Free Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) by Nicholas Adams

paper-covered examination table in a thin, white surgical gown. She had been preparing to undergo surgery when the woman in grey interrupted the nurses and ordered them out of the room.
    The nameless state employee put her hands on her waist and pursed her lips, letting a sigh whistle out her nose. The disdain in her eyes seared down on Evangeline, who was still in shock at what she would be required to do before the doctors could begin the procedure to transform her from an ordinary woman into a TRTV pilot.
    “If you had been paying attention,” the woman sneered like a malevolent day-care provider, “then it should be obvious. You, Evangeline Chapel-Boyd, are the daughter of traitors. As such, you and your future posterity have been deemed a threat to the security of Olympus and the Quorum. Your future privileges on Olympus are contingent upon your agreement to forsake your procreative abilities in order to ensure your rebellious upbringing doesn’t follow you into future generations.”
    The tears rolling down Evangeline’s cheeks kept time with the tapping of the woman’s high-heeled shoe as she grew impatient with Evangeline’s hesitation. Evangeline’s hands trembled. She felt the sting of abandonment all over again. More than anything she wished to wake up from this nightmare and run into her parents’ room to find them eager to reassure her it was all a bad dream.
    She turned to her husband, Erik Boyd, the man she loved, for support. His eyes showed sympathy, but she knew his allegiance was to Olympus. She knew in her heart he would recoil at the idea of abandoning his life of privilege to follow her into the LTZ, to scrape out a living on whatever manual labor they would be fortunate enough to obtain.
    She felt the wave of worthlessness consumer her again. If only her parents had taken her with them. If only she had been older, she could have joined the Dissidents as well. If only she had never been born she would not have been subjected to such misery and humiliation. If only she had been a better daughter, they might not have left her behind. If only...
    With a quiet sniffle, she raised her quavering hand to wipe away the tears streaming down her face. She took a deep breath and placed her palm on the cold surface of the tablet. Tremors emanating from her lower back threatened to eliminate what little composure she still possessed.
    The woman in the grey uniform donned a triumphant sneer below her scathing eyes. “Now, if you would read the agreement aloud…,” she let out a small breathless laugh. “For the record, of course.”
    Evangeline’s eyes focused on the words on the display highlighted next to her down-facing palm. She scanned the passage several times before she had the emotional strength to utter them without breaking down into tears.
    “I, Evangeline Chapel Boyd, do hereby willingly and voluntarily agree to have my uterus and ovaries removed, to be replaced with synthetic hormonal regulation systems as a sign of my allegiance to Olympus and the Quorum of Zeus.”
    The woman in the grey uniform swiped the tablet out of Evangeline’s hands before the falling tears could splatter on the screen. She marched toward the door and turned, a false grin blooming across her face. “Congratulations, Officer Boyd. On behalf of the entire Olympic society, we thank you for your loyalty.”
    The door slammed shut behind her and the silence echoed throughout the sterile room. Erik, who had remained silent during the exchange, stood and walked to the side of the examination table.
    He took one of her hands in his and stroked her back with the other. She could not look up at him. She could only stare at the door and mourn as the state employee carried away her future. A torrent of emotions swirled in her mind and smothered her heart.
    She tried persuading herself it was all for the best. She knew if she had not agreed to the procedure she would have been branded an outcast for the rest of her life, and