| The Solonian Chronicles |
| The Solonian Chronicles THE GREATER GOOD now available in print (and read an excerpt posted below) Just fought his way up through thick fog. He fled from nightmare creatures trying to clay their way out of his insides. He blinked, not sure if he was awake and if the dreams might be the reality. Muted sunlight, filtered by transparent shades, warmed one side of his face. Normally he woke clearheaded and ready to meet the demands of his dangerous life. Now his thoughts dragged along like a man fighting his way through the shallows of the ocean. The room. Fresh flowers filled a vase on a small table. He knew this room. He inhaled, glad to find his lungs unshredded by the clawing monsters, and recognized the scent. Katerina. A wave of pleasure surged from his chest straight to his groin as he recalled their night together. She must have risen without him. Strange that he hadn’t heard her. He usually slept so light he noticed a cloud moving over the moons. Just swung his legs over the side of the bed. The movement called attention to a foreign weight around his neck. He touched the cold metal and remembered. Pain. Clawing agony, not demons or monsters, brought on when Katerina put the collar about his neck. He tugged on the ring of metal, shivering at the cold heaviness of it. “Conniving bitch,” Just cursed. He stumbled when he stood up before finding his balance. He used every profanity he knew as he dressed. The bath area had similar luxuries as Vilicia’s. He cleaned his face and teeth with cold water, but it didn’t cool his temper. He drank two large mugs of water from a bedside pitcher, his stomach flipping with cheer to have something in it. He pushed out of the door, determined to search every room until he found his deceitful wife. He wouldn’t wear a collar like some type of domesticated animal. Especially not a collar she could use to kill him. How the hell had she done that? First things first. Just rubbed his grumbling stomach. Where was the kitchen in this place? *** “I spoke to Erina,” Sinda said. “She did all the design work on the collar and with the crystal herself. She suggested Realm physiology might be different enough from our own to cause such a violent reaction to the tuning of the jarda crystal.” “I guess it’s possible. That doesn’t explain everything,” Anya grumped. Katerina thought her grandmother looked her sixty-two years today. “What other explanation could there be?” Katerina asked, rubbing her temple with her fingers. “Didn’t you feel it, Katerina?” Anya asked. “I felt it as soon as I touched your husband.” Katerina stared at her grandmother. She’d blocked out the memories of pain as much as possible, but now she allowed herself to remember. Yes, grandmother was right. On the edge of her awareness something had nagged at her when she tried to help Just. “Another presence.” Katerina closed her eyes and concentrated on what she had felt. “Someone else exerted some control of the jarda crystal. Hate and anger.” Katerina opened her eyes and found her mother and grandmother nodding in agreement. “Someone wanted Just dead.” |
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| Also available at Mystique Books |
