By the Horns

By Violet Heart

What if a woman could see past the violent exterior of Minotaur and touch his heart? In By the Horns, a shunned temptress is sent to meet her death in the labyrinth. Minotaur's tortured cries draw her from her holding cell and send her into his arms. For one day and one night, they are freed from the weight of their lonely lives and experience ecstasies neither had comprehended. But her death awaits, and by his hands. When the time comes, the magic and horrors that await them both in the labyrinth will leave him more tortured than ever. Will love show them an escape, or will he lose the last of his sanity when he murders the only person he has ever loved?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Kitchell
• Release date: Jan 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310746307

Book preview

BY THE HORNS

by

Violet Heart

Cover Quote: Violet Heart’s passionate writing delivers in this tale of Greek Mythology with a paranormal twist. By the Horns captures your heart. Dani Jace, author of White Doe

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

Ebook Version by Smashwords

A Greek Myth Erotic Romance

By the Horns

Copyright© 2015 Violet Heart Books

ISBN: 9781310746307

Cover Artist: Laura Kitchell

Content Editor: Katherine Alexander

Line Editor and Proofing: Lola Duval

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

Violet Heart Books . All rights reserved.

Chapter One

Let go of me! Mariadne struggled against strong hands. Two men from the nearby village yanked and dragged her to a clearing next to her hut, while a third used a torch to set the roof ablaze. Fingers bit into her arms, but nothing compared to the pain of losing the only home she'd ever known. No!

She glanced at the clumsy grave she'd prepared when her mother had died years ago. Anger forbade tears from falling, but she shook. These people hated her. They hadn't even helped her bury the one person who'd loved her. In fact, none had spoken to her in seven years. The first time she'd gone to the village, she'd been spat upon. She'd avoided them ever since. No one had spoken to her since her mother died except an old hermit woman who'd lived near shore, and she'd died two years ago.

In less than five minutes, her hut became an inferno. The deafening roar filled the night as everything she owned, everything she'd known, succumbed to hungry flames. Orange light brightened the faces of villagers who'd come to watch.

A smug smile pulled at the butcher's wife's pinched features. Hades put you here as a temptation to our men.

What? Mariadne blinked.

Our men are strong. They've resisted your poisonous lure, but now you must go.

All eyes turned toward King Mino's palace, a series of elaborate rooflines on the horizon.

Mariadne swallowed hard and shook her head. She didn't deserve a fate in the labyrinth. She hadn't done anything wrong. Don't do this.

The hut's roof collapsed, sending a burst of sparks skyward. Nobody said a word. She fought the brute's hold on her arms. A strange prickling began at her solar plexus, but before she could think, a blinding pain exploded at the back of her head. Stars dotted her vision a second before the world fell away.

* * * *

A terrible thirst urged Mariadne awake. Her lids grated across dry, gritty eyes. Blinking hurt until a meager moisture relieved the discomfort.

She lay on a dirt floor in a cell walled by dry, gray rock. A tiny round window afforded her an anemic view of black sky. Interlocking wrought iron bulls formed a door barring her exit, but allowed in a dappling of flickering golden light.

Hello? she croaked. Her parched tongue hardly struggled to form the word.

Silence.

She sat up. A stab of pain pierced the base of her skull where she put fingertips into her hair and found a huge bump. When her touch sent worse pain shooting into her brain, she sucked a breath through her teeth. She inhaled