Chapter Twenty-SevenThe screams.
The screams cut through Meghan’s raking breath.
Screams and smoke.
Fire.
No longer only at the distant tree.
No longer from people’s torches.
The pyres.
The pyres had been lit and the fire roared.
Josette’s clothes were already aflame. Colin was surrounded by fire that licked at his exposed flesh.
And Veronica. Even if she leapt upon the pyre and sliced the woman’s bonds. Took her proper place on the third pyre, it would not be in time to save the judge.
Never in time.
Time.
That’s what she needed.
Stepping around Lenore’s body and the widening pool of blood, she retrieved her staff and jerked open one of the cathedral doors. Ran through the darkness lit by the funereal light of her own pyre and made out the contours of the yellow stone in gray
