Army of the Goddess: A Bona Dea Novel (Stormflies Book 2) by Elizabeth N. Love Read Free Book Online Page B

and used every muscle for the strict purpose of breathing. Despite her effort, sobbing spilled forth, followed by hyperventilation and a very real need to flee.
    To where? What place could be safer than this, her home, her bed, beside a person who loved and cared for her?
    Regardless, the fight or flight instinct prompted her to rise from bed on quick feet and dodge into the bathroom, closing the door tightly behind her so that the smaller room served as a refuge.
    Back to the door, she slid shakily to the floor and wept into her knees.
    A subtle rap on the door's wooden material signaled she had not made her escape stealthily enough to avoid waking her bedmate.
    “Axandra? Dearheart?”
    “Yes,” she responded through a sniffle and a hiccup. Her body spasmed in every which way as a result of her crying fit.
    “May I come in?”
    “No,” she denied, shaking her head although he couldn't see her.
    “Are you all right?” came the next question after a brief pause.
    “No,” she replied again. “I'm not. But I can't—can't.” Quivering from shoulders to toes trapped her voice. Another hiccup jerked her innards. “You can't come in. I'm sorry.”
    “Oh, darling. I promise, everything is going to be all right.”
    Axandra wanted to believe that notion. Everyone said the same thing—that she should be happy to be alive; and, that going forward, everything would be fine. She certainly didn't feel all right. She felt scared and angry and wished for it to stop. The dreams, the amnesia, and the chronic pain of a tortured limb only deepened her belief that nothing was “all right” and probably never would be again.
    A wretched wail escaped her throat, followed by suffocating bellows chopped up by sharp breaths. This was the sound of a soul in pain, a wretched, aching lament.
    Quinn wasted no time jimmying the door open, a secret he learned months ago when he feared she was drowning in the tub or had slipped, whatever it was. She couldn't remember. When she didn't respond to his knocking, he got scared, and he had every reason to be scared.
    The door opened outward, giving way behind her back.
    Unfortunately, his touch only heightened her hysteria and her sobbing increased in volume.
    “Make it stop,” she begged, squeezing his arm with her fingers. “Please. I can't take this anymore.”
    “I know,” Quinn sympathized, embracing her tightly on his lap. “I know. I promise it will get better. You know I'm right here.”
    She nodded feverishly, her hands shaking. Her eyes fixated on the bandages encasing her disfigured hand, the fingers that wouldn't move, the scarred skin she couldn't bear to look at. The constant visual reminder made leaving those moments behind even more difficult. Days ago, during the celebration of Landing Day, she felt as though nothing could hold her down short of death. She spoke each and every word of the ceremony with conviction. Today, every meaning in every word sublimated like ice in a volcano.
    Quinn had an effect on her like no other person she had ever known. In instances such as these, his presence brought stillness to the storm. He molded his emanations to embrace and comfort her as though erecting a shield against the world. She wasn't even certain he manifested the shield in a conscious manner. The more she studied the latent psi abilities of her people throughout history, the more she realized that, unlike herself, most asserted little control over their talents. What those people emanated and what they received was little more than static in the background of their own thoughts, a byproduct of their physiology. They were each aware of the level of their abilities, but paid little attention to the daily details. Due to the powerful nature of her exceptional talents, Axandra required constant, conscious control to avoid unpleasant sharing.
    The same shield, in other circumstances, tended to cause her a great deal of frustration. The protective emanation existed as a natural,