book of Flesh and Bone. A sister from Salem had told me about it but I never thought it would make it this far. The pages were made of flayed human skin, the cover layered with the same. The ink contained human blood and the inlaid design on the spine was not pearl but human teeth. Legend said it was written by the devil. I wasn't sure I believed in a devil, per se, but if there was a source of all evil and darkness, certainly he was the author of this tome.
"Finally, justice."
"Justice? You call this justice? Burning an innocent woman without so much as a trial?"
"Innocent? The fire will prove your innocence."
"If I burn, I'm innocent, and if I don't, I'm a witch? That is my trial?"
Monk turned away, and one of the men approached, torch in hand. My heart pounded. My breath came in pants. Enrique had tried to warn me, but how was I to know Monk had the book?
As the flames caught, and licked up my body, I separated myself from the excruciating pain, pulling back from the memory, and becoming an observer of my own death.
Isabella's left hand, charred and blackened, rose to waist level, light shooting from her fingers as her final words bubbled from her dying lips. "Caretaker of the light, always." Enrique's body seized as the light plowed into him, flopping on the ground and contorting in pain. The crowd turned to watch him fall, but I knew their own fate was moments away. The book would demand its price.
Darkness swallowed the memory, my soul slipping from my charred remains. And that's when the Book of Light spit me out into the attic.
Reverie
Caw.
Snap. Snap.
Flap, flap, flap.
I opened my eyes to find Poe dancing on my chest.
"Are you dead?" he asked.
"Do I look dead?"
"Actually, yes. Although more animated than five minutes ago."
Sweeping Poe from my chest, I sat up and straightened my shirt. "How long have I been out?"
"About an hour. I was beginning to worry."
"I saw my own death, again. Honestly, I'm not sure how useful the memory was. I barely got a glimpse of the Book of Flesh and Bone. Most of the memory was about Rick."
"Maybe that was as close as she could get you. Maybe the book is trying to say that Rick was the last person to see it. If that was your first and last memory, Rick may be the key."
"Fantastic." Sarcasm oozed from the word. "So we are back at square one."
"You sound less than enthused about the prospect."
"Poe, I'm not sure I can even trust Rick. After what happened with Gary, how can I know he's being honest with me? And there's something else. Something I never realized before the Book of Light showed me."
"What?"
"Isabella, the first...me, she lured Rick into being the caretaker. You should have seen how smitten he was for her. But he never understood who she really was. He gave himself to her without truly knowing the price."
"He must have loved her greatly."
