Free Hers to Claim by Patricia A. Knight Page A

but my reward with Ramsey is not orgasms but the knowledge I am his and I fulfill him. Besides, he knows what I need. He never leaves me wanting for long.”
    “But…” Adonia let her voice die, her question unspoken.
    Steffania shot her a quick look. “It’s like being a healer in a way. Do you do it for money?”
    Adonia shook her head. “No. I would be a healer even if I were never paid.”
    “Exactly. There is something in you that  must  heal people and the satisfaction from the service itself is your repayment.”
    Adonia shrugged and nodded. “Okay.” She had not looked at it that way.
    “For me, it is the same, with one difference. In all the universes, there is only one person I trust enough to give my true self to and that is my Lord Ramsey.” Steffania gave a soft chuckle. “Everyone else can go hang.”
    Adonia listened, head down. There was only one person in all the universes for Lord Ramsey, also. She had seen it in the palace courtyard when he refused to be parted from Steffania. Adonia desired what Steffania had—not Lord Ramsey—but someone who  saw  her and valued what only she had to give. She wanted that fiercely. A long moment stretched between them as the horses grazed. “Do you think Prince DeHelios wants that from a woman, too?”
    “ I think DeHelios demands it. DeHelios and Ramsey are two blades tempered in the same forge.”
    Adonia turned Steffania’s words over in her mind. Did part of her want to serve Hel sexually? He was delicious to the eye. Why was she so interested in DeHelios? Compassion and desire for knowledge, certainly. Well, that and a strong dose of self-preservation.
    She had witnessed healers use Her power to perform astonishing cures. She wanted the ability to do that with a driving passion that bordered on obsession. She had thought the rites required a certain genetic key bred into the noble houses. From her experience last night, that wasn’t always the case. Could she partner Hel in the more advanced rites? Or would her ordinary blood make the highborn prince discount her? Obviously, Mother Verdantia worked in ways beyond her understanding.
    There was something else Adonia didn’t understand and the woman with the answer stood two feet away.
    “Steffania, do you ever wonder why you are still here?”
    The Blue Dagger looked toward her, her brow quirked. “I live here. Verdantia is now my home.”
    Adonia closed her eyes and shook her head. “Two years ago, the battle on the Plains of Vergaza, when She channeled staggering power through Sophi and Eric. You were there that day.”
    “Yes. We all discovered what She meant by the power of the two .” Steffania chuckled. “Eric still glows—how he hates that.”
    “You saw the roiling golden cloud that erupted from Commander DeStroia and swept the battlefield bare of all who lived. Only those born of Verdantia remained standing.”
    “Yes.” Steffania’s unfocused gaze seemed to see that day over two years ago. “Hard to forget that.” Steffania abruptly straightened. “Oh! I see what you are asking. I’m not Verdantian born. Why do I still live?”
    “Yes.”
    “Beats the hell out of me.” Steffania chuckled. “I’m just glad She wanted to keep me around.”
    “Perhaps all your years on Verdantia has changed you, and our Mother considers you one of Her own.”
    “ That would mean She has altered my genes, somehow.” Steffania’s face became thoughtful, then she shrugged. “I’ve seen too much crazy shit on this planet to doubt for one moment She could do it.”
    ~~~
    Hel crooned and ran a calm hand down the sweat-streaked neck of the animal underneath him. “You’ve ruined him, DeKieran.” He urged his fretting, anxious horse across the creek and halted in front of Adonia. He leaned behind and undid the leather ties holding a dead chital across the rump of his lathered horse. The dead animal fell to the ground and Hel’s mount slid sideways, eyeing the body with a loud, rolling