Mini-excerpt: The Light Who Shines: Prologue: Part 03

Niall grabs my arms and starts dragging me into the throng. I try to gain footing, but my right leg will bear no weight. Tadgh grabs my other arm, and together they drag me to the center of town. The mob crowds around, cursing me, throwing sticks at me as I’m roughly tied to a large ash tree. The faces of my friends and my neighbors swirl around me in angry confusion with rays of moonlight shining on a gaunt cheek here and a slashing brow there. The bindings are pulled tight, cutting into my wrists and ankles as I struggle, but I know it is useless. It has been useless for a long time. It has been useless since the day Torloch made his pact with the devil’s handmaiden, Lilith. It has been useless since the day Torloch took my wee baby boy away and returned home without him but with his blood on his hands. It has been useless since Torloch became a bloodsucking monster and spread his disease through the village.
 
I look out at the faces of the crowd, and I see anger and fear. I see despair. It is a mercy they have let me live this long. I curse myself again for not leaving earlier despite the biting cold of winter. I hear one voice among the bloodthirsty yell, “Give her a Witch’s trial!”
 
Another voice responds, “We will give her a trial of fire. If she is innocent, let her be saved!”
 
Bundles of dry oak twigs and sticks are piled at my feet. Oak, the tree of strength. I wonder if the oak will give me strength in the last of my dying moments. I think of Sorcha, the twin of my poor baby boy. I hope only that Mor got her away safely and at least one of our family will be spared.
 
Grainne walks right up to me and spits in my face. “You filthy Witch,” she snarls. “Your monster husband and his kind killed my son. Shredded his neck.” Tears run down her dirt-smudged face. “We are going to watch you burn for what you done!”
 
Una, who lost her husband to Torloch, grabs a torch and sets the wood at my feet on fire. The firelight reflects off her savage face, and I see months of grief and seething anger in the depths of her wild eyes. There is no mercy here.
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Excerpt from: The Light Who Shines

By: Lilo Abernathy

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Who-Shines-Bluebell-Kildare-ebook/dp/B00HYH3ZU4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1392572506