Exhale: Many Lives

By Laxmi Hariharan

A destiny she won't accept. A choice she must make.

Sofia must mate with Kris and birth a race superior to humans, but she cannot accept her fate. Can she create her own destiny?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laxmi Hariharan
• Release date: Nov 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386809616

Laxmi Hariharan

Laxmi is a New York Times bestselling author. Her characters drive her stories. She has a weakness for hot men, who are alpha yet sensitive, powerful yet poetic. Expect all this and kick-ass heroines who go toe to toe with them, in her books. Thank you for buying her books, so she can write more

Book preview

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Synopsis

Sofia must mate with Kris and birth a race superior to humans, but she cannot accept her fate. Can she create her own destiny? 

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1

June 2055, McLeod Town, Himalayan Mountains

Whenever I ask my grandmother why she’s so dark that there's almost a bluish tinge around her in the sunlight, she says it's because of the hours spent on the hills near her home. It isn't until I inherit her little black box that I discover more to it.

Today, on my obligatory annual visit to see her from Bombay, I sneak away after dinner to her study tucked away under the roof of her little home. As always, when I see the wall of books taking up the entire length of the room, I lose my breath. After the 2014 tsunamis that swept much of the world, paper is a rare commodity. But Nana hoarded her books. Refused to sell them even though they'd fetch her a tidy sum.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I ask, Have you read all these books, Sofia?

Of course, Sofia. She joins me where I stand looking up at the shelves. 

It's a game between us, this calling and replying to Sofia, one we play only when alone. 

Running her fingers over the spines of the jackets, she picks out a book, handing it to me. This is my favorite. 

It's a well-thumbed copy of The Origin of Us—A collection of legends. A comic book. 

I'm twenty-two, I huff. About to start an internship with the Mayor's office. A bit too old for this, don’t you think?

Not this one. She pulls me to the love seat near the small window. Opens it. "I haven't shared this story with you, now, have I?"

I shake my head. She's told me stories of the hermitage she grew up in, not far from here. But no, never this one.

I read: After the next great dissolution, when everything goes into a state of sleep, the self-manifested being will rise. A formless being which will re-establish the seed of creation in the Golden Womb. Ultimately the Golden Womb will break into two halves to form Earth and Heaven, and so life begins. Again.

Earth and Heaven.

And hell, what of hell? I ask, caught up in her story.

Hell is where we are now. She snaps those blue eyes on me. Eyes unusual in someone with her dark skin.  Do you know why I’m telling you this? 

I don't respond. But my heart thuds in my chest. 

You, Sofia, are the Golden Womb, she says. "You'll give rise to a new race. One more connected to their inner selves. Something we have forgotten in their quest for material wealth." 

I almost laugh at that. 

Almost.

But her eyes sharpen into dark pinpoints of focus. She's not joking. 

I have never seen her so serious before. 

Never. 

A shiver runs down my back. Something buried deep unfurls, bringing a flush to my cheeks. 

I shake my head. What do you mean? 

She grips my shoulders. You've been chosen to birth a new species, she goes on, not noticing my rising panic. One more evolved than humans. Than any living beings today.

What? She just puts it out there, and all I can do is stare. My head whirls. What is she trying to tell me?

She lets go of my shoulders and takes my palm in between hers. Listen carefully. Your parents birthed you, but that's where any resemblance to them ends. You are different.

Different?