An Excerpt from Survivor, the second book in the Sweet Home Dixie Series

     Avery gasped and bolted upright. Her chest heaved with her breaths, and her pulse pounded in her ears. Her hair was matted to her face, obscuring her vision. She brushed it back hastily and wiped the moisture from her cheeks, but still couldn’t see anything past the darkness that surrounded her.     She swallowed against the tightness in her throat and blinked against the familiar burn of new tears. Her chest constricted like a vice, squeezing her heart as it thudded in her chest.The panic threatened to overwhelm her, and she forced her attention to her breaths. In, out, one. In, out, two. Counting each one.     Breathing became easier, but the pressure in her chest wouldn’t ease. It was only a dream. But it was more than that. It was a memory—a horrible recollection of the worst day of her life. The day she lost everything. Moisture pooled in her eyes as the loss consumed her all over again. Would it ever not hurt?     She pulled the duvet around her, but it brought little comfort. The pain clawed at her insides, along with a far more vicious emotion that shredded her, tearing her apart.Everything about the dream had seemed so real, as if it was happening all over again. Even awake, the darkness rose up like a tidal wave about to drown her. The panic. The helplessness. The insurmountable agony as she realized what had happened. Though the room was warm, her teeth chattered noisily, and her muscles quivered as if she was standing barefoot in the snow.     The paper-thin patches she used to hold herself together disintegrated into nothing. Pain shot through her chest as the pieces of her heart shattered once again, widening the hole that no patch was able to fill.
Pre-order Survivor Now
For more about Kayla Marie's books, visit her website at www.kaylamariebooks.com

Follow me on Facebook