#233 Canvas Soul

by Cara Michaels

“So I spoke with your mother yesterday. She’s pleased with your progress.”

I snorted, earning myself a sly smile from the man sitting opposite me.

“In most areas,” he said. The scratch of pencil on paper echoed in the room long enough for dark brown eyes to focus on me over the rim of big-box store reading glasses. “Why aren’t you painting?”

“I don’t want to.” What a frigging lie. The scent of thinner clung to my hands where I’d wiped away the evidence of my latest botched effort.

His eyes lowered to the paper as he made his notes. “Why do you think that is?”

I lifted my hands from my lap, maybe half an inch. Not enough for him to see the fine tremor keeping them in constant motion. They never stopped.

“I dunno,” I said with a shrug, letting my hands drop. “Maybe for the same reason you’re so fucking insensitive?”

“Do you care to explain your meaning?” Always so mild. I wondered if he had any passions.

My passion had been stripped away, leaving me soulless. No painting the dreams in my mind. No spilling my soul onto a fresh canvas. I thought of today’s attempt with its wild slashes of cadmium orange and southern ocean blue, my brush battering the canvas.

“No.”

“Your diagnosis isn’t the end.” He tore off a prescription page with sprawling chicken scratch. “You have decades of life ahead of you.”

I stood, ignoring the proffered paper. “This is no life.”



Commander Gemma Bryant left Earth knowing full well the man selected to be her mate couldn't stand the sight of her. Chosen to lead Gaea's Ark, humanity's first deep space settlement ship, Gemma is awakened from 19K years in stasis to find her mission gone horribly wrong. They're off course and missing crew, and for the remaining Chosen, the world they've landed on is far from uninhabited.

Click on the cover to visit the book's Amazon page.