Read Goddess's Saga 1: Touch of the Goddess for Free Online

might as well keep going.
    “We had two daughters and a third on the way when the war broke out. Natural born even. It’s a shame I don’t have a picture to show you, they were beautiful.”
    It was a stupid war, but I guess most of them are. There were no winners, only devastation.
    “The people on Palorma IV weren’t genetically enhanced. I guess they thought us a threat. There would have been plenty of room for everyone, but instead of settling things in good order, we had a war with few survivors on both sides.”
    Her unwavering gaze gave him the courage to continue. It was the first time he told anyone. Would putting words to his nightmares make things better or worse?
    “The war raged on for years. I was called out to battle one day, but it turned out to be a diversion. When we got back, the enemy had been in my village and gathered up everyone who remained behind. Women, children, a few old people... They locked everyone in the city hall, barred the windows and doors, and set it on fire.”
    H e glanced over at his hand, still entwined with the Goddess’s, and found the will to go on, even though his voice sounded dead and hollow in his own ears.
    “ The ruins were still smoking when I got there, and the smell… I can’t describe it. I searched for a long time and finally found my family in a corner. Tracey tried to protect the small ones with her body, but they were all so charred, I only recognized them from the jewellery that hadn’t melted.”
    These images haunted him every day since and he normally felt the stench everywhere, so thick it was almost tangible. He tried to escape it through drugs, alcohol, and women, but nothing helped tune it out for more than a few hours, at best. He was created with a powerful memory and hadn’t been able to turn it off.
    The after-effects of drugs didn ’t appeal to him, even if he didn’t get addicted easily, and that left him with booze and sex. He thought about ending his miserable life many times, but never got around to it, and now he could even talk about it without having to see it.
    It had to have something to do with Maria. Maybe just being close to someone like her could do a thing like this, and he was grateful. She’d disappear eventually and the much too vivid memories might return when she did, but for now, he experienced his first peace for years.
    “ I carried them outside, buried them, took this ship, and left. It’s almost seven years ago now, and my little girl was just three years old.”
    He could remember feeling so h elpless, useless, but right now, it was mercifully just a memory of the emotion and not the feeling itself.
    She let go of his hand and pressed her palm against his cheek instead.
    “You don’t have to see that anymore.”
     
    *****
     
    Hours later, they still sat in the kitchen. Stephan seemed to have forgotten she was an alien, and that suited Maria just fine.
    He frowned.
    “Are you hungry? You don’t really need to eat, do you?”
    “ I don’t need to, but I like to…”
    He got up and peeked into the large refrigerator.
    “I stocked up before I left port yesterday. We have all sorts of things.”
    “ Eggs? I haven’t had eggs for a decade.”
    “ Omelette?”
    She hid the eggs in the pantry and hollered, “You’ll never catch me!”
    Stephan chased her, waving a spatula in the air, until she collapsed on a chair, laughing. Cooking never seemed like this much fun before.
    They stayed in the kitchen the rest of the day, and when it was time for dinner, he admonished her not to help because she made such a mess earlier. He wasn ’t quite able to keep a straight face and she smirked.
    “ Really? I make a mess?”
    “ Yep.”
    “ Just you wait until I try to actually cook something.”
    He laughed. “You don’t have to. Having you watch is about all the help I can take.”
    She stuck her tongue out, and he dropped a piece of chocolate on it.
    “That ought to shut you up for a second or