Becoming Calder (A Sign of Love Novel)(118)

And suddenly it seemed like thirty more men were on me and just like earlier that day when I'd tried to get to Eden, there were just too many of them. I fought off as many as I could, but finally, one held my arm and twisted it, and I yelled as he freed it quickly and then brought it around the pole. Someone else was punching my face again and again as I slid down to the dirt and my other arm was brought behind me. I heard the click of the handcuffs again and it hit me in the gut harder than any of the punches that had so far connected with my body. I roared in rage and agony, my body broken, my spirit destroyed. Blood was dripping into one eye, the other already swollen shut. It felt like my arm might be broken, sharp, stabbing pain radiated up to my shoulder. I slumped on the ground, my legs spread out in front of me, my head hanging. Beaten. Broken. I'm sorry, Eden.
"Did you think you were stronger than me, Satan?" Hector's voice came to me from very close by. "Did you think you could worm your way into my community with your beauty? You tricked me once, long ago, but not again. NEVER AGAIN!"
I felt something hitting my foot, but didn't look up. Hector's voice walked around me and then stopped in front. I squinted up at him. He was a massive, black shadow against the dim sky.
"I tried to help you, I tried so hard to wash you clean, but I underestimated your power. I underestimated your evil ways, your ability to charm my blessed one right out from under me. And I invited you here. That was my greatest mistake. I brought you to Acadia. I let you in—Satan's spawn himself. But good will always prevail. Good will always win. And evil will always lose." He came close to my face. "You burn for her, don't you, Satan? Hmm? You burn for MY property, for the property of the gods? You burn for her? Oh you will burn for her. You will. And your evil will finally be destroyed." He laughed, a shrill, crazed bark. And then I looked down and realized what he was doing. He was building a fire. He was going to burn me.
My feet scrabbled in the dirt and I pulled myself up the pole, standing now and breathing harshly, terror slamming into me as Hector added to the piles of sticks he'd laid around the pole, just out of the reach of my feet.
"Father, no. Please, no," I begged. "Please, I'll walk out of here. I won't come back," I lied. "You'll never see me again. Please don't do this. It's murder, Father. It's a sin. You taught me that. You taught me that taking a life is a sin against the gods."
He barked out more laughter, looking like a demon himself.
"What the f*ck, Hector?" Ken Wahl asked, standing a little ways back. "You're gonna burn him to death?" He put his hands up, backing away. "I won't be part of this. This is not what I signed up for." But he didn't leave.
"Help me, please," I called, looking at him through my one good eye, my voice so hoarse I could hardly get my words out.
Clive was a way behind Ken and he looked confused, but excited. His shiny eyes darted back and forth between me and Hector.
"Clive . . . please," I said, but then let my words die. If he was going to help me at any point, he already would have.
"Anyone," I called to the people who were standing in a huddle in the main lodge's courtyard just a hundred feet away. "Help me. He's gone mad. If we all band together, we—" And that's when I saw her being led toward me by Mother Miriam. Her face was white and blank, her skirt covered in blood. The blood from our baby. Eden. I lurched toward her, but the cuffs caught me, and pain ripped down my arm. I yelled out and kicked at the pole with all my strength, hoping to get it out of the ground. But I knew it was to no avail. I'd watched the holes being dug for these poles, the cement being poured in. I roared in hopelessness and heartbreak.
When I looked up again, Eden was trying to run to me, but being held back by Mother Miriam who wore a grim look on her plain face. Eden looked too weak to put up much of a fight. She fell against Mother Miriam and sobbed. Eden, Eden, oh Eden, my love, my morning glory.
"Light the fire, Abe," Hector called. My head swiveled. Panic and bile rose up my throat as my dad walked slowly toward me, a box of matches in his hand. Tears were running down his face and his hands were shaking.
"Dad. Oh no, Dad," I said, the last word breaking, the final piece of my heart shattering. My dad wouldn't look at me, his hands shaking as silent sobs wracked his body. He was praying under his breath. "Mom," I yelled. "Mom!"
A loud wail rose from the crowd and I saw my mom fall to her knees, but she didn't move to help me.
"The greatest sacrifices hurt the most, Abe," Hector said to my father. "Your rewards will be great. You will be a god among gods. All the suffering you've endured in this life will be worth it."