Call of the Goddess: A Bona Dea Novel (Stormflies Book 1) Read Online Free

Healer?” Axandra asked her, knowing that Lilsa had been approached to join the respected profession, just as she had, a couple of years ago. They were both a little older than the typical recruits.
    “Why didn't you?” Lilsa asked in return, signaling she would share if Axandra did. Each knew the other would keep her own secret.
    “Well. I'm relieved to hear that,” Axandra said, skipping back to the diagnosis. “I'm not ready to have a baby.”
    “I didn't think so—but you don't have the flu—and I heard your story about a jelly sting. I don't believe that either,” rejected her dearest friend. Lilsa tucked her short brown hair behind her ears, only to have the sea breeze tickle the strands loose again. “Jon isn't listening. Do you want to tell me about it?”
    Not answering immediately, Axandra walked quietly with Lilsa along the narrow road. Leaving the village proper, they entered a realm thick with leatherleaf and umbrella trees. A large colorful parrot perched in a small tree nearby, watching the two ladies pass him as he clung to a narrow branch. The strong wind from the open ocean clapped the heavy leaves together overhead. The ocean waves sounded gentle, muted by the thick vegetation. They walked alone. This road was rarely traveled except by the residents of the few homes along its path.
    “I'm not really certain what to tell you,” Axandra admitted, cautious of revealing anything. Her pace slowed. She felt exhausted from her exertions. If her head would quiet down, she thought she might be able to get some sleep. Even now, hints of voices echoed in the space between her ears. “I'm very tired. I don't feel like myself.”
    “When did Jon start acting so strange?” Lilsa prompted. “Usually he's fawning over you, ready to respond to your every whim? Today he just abandoned you in the street.”
    “A couple of nights ago,” Axandra replied honestly. She remembered it too clearly, the spooked look on his face when she laid her hand upon his cheek. “It's my fault.”
    “Your fault?” Lilsa asked, abashed.
    Axandra nodded. Her eyes followed the ground in front of her, concentrating on counting the dark pebbles along the way, hoping the exercise would clear her mind. “I've changed.”
    “People don't change overnight,” her friend rebuked. Lilsa bent to grab a stone from the side of the road, the black surface scratched from decades of treading.
    “I can't explain it, but I know Jon doesn't want to be with me anymore.”
    “Sounds like he's the one who's changed,” Lilsa insisted. She was not willing to let her dear friend take the blame for the fouled relationship.
    “Lilsa, you've been a very good friend to me,” Axandra said gratefully. “I hope I've been the same to you.”
    Her companion stopped her, reaching for her hand and holding it tightly, a gesture reserved for the most intimate of friends. “Of course you have. And I will always be your friend, no matter what happens.”
    Yet, even as Lilsa said this, the expression on her face changed. Her charming smile fell away and was replaced with a perplexed wrinkle of her high forehead. She reached out with one hand to touch Axandra's face. “You do feel different.”
    Lilsa's mind seeped into hers like water through the seams. Her pink lips quivered. “You're in pain. Someone is hurting you.”
Why is someone hurting you?
    Lights flashed in Axandra's eyes, and she sensed the Goddess reaching out to Lilsa with hurtful intentions.
    Shaking her head, Axandra shrank away from her friend's touch and stifled the Goddess, at the same time wresting her hand free. “Stop! Don't! You sh-should go.”
    Axandra turned and dashed over the impacted ground, leaving Lilsa where she stood. Her friend did not follow.
    First Jon. Now Lilsa. Axandra didn't want to scare anyone, but she did not have control over the power the creature possessed, nor control over the flashes in her mind of memories both hers and not. The noise in her head pained