Burning Bridges

Burning Bridges

Burning Bridges

The Bleeding Heart
Trilogy

Vol. 1

Nad
è
ge Richards

Copyright 2012
© Nadège Richards

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, including photocopying, recording, or transmitted by any means without written consent of the author.

Published in the United States of America in July 2012.

Edited by Carley Zucco

Book design
by Silviya Yordanova
|
http://www.morteque.deviantart.com | http://www.facebook.com/MyBeautifulDarkness

Model:
Johanna Taiger

ISBN
: 978
-
1
-
4701
-
0279
-
1

This is a work of fiction.

All the characters and events portrayed in this
novel are either fictitious or used fictitiously.

To Mom—

for teaching me to shoot for the
stars
and never settle for the
moo
n

Burning Bridges

We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments
.
–
Oscar Wilde

PRESENT DAY

O N E

Echo

SIPHON
’
S CITY, NEW HAVEN

I
knew, without a
shadow of a
doubt, I was going to die tonight. There was no escaping it or any way around it. I couldn
’
t run from my destiny this time; I couldn
’
t hide. No, tonight I faced my fate in the chambers of death.

The screams of the crowd in the arena filled my ears, the shouts of excitement and laughter boiling my heart down to nothing but untainted sorrow. I refused to open my eyes, but I could sense where I was by that rusty smell of metal and dried blood Father brought home with him every day. The shackles that bound my ankles and wrists to the wall confirmed it. I was a prisoner in my own home, my own Haven. I couldn
’
t fathom how in forty-eight hours my life had taken a
one-eighty
spin, but here I was, locked in the dungeon of my father
’
s
kingdom, hidden from the world unti
l it was my time to surface.

“
Echo… Can
you hear me? Echo?
”
The voice
’
s intensity made me stir. I ignored it at first, but it just grew louder and more insistent.
“
Echo!
”

As I moved to sit up, the cold cement scrapped against my bare body, causing my scabbed wounds to bleed. My head felt heavier on one side than it did the other, and my torso seemed as flimsy as flax. I searched for the calling in the obscurity of the sector and found him chained to the opposite wall. It took me a second to orient his face from the rest of his body, but when I met those otherworldly, violet irises, reality struck me hard and cold.

“
You
’
re alive,
”
Ayden sighed.
“
Are you all right?
”

“
Barely,
”
I croaked.

Silence filled us as we stared at each other for what felt like forever. I wanted to touch him, to hold him again, but I knew there was no way. The chains on my wrists held me in place with barely a foot
’
s room to move. It was cruel.

“
Ayden, I—
”

“
Don
’
t say it,
”
he interrupted.

I frowned.
“
How do you mean?
”

“
Don
’
t
try to
dissuade me from my decision, Echo. I don
’
t regret anything
, nor did I ever
.
”

I felt my knees begin to tremble then, tears well
ed
in my eyes.
“
Don
’
t tell me you
’
re going to go through wit
h this? Ayden, that
’
s ludicrous. Y
ou can die out there!
”

He wouldn
’
t look at me and for a while he said nothing.
“
Do you remember the question you asked me that one day at the river? Do you remember what I said?
”

I nodded slowly.
“
I asked you if you believed in second chances and you said—
”

“
Not until I met you,
”
he finished, his expression solemn.

Not wanting him to see the tears that had come to my eyes, I glanced out the small crack in the ceiling. Very little light shone through, but it provided a sense of security that the dungeon surely could not.

As the screams grew louder above our heads, Ayden and I listened to the Announcer call in the prisoners one by one.
As soon as the horn was blown
I could hear the clanging of swords and the sputtering of death threats as the two prisoners fought for their right to live.

It frightened me to think only one person would come out alive; only one person had that second chance.
When
the crowd exploded in
what sounded like
exhilaration, I knew that one person was chosen. Blood seeped through the crack and dripped onto the ground beside me, its descent like a
wakeup
call for the both of us. Knowing that Ayden
’
s blood or mine was next to be splattered against the sands of the arena made me suddenly feel ill.

“
How can you be so strong in an ordeal like this?
”
I whispered to him.

“
I
’
m not,
”
he answered, misery rimming his tone.
“
I
’
m scared
more than you can ever know. T
he fact that I can still see you and you
’
re very much alive gives me hope.
”

“
I don
’
t want to die, Ayden,
”
I confessed.

His chains pulled at the wall as he reached towards me, but he couldn
’
t get close enough. I looked away.
“
Echo, y
ou
are
no
t
going to die, do
n
’
t you remember
our plan
?
I love you, hold onto that. They can
’
t take me away from you.
”

I stifled a cry. He was wrong, and I was certain he knew it as well. One of us was going to die tonight and by next week all would be forgotten. We would cease to exist.

“
Second chances, Echo. Do you believe in second chances?
”
he yelled.

I didn
’
t look at him. The sound of the guards dragging the
prisoner
’
s dead body across the sands was all I could hear.

“
Echo, look at me!
”

When I finally did bring my eyes to his I noticed his irises were darker than usual, his face red and masked with anger.
“
I love you,
”
he said.
“
I always have and I always will. I don
’
t care what
the King
says or what my people think of me. My heart belongs to you, always. Please, tell me you will fight for that?
”

The pain in his eyes made me feel small. I wanted to crawl up in the hearth of his chest and lie there for years. I wanted to go back to the time when we were free, but no such thing existed now.

Before I could answer him, two guards covered in blood
and scars
broke into our sector and quickly unchained me. My screams echoed Ayden
’
s as we realized our time was over. Once unchained, they grabbed me by the waist and flipped me over their backs. Ayden
’
s shackles creaked in the walls, br
oke
through the cement, as he tried to reach me.

“
Ayden, I
’
m so sorry. I
’
ll fight!
Gods,
I love you!
”
I shouted
, struggling in the arms of my captors
.
Ayden
’
s
anger matched my own.

As they shoved me out the door, a hand caught onto my necklace. Ayden
’
s chains had broken and he was desperately reaching fo
r me before the iron bars stood bet
ween us. B
ut this outcome was inevitable. We knew it the first time we kissed, the moment we fell in love, the first night we spent together, and now.
I watched him as I left and, not for the first time, wept.

The guards brought me to
the King
and I slumped to the ground in front of him
, the gown I
’
d worn the night before looking as dirty as the ground that lay beneath me
. He was always my
sense of direction,
the man I thought to be my father
, b
ut I knew this time he was against my judgment.

Throwing down a bloody sword, he said,
“
You
’
ve betrayed me,
Echo
. You know my
rules, and yet you still defied me anyway
. Henceforth, you will receive the greatest punishment of all
, the only one I can bear
to give you
.
”
His eyes fell
to the ground
in a way that made it seem as if it were painful to set them upon me. He was disgusted by the mere idea that
someone
could love a peasant, a Hunter boy. But I had no shame, I had no regrets. I would fight.

Before exiting the room and returning to his place in the arena, he glanced over his shoulder with the merciless gaze he gave to all his prisoners and said,
“
The boy you deceive
d me for will die by your hands.”