Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(12)

And that experience summed up men in her age range. It was a cliche' that was, unfortunately, true. The good ones were taken - or g*y. The rest of them were balding has-beens who spent their dates complaining about past choices. Or, like her ex-husband, had chosen newer, more perfect women as their mates. Women who were able to nurture more than stray pets. Women who were able to bear children...

Stop it! Lina scolded herself. Why was she thinking about that! Her ex-husband was ancient history, as was her desire to date and play the game. Quite frankly Lina would rather stay home and bake a cake. Or walk her dog. Or pet her cat (if he decided he was in the mood for petting). No, she hadn't regretted giving up on romance. Her eyes refocused on the unusual narcissus. It was just a flower, just a beautiful, early-blooming flower. And she had just had a very long, weird day, which explained why she was feeling odd. Maybe she was hormonal. She made a mental note to ask her mom about the change next time they talked.

A teasing breeze stirred the narcissus, bringing another wave of its sweet aroma to Lina. Just one more little sniff. She'd take one more smel , then she'd col ect Edith Anne and take herself off to bed where she belonged. Balancing on the bal s of her feet, she leaned forward, cupping the heavy blossom in her hands. As she brought her face closer to the flower, the area within the bel -shaped bloom rippled.

Lina blinked. What the hel ? She leaned closer and peered into the open cup. Like water down a sluiceway, shock caused al feeling to drain from her body. She was staring, not into the center of the narcissus, but straight into the face of an amazingly beautiful young woman. The woman's large violet-colored eyes were opened wide, her hair was in wild disarray, and her lovely lips were rounded as if she had been caught in the middle of uttering a terrified Oh!

Lina tried to move, but her body refused to obey her. She was frozen, transformed into a living statue. Fear pulsed through her and she felt her heart leap painfully in response, and then it was as if she was being pulled from her body by a giant vacuum cleaner. For a moment she was actual y able to look back at the immobile shel that was her physical self before she was yanked forward and into the blindingly bril iant light that pulsed at the center of the expanding narcissus blossom. Lina's mind rebel ed as her consciousness whirled down the circular shaft. She tried to cry out. She tried to stop. She tried to breathe, but there was nothing except the sense of motion and a wrenching feeling of displacement. Just as she was sure she would go mad, Lina felt an enormous tug and she popped from the shaft and slammed into something. Tears swamped her eyes, making it impossible for her to see more than vague, blurred images. Automatical y, she gasped for air. Drenched in vertigo, her arms flailed around until they col ided with the grassy earth against which her butt was resting. Struggling to anchor herself, she let her body col apse, arms spread wide as if she was embracing the ground. Lina pressed her face into the grass. She was shaking and panting, and she seemed to be trapped in some kind of silken netting.

"Get it off me! Get it off!" Stil panicking she tore at what was entrapping her. "Ouch! Merda!" The distinctive pain of roughly pulled hair penetrated her frenzy at the same instant her vision cleared. She was, indeed, lying against the grass-covered ground. Her hands were tangled in a thick mass of rich mahogany-colored hair that was so long that it fel to her waist. Her waist. Blinking away tears, Lina gazed down at "herself." Sucking in a deep breath Lina opened her mouth and screamed her best slasher-horror-movie-girl scream.

Chapter 5

" Calm yourself! There is nothing here for you to fear." Lina tore her eyes from the body that was decidedly not hers. A few feet from where she lay were two women. The one who had spoken was tal , thin and had gray hair that was pul ed back into a severe knot. She stood beside the silent one. The silent one sat on - Lina blinked rapidly, her mind not wanting to believe what her eyes reported - an enormous throne. She was draped in creamcolored linen. Her blond hair was wrapped around her head in a series of complicated braids, and an intricate crown of delicately carved golden - Lina blinked again, but the image remained the same - golden ears of corn rested regal y atop her head. In one hand she held a long scepter, in the other was a gilded goblet. The seated woman was beautiful, but her beauty was fierce and serious, what history described as a "handsome" woman. She was watching Lina intently.

"Welcome to my realm, Carolina Francesca Santoro, daughter of man." Questions warred in Lina's brain and she struggled to shift through the teeming confusion and the lingering sense of physical displacement. She was breathing in short, panicked gulps. Lina glanced down. Through the silky shift she was wearing she could clearly see the mauve-colored ni**les of her perfectly shaped br**sts thrusting against the thin material barrier. Even twenty years ago her br**sts had never looked like those. Those br**sts looked like they belonged on the pages of an airbrushed magazine. Real flesh couldn't be that perfect.

"Oh, God! I think I'm going to throw up," Lina said. Then she pressed her hand against her mouth. That wasn't her voice. Where was the soft mixture of Oklahoma twang and her grandmother's Italian influence? "What has happened to me?" she gasped.

"As Eirene has said, there is nothing here for you to fear." The queenly woman's voice was deep and comforting. Lina clung to it and wil ed herself to slow her breathing. Puking wouldn't help things. As her hyperventilation ceased, her mind began working again, and the woman's words registered.