Page 13 of Infernium

Brows pulled to a frown, he stared off, but I felt the curl of his fingers around my shoulders in a possessive grip. “No one to trouble yourself over. Perhaps just a name you’ve stumbled upon in one of your many books.”

“I’ve not, though. That’s not a common name. And as I recall, the last book wasn’t entirely fiction.” I was referring to the one given to me at the bookstore in Nightshade by the mysterious Catriona, who I’d since found out was Lustina’s mother. Nowhere in that text, though, did I stumble upon a Syrisa. “I just want to know who she was.”

On a clearly-irritated groan, he dragged a hand down his face. “Gods be damned, you are a stubborn little bird.”

The comment snagged another smile from me—the most I’d smiled in months.

“Fine. She was an accusedblack witchwho suffered the most severe punishment in the history of Praecepsia. Satisfied?”

Snorting a laugh, I turned my head to the side. “Of course I’m not satisfied. You left me on a cliffhanger with that. Why are you being so strange about it?”

“I’m not being strange. Only cautious. The details surrounding her death can be unsettling.”

“And yet, I dreamed of a woman who shared the same uncommon name as her. I want to hear the story.”

“For seven days and seven nights, she suffered torment at the hands of the Pentacrux. They shaved her head and stripped her of clothing. Beat her. Starved her. Burned her with hot irons and flayed the skin from her back.” The thought of that made me flinch, and he kissed my shoulder. “They tied her arms and legs between two posts, and a crowd watched on as feral dogs consumed her alive.”

Tendrils of dread curled inside my stomach at the visual of such a thing. “Jesus.Why?What did they want?”

“She foretold the future, and as such, the Pentacrux viewed her as evil. Few could speak her name without a shudder for the look in her eyes when those dogs set their sights on her.”

Although Lustina’s memories had somewhat merged with my own, I felt little connection to that barbaric world, where punishment included dogs feeding on women. “They watched it and did nothing?”

“In fairness, shewasdangerous. Unlike Lustina’s mother, who was also accused of being a witch, there was venom in Syrisa’s blood, and magic so dark, even my bastard father feared her.”

“Your father?” I couldn’t recall if I’d ever heard Jericho speak of him.

“Yes. It was at his command that she was captured by the Pentacrux. He tried to make her his slave, but she would not yield to him.”

“Why did they capture her?”

“Why so many questions?”

“Well, that’s your fault. You got me intrigued.”

With a huff, he pulled me in tight to him and ran his hand along the edge of my hip. “She began an affair with a young boy from the village. Probably no more than fourteen years old. He was betrothed to another. A girl from a very prominent family in Praecepsia who insisted that Syrisa had been possessed by demons to favor a lover so young.”

Betrothed at fourteen? I’d never have survived the era in which Jericho had grown up. “How old was Syrisa?”

“At the time, she would have been thirty-two. It wasn’t unusual for men to have such relationships with young girls, as a means of stature, or financial security. But Syrisa had neither. She was a lonely widow in the woods.”

I grimaced at the thought that he was so young and she, so much older. Even if Jericho had a couple centuries on me, I was at least beyond puberty.

“When the guard seized her home, they found the bodies of two boys in a room beneath the floorboards in her cabin.”

The visual of that sent a shudder through me. “Oh, my God. But you said they arrested her for something else. Because she foretold the future.”

“Yes. Years before, she had foretold my father’s demise. Why they didn’t arrest her then, is a mystery to me. And so the question remains. Why did you dream of a Syrisa? What was this nightmare of yours?”

Lips clamped together, I hesitated once more to voice it, for fear of manifesting the outcome. “I dreamed I lost the baby.” A tightness throbbed in my chest, and I couldn’t bring myself to go into detail.

His grip tightened around me, and he kissed the top of my head. “I’m no expert on pregnancy, by any means, but I would venture to say it’s normal to dream that. Perhaps it represents some latent fear inside of you.”

“Maybe. But …”

“But what?”

“Well, there was another in my dream. A terrifying demon with red eyes and horns. And tentacle-like arms. I feel like I’ve dreamed him before.”

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