Soulless (Maiden of Time Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

alter people’s memories, to erase the midnight wraiths still flitting through her conscience. Edward took away the servants’ terror. Not hers. Not Father’s. They remembered everything, and Father blamed Kiren.
    She sighed and pulled on her baby-blue overdress.
    Well, she blamed Father for arranging her marriage to a rapist, the bargain that drove her away in the first place. At least the miscreant still believed her dead.
    Alexia laced her shoes quickly and exited to the hall, her vision adjusting to the dark, portrait-filled walls. Her favorite painting waited just across from her, two young ladies with dark hair reclining against a forested backdrop, she and Sarah as children.
    Sarah who was lost to her.
    “Kiren?”
    He shifted to her right, propped against a doorframe. His eyes glittered, even in the dark.
    “A thousand years could sweep this earth clean and I would never meet a sight as breathtaking,” he whispered.
    She blushed. “Is that how long you have been alive?”
    His jaw clenched.
    She understood their kind could live indefinitely if their blood was not deluded by humanity—which meant she had no idea how long she’d live. Or him. How many times had she asked him about his age, and he avoided giving her a solid answer? She would discover the answer one day, when he finally allowed her in entirely . It was just one of the truths she intended to pry loose from his mind once they were married. Before, if possible.
    Alexia took his outstretched hand. His fingers laced through hers, skin on skin—terribly inappropriate, at least within society. She had no idea what the Passionate labeled appropriate, but this overwhelming bond—being destined or damned—rendered their kind inseparable. His death would mean hers, as hers would result in his. Since he led the world of the secret Passionate , it made both their lives more complicated—especially when considering the vast army of enemies conspiring against him. Her love for him was simple. His came at a great cost.
    “Now why this hasty escape?” she demanded, each step shooting a midnight spark at the back of her skull. She wanted to stop him and take an easier pace, but the tension in his fingers seeped into her skin. “And why have you been away?”
    He grimaced.
    “The Soulless are coming again,” she guessed as they reached the servants’ stairs. She’d been watching the skies. Tonight marked an empty moon, the night the Soulless emerged to feast. From what John had told her, the Soulless were once Passionate, before they’d given their very essence over to a madman and been damned to a state of perpetual starvation. Since that time they’d been rotting, seeking what was lost, only satisfied when they fed on the remaining Passionate. Those taken by the Soulless became like them, hungry, eternal, decaying in their own bodies and taking on a wraith-like state under the new moon. 
    A nervous laugh escaped Kiren—so new a sound she paused to take it in.
    He pulled her after him down the steps. “Them coming, yes that would be troublesome, but not fatal.”
    “Fatal?” A cool breeze curled across her arm. The servants’ door to the yard stood open, a gaping maw to the outside world and shadowed walkway.
    Kiren cleared his throat. “Alexia, there are...” His head flew up, fingers tightening over hers, ear tilted. “We must go, now.” He grabbed her arms and slipped them around his neck, lifting her off her feet.
    She gasped, unable to restrain her grin at the unexpected brush of his breath across her lips. “What is it? What did you hear?”
    His head shook.
    “Can you hear thoughts now?” The idea made her cringe.
    He chuckled. “I can only read what is in a person’s thoughts, and only when staring into their eyes. You know that. However, my ears are slightly more keen than most.”
    “From practice or inheritance?”
    He grinned. “Yes.”
    “Is it common for Passionate to possess more than one ability?”
    “Strengths. We