Ever So Lightly- Book 1

4

With a thundering boom, Zephyr was jolted out of the land of dreams by the storm that continued relentlessly outside. Groggy from sleep, she sat up in her bed and rubbed her temples. She could feel the beginnings of a headache setting in, no doubt a side effect of having cried herself to sleep. Judging by how tired she still felt, Zephyr concluded that she couldn't have been sleeping more than an hour or two. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips, knowing now that she was awake falling asleep again would be difficult. She needed to be up early to open the shop though, so laying back and aggravatedly pulling her blankets up to her chin, Zephyr squeezed her eyes shut in protest of her already functioning brain. She turned from side to side, onto her stomach, and finally back to facing the ceiling, resigning herself after ten minutes to the fact that she was not going to fall back asleep.

Throwing her blanket aside, she placed her bare feet on the cold floor and began to stand up. Maybe a snack would help induce sleep. Suddenly another boom rang through her walls, but this time it sounded nothing like the thunder of the storm raging outside. Zephyr went still as she realized that this new thunder was the glass of the storefront window shattering. She doubted that the storm had become violent enough to destroy the large window. It must be a break in. Zephyr felt her fingertips go cold, tingling with nervousness.
Suddenly glad that she was fully awake, Zephyr began to slowly creep toward her bedroom door, not sure what she would do when facing whoever was breaking in. Surely the clamor had also roused Agitha. Reaching for the handle of her door, Zephyr was abruptly thrown backwards when the door swung open with tremendous force, smashing into her and casting her to the floor. A soldier barrelled through into her room and immediately began to toss furniture aside.

"This is the place, we just have to find her!," the soldier shouted over his shoulder as he ripped open the door of Zephyr's closet and began searching inside. Zephyr was too frightened to know what she should do. Frozen where she lay sprawled on her floor, she watched in disbelief as the soldier tore apart her room. She heard another soldier, from inside the bookshop yell back something about letting the others know. Realizing that more attackers would be arriving, possibly soon, Zephyr was stirred from her paralyzing shock and began to lift herself from the floor, trying to make her way out of the room without attracting the soldier's notice. As she stood though, the soldier turned and, realizing that she was trying to escape, he seized her arms, jerking her close.

"Where is she?," he snarled, their faces inches apart. "Where is Agitha?" Zephyr began to shake, the tingling in her fingers spreading into her hands and up her arms, still grasped by the vile man before her.

"What's going on...I...I don't understand why...why you're doing this!," Zephyr stammered, cringing from the pain the soldier was causing as he crushed her thin arms in his sizeable hands.

"Tell me where she is!," he roared, tightening his grip on her. The pain forced a small whimper to spill from Zephyr's trembling lips. She began to think that her arms would break under the pressure of his grasp when suddenly the soldier's eyes went wide, his grip loosening enough for Zephyr to wrench herself away from him. As she pulled away, backing toward her door, she slammed into someone else. Twirling around and expecting to find another soldier, relief flooded over her as Agitha pulled her into a quick embrace.

"Oh darling, I'm so glad you're ok," Agitha said gently, pulled the younger woman in for a quick embrace. "I need you to focus though. We have to get out of here as quickly as possible. More soldiers will be here any second, and we need to be gone." She pushed a bag into Zephyr's arms. Still in shock, Zephyr couldn't find the words to respond. She remembered the soldier on the other side of the room and quickly looked over to where he was standing. Still wide eyed, he was holding his head with one hand and frantically looking around the room, not seeming to notice the two women standing just a few feet away. Zephyr turned back to face Agitha.