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CHAPTER 1

Drowning in an ocean of loneliness and bitter despair, Roshan DeLongpre sat in front of the huge stone hearth, staring into the fire The fla with life, brilliant reds and yellows, dazzling blues and greens He saw each dancing finger of flareatest eneht of day

Firelight Sunlight Both had the power to destroy him

A sigh whispered past his lips He was groeary of his existence, so utterly, utterly weary Each night was like the last Life as he knew it had lost its luster; there were no surprises left, only an age-old instinct to survive

Now, staring into the writhing fla reason to go on He could inspire passion but not love, coe his shape at will, ravity, dissolve into a fine mist or disappear coht, his supernatural powers

Night He stared out the leadedinto the darkness beyond He had seen the ht for almost three hundred years but was forever denied the ht

Perhaps it was time to watch the birth of a new day one last time

Rising, he wandered through the narrow, dark halls of the house where he had resided forold house located on a quiet street in a respectable part of the city He'd had the interior res and wanted a change and once when he had been thinking about selling the place andon

Going into each room, he bid a silent farewell to the treasures he had collected during the course of his preternatural existence

He paused now and then to run his hands over a few of the items he cherished for one reason or another— a srizzly bear carved frole piece of redwood, a unicorn carved fro It depicted the sun rising over a clear azed at it for severalto remember what it had felt like to feel the warmth of the daystar on his face

Moving into his library, he stood in front of the bookcase that reached fro He had loved books ever since he learned to read, had spent years wandering the world to collect the ones that lined the shelves Many of the books were rare editions; a feere first editions autographed by the authors So A feere truly ancient, like the medieval Psalter that dated back to the fourteenth century It was a beautiful work of art, carefully written and illustrated by hand His collection also included a Bible handwritten by e was in itself a work of art He had other books and writings that were truly unique Some ritten on tree bark, others on baraved onbook that came from Burma Called a parabaiks, it told the life of Buddha in words and pictures

Soenough to collect them all, let alone read them But he had read them all at least once, some many more times than that And this was only one bookcase of hout the house

He plucked a thick volume titled Ancient History and Myths, Fact or Fiction froh the pages, skie caught his attention It was a s of a woman bound to a wooden stake She was surrounded by atorches over their heads

The caption under the drawing read: "The Burning of Brenna Flanagan, Accused of Witchcraft"

He stared at the photo, captivated by her uncanny likeness to Atiyana His beloved Atiyana He closed his eyes for athe only woe of two and twenty and their newborn son with her He had not known another's love since her death, nor did he ever expect to love again, not nohen he was cursed with the Dark Trick

Shaking off the memories, he turned his attention back to the book in his lap The accoan had been seen chanting and dancing naked in the ed that dozens of toads had fallen frohtning had split the skies, setting several cottages on fire It was said that she had warned a local arden, and two days later the ic elixirs and char fro woh the skies

Finally, the people in the village had had enough Afraid that witchcraft would take over their s the nearby towns of Andover and Salean had been arrested and tried, all in the sa the course of the hasty trial, she had been asked to identify the evil spirit she was in league with, and if she had ue with the devil but her pleas had fallen on deaf ears She had been convicted of being a witch In Sale left of their local witch Brenna Flanagan had been burned at the stake and her ashes scattered in a mountain lake

Frowning, his gaze settled on the drawing once raph, just an artist's rendition of the occurrence, and even though it was only a black and white sketch, she seemed alive somehow He could feel the fear that sat like a lury flames as they licked at her ankles

Rising, he searched his reference books, looking for her nareat deal of inforh September of that same year, nineteen men and women had been convicted of witchcraft, carted to Gallows Hill, and hanged One e, had been pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to sub which he had begged for "ht come more quickly In addition to the nineteen"familiars" had also been executed

Not one to be easily discouraged, Roshan fired up his computer He knew that many of the old world vay They refused to learn neays, refused to accept anything that had been invented after they had received the Dark Gift Roshan was not one of the the Web