Free Burned by Jennifer Blackstream Page A

back, watching as the earth opened up to reveal a doorway.
     
      A soft breeze tickled his skin, a subtle reminder of his nudity. He was unclear if Queen Dubheasa’s instructions for both he and his men to arrive naked was a result of tactical precaution or pleasure. Certainly, she may have intended it to prevent him from inconspicuously carrying a weapon into her home, but the rumors he’d heard of the Unseelie queen’s erotic entertainments made him wonder if she did not have a more . . . interesting motive.
     
    One story in particular, featuring a centaur and a wood nymph, flashed into his mind and Aldric paused. In all his afterlife he had avoided dealing with the sidhe. They had a gift for manipulating space and time, a penchant for creative tortures he was certain he would’ve never thought of. Add to that their notoriously fickle tempers and the conclusion was an enemy that was better avoided altogether.
     
    He frowned. Perhaps Anton was wise to question this course of action. Had he truly lost control of his vengeance? Were the cries of one woman worth risking the torments of the Unseelie Court ?
     
    A mosaic featuring a beautiful goddess pouring golden sunlight from a vase hovered in his mind. Time seemed to flow backwards in a wash of nostalgia and bitter hopelessness.
     
    For a moment he was back in his small village in Lithuania , kneeling at the altar of the sun goddess, Saule. In the distance he could hear the Russians getting closer. He could feel the pressure of the stone beneath his knees, still hear the shots fired by the invaders as they approached his village. He turned eyes filled with betrayal up to the mosaic before him. She wasn’t supposed to be just a beautiful picture. She was supposed to be their goddess, their mother. Where were her copper chariots full of golden skinned warriors? Where was she?
     
    More gunshots, the metallic clash of blades, the crackle of fires and burning houses all mixed with the cries of his people as the Russians fell on their village. He stared out at the carnage from his altar on the hill, watching with horrified disbelief as the sun set, putting an end to whatever hope he’d had that his goddess would come. He stood there, shocked and numb for what felt like an eternity. It was then that the vampire had found him.
     
    Cold hatred infused his silent heart, ripping him back to the present. All doubt about entering the sithen shattered. He would not lose this chance. Saule had left herself vulnerable. She had taken a human form, a form that could be touched—could be hurt. He raised his eyes to the moon glowing above him. She had no power at night.
     
    He stepped through the doorway into the Unseelie mound. The shiver that raced down his spine didn’t concern him, didn’t make him hesitate. The memory of Saule’s betrayal steeled him against any emotion that might deter him from his goal. His guards walked on light footsteps, the barest disturbance of earth beneath their feet letting him know they were behind him. Even without the sound of the earth shuffling beneath them, he wouldn’t have worried. He trusted them at his back.
     
    The walls to either side of him moved. Aldric froze, his hands going out to the sides as his brain scrambled to figure out if it was him moving or the sithen itself. The walls of the passageway hissed by him like grave dirt raining down on the dearly departed. Before he could properly regain his bearings, the walls vanished altogether and Aldric found himself standing in the center of a large room.
     
    A quick glance behind him assured him his men were still there. He gestured for them to move back to back in a circle, facing every direction. The doorway they had come through seemed to have vanished, as if the entire sithen had slithered forward and left them in a completely new location. He let his gaze travel around him, searching for signs that they were not alone.
     
    The room stretched out like a cavernous cathedral all