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

call them strengths, and yes.”
    They stepped outside. Alexia clung to him, resting a head on his shoulder, eyes closed to block out the flashes of pain. Insects hummed in the late summer evening, the air thick with expected rain.
    “Who is coming?” she grated through her teeth.
    A groan rumbled in his chest. “There is a general air of panic when a being as powerful as yourself emerges.”
    She blinked up at him. “But I am not powerful—”
    “You will be.” The confidence behind his words flattened her argument like a press to fresh laundry.
    Trimmed grass extended about them, halted at a black line of trees clustered ahead. Alexia did not relish entering them, recalling how she had stumbled across one of the Soulless within those woods—a creature Kiren had destroyed to save her.
    He flashed a jerky glance either direction and broke into a jog.
    “How could anyone know about me?” She clung to him, focusing on the curve of his chin and the white scar he had yet to explain.
    “Word travels quickly.” His lips pressed in a tight line, lengthening the jagged blemish across his cheek. “And not all Passionate are anxious for you to be mine. Some even prefer your death to the shift in power.”
    She squeezed his shoulder, searching for his gaze. “You speak as though you do not lead them.”
    He heaved a breath, lashes brushing his cheeks. “There are factions among the Passionate seeking power.”
    “But you are their leader—!”
    “I protect them,” he said between breaths. “I keep the unruly in order. Some do not share my ideals of how that is best accomplished.”
    “Like whom?”
    His brow wrinkled, starlight catching his pupils. “The strongest group is the Breeders.”
    Her blood ran chill.
    “They believe this world should belong to us, and us alone.”
    She grasped the cottony material along his neck. “But if not for humanity, I would not exist.”
    Kiren’s cheek dimpled. “You understand my position then.”
    “I am not certain I will ever fully understand your position.” 
    His grin faded. He slowed to a trot, then a walk, not meeting her gaze.
    She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but it was true. She loved him, but she worried that there were reasons she didn’t and couldn’t deserve him. Why had he chosen her?
    Kiren cleared his throat. “Breeders seek to spawn the most powerful Passionate by breeding unique bloodlines—children strong enough to overthrow the world. I have hopes that they will one day be persuaded to reason, along with the other factions, and unite with us.”
    She nodded. “These other factions…”
    “The Southerners and Ritualists are very weak, as are the Fishers and Old Believers. Only the Breeders pose a threat.”
    “And what do they call us?”
    His arms around her stiffened, gaze darting away. “Kingdom.”
    Bellezza’s earlier hail suddenly made sense. Alexia narrowed her stare, a look he didn’t return. “They accuse you of setting yourself up as a king?”
    He placed her back on her feet. Unkempt grass tickled at her ankles as his bottomless eyes swallowed her into their marine depths, promising an eternal Atlantis. “The important thing for you to know is that they are no friends of yours.”
    “And why is that?”
    He tugged at the necklace that disappeared below the cut of his shirt. “Because they are in a race to either claim or destroy you.”
    She braced herself with a hand on his chest. “Me? Because you and I are—”
    He shook his head. “Because when someone with rare talents arises, everyone rushes to take them.”
    Had that been the reason he came for her at first? The reason he chose her? Alexia shied. “Including you?”
    His head tilted, mouth puckering in disappointment.
    He hadn’t forced her into an allegiance. He had done the opposite, pushing her away from this perilous existence and keeping her strictly in the human world. Even so, the choice had been hers.
    His arm rounded her back, shepherding her toward the