A Soft Breath of Wind (A Stray Drop of Blood, #2)

A gift that has branded her for life Zipporah is thirteen when the Spirit descends upon her, opening her eyes to a world beyond the physical goings-on of the villa outside Rome she has always called home. Within hours, she learns what serving the Lord can cost. Forever scarred after a vicious attack, she knows her call is to use this discernment to protect the Way. She knows she must serve the rest of her life at Tutelos, where the growing Roman church has congregated. She knows her lot is set. Yet is it so wrong to wish that her master, the kind and handsome young Benjamin Visibullis, will eventually see her as something more than a sister in Christ? Samuel Asinius, adoptive son of a wealthy Roman, has always called Benjamin brother. After Samuels wife and child die, he is eager to escape Rome and travel with Ben to visit the brethren in other parts of the worldand to be sure the legal owner of Tutelos comes to no harm before he can marry and produce an heir, ensuring the safety of all the Christians and Jews in Rome. When their travels take them to Jerusalem for Passover, the last thing he expected was to cross paths with the woman who had sold him into slavery as a childthe mother he had long ago purged from his heartand the siblings who carry a dark mantel on their shoulders. His sister, Dara, seems determined to learn more about him, going so far as to join them on the return trip to Italy. But when Dara, a fortune-teller seeking the will of a shadowy master determined to undermine the Way, comes into the path of Zipporah, a whirlwind descends upon Tutelos. Though some would call it jealousy, Zipporah knows the truth of this woman that Benjamin and Samuel have brought among themand fears it may be the undoing of them all. Only the soft wind of the Spirit can heal their scarswith a love neither divination nor discernment could foresee.