Stella of Akrotiri: Origins Audiobook (Free)

Immortality could be a lonely existence, especially when the globe is about to implode.

For over six hundred years, Darius of Agremon has fought wars with respect to those that needed his skills in combat. As a lechagos on Strongili, he spends his days commanding the Minoan coastguardsmen against pirates and marauders. His nights are spent only, for despite having acquired wives in the past, he has watched them all get old and die, childless, as he continues to live.

So when he senses immortality about Stella of Akrotiri: Origins in an olive farmer’s young child, Darius bargains to take her to wife when she is old more than enough to marry.

A foundling, Stella functions in her adoptive father’s olive orchard above Akrotiri, climbing the ancient trees to prune also to harvest the strings of pearls using their branches. She doubts invaders when she watches flaming arrows arc in the sky, a sign the island is normally under assault. She worries about how exactly the ground quakes beneath her ft and steam erupts from cracks in the bottom. She wonders at the odd tingling sensation she experiences whenever Darius of Agremon is definitely near, a sensation not unlike the one she feels when spending time in the oldest trees and shrubs.

Unacquainted with the agreement her father offers made out of the lechagos, Stella thinks she’s been sold into slavery when Darius involves claim her. Her youth continues to be spent admiring the person who helped her father’s olive business thrive. Right now she has only contempt for him and his hard-headed way.

While the globe trembles and a volcano threatens to destroy the island of Strongili, both of these must forge a relationship which will last far much longer than a lifetime-one that has to endure a long time and the disaster that’s about to get rid of the only home Stella has ever known.