A Bride for the Water God by Raven Flanagan EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Raven Flanagan
- Language: English
- Genre: Alpha Male Romance eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
My people had no water. Our rivers were dry, and the ocean was
unforgiving. We’d had no rain in months, not since the last drop of the
spring showers ran dry. Our crops shriveled and families were dying.
The elders of my village released a skiff that could barely be called a
boat to the clutches of the sea near where a dried riverbed once quivered in
fear of the power of the ocean. An ocean that my people abandoned me to
in the hopes of something better for themselves, because across the ocean
there was a god—the Water God.
And I was to be his bride.
A sacrificial bride only, I thought.
Chosen at random from a lottery of surviving young women, the elders
had dressed me in the most expensive white fabric available. Pearls and
iridescent shells were threaded into the bodice and a veil was tied into the
tight brown ringlets of my hair.
As the choppy waves of the sea pulled me further from land, I glanced
back over my shoulder. In the distance, the villagers had begun dispersing,
trudging through sand back to their homes. Their heads hung low, and
hands were steepled, praying that their chosen god accepted their sacrifice.
Most of them assumed I would die, but if it meant the god sent rain, it
hardly mattered.
Through the haze of the white veil, I saw the figures of my parents and
younger sister standing at the lip of the sea. Father was holding Mother as
she keened and wailed. My little sister was holding Mother’s apron with her
favorite doll tucked under her arm, too young to comprehend what was
happening.
I remained twisted around in the swaying boat until their figures were
nothing more than dots. Chest tight, limbs weak, a single tear slipped from
the corner of my eye and trailed down my cheek. Turning back around the
narrow boat, I faced the rising waves of the treacherous sea and the heavy
gray clouds on the horizon.
Those clouds were full of rain. The fact they lingered away from my
island was a mockery. What had my people done to deserve the wrath of the
Water God? Why did they deserve to die?
A surging wave slapped the front of my little boat. On instinct I lurched
for the oar near my feet, although I knew it was too thin, too worn, to save
me from what lay ahead. It was as sturdy as a hollow stick and not enough
to keep the boat from keeling over if the wrong wave crested toward me.
Violent gusts of wind whipped the sea into towering walls of salt water.
The force of those gales tugged at my veil and the strings of pearls
crisscrossing over my bodice. I gripped the oar close to my chest, hugging it
as if it would provide the measure of safety I needed.
The thunderous, crashing roar of the sea grew louder—so loud that I
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