JESUS NATION SEX REBEL, mini-chapter 13

13. THE HAND OF THE BELOVED

The Transgressor’s smile turned into a distorting grimace as the flames bit at his feet. His face jumped in pain as the flames leapt higher, and Adam felt, along with everyone else, a sudden relaxation inside his mounting excitement. The flames were answering the words of the Transgressor and extinguishing them, rendering them powerless, showing them up for what they were: empty, meaningless kindling for avenging fire. Those words would be ashes along with the man who spoke them.

Adam watched the Transgressor’s face through the smoke. Its handsome features were ripped by pain. Yet the eyes still burned with defiance.

Part of Adam felt a strange, illegal awe at the Transgressor’s defiance. A bigger part wanted to jeer and cheer; the part that was all hate, all lust for revenge.

Then something stopped him.

He felt a hand drop on his hand and grip it. He looked to his left, and saw the female Beloved stare intently at the stake, while her hand gripped his. Fiercely. Insistently.

What was the female Beloved thinking at the other end of her hand? What was she saying to him?