The Spirit Seducer (The Echo Series Book 1) by Padgett Alexa

Author:Padgett, Alexa [Padgett, Alexa]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Sidecar Press, LLC
Published: 2016-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Echo!”

I struggled out of the dream, thrashing and gasping. Zeke cradled, and as I had earlier, I clung to him. Shudders ripped through my body.

“My mom,” I moaned.

“Shh.” He brushed my hair back from my damp cheek. “Just a dream.”

It wasn’t. I didn’t know how to tell him it had been more than that. Her last effort to tell me what she thought I needed to know. I’ll find you. How?

“They hate her. They hate me.” I pressed my nose into Zeke’s T-shirt-clad chest.

“You inherited powers from your mom as well as your dad. The Hisatsinom are apprehensive about power-sharing between their deities and those who aren’t, well, worthy.”

“Did she always have the ability to feel other’s emotions?”

“Maybe.”

“What is she? My mom.”

“She isn’t a full god. That’s all I know for sure. Masau knew her, trusted her.”

I nodded.

“So when Coyote said my mom broke the rules—”

“He meant your mom taking Sotuk’s powers,” Zeke said. “Not that she did so, really. You did through them.”

“Not following.”

“A child is rare for the gods. They don’t need human children of their own when they can create them out of their magic.”

“So why have kids at all?”

“Some are accidents,” Zeke said, his voice even but his emotions seething. “The byproduct of unanticipated unions.”

“What about you and Layla?”

Zeke’s chest tensed and his voice was thicker with emotion when he said, “Unwanted and unplanned, all the way. Gods don’t choose to have us very often. We’re harder to control because we have our own agendas and abilities—and human emotions. Not the ones they’d plan to transfer to us so that we’re beholden to them.”

Grief blanketed my chest. I ached for my mother but even more for my father. He’d cared for her, but, if that memory Zeke showed was true, he’d loved and wanted me, too.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Sotuk.”

“No one knows. Or they aren’t talking. He hasn’t been seen since he forced your mom to Santa Fe. If we’re right, he gave over a lot of his power to protect you. He may have depleted himself.”

“You mean killed himself?”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” he said. He slid his hands over my hair again, playing with the ends. “You can sleep. I’m here.”

His words both soothed me and caused me to panic. Zeke had to fight my battles; being near me put him in constant danger.

“What about Layla?” I asked.

“She’s down the hall.”

I hesitated, my pulse pattering too loud. “Is she mad you’re in here?”

“Why would she be?”

I opened my mouth. Shut it. Clearing my throat, I blurted, “Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

All my muscles relaxed. We were quiet. “You should have one,” I whispered. “You’re good at cuddling.”

He pulled me closer. “You should sleep some more.”

“How long was I out?”

“About an hour. Sleep.”

I pressed my cheek more tightly against his chest, lulled by his heat and the rhythm of his heart under my ear.

“Promise?” I whispered. I didn’t want to admit how scared I was to close my eyes.

He pressed a soft kiss to the vulnerable skin between my brows.

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