Prologue

“Make her burn for me. Make her burn…”

Thin trails of smoke curled in the air, surrounding the offering of wine and bread before disappearing along the latticework above the low altar. Darkness shadowed the room, hiding the lone figure that kneeled in meditative prayer, rocking back and forth in desperation as passion burned inside him, deep, haunting, all consuming.

The dark silk of his robes billowed into a glossy pool around his feet and fell past his hands to cover them completely. The material swam around him like a child in his father’s clothing. Like most of the men on his planet, he wore his hair long, but he wasn’t like the other men, not really. He was different, a part of them but unaccepted. The man rocked faster, his whispered pants growing with each anxious twitch of his body.

Soon. He’d see her again soon.

“Make her burn for me, as I burn for her. Make her burn for me. I beg of you, honored ancestors. Bring me her heart. Make it burn.”