Welcome to Mandy's Madhouse
Home of Romance Author
Madeline Baker/Amanda Ashley

Chapter 1

Spread-eagled on the iron-bound table, he tugged against the thick leather straps that bound his wrists and ankles, writhing helplessly in an agony of blood and bruised flesh.

Weeping, cursing, he fell back, his eyes closing beneath the heavy black hood that covered his head and neck like a shroud. The material, created by an ancient Fen wizard, seemed to breathe with a life of its own, allowing air to circulate while completely shutting out the light.
Where was she?

He clenched his fists against the pain splintering through him, praying that he would bleed to death before she came, praying that she would hurry. He could feel the blood dripping from his wounds. Worse than the pain was the weakness, the weariness, that engulfed him after defying the Gamesmen for hours at a time.

He yearned toward the mists of darkness that swirled just out of reach, knowing that death was the only escape from the hell in which he lived, knowing that, as much as he desired it, death would not find him this day. His tormentors were skilled at the Games, carefully inflicting wounds that were at times exquisitely painful, but never fatal.

On those days when he was left alone in his cell, imprisoned in the darkness of his prison rather than the eternal darkness of the hood, he longed for the Maje’s presence, the sound of her voice. He ached for the touch of her hands, wondering what it would be like to fee her touch, not in healing, but in love….