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“He can die slowly in the cage, or he can be hanged and get it over quickly,” Fire Thunder said sternly. “Which do you prefer? You have been wronged the most by this evil man.”
Kaylene turned her eyes away. She stifled a sob behind a hand for what this man had been to her for so long, a man she had never truly known.
So much came back to her, flooding her with memories of when she was a child. Yes, this man had been cold and so often noncommunicative.
But she could remember times, although they were rare, when she had idolized him for being the man who made the carnival so pretty and fun. He had been a man of authority, someone everyone seemed to look up to.
But, of course, she knew now that those looks had not been admiration at all, but the false looks of masks, beneath which lay a seething hate for this man who had enslaved so many.
Even most of the men who came today to help free Kaylene had at one time been children raised at the carnival at John Shelton’s mercy. Once grown, they had stayed on because they had nowhere else to go, or had no other skills than those they had learned at the carnival.
She had understood why they had turned and left him to fend for himself, that they had seen an opportunity to finally rid their lives of this tyrant!
But torn now by so many things, especially having been made a fool of all of her life by this man in the cage, Kaylene suddenly felt as though she were dying a slow death inside by not knowing who she truly was, or where her true roots may have been had she never been abducted as a child.
Roots! She had always hungered for roots. And this man had kept her from those who were truly hers.
Blinded by tears, Kaylene ran around the cage, and into the forest, Midnight quickly following.
She ran blindly onward until she tripped and fell on the root of a tree that had grown up from the ground in an arch.
Her body wracked with tears, she snuggled close to her panther as he lay down beside her.
Suddenly Fire Thunder was there. He reached down and lifted Kaylene into his arms and nestled her close to his chest. “My woman,” he said, his voice drawn. “Things will be all right. You are loved. I love you. I will make life wonderful for you.”
She clung around his neck. “I know,” she said, sobbing. “But what of that part of my life that is lost to me? What have I missed by living with . . . with total strangers?”
She looked desperately up at him. “I must find my true parents,” she said, her eyes pleading with him. “Will you help me? Please? Will you?”
“You know that your father’s carnival travels all over the country,” Fire Thunder said thickly. “I would say that it is almost impossible for you to ever know your true parents.”
“Mother—” she began, then broke into tears again to realize that the woman who had held her to her bosom as a child was truly not her mother.
“Anna . . .” she stammered out, “she will surely tell me. Once she knows that I know everything, why wouldn’t she?”
“She will deny everything,” Fire Thunder said. “Are you prepared for that?”
Kaylene knew that he was right. She lowered her eyes. “I’m so sorry for John’s part in the attack today against your people,” she murmured. “I will find a way to make it up to you and your people.”
“My woman, do you not know that you are not required to do anything to make up for something you are not at all responsible for?” Fire Thunder said, carrying her toward his village. “Except, to—”
“Except to what?” Kaylene said, interrupting him. She was anxious to do anything for him. Anything!
“We must marry soon,” Fire Thunder said, his eyes locked with hers. “We must face the future together as man and wife, as one heartbeat, one soul, one breath. Destiny has brought us together. One never questions destiny.”
Kaylene suddenly recalled his powers to stop the storm, and her fright of it. “Fire Thunder, I witnessed something that I don’t understand,” she murmured. “You were able to stop the storm today by praying. Why is that? Such powers somewhat frighten me. It . . . doesn’t seem natural.”
“There is nothing to be frightened about,” Fire Thunder said, hurt that she would be afraid of anything he did. “I was born during a fierce storm of fire, lightning, and thunder. That is how I got my name Fire Thunder. Ever since I was young, I’ve had special powers because of having been born during such a time, when the heavens were warring in battle. I have rarely used them. I do not want to be looked on as a witch by my people. Only a scarce few have seen my powers with the elements. You are now among those who know my whole, true self.”
In awe of him, more than frightened, Kaylene gazed into his eyes.
“Are you frightened of the knowing?” he asked thickly.
“No, I’m not frightened,” Kaylene murmured. “I love you. I admire you. I see you as a special man in so many ways.” She reached her lips up to his and brushed his mouth with butterfly kisses. “And I shall never tell a soul what I witnessed.”
He laughed throatily, placed a hand behind her head, and kissed her with fire, his tongue probing between her lips.
But knowing this was not the time to arouse so much between them, with so many injured, and with so many people to console, Fire Thunder drew his lips away and placed Kaylene on the ground.
