Victorian Bride (Moment in Time #2)

Prologue

Mya ran.

Behind her ribs she could feel the beat of her heart, steady and strong.

Her legs pumped, carrying her, swift and easy.

The sensation of air flowing over her skin and filling her lungs made her light.

Beside her, she could feel another presence, matching her stride.

They ran for the joy of it, just because they could, and it filled her up, overflowing in her chest. She bounded over a rock, and he jumped at her side.

Her footing faltered.

Mya stumbled. Something in her body shifted, and her feet became clumsy. Her legs would not obey her commands. The world looked strange around her, seen through eyes that were unfamiliar. She managed to catch herself before falling. It took a moment but she was able to start moving again.

Overhead, thunder crashed, unrolling itself across the clouds with a deep, displeased rumble.

Lightning forked down, burning the skeletons of trees across the backs of her eyelids in silhouette.

Her companion was gone. He hadn’t stumbled.

He’d run ahead, and in the darkness she had lost him.

She ran on alone, because she had to. Fear drove her forward.

There was no time, and she could not remember what she searched for.

Rain fell, sharp as needles. It pricked against her skin and chilled her through.

To her left, she could hear the sound of surf falling against shoreline, violent and ragged as the wind that drove it.

She shivered, and pushed her stumbling legs forward.

Wet hair tumbled into her eyes and clung to her cheeks, obstructing her vision. She reached up to push it back.

Thunder boomed, and the earth split. The ground went out from under her feet.

Mya fell.

There was nothing for her grasping hands to catch. Only emptiness beneath her, and pain. Stabbing. Tearing. Pain that ripped through her chest and left her gasping in shock, struggling to breathe. Worse than anything she’d ever experienced. Enough pain to tear a heart. It burned along her veins.

A scream forced its way up from the depths of her, but no sound escaped, all the air gone from her lungs, her throat tight.

The pain dragged her up toward the light.

She woke.