Hidden Hearts

Hidden Hearts   Prologue (2 Years Ago)

For the rest of her life, Theya will never forget the thick, suffocating odor of fire-blackened wood and timber - mixed with the smell of burnt human flesh. It was a smell that she will probably carry with her to the grave. And with the way things seem to be going, she may probably die an early death. She woke up to find herself in one of the great rooms of the family castle - the room that bore the remains of her parents. The outstretched arms of her father were fastened to a wall with huge metal spikes, and his feet were a meter or so hanging above the floor. Trails of blood dripping from the lacerated wrists marked the wall, and on the space where his feet dangled, the remains of a bonfire were seen. Her father's legs and lower torso were charred into bizarre blackened shapes. Her father's usually gentle, finely-featured face, was frozen in a contorted expression of pain and anguish, making him almost unrecognizabl